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Media Matters
Mideast in Flames — And Obama Still Can Do No Wrong
In the eyes of a worshipful press, of course.
The Middle East is in flames, our embassies are under attack, and four American diplomats have come home in coffins. So who is to blame?
It’s time for the MSM to round up all the usual suspects — and to exonerate a president who cavorts with Hollywood celebrities and goes on the David Letterman show to demonstrate his famous cool under fire. Perhaps he will do a Top Ten list on why the U.S. should stand by and do nothing while Iran gets ready to launch a nuclear attack that will achieve its oft stated goal of destroying Israel.
In her own inimitable (and nonsensical) prose, Maureen Dowd began her column this weekend saying that Paul Ryan has not “sautéed” in foreign policy. Nor — I will add for her — has Paul Ryan drizzled, dredged, or deep-fried in foreign policy. She wrote:
Paul Ryan has not sautéed in foreign policy in his years on Capitol Hill. The 42-year-old congressman is no Middle East savant; till now, his idea of a border dispute has more likely involved Wisconsin and Illinois.
Perhaps a copy-editor (if the Times still has such people) could take Ms. Dowd aside and explain to her that sauté is a transitive verb: It is an action word that requires an object (you sauté onions, garlic, or other things, and you do it quickly; you don’t self-reflexively place what the reader must assume to be your own bottom in cooking oil or foreign policy over a great length of time). I would guess that she meant to say that Paul Ryan has not been steeped in foreign policy, but then she rejected that as insufficiently high-brow for her audience.
Undaunted by her own illiteracy, Dowd pressed deeper into the culinary arts in her next paragraph:
Yet Ryan got up at the Values Voter Summit here [in Washington] on Friday and skewered the Obama administration as it struggled to manage the Middle Eastern mess left by clumsily mixed American signals toward Arab Spring and the disastrous legacy of war-obsessed Republicans.
On the same page of the Sunday Times, Nicholas D. Kristof attempted to make fun of Mitt Romney under the headline “The Foreign Relations Fumbler.” He opted for explosive devices over gastronomy in his opening paragraph:
Diplomacy is a minefield, and Mitt Romney spent the last week blowing up his foreign policy credentials to be president. He raised doubts about his capacity to deal with global crisis, and we were left hoping that if (a) 3 a.m. call ever went to him, he’d have set up call forwarding.
It was of course Hillary Clinton — back when she was running against Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries — who ran the famous ad questioning whether the American people could trust Obama to take a 3 a.m. call on the presidential hotline. Kristof ignored that nice little irony in rehashing Romney’s alleged gaffs in his recent trip to three of our nation’s staunchest allies (Britain, Poland, and Israel).
To borrow one of Maureen Dowd’s phrases, Kristof considers himself to be very much of “Middle East savant.” But he did rather “blow up” his own “foreign policy credentials” with his absurdly optimistic coverage of the heady early days of Arab Spring.
In a column written shortly after the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, Kristof posed the question: “Is the Arab world unready for freedom? A crude stereotype lingers that some people — Arabs, Chinese and Africans — are incompatible with democracy. Many around the world fret that ‘people power’ will likely result in Somalia-style chaos, Iraq-style civil war or Iran-style oppression.” He went on to answer his own question by saying it was “insulting to the unfree world” to suggest that Arab countries might fail the test of peaceful, democratic self-rule.
Needless to say, the jut-jawed pundit set up an Obama-style straw man in framing the question in the way that he did. Any culture or national grouping — be it white, black, brown, or yellow — that celebrates violence against outsiders… and violence against its own people (through such practices as stoning women to death accused of adultery)… is far removed from any possibility of genuine democracy.
In his column this weekend, Kristof went on to repeat the outrageous falsehood that Obama administration officials have been peddling over the past week. He wrote: “Yet with the Middle East exploding in recent days because of (emphasis added) a video insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, Romney dived in, etc., etc.” Surely, no one who is halfway serious believes that the storming of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi on September 11 — of all dates! — was anything other than a well-planned and orchestrated event designed to humiliate the United States and to accelerate the nation’s decline as a world power and a force for world peace and freedom.
