Posted on 01/06/2005 7:22:11 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
The Dem post-election soul searching continues. This morning, Katie Couric conducted an extended, two-part interview with noisome filmmaker and left-wing activist Michael Moore. And while Moore clearly intended to include Katie when he spoke of "our side," and while Katie never declined the reference, it was also obvious that Couric feels that Moore is part of the Dems' problem.
Moore's fundamental argument was that there is nothing wrong with the Dem party. When Katie suggested the Dems have perhaps lost touch with basic American values, Moore contended that to the contrary the American people agree with Dem policies, offering abortion, gun control and the environment as issues on which Americans tend to favor Dem positions over GOP ones.
The only problem, in this movie director's opinion, is the way the message is presented and in the personality of the candidate. According to Moore, the Republicans successfully used scare tactics, suggesting that terrorism is a real problem (it's not?) that could kill people at any moment. And whereas Moore spent months disparaging W, now he portrays him as a likeable "Gilligan-lite" character with whom people identify.
Moore suggested that the Dems need to find likeable candidates, and threw out a number of names, including Oprah, Tom Hanks, Obama and various members of the Kennedy clan.
Katie wasn't buying, and her personal antipathy toward Moore was obvious. Recall that back during the DNC, when Moore invited Katie to accompany him to that night's convention activities, Couric gave him the classic sorority girl brush-off: "sorry, I'm busy. I'm arranging my sock drawer."
Katie suggested that Moore was part of the Dem problem, not the solution. She alluded to his vitriolic nature, quoted some of the very nasty things he had had to say about W, and in the unkindest cut of all, suggesting that the beached-whale-like Moore "embodied" the problems of the Dem party.
Moore threw in a stock line about how he "loved" America. Right. This from the guy who traipsed around Europe deriding his compatriots as "the dumbest people in the world."
Turning to his next film, which will focus on (read: attack) the drug industry, Katie asked whether Moore was willing to give the drug industry any credit for curing various diseases, or whether to the contrary he saw them as "pure evil."
"Pure evil," was Moore's unequivocal response. Putting in a plug for socialism, he asserted that health care was a right, and that "the profit motive should be entirely removed" from the area. That's right, the profit motive, the driving force that has brought us virtually all of the world's innovations in every field including health care, should be abolished, to be replaced by government bureaucracy.
In any case, Katie and Moore's conversation epitomized the kind of frustrated thrashing in which Dems around the country continue to engage.
By all means, let the unshaved, elephantine Moore continue to be the face of the Democrat party!
Moore denies reports that it was his falling off the boat while hitching a ride to Hong Kong that caused the tsunami.
Actually, Katie asked whether Hillary could also be a good candidate or whether she was too divisive. Moore responded that she could be good, that millions like her, and that the Republicans didn't worry about W being too divisive or the fact that millions detested him. But it's true that he didn't initially raise Hillary's names in his list of favored possible candidates.
Me too! However, I overheard a despairing, hard-lefty coworker yesterday note that MM was all that the dims had to present their "message" (treasonous slander in my book) to the voting public. He regularly spouts the latest bile from NPR; so, he apparently missed the MSM's unbridled efforts to elect the French Poodle and Breck Boy. Note: this occurred in LA LA land which is adjacent to the People's Republic of Santa Monica.
Nah! He was already swerving hard to the left in '68. He would have been as effective as his brother in getting things done.
Happy New Year! I was hoping you'd post something on that interview w/MM.
I am so sick to death of bashing the pharmaceutical industry. Most sheeple don't understand the profit motive anymore and/or they think that's evil (thank you class warfaring democrats). Nor do they understand the how difficult and costly it is to create the next new drug. Will MM include that in his mockumentary - probably not....
One of the key ways that you can measure the additional years that medical care (including pharmaceuticals) brings is to look at life expectancy after age 65. We do all right in that category.
I sent thank-you notes (no joke) to Michael Moore and George Soros after the election. I asked them continue stumping for the Democrats, as I love to see Respublicans win. Haven't heard back from either one of them.
Too bad she didn't ask him to remove the profit motive from his diatribes that are called books and movies. He is the face of the Democratic Party. He is their guru.
Deserves a bump!
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