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Title: What Our Media Taught Me (Blame Obama!)
Source:
pajamasmedia.
URL Source: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/what-our-media-taught-me/
Published: May 30, 2010
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Post Date: 2010-05-30 15:56:22 by no gnu taxes
Keywords: None
Views: 402
Comments: 29
I’ve been over here in Europe for about ten days, getting a different perspective on our illustrious media and how it is handling the various Obama “troubles.” Perspective and distance are sometime valuable. I used to think, given the enormous size of the bureaucracy and the tragic nature of the human condition, that from time to time disasters would overwhelm us — and there would be not much the president of the United States could do about them. But after Katrina, the media taught me that neither the mayor nor the governor nor the Army Corps of Engineers nor the people of New Orleans were at fault for either the vulnerability to the chance of a catastrophic Katrina or the response after its arrival. No, you see, the commander in chief is the ultimate arbiter of successful or unsuccessful reactions to all such disasters. OK, so be it. So while I am not inclined to blame Barack Obama for the scandalous federal laxity in the now polluted Gulf, the media long ago taught me that I most certainly should. I don’t play golf. Never have swung a club. But in the spirit of live and let live, I also never cared much for deconstructing the game in terms of culture and sociology. The media, however, in 2002, taught met that I should in the case of George Bush — that his swing and even his use of a golf cart reflected a certain class disdain for us, or at least a frat-boy frivolity at a time of two ongoing wars. So while I would like to give our present president a pass on his obsession with playing golf at a frequency far in excess to poor George Bush’s, I cannot. I am conditioned now to grasp that Obama’s golf craze is a sort of self-indulgence reflective of a disturbing narcissist who entertains a shocking indifference toward the rest of us. Press conferences were always painful to watch. Finger in the wind pundits try to one up their commander in chief, who, in turn, is always one slip of the tongue away from global scandal. But the press during the Bush administration also taught me that we need these feeding frenzies frequently, and must demand that our executives prove to be both eloquent and veracious. So while I don’t much care whether Obama stutters off the teleprompter, or idiotically says things like “corpse-man,” or misleads us on matters of fact, or even grossly says things such as the beheading of Daniel Pearl “captured the world’s imagination,” the media lectured me that I very much should care — namely, that President Obama almost never gives a press conference, and on the rare occasions when he does, we know why he was wise not to have done so in the past. I used to think leadership meant from time to time taking on public opinion, advocating an unpopular position in a genuine belief it was for the long-term good of the country. However, here too the enlightened media taught me once that it is not so. When George Bush wanted to reform Social Security, Barack Obama was widely quoted by the press as a voice of wisdom in warning Bush not to beat a dead horse — given that the public polled overwhelmingly against any changes in Social Security (apparently fiscal insolvency will alone be the remedy for long-needed changes). In other words, we live in a democracy, and even a popularly elected president should not ram down something the people don’t want. Note that argument was advanced again with the Bush insistence on the unpopular (but ultimately successful) surge in Iraq. Therefore, while I want to say that it was the president’s prerogative to push through an unpopular health care takeover, and to oppose a very popular Arizona law, I have learned that it was almost undemocratic that he has done so. The press instructed me on that again. Why tear apart the country, virtually create a tea-party movement, or pit Arizona against California by stoking the fires of resentment by so diametrically opposing what 60 percent and more of the people want? Once upon a time, I also thought we were in an existential war with radical Islam. For thirty years and more, terrorists have evoked their religion as they tried to blow up, shoot, or behead Westerners. After the mass murders of 9/11, I thought George Bush was wise to adopt things like intercepts, wiretaps, Guantanamo, renditions, tribunals, Predator attacks, and taking the fight to both the Taliban and oil-fed murderous Middle East dictators like Saddam Hussein. But then the media established that these were all not only anti-constitutional measures, but quite unnecessary acts as well. Instead, the anti-terrorism protocols and wars abroad were a reflection of an executive branch out of control, one that could only be stopped by popular agitation, the enlightened criticism of Hollywood artisans, law suits, filibusters, and constant press opposition. So while I am inclined to applaud that Barack Obama has trebled the number of Predator missions, kept Guantanamo open, adopted the Bush-Petraeus plan in Iraq, escalated in Afghanistan, kept renditions and all elements of the Patriotic Act, I confess now that all this is very wrong, without utility and a veritable coup on the part of the executive branch to overturn the separation of powers as established in the Constitution. The media, alas, taught me that too. Nothing is worse that public servants taking money by abusing the public trust or horse-trading in matters of the public interest. Even the incessant narcissism of putting their names on every bridge or building they authorize with public money nauseates me. So I was glad to see all those right-wing crooks and hypocrites from Duke Cunningham to Larry Craig leave in disgrace. Shame on them! The watchdog media reinforced my inclination to give them no quarter. So while I would like to cut some slack for the memory of the late John Murtha, or a poor harried Chris Dodd, or an elderly Charles Rangel, I simply cannot. All the good that they did surely cannot balance out their serial ethical lapses. If a Timothy Geithner skipped a few taxes, or a Chris Dodd got a break on a loan here and there, then they rightly must descend into the Abramoff inferno with Cunningham and Foley and Craig. I admire an old admiral like Joe Sestak and understand quid pro quo is the mother’s milk of politics, but thanks to the watchdog media during various ethical problematics in the Bush administration — from the federal attorney firings to Halliburton — I now realize that there can be no tolerance for even the appearance of moral ambiguity. So let the tough media inquiries continue. Somewhere around the millennium, a new style of aggressive, public-interested, and astute reporter began sermonizing in print, advising on the Internet, and lecturing us on television. At the time I mistakenly assumed that reporters were too often partisans who were creating new, almost impossible standards of probity in order to embarrass conservative opponents: they wanted Republican scandal first, news second. But now, I see that they were simply laying nonpartisan new ground rules for the Bush administration so that they could later prove their integrity and professionalism when a member of their own faith would come into the new crucible of public examination. There was never, you see, a hate-Bush media. So we will shortly see that now as they unrelentingly turn their scrutiny on Barack Obama and his legion of ethical and competency lapses.