Nevertheless, the administration continues to hew shamelessly to the we-did-to-ourselves line in at least partially excusing the murder of American citizens on supposedly protected American soil… and in continuing to promote the myth that the so-called Arab Spring portends a dazzling Arab summer of new-found freedom and democracy. All will be for the best in this best of all possible worlds. Hillary said so herself in her best imitation of Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss: “The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob.”
Tonight Obama goes on the David Letterman’s show. Expect the two of them to pull long faces for 15 seconds or so over the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and his three colleagues. Then each of them will settle down to his own brand of idle banter and cool aloofness. There’s not much to care or worry about, if you are as disengaged and self-centered as the gap-toothed comic or the president who seems to have learned nothing at all from nearly four years of on-the-job training in his first real job (i.e. one with real responsibility — if he cared to acknowledge it).
The mainstream media can congratulate themselves for helping to make this grotesquely conceited and troubling show possible.
About the Author
Andrew B. Wilson, a frequent contributor to The American Spectator, writes from St. Louis.
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Clip of the Day
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Appleby| 9.18.12 @ 6:54AM
You wonder sometimes if some people simply don't see what he's doing at all. It's very much like the Last Days narratives, isn't it?
Aristocat| 9.18.12 @ 6:58AM
Obama worship has become a cult...Completely unrelated to reality...A very dangerous illusion shared by millions of dupes.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:28PM
Aristocat. Help me out on this one.
The Muslim has sent out his Gestapo to Round Up those involved in the making of the YouTube Video, especially the Koptic Guy who ALLEGEDLY put the whole thing on.
Why?
Obviously, he HAS THE RIGHT to do this, just like Occupy HAS THE RIGHT to take a Sh*t on any Cop Car they want to.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
FIRST AMENDMENT!
So, why would President Fck Ya'all round them up?
Then I heard that Egypt has issued Arrest Warrants for these people.
Remember what he did to Gibson Guitars.
He sent his Goons in there, and they CONFISCATED the Wood that they use in making the Guitar Slide Bars. (or, whatever they call it)
They did this under the auspice of ENFORCING INDIAN LAW.
Anyone wanna bet a Dollar and a Doughnut that this Ccksckr plans on Holding these guys until Egypt can come collect them?
Anyone?
Warrior| 9.18.12 @ 1:54PM
Maybe they need advice from Roman Polanski. After all, it wasn't like rape, rape.
By the way, the White House Occupier is covertly negotiating with Egypt on releasing Sheikh Rahmen (first World Trade Center bomb mastermind).
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 2:44PM
I don't get it.
Warrior| 9.18.12 @ 4:33PM
Tried to tie a Roman Polanski movie director quip into it. Every now and then the intent is good but the delivery fails.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 4:47PM
See you on Friday.
PolishKnight| 9.19.12 @ 2:41AM
Hello Appleby,
The modern ideological leftist has disproved the notion that education, affluence, and social status would make humanity more reasonable and rational. Instead, they believe in the most irrational things and engage in utter hypocrisy and then go to work often in professions that should require rational thinking (science, technology, and of course, bureaucrats.)
Then again... Copernicus used to make astrological charts for his family and friends. Sir Conan Doyle believed that Houdini was a magician in the classical sense (used supernatural powers for his tricks). etc. Perhaps because the average leftist has been affluent and well-to-do and needs to believe in the leftist dogma to belong, it generates an environment that creates further irrationality than a "middle class" (or lower class, in their opinion) person working as a small businessman or plumber who has to live in the Real World and can't commute away from the consequences of their ideology.
John786| 9.18.12 @ 7:07AM
A few hundred people demonstrating: does not make for the ME is in flames. The only thing in flames is the writers brain cells.
Gary B| 9.18.12 @ 7:56AM
Tell that to the ambassador's family.
You must be a liberal because human life, other than your own, has zero value. You would do well in DC. From there, you could flip off all the little people then get high fives from all round the room.
