TAPPER: And lastly, Jay, in January, President Obama said after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of the of those who think differently than we do, it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” Did he mean that?
CARNEY: Of course he did.
TAPPER: How does the comments — how do the comments by the Teamster’s president fit in with that?
CARNEY: Well, first of all, those weren’t comments by the president. Secondly, as I think has been recorded –
TAPPER: They were comments by a union leader at an event that President Obama spoke at.
CARNEY: I understand that there is a ritual in Washington that, you know, somebody says something and you link the associations and then everybody who has an association with him or her is somehow — has to avow or disavow it. The president wasn’t there — I mean, he wasn’t on the stage. He didn’t speak for another 20 minutes. He didn’t hear it. I really don’t have any comment beyond that, Jake.
TAPPER: OK, well, some of us covered the campaign and recall a time when somebody made some harsh comments about then-Senator Obama while — during the introduction of a McCain rally. And the Obama campaign was offended and expected an apology, and Senator McCain came out and did so.
CARNEY: The — Mr. Hoffa speaks for himself. He speaks for the labor movement — AFL-CIO. The president speaks for himself. I speak for the president. You know, what the president was glad to do yesterday was have the opportunity to present his views on the importance of working Americans and on the importance of taking measures to help working Americans, to create jobs and grow the economy.
TAPPER: So the precedent — so the precedent you’re setting right now for the 2012 election is that Republican candidates are the ones that we need to pay attention to, and those who introduce them at rallies, their surrogates — we don’t have to pay attention to anything that they say.
CARNEY: Jake, I really — I think I’ve said what I can say about that.
TAPPER: Is that the standard now?
CARNEY: You can report it as you –
TAPPER: I’d rather — I’d rather not have to do this Washington kabuki every time something happens. But if that’s — if that’s the standard — if that’s the standard, then –
CARNEY: The standard is we should focus on the actions we can take to grow the economy and create jobs instead of focusing on kabuki theater.
-Jake Tapper
Think Chuckie fom NBC News would ever have a dialogue like
this with Carney?
Team Obama follows one clear and consistent standard:
THE DOUBLE STANDARD.
That was brilliant -
Tapper didn’t want Obama to disavow the remarks -
He wanted him to disavow the process - short circuiting the media from 10,000 stories because someone somehwere “targets” someone for removal from office.
Pure brilliance.
If this exchange is followed - he just cut Leftist media stories in half for the next two years.
Nope, the standard is, and will perpetually be, a double one.
Conservatives' statements will be twisted and called "racist code language", and 'rats will be able to call for extermination camps for conservatives with impunity.