Posted on 06/29/2010 10:33:55 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
Lyndon Johnson is famous for saying that if he had lost the favorable opinion of liberal former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite that he had lost that of most of America.
President Barack Obama may be at a similar juncture now. With his poll numbers continuing a downward trend in light of the Gulf oil leak, his unpopular health care bill, and deficit spending, liberal comedian Jon Stewart asked a question Monday that is now beginning to emerge even in the minds of stalwart Democrats: Is government capable of doing anything large and expansive ?
As chronicled by Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters, Stewart challenged top Obama adviser David Axelrod on whether or not the administration is capable of doing any of the big things it’s promised, an argument long made by conservatives and libertarians wary of government encroachment.
“It’s clear that this administration believes that government can have a stronger hand in regulating Wall Street, in regulating energy, in doing these things. But has government during this time proved itself competent?” Stewart asked.
Axelrod defended his colleagues and argued, as pointed out here by David Freddoso, that the administration’s response to the H1N1 flu is proof that it is up to the task of big government. It was a striking remark that illustrated perhaps the biggest reason why President Obama is similar to Jimmy Carter: big government in practice is actually the best argument against big government in theory.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I think that's not quite right.
“that the administration’s response to the H1N1 flu is proof “
And didn’t H1N1 turn out to be a semi-fraud?
Perhaps Obama has been a blessing in disguise.
This may all be true of Stewart right now, but come October and November he’ll be pimping hard for Obama and Democrats.
“Big government in practice is actually the best argument against big government in theory”
That quote sure hits the nail on the head. I’ll have to remember that one.
Don't know about fraud but the vaccine was late and then when it arrived there was so much that a great deal had to be dumped.
I did not like Cronkite. I think he was always an ideologue, and I think it was a pity that he was trusted so much by the public.
Be that as it may, Cronkite was perceived to be an objective journalist, reporting the truth as he saw it, keeping the public informed on how the world really was. When LBJ learned that Cronkite was against the war, the president knew that this was a serious PR matter.
Stewart, on the other hand, is a clown. Some years ago, he was talking to a guest (possibly Al Gore?) and the guest was trying to correct Stewart and make sure that the statements on the show were fair and accurate. Stewart let his jaw drop a bit and said, "You ... you realize this is a comedy show, right? I mean ... we're not trying to be fair and accurate here, you know. We're trying to be funny. There's a difference."
But society may have come to the point where the people do not understand what is True, but are prepared to adopt whatever opinion is spouted by the clown on TV -- the guy trying to get cheap laughs while he sells car insurance.
"Truth is funny, and Funny is truth. And that is all we know, and all we need to know." -- apologies to Keats.
So, how long before Rahm neuters this sex poodle?
One of the best arguments against big government is going on right around us.
With all the agencies involved, the government cannot clean up this oil spill.
One agency gets booms, another says they’re in the wrong spot, another says people can’t put them out, etc. They are all tripping over one another with an inefficient bureacracy. And in the meantime nothing is accomplished.
And people, because they are legislated out of the process, sit around either frustrated that they can’t do anything, or waiting for the government to handle something it’s fundamentally incapable of doing.
Stewart, on the other hand, is a clown...
I’ve always asked—why is it that because it’s a government program, why is that so great?
Well, that is precisely my point. And it’s a sad state of affairs.
I’m pretty sure an article came out last week saying that the thread was greatly overhyped.
Exactly. It was supposed to be a Primmer for forcing public opinion toward supporting Obama Deathcare. It never materialized because the H1N1 Flu is NOT a serious threat. Damn near 40,000 people die of the flu every year, it is a NORMAL sort of virus which has plagued human kind for millennia. There are some things in nature which are capable of killing humans. We are NOT immortal, and this stupid nanny state Government isn’t going to change the natural world. I just wish Liberals would just disappear, go to some other country. I am sick of their Jonestown koolaide.
Clown nose on, clown nose off.
Stewart is a commie vampire...never doubt it.
As shall I.
If Republicans ever came up with a scheme to put the worst Democrat possible in the White House to increase their numbers, they couldn’t have picked anyone as good as Dear Reader.
Hmmmmm, maybe there really is a vast right wing conspiracy <-— Just to get the DU and Kos trolls all worked up
Yep.
.. regulating everything.. and then some.
We've gone from federalism to fetteralism.
fetter - n. Something that restricts; restrains. v. to shackle; to restrict freedom.
Could be.. arguably the Establishment is now the 1960s frenzied Marxist-Alinsky street/campus revolutionary rabble and their ideological issue.
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