Joellen| 9.18.12 @ 8:37AM
John, you and your ilk are the problem. If your child, spouse, sibling were RAPED & MURDERED by those few hundred people demonstrating, tell me pray tell how you would be describing it. They are terrorist and we have in the White House those who flame these acts by their actions and inactions. Now, why dont you actually think about the Ambassador and those heros who died defending our lives and come back in to the fold when you can make sense.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:34PM
He'd say: She Wanted It. She had it coming to her. And, that she should just lay back and enjoy it, like he obviously did at Summer Camp, sometime in his life.
Houdini| 9.18.12 @ 1:40PM
And she would have to produce 4 male witnesses to prove she was raped in the first place......or be stoned to death for adultery.
name_| 9.18.12 @ 6:52PM
How were the heroes(?) "defending our lives "? Wasn`t this ambassador among the same group of diplomats everyone was having a fit over back in `11 for helping with the "Arab Spring"?
Set your beliefs and opinions once and stick to them ma'am, you and almost everyone else here. Do not jump from position to position when ever convenient.
Grzmlyk| 9.18.12 @ 9:38AM
Ah, but if Bush were president during this episode in which "only a few hundred people [are] demonstrating," good old John786 would be aghast, apoplectic and engaged in a temper tantrum of inconsolable high moral outrage.
Why, if John786 could write, surely he'd write something like this:
"The Mideast rages, set afire by centuries of materialistic exploitation foisted upon its noble denizens by a bigoted GOP that now brings its would-be evil subjugation of the entire region - not to mention the persecution of a venerable and glorious religion devoted only to peaceful co-existence - to a neo-con crescendo conducted by the insensate George W. Bush."
"This modern-day, short-bus version of Nero ought to learn to play the violin, because, surely, his insistence on clearing brush at his ranch and prattling on about American Exceptionalism while an entire region roils with abject poverty - made, by the way, in America - constitute a crime far more egregious than that erstwhile emperor's legendary fiddling while Rome burned. As long as the evil and hopelessly stupid Bush has been in power, the Mideast has been a tinder box ready to blow sky high. And now this illegitimate president has just lit the match, the geopolitical equivalent of a pyromaniac in a napalm factory who has just found a Zippo."
But since Obama's president, John786 says, "nothing to see here, folks. Much ado about nada (yawn). I'm going to watch Letterman now. My favorite comedian is on tonight."
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:41PM
And, think how different these stories would be, if some of these Liberal Broads - Ariana Huffington, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, and this Skank - Maureen Dowd - if they had gotten Laid, at least once, in the last 40 Years.
And, no, the Free Vibrators they got a coupla weeks ago, don't count.
Grzmlyk| 9.18.12 @ 1:37PM
Interesting coincidence:
Each one of these worshipers at the altar of moral vanity has the same tattoo emblazoned in New York Times font just above above the pubic bone:
"Abandon Hope and Change, all ye who enter."
Then again, who is going to read a sign on a railway tunnel after all the trains have been rerouted to newer, more scenic lines?
There's nothing so hypocritical as moral vanity in congenital reprobates.
It'd be great to do a production of Macbeth with Obama as Macbeth, Michelle "Let Them Eat Cake" Obama as Lady Macbeth, and those three harridans - vanden Heuvel, Huffington and Dowd - as the three hellish witches who appeal to MacBeth's incipient, evil, unstoppable desire for power at any cost.
Grzmlyk| 9.18.12 @ 1:41PM
Actually, Michelle's nickname should be, "Let Them Eat Gluten-free Cake" or "Let Them Eat Rice Cake," or "Let Them Eat Whatever the Hell I Tell Them to Eat While I Stuff My Face With Batter-Dipped Deep Fried Bon-Bons."
CJW| 9.18.12 @ 4:08PM
Mr G
I see you are an admirer of Dante.
Dante sent Mohamed to hell, why haven't the muslims attacked anyone because of this?
