Posted on 09/20/2001 7:16:13 PM PDT by Patriot
And this is a reporter that goes back to Rossevelt I think!
Certainly Truman and Eisenhower.
I really liked what he said about the Bush Family , Grandfather, father and son!
The delivery was the best I have seen from him. What is strikingly different from his predecessor is that we know it was real. He was not putting on a show. He does not think of himself as a rock star. He is not trying to get people to love him. Rather, he was telling the troops and the American people that we will not fail in this effort. He inspired confidence.
All America knows that he will take action in our national interest, not in his own interest. He is not making a speech looking to 2004. He is not making a speech to turn our attention from his scandals. He is making a speech to lead a nation for a noble purpose.
You're thinking of CBS' Walter Cronkite who announced from New York, "From Dallas, Texas, the news flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:30 p.m. Central Time... some 28 minutes ago...(takes off glasses, puffs up and chokes his way through the next sentence)...Vice President and Mrs. Johnson are flying back to Washington..."
Rather, in his first book, describes how he was supposed to rush motorcade film back to the CBS affiliate in Dallas for developing and was standing on the other side of the triple overpass when the shooting occured. He became a flashpoint for controversy when he saw the Zapruder film before hardly anyone else. He was supposed to bid on behalf of CBS for the rights to the film only to have Time/Life's opening bid go over what he was allowed to offer. So he rushed back to the studios and tried to describe the one-time real-time movie viewing of a moving murder. He described Kennedy's head as moving violently **forward** during the fatal head shot when it's clear the head is driven backwards. Conspiracy theorists seized this as proof that Rather was part of the cover-up when, actually, I think it was the mistake of presuming what the film would show (they already "knew" Oswald was shooting behind the motorcade at that point) instead of watching it with an open mind.
Rather's performance put him on the fast track at CBS News, leading to the vaunted anchor's chair once Cronkite stepped down.
Cronkite, by the way, is even further left than Rather but back in his time newsmen saw their jobs as reporting rather than editorializing so his opinions didn't show up on screen too often. If you ever heard Uncle Walter's radio commentaries, you'd think he worked for NPR.
Now that would be fun to watch. Is there a transcript of the interview somewhere?
Even that son-of-a-beach Daniel Schorr?
That reminds me of something else I believe Tom Brokaw said. Someone made a comment about how surely President Bush, in this speech, is thinking about his place in history. That ticked me off. It is very apparent that GW's love of his country far outweighs any concerns he has for his place in history.
He'll never admit that. Perhaps it's that he has lived in NYC for many years and it was NYC that was bombed.
If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged is a patriot a liberal who's been bombed?
(Bold part submitted as quote of the week.)
That was also my only criticism of an otherwise outstanding speech. Today a security guard, who admittedly did not vote for Dubya, described last night's speech in one word - homerun. (Okay, one argue that's two words, but...)
Geez! That is so awesome. I enjoyed it sitting along with my infant daughter in the den, but I can't even imagine the electricity and pride when viewing it via Jumbotron with hundreds or thoudsands of others. I'm jealous!!
It sounds like you'll be tuning in to watch your hollywood friends on the telecast tonight?
/sarcasm
At the risk of appearing too gullible, is this true? One could only hope!
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