Steve Benen (Bill Clinton intern)
Posted on 07/22/2007 10:36:43 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Juan Williams Says Daily Kos Is In The Political Center By Noel Sheppard | July 22, 2007 - 13:19 ET
Sometimes when you see NPR's Juan Williams on Fox News, you are left scratching your head wondering what planet he lives on, and what the color of the sky is there.
Such questions must certainly have been raised in the minds of right-thinking "Fox News Sunday" viewers this morning when Williams suggested that the liberal blog Daily Kos "is now center."
I kid you not.
What precipitated this extraordinary lapse of reason on Williams' part was a rather accurate observation made by the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol concerning Democrat presidential candidates attending the upcoming YearlyKos convention (video available here):
Every Democratic presidential nominee is going to the Daily Kos convention. That's the left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago. The Howard Dean kind of sponsor. Now the whole party is going to pay court to him and to left wing blogs. Not a single one is going to the Democratic Leadership Council meeting in a couple of weeks. That's the organization that Bill Clinton was head of in the early '90s - that was supposed to be the new, more moderate Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has gone left and it will hurt them in 2008.
Makes sense, right? After all, the DLC was indeed crucial for Clinton's success in the '90s. Yet, the past two Democrat presidential candidates have shied away from this group, and its tenets, moving further to the left, and not winning their respective elections.
With this in mind, it seems quite reasonable to suggest that Democrat presidential candidates who follow Al Gore and John Kerry's leftist playbook rather than the successful, though disingenuous, moderate campaign of Bill Clinton will have a hard time winning in the general election.
Not so surprisingly, Williams saw things differently:
What you described as left is now center. The majority of the American people, 70 percent, want us out of Iraq. In fact, if you asked Iraqis, 60 some percent of Iraqis say we're doing more harm than good in Iraq. There's a center here and I think what you're saying is they're playing somehow to the left.
Even if the only issue on voters' minds was Iraq, Williams' point would be way off base.
Unfortunately, a recent CBS News/New York Times poll indicated that this is just one of the issues voters believe will be a priority in the upcoming elections (from Polling Report):
"In deciding who you would like to see elected president next year, which ONE of the following issues will be most important to you: [see below], or something else?" N=1,398 registered voters.
%
The war in Iraq 20
Terrorism and national security 17
The economy and jobs 17
Health care 16
Immigration 10
Education 8
The environment and global warming 7
Something else 5
Add it all up, and 80 percent of those polled said something other than the war in Iraq would be their top priority in November 2008. As such, suggesting that this is the only issue on the minds of Americans is rather absurd.
Moreover, though polls indicate that most people do want some form of troop withdrawal from Iraq, this same poll showed that only 34 percent of Americans want all troops removed immediately. By contrast, 59 percent either support just a decrease in troops, the status quo, or an increase.
In fact, CBSNews.com's article on this poll stated that "Sixty-one percent of Americans surveyed think the war should be funded only if there's a timetable for withdrawal...while 8 percent think all funding for the war should be blocked, no matter what."
The Kossacks are part of that 8 percent who want funding blocked now no matter what.
Therefore, even on this one issue, it is specious of Williams to suggest that the folks at Daily Kos are either in the center or representative of the majority view.
Nice try, Juan.
Did his comments draw a..”Juan...JUAN..” ?
Mark
Exactly... If you're standing on the north pole, no matter which direction you look, it's to the south.
Mark
The Daily Kos is middle of the road only if you are Islamic fascist Maoist who thinks Castro’s revolution didn’t go far enough.
juan williams....affirmative action at its best!!!!
This is the ‘political center’?!
#
Juan Williams, liberal media (none / 1)
Late last summer I was listening in sick fascination, as I occasionally do, to a superconservative Christian talk radio station, when I heard Juan Williams’ voice doing a promo for Concerned Women for America. It seems he had been a guest on a CFA show promoting a book, and thought he should lend his voice to their promotion. I nearly drove off the road.
“I believe in vengeance” — Harry Reid
by fightcentristbias on Fri May 13, 2005 at 08:36:34 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Ugh that site.. (4.00 / 3)
I still don’t understand how the f*ck he lists Juan Williams as a liberal journalist..