Warrior| 9.18.12 @ 4:34PM
The text would require reading ability above the 5th grade.
name_| 9.18.12 @ 6:57PM
Why don`t you go and offer your services then TLP? Sure they would turn you down, but its the thought that counts right doctor?
Paul McGrath| 9.18.12 @ 12:52PM
"My favorite comedian is on tonight."
You funny, funny man, Mr. Grym!
Grzmlyk| 9.18.12 @ 1:22PM
If I don't laugh at this charade, I'll cry.
JP| 9.18.12 @ 10:54AM
An interersting kind of demonstation in Benzhazi last week. Before the "demonstrators" showed up the streets were quiet. Suddenly fix or dozen "demonstrators" armed with high calibre automatic weapons, RPGs, and submachine guns fired on the consulate. The "crowds" came only after the assault troops murdered the Americans. The demonstrators then lined up to take snuff photos of the corpses and good time was had by all.
Funny, how one could not tell the "demonstrators" from the government officials or policemen.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:46PM
Actually, what's really Troubling, is that I totally believe the President of Libya, when he tells me that this attack had nothing to do with any Video, and I KNOW that everything that comes out of our Piece of Sh*t PRESIDENT'S mouth is a Fckng Lie.
name_| 9.18.12 @ 7:02PM
Of course it had nothing to do with the video! This supposed clip was made in June and it had been available on youtube since at least early July. Why the sudden fury?
They had more than 2 months to get worked up and do some ill s*** but they chose that particular day. Remember what was written on the asphalt in Cairo? It must have been planned for a while, the clip was just an excuse.
Martin kzovich| 9.18.12 @ 7:57AM
Here is my take on our Media-and I include all of it-
FOX WSJ and everything else:
1) They lie as Obama does daily, hourly and minute and second.
2) Never expect anything but garbage from the ( MSM ) thus garbage in garbage out.
3)There is nothing that Romney or any Republican can say that will not be lied
about,distorted etc.
My preferred campaign is on what voters actually experience and see for themselves. Watching the unraveling of our brilliant policies ( Oama's that is ) is clear for all to see. And tell the truth of the reality. The attacks in Libya were planned. 40 something percent of people are dependent on government and most will vote Obama. But tell the truth about Obama being a Communist and a liar.
Von Mises Jr| 9.18.12 @ 8:03AM
The irony is that Moron Dudd and Kristal THC are almost as ignorant as the idiots that read their tripe. Not only are the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda unprepared for democracy, but so are their OWS and troll followers.
Our Founders made it clear that our Republic was only possible for a moral and civil people. They had extensive debates pondering if the American colonies were moral enough for self-government. The answer used to be yes. Today, with half the American population resembling 7th Century barbarians, it is a crap shoot.
Anthony| 9.18.12 @ 8:53AM
Couldn't agree more Von. Well, if Obozo does get re-elected and Sharia is imposed, I hope Dowd can fit into her berka. Can she be sold on the open market like cattle? Who'd want her?
It's true, more than ever, watching the whores in the MSM cheer the demise of America; leftism is a mental disorder.
Von Mises Jr| 9.18.12 @ 9:11AM
Perhaps fat Rosie or Ellen Degenerate may buy her. The cow does not give milk anymore, but I think those gal pals may want to sink their teeth into that round rump. And it is cheap meat.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:47PM
John Adams.
Butch| 9.18.12 @ 3:47PM
The answer used to be yes, Mises, it's true, but I wonder if it would have been even back then, and even in the USA, if they had remotely considered unrestricted voting by every citizen over 18. Do you think they even considered whether the leadership would be that stupid?
JP| 9.18.12 @ 8:16AM
I remember looking at the various online news outlets last Saturday morning. There were no headlines concerning the crisis in North Africa or the Middle East. Despite massive protests and violence from Niger to Tunis and Cairo to Kabul the Yahoo News headlined a story about a Peanut Butter and Jelly controversy; the New York Times headlined a story about Medicaire billing, and the Post headlined a story about Obama's efforts to reduce nukes. The MSM black listed any major stories concerning North Africa and the embassy attacks.
