Posted on 09/24/2012 6:19:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
You’re the elite, the cream of the national press corps (That’s pronounced “core” rather than “corpse,” which the president botched recently, but which you all found far less important than the “e” that’s not at the end of potato when a Republican VP stumbled). Thanks for coming. I invited you here to ask when’s the last time any of you fearless pros asked the president as direct and challenging a question as these two hardballs he faced last week at Univision, the Spanish language network:
"I think up to 100 Mexicans might have died (in Operation Fast and Furious) and also American agent Brian Terry. There's a report that 14 agents were responsible for the operation, but shouldn't the attorney general, Eric Holder…have known about that and if he didn't, should you fire him?"
"You promised [immigration reform] and a promise is a promise. And with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."
Those are some respectful zingers doing just what the press is supposed to: holding political leaders accountable for their words and actions. So, can you think of any tough question you’ve put to him lately? As in, sometime this term?
You don’t really want to look like lap dog sycophants, do you? Good. Then here are a few suggestions:
Ask him if his policies toward the Middle East may have contributed to current violence there.
Specifically, did his decision to pressure Mubarak out of Egypt and to forcibly remove Qaddafi from Libya enable radical elements hostile to the US to rise to power?
Ask him if his overall approach to engaging the Muslim world has produced positive results.
Ask him why, after the attacks on Egyptian, Libyan, and other embassies, his administration immediately asserted the fiction they were spontaneous demonstrations of religious grievance at an obscure internet clip critical of Mohammed.
Ask why for over a week it denied there was a deliberate targeting of America by terrorist groups on the anniversary of September 11th. Ask him if it’s true the State Department had warnings of likely attacks in the Middle East at least 48 hours before they occurred.
Ask him, with or without warnings, why are American embassies in some of the most dangerous places on earth essentially unguarded? Will secretary of State Clinton be held accountable for this failure to protect American personnel?
Speaking of Obama team players, will any of you professional skeptics ask Harry Reid if he plans to apologize to Mitt Romney for falsely accusing him of paying no taxes for 10 years? And if he doesn’t, then why not?
Will any of you ask the president how he can serve all Americans, as he pointedly told David Letterman is his job, if he doesn’t even know what the national debt is or what he has added to it?
When the president declares he “saved the auto industry,” will you ask him if he thinks Ford Motor Company and the American plants of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan aren’t also part of the American auto industry?
Ask him—if Chrysler and GM couldn’t pay their bills--what he thinks would have happened if bankruptcy law had been allowed to operate in a normal way? Would Americans’ demand for cars have been less? Wouldn’t Chrysler’s and GM’s assets have been sold in an orderly way to leaner competitors or start up companies, who would have created new jobs and joined other suppliers to serve the American market?
Will you ask if it isn’t it more accurate to say he saved the ruinous pay, benefits, and pensions of the United Auto Workers that GM and Chrysler employed, and did it by lawlessly ripping equity out of the hands of secured creditors and bondholders and gifting it to the labor unions?
And, isn’t it true that the happy talk a while back about GM paying back its loans was highly misleading, as in essentially false? That wasn’t income from auto sales, was it, just federal stimulus grants that GM turned around and handed back to the government? And don’t taxpayers still hold a major chunk of GM ownership in billions of devalued stock? And isn’t the company’s survival still very much in doubt?
Will you ask him if this is really a success story, or likely a terribly costly, vote-buying boondoggle that just hasn’t played out yet?
Those are just a few starters. If you all think about it, there are a lot of fastballs you could throw over the left edge of the plate—if your peripheral vision reaches there.
The MSM Obama for President team is not allowed to ask those questions.
Will you ask if it isn’t it more accurate to say he saved the ruinous pay, benefits, and pensions of the United Auto Workers that GM and Chrysler employed, and did it by lawlessly ripping equity out of the hands of secured creditors and bondholders and gifting it to the labor unions?
And, isn’t it true that the happy talk a while back about GM paying back its loans was highly misleading, as in essentially false? That wasn’t income from auto sales, was it, just federal stimulus grants that GM turned around and handed back to the government? And don’t taxpayers still hold a major chunk of GM ownership in billions of devalued stock? And isn’t the company’s survival still very much in doubt? "
This is solid gold.
His incompetence and mis-steps are difficult to keep up with.
The Univision interview could be very, very, important as we move toward November.