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#1. To: no gnu taxes, war, brian s, badeye, skip intro, fred mertz (#0)
Interesting article. Case in point - the RW media is attacking Obama for skipping tomorrow's ceremony at Arlington. Since 1980 only one President has attended every Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington, Bill Clinton. Reagan skipped the ceremony 4 times. George HW Bush sent Dan Quayle every year of his presidency. George W. Bush missed it once to attend a ceremony in, cough cough, FRANCE! So as the right-wing media attacks Obama over his decision to attend a remembrance ceremony in Illinois, can we count on them to note that by the new GOP scale that judges Presidential patriotism by their appearances at Arlington on Memorial Day, Bill Clinton is the most patriotic of them all.
Being a Republican means you get to choose your own reality.
No argument here.
Are you really enough of a dumbass that you have a problem with this? He was at Normandy, not dicking off on a fucking golf course ***** President Bush Commemorates Memorial Day at Normandy Remarks by the President in Memorial Day Commemoration The Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-Sur-Mer, Fran PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President and Mrs. Chirac; Secretary Powell and Secretary Principi; members of the United States Congress; members of the American Armed Services; veterans; family members; fellow Americans; and friends: We have gathered on this quiet corner of France as the sun rises on Memorial Day in the United States of America. This is a day our country has set apart to remember what was gained in our wars, and all that was lost. President George W. Bush gives a Memorial Day at the Normandy American Cemetery at Normandy Beach in France on May 27, 2002. White House photo by Paul Morse. Our wars have won for us every hour we live in freedom. Our wars have taken from us the men and women we honor today, and every hour of the lifetimes they had hoped to live. This day of remembrance was first observed to recall the terrible casualties of the war Americans fought against each other. In the nearly 14 decades since, our nation’s battles have all been far from home. Here on the continent of Europe were some of the fiercest of those battles, the heaviest losses, and the greatest victories. And in all those victories American soldiers came to liberate, not to conquer. The only land we claim as our own are the resting places of our men and women. More than 9,000 are buried here, and many times that number have — of fallen soldiers lay in our cemeteries across Europe and America. From a distance, surveying row after row of markers, we see the scale and heroism and sacrifice of the young. We think of units sustaining massive casualties, men cut down crossing a beach, or taking a hill, or securing a bridge. We think of many hundreds of sailors lost in their ships. The war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, told of a British officer walking across the battlefield just after the violence had ended. Seeing the bodies of American boys scattered everywhere, the officer said, in sort of a hushed eulogy spoken only to himself, “Brave men, brave men.” All who come to a place like this feel the enormity of the loss. Yet, for so many, there is a marker that seems to sit alone — they come looking for that one cross, that one Star of David, that one name. Behind every grave of a fallen soldier is a story of the grief that came to a wife, a mother, a child, a family, or a town. A World War II orphan has described her family’s life after her father was killed on a field in Germany. “My mother,” she said, “had lost everything she was waiting for. She lost her dreams. There were an awful lot of perfect linen tablecloths in our house that never got used, so many things being saved for a future that was never to be.” Each person buried here understood his duty, but also dreamed of going back home to the people and the things he knew. Each had plans and hopes of his own, and parted with them forever when he died. The day will come when no one is left who knew them, when no visitor to this cemetery can stand before a grave remembering a face and a voice. The day will never come when America forgets them. And our nation and the world will always remember what they did here, and what they gave here for the future of humanity. As dawn broke during the invasion, a little boy in the village off of Gold Beach called out to his mother, “Look, the sea is black with boats.” Spread out before them and over the horizon were more than 5,000 ships and landing craft. In the skies were some of the 12,000 planes sent on the first day of Operation Overlord. The Battle of Normandy would last many days, but June 6th, 1944, was the crucial day. The late President, Francois Mitterrand, said that nothing in history compares to D-day. “The 6th of June,” he observed, “sounded the hour when history tipped toward the camp of freedom.” Before dawn, the first paratroopers already had been dropped inland. The story is told of a group of French women finding Americans and imploring them not to leave. The trooper said, “We’re not leaving. If necessary, this is the place we die.” Units of Army Rangers on shore, in one of history’s bravest displays, scaled