Day: April 19, 2009

Boehner Flummoxed on Climate Change

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U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) made it abundantly clear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos why the Republican party is adrift. No ideas, no solutions, no nothin’. Hell, they can’t even agree on what the problem is. Watch the video. Stephanopoulos is both incredulous that the House Minority Leader denies the role of carbon emissions in climate change, and determined to get a coherent answer. Good luck with that, George.

P.S. Note to Boehner: Cows emit methane, not carbon dioxide. You’d think someone from Ohio would know that.

The Meaning of the Myth of the Obama Teleprompter

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That’s just CRAZY funny

I wondered what was up when I read two letters to the editor of my local independent weekly stating that Pres. Obama is dumber than a box of hammers, and without a teleprompter, he is a gibbering idiot.

Immediately I suspected a FOX News meme but an internet search turns up numerous repetitions of this sentiment on rightwing blogs. One is even entitled, “Barack Obama’s Teleprompter’s Blog — Because There Is No POTUS Without TOTUS.” Its logo is shown.

Others echo the idea that Obama’s intelligence is a fraud.

  • The Weekly Standard: “Yes, Obama can turn a phrase better and do more with a Teleprompter than any other modern era politician. But does his special skill set here actually mean anything, or is it instead the political equivalent of a dog walking on its hind legs–unusual and riveting, but not especially significant?”
  • Politico: “‘It’s just something presidents haven’t done,’ said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. ‘It’s jarring to the eye.'”
  • TelePrompterPresident.com, recommending a film called The Obama Deception: “The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order.”
Racism is at the heart of rightwing disbelief that a black man would be as stunningly brilliant and yes, articulate, as Barack Obama

At least one folk tale did start with FOX News. Thank one John R. Lott, Jr., senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, writing on the FOX Forum.

While people who watched Obama’s first national press conference noticed his use of a teleprompter to give his initial presentation as well as in answering questions, the media and late night joke writers completely ignored it. The American Spectator notes that in many events “…down to many of the questions and the answers to those questions … [t]eleprompter screens at the events scrolled not only his opening remarks, but also statistics and information he could use to answer questions.”

Apparently, Obama is looking to install a computer screen into the White House podiums so that, according to one Obama advisor, “It would make it easier for the comms guys to pass along information without being obvious about it.” [Emphasis added.]

The Daily Dose investigated those charges specifically.

[…]

Thought for the Day

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This macroanalysis of micro events is now standard operating procedure for a punditocracy that must reach definitive historical verdicts every four hours

“Suppose for a moment that a large swell had hit the USS Bainbridge just as the three Navy SEALs were squeezing off their shots at the Somali pirates’ heads, making one of the bullets go awry. The surviving pirate surely would have killed Capt. Richard Phillips. Back in the U.S., those with a dim view of Barack Obama would brand the attempted rescue a ‘fiasco,’ betraying Obama’s fecklessness and lack of inner steel. As it happens, the SEALs’ aim was true. So this week, some pundits are lauding Capt. Phillips’ rescue as a demonstration of the president’s competence and coolness.

…this spasm of instant judgment—this macroanalysis of micro events—is now standard operating procedure for a punditocracy that must reach definitive historical verdicts every four hours…Is the stock market down a few hundred points? Obviously, investors are taking a dim view of Obama’s economic rescue plan. What’s that—the market’s back up a few hundred points? Clearly, Obama’s brilliant plan is working.”

— William Falk, Editor-in-Chief, The Week