Support Temporary Workers’ Rights - Change to Win! - -6.25, -4.36
by Scoopster on Fri May 13, 2005 at 06:04:10 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Daily Kos is an American political blog, disseminating news and opinion from a largely liberal, progressive point of view.
Daily Kos was originally founded by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Kos from the last syllable of his first name) in 2002. In 2007 parent company Kos Media, LLC began a fellowship program to help fund a new generation of progressive activists.
Prominent contributors
Numerous political figures including consultants, candidates, and sitting members of Congress use Daily Kos to publish frequent or occasional content:
Jimmy Carter
John Edwards
Bob Kerrey
Cindy Sheehan
Barbara Boxer
John Conyers
Richard Durbin
Russ Feingold
Jennifer Granholm
Tom Harkin
Ted Kennedy
Jim McDermott
Henry Waxman
In June 2006, members of Daily Kos organized the first ever political blogger convention, called YearlyKos, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was attended by approximately 1000[7] bloggers and featured appearances by prominent Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, California Senator Barbara Boxer, General Wesley Clark, Governors Mark Warner, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack and DNC Chair Howard Dean. The event was widely covered in the traditional media including Capitol Hill Blue,[8] The Boston Globe[9] and MSNBC.[10] C-Span also carried portions of the convention.[11]
******
In 2003, Moulitsas was retained by the Howard Dean campaign as a technical advisor, an arrangement he disclosed on the site the next day.[14] A year and a half later, when Daily Kos criticized Armstrong Williams for accepting money to promote George W. Bush’s education agenda (including the No Child Left Behind Act), The Wall Street Journal reported on the payment to Moulitsas as well as a similar payment to Jerome Armstrong.[1] Zephyr Teachout said,
On DeanÂ’s campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients. While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment — but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.
Trippi explained in an interview with Dave Winer that he wanted Kos so that Kos wouldn’t go work for Clark or anyone else.[16]
Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries.[sic] They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.[18]
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
I started Daily Kos on May 26, 2002 and continue to maintain the site from Berkeley, California.
My heroes are Cesar Chavez,
******
Telephone Protest Monday & Tuesday July23 and 24.
by xxdr zombiexx
Sun Jul 22, 2007 at 12:54:27 PM PDT
No fancy logos.
No expensive hype.
No steering committee.
Just using the internet to organize a quick but effective protest action to get the attention of Congress and our elected officials.
Please join me after the jump.
Poll
Will you take part in a telephone protest action like this?
Hell YES! Bring it on!
NO. No reason, just no.
Rapid Response
From dKosopedia
Knock down GOP talking points as they happen.
For Rapid Response Projects beyond talking points, see also: Happening Now This Week and the Happening Now Home
2006-07-02: “Iraq is going great! Liberal media reports otherwise”
Over the weekend, 66 Iraqis died in a suicide car bombing in Iraq, which has a population of 26M.
Back in 1993, we lost 168 in the Oklahoma City bombing, when our country had more than 260M people.
To see it through the eyes of an Iraqi, imagine a suicide car bombing five-times worse than Oklahoma City here in the United States.
Or don’t...forget Iraq, it’s 7000 miles away from your backyard BBQ this July 4th weekend. Everything is fine, young Republican, except for the liberal Press. It’s all a ‘misperception’.
2006-06-30: WTF...Flag Burning Again?!
Juan Williams is so far left, he’d Lewis and Clark to find the political center.
It’s hard not to notice that the conservative establishment seems to be having a bit of freak-out over progressive activists and bloggers getting together for the YearlyKos convention next month.
think Kristol and O’Reilly doth protest too much. By blasting the online progressive community to this extent, they’re actually making an implicit argument that this is a political force they find worrisome. Given their worldview, I think that’s a good thing.
And, finally, if Kristol wants to play the guilt-by-association game, and argue that political figures should distance themselves from those the establishment finds too extreme, I think the left should gladly engage in the debate.