The thing is it is working. Polling the last few days suggest that most voters still give Obama high marks on foreign policy and national security issues. Unreal.
Gary B| 9.18.12 @ 8:51AM
The inmates are in charge of the asylum.
Gary B| 9.18.12 @ 8:54AM
If I were president, I would shut out the major news outlets completely. I've give interviews only to local newspapers and radio stations. I would select them randomly. A recent example of this approach is Clint Eastwood granting an interview to the Carmel Pine Cone, his hometown newspaper.
SUBVET| 9.18.12 @ 12:16PM
Clint........needs to have a "make my day" with SOROS.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:51PM
Nice to see SUBVET again.
Welcome Aboard.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:50PM
If I was President, I would have my Red Pen at the ready, when their FCC Broadcasting Licenses come up for Renewal.
rosie| 9.18.12 @ 10:43AM
The Obama administration cannot deviate from their story ( alibi ? ) at this point without incriminating themselves --- BECAUSE if this attack was indeed a planned attack, then Obama DID indeed have intel / advanced warning BUT chose to ignore ( or perhaps skipped that part as he read his daily brief to himself ? ) . Sticking to the lame "this was a spontaneous attack due to an anti-muslim video " relieves Obama of the burden of culpability for his abandonment of Ambassador Stevens to the barbarians and for the Ambassador's death by torture.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:53PM
They NEVER take a step backwards.
Never!
Who Knows?| 9.18.12 @ 11:07AM
The media.
THE media.
Politics is personal. The epitome of this truth is the relationship between each individual voter and each candidate for any office.
This year, it’s between you = Y and Obama = O, and you = Y and Romney = R.
Here’s where THE media = M matters---who to believe, M or your lying eyes?
The M twixt Y and O extols the latter. M blasts R for Y.
Never underestimate your enemy. Freedom’s enemy is THE media, M, better known in distinction to Limbaugh, et al, as the MSM.
They are STILL overpoweringly regnant.
I don’t care about how full of oats haters of the MSM are, with the rise of talk radio and Fox, and many right wing blogs. It seems to me that the great unwashed masses, say 80%, who just live their lives and put a pox on both political houses, continue to be controlled by THE media, MSM.
With just 7 weeks to go, the O v R race is putatively too close to call. And yet, Intrade has recently dropped from 40% to 32% for Romney.
Who Knows?| 9.18.12 @ 11:22AM
Continuing---
Either Soros & co are fiddling this betting “poll”, or they are not.
And, the debates loom, as well as further potentially poll-moving events. So, Intrade could radically change, in the next weeks.
However, my intuition leans toward NOT believing Soros is rigging the poll. If this is true, why should so many betters put their money on Obama, making him a 2 to 1 favorite?
I think it’s the fact that en masse they still think the strong media horse is the MSM. That, when push and shove, and pull and scream, by the thousands of “voices” in that ruling class, the MSM, finish their onslaught of you = Y, there’s a dwindling chance that R will beat O.
And, by the dreary way, “Soros” is a vital part of the MSM, since money still does buy elections.
We’ll see.
Another sad note---the MSM resembles referees. They are the umpires, and they are totally biased! Never bet against the house.
I hope I’m wrong, and will be eagerly watching Intrade to see how it goes.
TLP| 9.18.12 @ 12:54PM
I miss Post American.
Dave Williams| 9.18.12 @ 2:39PM
The editorialists for the NY Slimes are partisan hacks, one and all...I read what they excrete for a laugh, before I use the columns to line the bottom of my bird's cage. As for Letterman, no way am I watching that grinning idiot...the host, either.
cicero| 9.18.12 @ 3:27PM
What, cool? Vacant is more like it. Anyone can stand around on the street corner posing with his pals, looking up and away from all care and concern. We used to call that "useless". Maybe we should insist that our fearless leader step off of the cub, and actually accomplish something.
Gary B| 9.18.12 @ 11:13PM
An apt and eloquent word picture.