IGX

Reagan's legacy is largely built upon the back of an unquestioning and enamored press corp from the day that he took office right up to the current day. He used the media as effectively as anybody in modern history. However, I remember an interview with David Gergen some time ago in which he said (I am paraphrasing) that they didn't need to do so much to deflect criticism because the press held back and treated Reagan with kiddie gloves.

Since deregulation and the onset of the 24/7 news cycle, networks have reported what they perceived their viewers want to hear rather than any objective facts that serve the public interest. The idea that "the media" is this unified, collaborative force that supports any particular political view or serves any particular political master is laughable.

Obama has understood social media for campaign purposes as well as Reagan understood television. However, there is not much question as to which man possesses the title of Teflon President.

milosz wrote:Joe Klein - who's a simpering Beltway fool - just pushing that meme hard. Oh... wait, not so much.

The real difference is that the 2012 election was relatively much closer.

milosz wrote:Joe Klein - who's a simpering Beltway fool - just pushing that meme hard. Oh... wait, not so much.

I may have swung a bit too hard, putting Barack Obama’s Administration in the same league as Franklin Roosevelt’s and Richard Nixon’s when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service. The situation remains a major embarrassment, though.

The most important difference is that the Roosevelt and Nixon IRS depredations came from the White House. This mess seems to have percolated from the middle–the IRS’s Cincinnati office (a major facility, by the way)–up to the upper-middle. It was an overreaction, to be sure–but, as Ezra Klein explains, it was a response to a very real problem: how do you draw the line between political advocacy, which is a taxable activity, and policy advocacy, which is not, if the advocate organizes itself as a 501(c)4?

Those at the top knew about it for years and only "came clean" because they knew the Inspector General's report was imminent. The IRS also shared some of their information illegally with the liberal, but honest, ProPublica.

The warrantless tapping of AP reporter's phones must put you in a state of painful cognitive dissonance. It's tough when your idol falls and I hope you're OK. I felt the same way when Milli Vanilli were outed as frauds.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuRTUdo5V84[/youtube]

put this in the stew

It was largely forgotten until last week, but during the middle years of the Bush era, the IRS looked into the tax status of the NAACP. Under the leadership of Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume, both former legislators, the group had become more outspoken on partisan political topics. Boom—the IRS showed up.

DrDonkeyLove wrote:The warrantless tapping of AP reporter's phones must put you in a state of painful cognitive dissonance. It's tough when your idol falls and I hope you're OK. I felt the same way when Milli Vanilli were outed as frauds.

I appreciate that in your mind anyone who recognizes the insanity of the modern GOP must be sucking Kenyan Mohammedan dick, but you went full retard bro.

milosz wrote:

Turdacious wrote:Obama's accomplishments pale compared to Nixon's, especially from a liberal perspective.

No shit. You want a left critique of Obama, there are about a million - he is every bit a lesser evil, the GOP just happens to have gone batshit insane enough to make his assault on civil liberties and general weakness more palatable.

Yeah, he's just a "lesser evil" to you. LOL, you wanna drink his fucking bath water.

milosz wrote:

DrDonkeyLove wrote:The warrantless tapping of AP reporter's phones must put you in a state of painful cognitive dissonance. It's tough when your idol falls and I hope you're OK. I felt the same way when Milli Vanilli were outed as frauds.

I appreciate that in your mind anyone who recognizes the insanity of the modern GOP must be sucking Kenyan Mohammedan dick, but you went full retard bro.

Me and Politico. The Nixon meme, as I said, is gaining traction - and for good reason (isolated, arrogant, vindictive, persecution complex). Once you fuck with the press, they no longer consider you the Sun King and things get ugly. Maybe the crazies in the GOP will overplay their hand like they did with Clinton, maybe they learned their lesson, time will tell. Until then, president petulant is in for some hard sledding.

The town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.

Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now. Establishment Democrats, never big fans of this president to begin with, are starting to speak out. And reporters are tripping over themselves to condemn lies, bullying and shadiness in the Obama administration...This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system...The dam of solid Democratic solidarity has collapsed, starting with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s weekend scolding of the White House over Benghazi, then gushing with the news the Justice Department had sucked up an absurdly broad swath of Associated Press phone records...The long-term danger is that the political system and the public start to view the president, his motives and ideas through a more skeptical lens. The short-term danger is the press races for new details, new scandals, new expressions of indignity with each passing day. Read Tuesday morning editorial pages of every paper for a taste of things to come. Or watch a rerun of Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” in which reporters made it sound like Obama is a latter-day Richard Nixon.

““And it goes beyond even the story,” National Journal’s Ron Fournier, who covered the Clinton and Bush scandals and was once the AP Washington bureau chief, said on the show. “One common thing with Benghazi and the IRS scandal, is we’re being misled every day. We were lied to on Benghazi, on the talking points behind Benghazi, for months. We were lied to by the IRS for months and now they’re sending a clear message to our sources:

‘Don’t embarrass the administration or we’re coming after you.’”

By the way, Andy had this guy's personality nailed from the very beginning.

Anybody who has taken psych 101 and scored at least a D- would have to conclude, given the dude's background and family history that our super smooth talkin' president is a lyin' sociopath.