cliffs directly in the gunfire, never relenting even as comrades died all around them. When they had reached the top, the Rangers radioed back the code for success: “Praise the Lord.” Only a man who is there, charging out of a landing craft, can know what it was like. For the entire liberating force, there was only the ground in front of them — no shelter, no possibility of retreat. They were part of the largest amphibious landing in history, and perhaps the only great battle in which the wounded were carried forward. Survivors remember the sight of a Catholic chaplain, Father Joe Lacey, lifting dying men out of the water, and comforting and praying with them. Private Jimmy Hall was seen carrying the body of his brother, Johnny, saying, “He can’t, he can’t be dead. I promised Mother I’d look after him.” Such was the size of the Battle of Normandy. Thirty-eight pairs of brothers died in the liberation, including Bedford and Raymond Hoback of Virginia, both who fell on D-Day. Raymond’s body was never found. All he left behind was his Bible, discovered in the sand. Their mother asked that Bedford be buried here, as well, in the place Raymond was lost, so her sons would always be together. On Memorial Day, America honors her own. Yet we also remember all the valiant young men and women from many allied nations, including France, who shared in the struggle here, and in the suffering. We remember the men and women who served and died alongside Americans in so many terrible battles on this continent, and beyond. Words can only go so far in capturing the grief and sense of loss for the families of those who died in all our wars. For some military families in America and in Europe, the grief is recent, with the losses we have suffered in Afghanistan. They can know, however, that the cause is just and, like other generations, these sacrifices have spared many others from tyranny and sorrow. Long after putting away his uniform, an American GI expressed his own pride in the truth about all who served, living and dead. He said, “I feel like I played my part in turning this from a century of darkness into a century of light.” Here, where we stand today, the new world came back to liberate the old. A bond was formed of shared trial and shared victory. And a light that scattered darkness from these shores and across France would spread to all of Europe — in time, turning enemies into friends, and the pursuits of war into the pursuits of peace. Our security is still bound up together in a transatlantic alliance, with soldiers in many uniforms defending the world from terrorists at this very hour. The grave markers here all face west, across an ageless and indifferent ocean to the country these men and women served and loved. The thoughts of America on this Memorial Day turn to them and to all their fallen comrades in arms. We think of them with lasting gratitude; we miss them with lasting love; and we pray for them. And we trust in the words of the Almighty God, which are inscribed in the chapel nearby: “I give unto them eternal life, that they shall never perish.”
Yo....boy....did they change the location of Normandy so that it's no longer in France?
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
It's a site of major historical AMERICAN significance. Another dumbass.
The same Bill Clinton that hates America and everything it stands for?
Did those presidents hate America too?
Just wait til a hurricane hits, GO65. (laughing) Your side set the new 'low standard', remember? Don't whine when its your turn.
For approximately 72K, BP Oil bought Owe-bama. And as President, he let them Spill, Baby, Spill! Its documented.
Did those presidents hate America too? Were they off partying with Paul Mccartney and playing golf instead?
Reagan was already showing signs of early Alzheimers.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
Bush I was sailing in Kennebunkport.
Didn't Bush II go to Crawford and Camp David?
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
You didn't answer the question. Here another: Why was it more important for him to honor the french instead of Americans? And since you're defending him, why are the French more important to you than Americans?
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
He wasn't honoring the French, idiot. The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War II cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, that honors American soldiers who died in Europe during World War II.
What percentage of Americans were in France during those ceremonies? Of course he honored the French if only for keeping up the cemetaries which are taking up what has become precious French acreage. If he didn't there would have been hell to pay for the families of vets buried there.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
He was not on American soil. He went to France. You are simultaneously, vociferously defending Poppy for not going to Arlington but to France while vociferously criticizing Obama for honoring American war dead ONLY and ON American soil. You're a fucking idiot.
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
Padlock is really hilarious when he gets like this. What makes it better is KNOWING that he has no problem embarrassing himself. It's like he drinks of the blood of Boofer...
