Yes, But, However!

by John Romano

When George W. Bush was President, the Democrats and certain press outlets hammered every little mistake he made as evidence of him being “the dumbest President ever.”  They did this not to hurt Bush, that was an awesome side benefit. The main intent was to cripple the GOP.  It worked. This approach began with Nixon and Ford, but took a much-hated hiatus during the eighties, when Reagan turned the remaining southern Democrats into Republicans and created the last great party boom.

Alleging Bush’s supposed idiocy day after day was designed to put the idea in the head of the general populace that the GOP was inept.  They decided to nominate Bush, the dumbest person in the world, how can they ever be trusted again?

Sarah Palin’s appeal to middle America almost derailed the whole thing. The media took care of her in short order by portraying her as, you guessed it, dumb.  Obama is now our President.  The plan was a masterpiece.

The GOP, in not fighting back forcefully enough, was played like a fiddle.  The media is biased toward liberalism no doubt; however, I do remember seeing Bush, Cheney, Frist, et. al. on the Sunday talk shows for all eight years of the Bush presidency.  The opportunity to fight was there.  Blaming the media for the travails of today’s GOP is like former World Series champs blaming a bad season on the fact that the other teams had better training facilities.

This brings me to the teleprompter gaffe.  As of this writing, the video of the event with President Obama and Brian Cowen has not been released. By some reports, the video shows that Obama oftentimes has no idea what is on that teleprompter before he reads it and therefore, as he did on St. Patrick’s Day, ends up doing things like thanking himself for inviting everyone to the White House.  An endearing gaffe between two national leaders or President Obama sincerely thanking President Obama for inviting everyone to the White House?  The fact that the video has been suppressed may be very telling.

Where is the media on this story?  Where are the demands for the video?  Of course one would expect the AP, CNN, MSNBC, and others to ignore or play down this story, but FOX News?  Bill O’Reilly?  Ingraham? Hannity? Even Rush Limbaugh glossed over this story today, treating it as a humorous piece instead of a hard news story.

Democrats would’ve added this story to the many deserved and undeserved images of GWB as dunce and Wolf Blitzer would’ve done a ten minute piece on it.  Heck, David Shuster did a four minute segment last night on George Bush using the word “authoritarian” when “authoritative” was logically called for.

John McCain time and time again repudiated Republicans who went after Obama in the way the Democrats went after him.  McCain lost. The only chance for a GOP comeback is to fight as nastily as the Democrats have fought and nastier if possible.  A big if.

With EFCA, amnesty and the Rahm Emanuel Census Bureau coming down the pike, the GOP better take the gloves off or be prepared for permanent minority status. That wouldn’t be good for anyone, including the Democrats.

The GOP thinking it is above a street fight will relegate the party to history.  Wake up.

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Tags: David Shuster, Ingraham, Irish PM, Limbaugh, mccain, Obama, teleprompter gaffe
Posted Mar 19th 2009 at 9:21 am in Politics | Comments (265)

Teleprompter Gaffe: President Obama Thanks Himself — UPDATE: Where’s the Video?
by John Romano

I’ve been searching for the video of Obama accidentally reading Irish PM Brian Cowen’s speech yesterday.  He even thanks himself at the end!  Apparently his teleprompter went loopy.

If this were GWB, the video would be everywhere, yet I can’t find a clip on the Internet of a public press conference that took place yesterday.  It will come out, but this is amazing.

Thank Sky News for doing its job:

    Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: “That’s your speech.”

    A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.

    Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the “teleprompt president” over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.

Be afraid everyone, be very afraid.

Update: 10:30 am PST: Still no video released. This is the third Obama gaffe with no video. First the wrong door incident at the White House, then the helicopter head bump and now this. A dangerous precedent is being set here. If any other politician made this kind of blunder it would be everywhere.

Update 4:00pm PST: Still no video. Stories are starting to appear blaming the whole thing on Irish PM Brian Cowen and insinuating that Obama thanked himself as a joke. That is not the tone of the original Sky News article and if that is the case why is the video still absent from the internet or cable news? It surely exists.

Tags: Cowen, Irish Prime Minister, Obama, Ron Burgandy, Teleprompter, teleprompter blunder
Posted Mar 18th 2009 at 8:21 am

Originally posted at Big Hollywood