Terry B. wrote:Reagan's legacy is largely built upon the back of an unquestioning and enamored press corp from the day that he took office right up to the current day. He used the media as effectively as anybody in modern history. However, I remember an interview with David Gergen some time ago in which he said (I am paraphrasing) that they didn't need to do so much to deflect criticism because the press held back and treated Reagan with kiddie gloves.

Since deregulation and the onset of the 24/7 news cycle, networks have reported what they perceived their viewers want to hear rather than any objective facts that serve the public interest. The idea that "the media" is this unified, collaborative force that supports any particular political view or serves any particular political master is laughable.

Obama has understood social media for campaign purposes as well as Reagan understood television. However, there is not much question as to which man possesses the title of Teflon President.

That sounds very well thought out

Teflon President because he himself was a good President and the worse thing that could even slightly be stuck on him was actually a pretty smart thing to do when you look into the details and not semantics. Sell some Iranians outdated missiles, get some intel and possible release of some Americans held hostage and use the money to kill commies in our back yard. Eve some Dems thought that was not a bad thing.

Teflon President because the press tried to dig shit up. Go back and read editorials from the NYT and the Wash Post from then.

How old are you? Do you actually remember Reagan's Presidency? And if so did you actually pay attention to the news and current events back then?

I did, got 3 Current Events Jeopardy Championships for Westmoreland NY Central Scools Elementary during those years as well as the All Broward County Florida Knowledge Bowl Championship for the 1986-87 school year ( A county wide current events contest, it was me and a lot of Asian kids and nerds. Really pissed them off when a long haired kid in an Iron Maiden shirt beat there ass. They loved it when I was one of the 3 finalist the next year and a question about Michael Jackson cost me 1st.)

You are listening to an ass hole revisionist in Gergen, a Lib that pretends to be a moderate conservative so Lib networks can match him out and say "See, we show all viewpoints."

Another DC/Manhattan cocktail party circuit suck up

You are mistaking cordiality and friendliness with being on his side. They looked under every rock they could, asked real questions (as they should) but he was very good at given answers instead of Con Law Prof lectures. He did not need to be an imperious cunt to show you he knew his job and knew his job.

Donaldson was always trying to trip him up.

You see he was a grown up and an American, not a fucking arrogant Carlton, busted in by a Muslim step daddy with the typical mulatto sickness of leaning always to the side that abandoned his ass and a Communist mother and grandparents ( and those are known facts.)

Where as Reagan's dad was a drunk loser, so they son wrote him off and forged his own way. It gave him strength to be his own man and acomplish things, not to try to impress the memory of a drunk commie who hated the very people who made his country better than a jungle shit hole and paid for his education.

Keep on comparing Obama to Reagan if that makes you feel better. It's bullshit but hey the space in your head is your World and if you want the data to come from the Gergen's of the world, knock yourself out.

Terry B. wrote:Reagan's legacy is largely built upon the back of an unquestioning and enamored press corp from the day that he took office right up to the current day. He used the media as effectively as anybody in modern history. However, I remember an interview with David Gergen some time ago in which he said (I am paraphrasing) that they didn't need to do so much to deflect criticism because the press held back and treated Reagan with kiddie gloves.

Since deregulation and the onset of the 24/7 news cycle, networks have reported what they perceived their viewers want to hear rather than any objective facts that serve the public interest. The idea that "the media" is this unified, collaborative force that supports any particular political view or serves any particular political master is laughable.

Obama has understood social media for campaign purposes as well as Reagan understood television. However, there is not much question as to which man possesses the title of Teflon President.

Not sure about that. I think it's more that Reagan managed the press and his coverage better than any modern president. He was criticized over his tax policies, and over Iran-Contra. He was also even more criticized while he was CA governor, during his pro-Vietnam debates with RFK, and during his campaign vs. Ford. Obama has never run the gauntlet that Reagan ran as governor, nevermind as President.

And Reagan never made mistakes like the recent one with AP, despite the fact that he was POTUS in a much more dangerous time.

It may be as simple as Reagan was charismatic as hell, and Obama is not remotely.

Blaidd Drwg wrote:It may be as simple as Reagan was charismatic as hell, and Obama is not remotely.

Well that's for sure.

Put all politics aside, you had to be on an Island with one of them. (No obvious, well Reagan's dead) which one would you choose.

Reagan would pitch in, had a personality, understood work.

Obama can't even handle a maddox right during a photo op, he's an arrogant prick who can't take responsibility for nothing.

Most of us would strangle him after 3 days, even Troy.

DARTH wrote:Most of us would strangle him after 3 days, even Troy.

U DON'T NO WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. SPELLS WUOLD SPEND THREE DAYS TRYING TO BUILD AN OVEN TO BAKE HIM SOEM COOKIES!!!

Turdacious wrote:

DARTH wrote:Most of us would strangle him after 3 days, even Troy.

U DON'T NO WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. SPELLS WUOLD SPEND THREE DAYS TRYING TO BUILD AN OVEN TO BAKE HIM SOEM COOKIES!!!

No,Troy would snap when Barry asked him to suck his cock.