Posted on 08/07/2003 1:18:28 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Journalists normally fret about negative campaigning and condemn attacks that dig out personal baggage in a candidate's background. Just as long as the candidate doesn't threaten a Democrat, apparently, since on this morning's Today Katie Couric didn't hesitate to beat Democratic operatives to the bunch and remind viewers that Schwarzenegger's father was a Nazi.
She began a question to a California Democratic strategist Darry Sragow: "Let me ask you about his, his baggage, if you will. He's admitted smoking marijuana, using steroids during his body- building career. He's the son of a Nazi Party member..."
Quite the morning greeting from NBC News.
Couric proceeded to prod Sragow: "Through his publicist he's denied allegations published in Premiere magazine, in March 2001, that he sexually harassed women and committed infidelity. All those things, are they gonna be front and center, Darry, if you, do you think in this campaign?"
They are now!
MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens alerted me to Couric's Nazi take and transcribed all of her questions.
Couric introduced the segment: "On Close Up this morning, Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to terminate the competition. He's boffo at the box office but how will he do at the ballot box. Darry Sragow is a Democratic strategist and Sheri Annis worked as a press secretary for Schwarzenegger on a ballot initiative in California last year. Good morning to both of you."
Couric's questions:
-- "Alright Darry and Sheri. Darry let me start with you right now. Is, is Arnold Schwarzenegger, in your view, Gray Davis' worst nightmare?"
Sragow: "No..."
-- Couric: "Yeah but what else, what other hurdles do you think does he face primarily?"
Sragow: "Credibility hurdle...."
Couric: "Is that doable though, in your view?"
-- Couric: "Well let's talk about Gray Davis and the Democrats strategy Darry, because I know you have felt strongly all along that it's very important that Democrats do field a candidate. Even though the strategy, I guess, until yesterday was not to field a candidate so people would keep Gray Davis in office. But now his Lieutenant Governor, Cruz Bustamante, announced that he was going to put his name on the ballot. So how does this change the equation?"
-- "Alright Sheri Annis I haven't forgotten about you. Apparently this announcement took everybody by surprise. What was your reaction?"
-- "And he does seem to have quite a, quite a sense of humor. On the Tonight Show last night he had several funny one-liners. Let's take a look at one of them right now."
Clip of Schwarzenegger on Wednesday's Tonight Show: "Most difficult decision that I've made in my entire life, except the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax."
Couric: "Alright. So, so Darry I mean maybe you didn't find that, that amusing. But does Arnold Schwarzenegger make Gray Davis look well, rather gray."
-- Couric to Sragow: "Let me ask you about his, his baggage, if you will. He's admitted smoking marijuana, using steroids during his body-building career. He's the son of a Nazi Party member. He said he was prejudiced before overcoming those feelings by working with the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles and the Dean of the Center said an investigation of Schwarzenegger's late father, conducted at the actor's request, found no evidence of war crimes. Through his publicist he's denied allegations published in Premiere magazine in March 2001, that he sexually harassed women and committed infidelity. All those things, are they gonna be front and center, Darry, if you, do you think in this campaign?"
Sragow: "I have to assume that those things are going to be brought up, not by Gray Davis, but by others and he's prepared to defend himself because he's going to have to do that..."
-- "And, and Sherri, Arnold himself said on the Tonight Show that he expected a dirty campaign. How do you think he's going to handle that?"
If Aaaaahnold's father was a Nazi, that, of course, does not make Aaaaahnold a Nazi but it won't enhance his candidacy either. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has zero credibility with any Republican who is a Republican. It is essentially a leftist smear shop. Anyone familiar with my posts here knows better than to respond by calling me a Nazi.
Whether Aaaaahnold or his father is, was, are, were Nazi(s), he is still a resourceless fool and an extremely poor excuse for a public policy maker.
He is going to wear very thin as a candidate. It was said that no one ever upstaged Ronald Reagan in a photo shoot. Reagan always looked good in any photo because he was a pro. Even as an actor, Aaaaaahnold is an amateur. He looks like someone welded his cervical vertebrae together permanently to keep his head tilted backwards and he looks like someone cemented that Frankenstein toothy grin on his face. He looks like he will fall over backwards at any moment and that he is always looking up lest he notice mere mortals. Grace does not favor Aaaaaahnold.
He is not in 24 hours yet and already the Demonrat destruction machine is hard at work effectively fricasseeing the Austrian robot. Aaaaaaahnold is going to wish he had never been born.
Hasta la vista, Aaaaaaahnold. You'll not be baaaaaaack!
Vote McClintock. Issa for party chairman. He has done the right thing at every step and he is the hero who makes the recall happen. Simon needs a major unnanounced role in totally reforming the state government and party and to bail out for the good of the party.
These are the jokes, right?
Joe Kennedy, father to both Teddy and John F., was an openly pro Nazi sympatizer prior to WWII. As a US ambassador to Britian (I believe) at the time, he greatly irritated FDR who recalled him to the US.
the topic: PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN- What exactly does it mean?
Guest for the evening is Bill Murray of the Family Research Council
PLUS – A call from McClintock Campaign Headquarters!
Germany in the 1930s used the butterfly ballot. His ballot was marked Nazi, but he intended to vote for Herr Gore the socialist democrat.
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