Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Oh yeah, that

Meanwhile, while we've all been busy issuing denunciations of racist basketball owners, a little housekeeping from the invaluable John Hayward:
All that spin from Obama apologists, gone in an instant.  All those questions about the original of the false “video protest” narrative pushed by the White House to save Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, answered at a stroke.  Yes, it was all a lie, and the White House knew it.  They ordered it, for blatantly political purposes, and kept the proof secret until Judicial Watch finally managed to uncover some long-suppressed correspondence with a Freedom of Information Act request.  Remember when our gigantic, well-funded mainstream media organizations used to conduct that kind of investigation, instead of just obediently passing along the President’s talking points?
Yeah, I do remember that. Good times.
None of these documents are exactly “shocking,” because they buttress exactly what critics of the Administration have been saying all along.  It’s another great example of Obama’s strategy for political survival by “winning,” or at least enduring, one news cycle at a time.  Bombshell revelations lose their explosive force over time.  Emails that would have ended the 2012 presidential campaign are now a historical footnote.  The Obama-friendly mainstream press is unlikely to bring the story they’ve been trying to bury for the past two years back to the front pages, just to inform their readers that all of spin they previously delivered was invalid.  Critics of President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were 100 percent right all along… but as the latter so memorably put it, “what difference, at this point, does it make?”
It would have made a difference, probably a substantial difference, in 2012, but so it goes. So let's review what we've learned:

  • The internet video story was crap from the get-go, and apparently dozens of people in the White House knew it, including Susan Rice, who wasn't a dupe after all.
  • One of the main spinmeisters for the White House who was involved in the spinning is Ben Rhodes, whose brother happens to be David Rhodes, president of CBS News. You'll recall that CBS spiked a number of critical stories about Benghazi that its reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, had been following.
  • Jay Carney told us the following with a straight face:
We get the government we deserve.




6 comments:

Gino said...

fear not, the press will get back to doing its job as soon as this guy is gone and replaced by a republican.

they'll even report on their reporting, telling how its their job to be tough on power.

Bike Bubba said...

What Gino says. I took a look at CNN, the NY Times, MSNBC....and the scary thing is that most media outlets are not covering Benghazi well, or the fact that Obama has quietly submitted a bill to make many highways into toll roads.

So JOY! We can ALL have the same crappy roads that Illinois has! And we can pay THREE TIMES MORE for them than if we'd simply raised the gas tax!!!! Yay!!!

Bike Bubba said...

And of course, it's not like a lot of people could pay with their lives for a President who views a colossal failure to defend diplomats as a political issue to cover his patookie instead of a failure that needs to be addressed, except it is. Grrrr.....

Mr. D said...

Bubba,

To do toll roads, you need toll booths. You can fill toll booths with gubmint employees.

Bike Bubba said...

Oh, and even better, we can have SIXTY FREAKING MILES of single lane for a HUGE construction project; TWO GUYS filling potholes.

Not that I'm grouchy about paying $5 each time I take I-90 from Rockford to the Indiana line and getting the double bonus of a couple hours' delay. I have to buy coffee in Illinois, but I make sure I fill up the tank in Wisconsin or Indiana if at all possible.

Yes, I'm saying that Illinois is ending up BEHIND on the bargain, at least as far as my family is concerned.

Mr. D said...

Oh, and even better, we can have SIXTY FREAKING MILES of single lane for a HUGE construction project; TWO GUYS filling potholes.

True story. About 30 years ago, our family was trying to get through Chicago on the Tri-State and ran into a construction situation similar to what you were describing. Just a vertical parking lot for miles. As we were creeping by at about 3 miles per hour, we saw a guy in a orange hi-vis vest and a hard hat, holding a sign that said "Slow." My brother rolled down the window and yelled out "I can't believe they're paying you to do that." The guy just flashed us a crap eating grin and turned the sign to the next car.

We'll be spending a fair amount of time in Illinois in the coming years, since my son is going to college there. Fortunately, it isn't anywhere near the Tri-State.