I realize this is a point I feel compelled to make from time to time, but it simply amazes me that there are two distinct standards for political associations. High-profile Democrats are supposed to keep their distance from anyone who dares to say anything intemperate, but Republicans have no qualms about maintaining close professional ties to some of the most vitriolic, hate-filled voices in our public discourse.
Indeed, Rush Limbaugh, shortly after he publicly mocked a man for having Parkinson’s (LIAR!), was invited to the White House for a private audience with the president.
It’s just plan fear. Plus it’s reached the point where they have gotten so behind the times and so out of touch with the American people that they are becoming marginal crackpots. We’re watching the conservative side of the MSM go to nutjob land and self destruct.
Comment by Glen — 7/22/2007 @ 1:14 pm
It’s too late for them to try ignoring the liberal blogosphere; with major candidates coming to blog events, liberal blogs have broken through and are becoming more and more known. Shifting over to attacking them is all they can do, because, as Dukakis found out, you can’t ignore your enemies.
Comment by jimBOB — 7/22/2007 @ 1:45 pm
Yes, I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, Billy Kristol is such a good, friendly fascist. It is his ideology to deny open debate, and to try to control the message. It is his ideology that dictates he use incendiary language to paint even the most reasonable opposition to his master narrative as what it is not. It is his ideology to destroy democracy in order to save it. And, it is he who was born with privilege, and cannot now understand the spirit of democracy. As one result, he is continually wrong in his interpretations of the reality based community. He simply does not have the skills-set to accept he has been wrong for so long. -Kevo
Comment by kevo — 7/22/2007 @ 3:23 pm
I thought the only person who could win any argument about anything by invoking the dirty L word was Rush Limbaugh?
Now you tell me some pooh-bah named Kristol has this magic power too?
This is impressively cerebral stuff…
I have a feeling this Kristol fellow is going to make some noise in the world… Comment by ROTFLMLiberalAO — 7/22/2007 @ 3:58 pm
So, who is “The Carpetbagger”?
My name is Steve Benen. I’m a freelance writer, researcher, and political consultant, working in politics in one capacity or another for about 10 years. My articles and op-eds have appeared in a variety of publications, including Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and Church & State. I’ve also been a guest on several radio programs, including NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and Air America Radio’s “Sam Seder Show.” In addition to The Carpetbagger Report, I’m the lead editor of Salon.com’s Blog Report (formerly the Daou Report), and have been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, Crooks & Liars, AlterNet, and Political Wire.
Steve Benen
AKA Steven Benen
Born: 15-May-1973
Birthplace: Miami, FL
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Pundit, Blogger
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The Carpetbagger Report
Former spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and interned for President Bill Clinton’s speechwriting staff.
All Juan can do is quote polls. I never hear him actually use any news sources other than the polls - “the american people feel we’re losing...” etc., etc. All that tells me is that the American people have been poorly educated. At least Brit finally got to say something about Juan’s continued insistence on ignoring any actual news reports.
Steve Benen (Bill Clinton intern)
” At least Brit finally got to say something about Juan’s continued insistence on ignoring any actual news reports.”
And a priceless moment that was. I thought Mara L was going to pass out just watching her observe the A Whupping Brit delivered with nary a rise in his voice.
Go Brit......................
Not because Juan is such a towering intelligent commentator or has "Rush" like insight on the political landscape.
Juan hasn't had an original thought in years, he simply is a product of his political handlers.
There is a reason he is pushing this concept of "Kos" being center, my guess the Clinton's have their filthy hands in on this for some reason yet to be unfolded
Juan was in rare form today even for his normal liberal self. If there was a spin against the GOP, Bush or Iraq, he trotted it out as though it were an undisputed fact and everyone else was on LSD if they didn’t instantly agree.
I guess the Dimocrat Party can just dissolve the DLC since they are no longer relevant. Boy, won’t this be a shock to Hillary! after the primary is over and she has to go back to playing a ‘centrist’ on TV.
It is constantly amazing to me that the Left just doesn’t want to do even the slightest thing to win in Iraq. They seem willing to do anything short of shooting our soldiers themselves to ensure we are defeated.
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