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
Dumbass. And read the speech. What a fucking tool you are.
He attended every single Arlington ceremony except for one where he honored the Americans who died on D-Day. What's the problem? If the fucking Kenyan were attending such a ceremony instead of snorting coke with Paul Mccartney, I doubt anyone would have a problem.
Reagan didn't have Alzheimers. He was poisoned by the CIA to make it look that way.
And read the speech. What a fucking tool you are. The cemetaries were being vandalized by the locals and the families of vets put pressure on Bush to intervene. The intervention was the celebration of the efforts of the French in WWII and their putting up with foreign military cemetaries on their soil, on OUR holiday.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
So, was it ok for Bush I to spend his day sailing in Kennebunkport?
I think that's probably BS. But I wonder who would have wanted him out of the way? Hmmm ......we didn't enter into any ME wars during his administration and only one country had the means to influence our CIA.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
BS. Read the speech. I posted it here. And he was addressing thousands of AMERICAN D Day veterans there.
Read the speech. I posted it here. And he was addressing thousands of AMERICAN D Day veterans there. As I worked for a vet's institution I KNOW what was going on behind the scenes. There was much more than just a couple of speeches given for the benefit of the media.
Making the world safe for United Fruit.
Shhhh - we're not supposed to talk about that.
#67. To: war (#48) Keep hiding behind the bozo, bozo. (laughing) You've always been a world class pussy. Badeye posted on 2010-01-14 16:12:48 ET Reply Trace
Obama is not and cannot be responsible. For anything.
----------------------------------------------------------- During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories /0510/36783.html#ixzz0oyfhPrvS Nice bitch slap (laughing)
For approximately 72K, BP Oil bought Owe-bama. And as President, he let them Spill, Baby, Spill! Its documented.
So we will shortly see that now as they unrelentingly turn their scrutiny on Barack Obama and his legion of ethical and competency lapses.
#2. To: no gnu taxes (#0)
So while I am inclined to applaud that Barack Obama has trebled the number of Predator missions, kept Guantanamo open, adopted the Bush-Petraeus plan in Iraq, escalated in Afghanistan, kept renditions and all elements of the Patriotic Act, I confess now that all this is very wrong, without utility and a veritable coup on the part of the executive branch to overturn the separation of powers as established in the Constitution.
#3. To: go65 (#1)
George W. Bush missed it once to attend a ceremony in, cough cough, FRANCE!
#4. To: Bigot Boy, go65 (#3)
#5. To: war (#4)
#6. To: go65 (#1)
Since 1980 only one President has attended every Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington, Bill Clinton.
#7. To: no gnu taxes (#1)
Reagan skipped the ceremony 4 times. George HW Bush sent Dan Quayle every year of his presidency.
#8. To: go65 (#1)
#9. To: Bartcoprules (#7)
Reagan skipped the ceremony 4 times. George HW Bush sent Dan Quayle every year of his presidency.
#10. To: no gnu taxes (#9)
Were they off partying with Paul Mccartney and playing golf instead?
#11. To: no gnu taxes (#9)
#12. To: Bartcoprules (#11)
Bush I was sailing in Kennebunkport.
#13. To: Bigot Boy (#5)
It's a site of major historical AMERICAN significance.
#14. To: war (#13)
Why was it more important for him to honor the french instead of Americans?
#15. To: no gnu taxes (#14)
He wasn't honoring the French, idiot.
#16. To: Bigot Boy (#14)
#17. To: mininggold (#15)
#18. To: war (#16)
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War II cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, that honors American soldiers who died in Europe during World War II.
#19. To: mininggold (#15)
#20. To: mininggold (#10)
Reagan was already showing signs of early Alzheimers.
#21. To: no gnu taxes (#18)
Dumbass.
#22. To: no gnu taxes (#18)
#23. To: A K A Stone (#20)
Reagan didn't have Alzheimers. He was poisoned by the CIA to make it look that way.
#24. To: mininggold (#21)
The intervention was the celebration of the efforts of the French in WWII and their putting up with foreign military cemetaries on their soil, on OUR holiday.
#25. To: no gnu taxes (#24)
BS.
#26. To: mininggold (#10)
Reagan was already showing signs of early Alzheimers.
#27. To: Bigot Boy (#18)
You are simultaneously, vociferously defending Poppy for not going to Arlington but to France while vociferously criticizing Obama for honoring American war dead ONLY and ON American soil.
#28. To: no gnu taxes (#0)
Toss: ADL,CAIR and the Vatican into the pit they belong in.
from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years,
according to financial disclosure records.
#29. To: no gnu taxes (#3)
George W. Bush missed it once to attend a ceremony in, cough cough, FRANCE! Are you really enough of a dumbass that you have a problem with this? He was at Normandy, not dicking off on a fucking golf course
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