Not only was Obama in strange territory, having to field actual tough questions, the liberal US media’s bias and incompetence was clearly exposed.
The American main-stream media’s biggest fear should not be that their bias be exposed, but that they become irrelevant.
In the 2010 mid-terms, the media found out they have far less power to persuade than they thought. The Wisconsin recall election showed the same inability. The US media have become irrelevant, they have become impotent, and along comes Univision to show them why.
I hope somehow we can keep the Univision interview in the news, because it shows so devastatingly clearly HOW the media sold us on this bill of goods that is Barack Obama.
Or...they lose their jobs because their bosses-obama adm or their own CEO's demand allegiance to obama or both.
Or-they simply love the press pool turns because obama goes fun places on vacation and likes to party with celebrities? Sad.
Bottom line...where is the everyday reporting of gas prices like under Bush?
Where is the talk of obama's charity giving? Where is talk of obama's hundreds of campaign trips?
Was it right for obama to party in Vegas while precious American lives were being taken in Libya?
Would very much like to know if obama is using our money regarding his family trips-ie michelle's trip to Europe where she listed her two children as advisers in order to get us to pay for their trip. Is michelle above the law?
Would really like to know the full answer to obama's social security number that originates from Connecticut-can't he be ASKED this and other questions?
I do not understand what our press is doing...why they act so afraid of Obama and very much like they want to bow to him. Bush would have been taken to the rails..
And now that we know an arab prince funded his harvard education-would VERY MUCH like to know if obama owes him a return favor-or is already paying him back with foreign policy decisions?
And knowing hillarys top adviser's mother is a member of the female group supporting the muslim brotherhood-has this impacted her decisions that caused our embassy to be literally unguarded with no ammunition allowed?
Well-a few questions I believe our nation deserves an answer to...who ARE OUR PRESS CORP THESE DAYS?
I am sure that someone at Univision was fired or reeducated by NBC Universal.
Don't know why but the older I get the more rage I experience at incidents of rewriting history.
A welcomed but rare act of fact checking by a MSM member, the Washington Post here
Dan Quayle's 'Potatoe' Incident – 1992
"Feeding Frenzy A minor slip-up by Vice President Dan Quayle hatched a frenzy and a long-running joke. Quayle led a spelling bee for sixth-grade students while visiting an elementary school in New Jersey in 1992. Working from an inaccurate flash card prepared by a teacher, he corrected William Figueroa, 12, when the child spelled "potato" on the blackboard – making the boy add an unnecessary 'e' at the word's end.
"Quayle would never hear the end of it. The media assault for this goof was truly relentless. The young Figueroa crystallized the effects of this incident on Quayle's public image when he said that it 'showed that the rumors about the vice president are true – that he's an idiot.'"
I recall the day it happened, the network news I watched reported his classroom visit ho-hum-like -- I don't recall that they even mentioned anything Quayle said. The "journalists" knew Quayle was using material prepared by the teacher -- or more likely they just were not paying that much attention.
Later I guess that comment by the student instantly spread among the elite "journalists" and the next day the story of the visit was revised and it became a sensation! The rest is history.
The only people who watched the Univision interview are going to vote for Obama anyway.
I remember that to, and it proves that even at that time the drive-by media was in the tank for the rat candidate
Univision is watched by Hispanics that live in the US, and in other countries by many who have families in the US. Univision is far more trusted by their viewers than the American media.
If you watch the interview, the anger of the reporters asking the questions was palpable. On the Fast and Furious question, Obama lost big. On the immigration question, Obama lost big. These are questions that MATTER to all Hispanics, not just Mexicans. Obama was noticeably flustered, in strange territory.
It could be that what you're saying is correct but I believe that this interview will lower Obama's Hispanic vote considerably.
What could happen to 'union' contracts under Chap 11 Bankruptcy???.....
"Some contracts, known as executory contracts, may be rejected if canceling them would be financially favorable to the company and its creditors. Such contracts may include labor union contracts, supply or operating contracts (with both vendors and customers), and real estate leases."
I’ve lived in Arizona and Texas for the majority of my life. I’ve grown up with kids from families of Mexican immigrants. Mexicans, as a whole, are very socially conservative. Univision is asking the questions that the main stream media in the US should be asking. Glad to see someone in the media has some backbone.
If I was Obama I would be upset. Univision violated the unspoken ground rule for all media interviews since he began running for President: softball questions only.
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