During tonight’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia, moderator George Stephanopoulos echoed the talking points of conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. Stephanopoulos asked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) if his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “loves America,” questioned him about his flagless lapel, and asked about his alleged ‘connections’ to former Weather Undergound member Bill Ayers.
Stephanopoulos cribbed his questions directly from Hannity. According to the Daily Kos, Stephanopoulos appeared on Hannity’s radio show on Tuesday and took note of Hannity’s suggested questions.
Hannity asked George what kinds of questions they’ll be asking at the debate tomorrow and they discussed a few things. When Hannity asked about the first question below about Ayers and whether George had plans to ask such a question, George replied, “Well, I’m taking notes now Sean.” It did actually sound like he was pausing to take notes. And Hannity continued to feed him more:
1) Ask Obama about his relationship with Ayers and WeatherUnderground and Axelrod’s comments, “They’re friendly”
2) Ask Obama why he attended the Million Man March
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Stephanopoulos has a history of contributing to right-wing smear campaigns.
UPDATE II: On Sunday, Hannity showcased “The Real Barack Obama” series on Hannity’s America. The show featured an ‘investigation’ into “Obama’s association with the self-admitted terrorist, William Ayers.”
In today’s New York Times, conservative columnist Bill Kristol falsly claims that “Obama was in fact in the pews,” when his pastor Rev. James Wright made several controvesial statements about the state of race in America. In reality, Obama was on his way to campaign in Miami on the day Wright gave the sermon. Kristol was duped by a false report from the far-right NewsMax.
Kristol’s shoddy journalism reminds progressives that while Obama has enjoyed consideable success this primary season, he is still dogged by biggotted, prejudicial rumors as a result of his ethnic background. Google’s search suggestions (which are based on frequently used phrases in search requests), betray the breadth of the smear campaign being perpatrated against Obama.
Can you spot the difference?
Of the various patriotic displays in which Obama will allegedly not participate listed above, only one is based in fact. Obama refuses to wear a flag pin on his lapel. Instead, Obama says, “I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
Tonight, during an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) promised to campaign for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “to make sure we have conservative leadership running our country.”
How quickly things change. A little more than a month ago, Romney attacked McCain’s conservative credentials. In the lead-up to Super Duper Tuesday, Romney claimed that McCain’s immigration policies, “and his support for a cap-and-trade program” demonstrated that McCain would follow a “liberal Democratic” course if elected. “I don’t think those liberal answers are the ones Americans are looking for,” Romney said at a Fort Meyers event in late January.
Days later, during a contentious debate at the Reagan Library, Romney said that McCain’s policies “are outside the view of mainstream Republican thought.”
And I guess I’d also note that, if you get endorsed by the New York Times, you’re probably not a conservative.
Even after ending his bid for the White House, Romney remains, as McCain once described him, the candidate of change.
On the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has repeatedly denounced and mocked a federally funded study of grizzly bears in Montana, calling the project wasteful and unnecessary. McCain even ran campaign ads attacking the study:
But this morning, the Washington Post reports that the project, which found that conservation efforts have successfully protected the grizzly bears in northwest Montana from extinction, was financed through an earmark from “Montana’s three-term senator, Conrad Burns, a Republican who was defeated in his reelection bid in 2006.” Incidentally, “Burns is now chairman of McCain’s campaign in Montana.”
During tonight’s edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Christ Matthews asked former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) for the conservative position on climate change. DeLay told Matthews that “man is not causing climate change…It is arrogance to suggest that man can affect climate change. There’s no science that supports such a notion.”
Also, after attacking presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for his “weak” conservative credentials, DeLay said he still might vote for McCain.
[I would have to see] who is John McCain on Election Day when I go to the polls. I don’t have to decide that right now… Let’s see what John McCain does reaching out to conservatives.
Appearing on MSNBC’s post- State of the Union coverage, Air America Radio’s Rachel Maddow noticed that in his last State of the Union address, President Bush invoked the title of his autobiography, ‘a charge to keep.’
All of us were sent to Washington to carry out the people’s business. That is the purpose of this body. It is the meaning of our oath. And it remains our charge to keep.
The phrase is a reference to a 1916 painting by W.H.D. Koehner, which Bush believed “depicted circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century.” But according to a new book by Jacob Weisberg, the painting “actually depicts a horse bandit:”
The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors.
Earlier today, the LA Times reported that former New York City mayor “Rudy Giuliani appears to be pondering an end to his long pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination.”
In a meeting in the back of his chartered plane en route to St. Petersburg, Fla., a short while ago, the onetime, longtime GOP front-runner told a small group of reporters, including The Times’ Louise Roug: “The winner of Florida will win the nomination.”
Tonight on MSNBC, pundit Keith Olbermann revealed that after Giuliani made those comments, Giuliani’s staff distributed “signed Rudy Giuliani baseballs” to reporters– momentos of an abandoned campaign, perhaps?
Responding to President Bush’s assertion that “Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq,” Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), in an interview with MSNBC, noted that given the international nature of terrorism, “[If I were Al Qaeda]…I would be moving towards Afghanistan and Pakistan. So when the president tries to look at Iraq separate from the region, he is not being honest about the difficulties that we face. And the only way we will be able to resolve this is with strong diplomacy.”
Indeed, terrorism is now on the rise in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, total violence increased by 27 percent from a year ago; the number of roadside bombs increased by 425 percent between 2004 and 2007 and suicide bombings soared from “three in 2004 to more than 130 in 2007.” Similarly, Pakistan is experiencing “growing insecurity in Pakistan’s tribal areas.”
Analyzing tonight’s State of the Union address, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams suggested that “Bush’s tears” (at the mention of “men and women fighting overseas” during the speech) refocused the nation on the war on terror and the challenges of a post-9/11 world.
Tonight, in a response to Governor Mitt Romney’s assertion that he considered a VP slot on the Democratic ticket in 2004, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) assured MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews that he quickly rejected the offer. But in a July 7, 2004 interview on Fox News Radio’s The Tony Snow Show, McCain claimed that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) never offered him the slot.
SNOW: Right. But, so- I want to just lay to rest once and for all: never approached you, never hinted that he wanted to talk to you about being vice president. All that kind of stuff was made up.
McCAIN: Well, I cannot attest to that. All I can tell you is my conversations with him were private conversations, but he never offered it.
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