george w bush on meet the press, this sunday, with timmy "the man" russert!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

check your local listing.

im not sure who here is a regular of this show, but im reaaaaally looking forward to this. i like tim alot and i can only hope that he will be as fair and honest as he is with any of his other guests.(especially clark and dean) if he throws softballs im gonna be disappointed.

from a PR standpoint, i guess it needs to be done, but i dont know if its the best way to go about it. this could really backfire given bushs inability at speaking eloquently and to think on his feet.

should be cool.

what i'm curious about is how middle america and the general armed forces feels about bush right now. basically for four years i've heard people around me mumble and grumble about how come 2004 we've got to get him out of there...

but remember beards posting those letters from people to the man? they were talking about how he was the best president in history. and military men saying they believe in him and his cause.

curious indeed

anyhow anyway

i thought those beardo letters were a farce....

good lookin' son, i'll see if i can catch that somehow.

it'll be an exercise in restraint.

you should browner...

hopefully the rest of team nerd is seeing the batmanish "TN" sign high in the sky and will be checking in shortly.

Yeah I heard about this.

I don't know though, I have a feeling it might be fixed as to have a bunch of softballs like you said. But of course, I hope for the opposite.

We shall see, my friends.

I don't know, Bush didn't seem to look as unbelievably stupid during his presidential debates as he has ever since. Will he ever come out of the current overwhelming dumbosity illness, and back to just-above-average dumbosity with one-on-one talks?

Will people conclude he looked stupid because his views and his face are considered stupid, or because he said objectively stupid things, like inventificating new words?

STAY TUNED.

^^^ There are just so many options.

"Will people conclude he looked stupid because his views and his face are considered stupid"

alfred "w" bush..."what! me worry?"

Forgive my not knowing names and specifics and this and that, but a friend of mine told me last night that Carl Rove's (is that the guy I'm thinking of?) grandfather was a Nazi who helped set up concentration camps and what not.

Can anyone confirm this, or maybe give me the right name. I don't think this is some made up shit.

i dont know about karl rove, but the bushs do have a light connection to nazi germany...

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2003/02/4183.shtml

the karl rove one looks like a case of bad media:

http://www.freepress.org/departments.php/d...lay/10/2003/389

but im not sure:

http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman10062003.html

anything that gives us a chance to see how mcuh more of an idiot Bush is than we already thought is definitely positive. I swear if he takes it in 2004, the US will be worse off than Iraq was with Sadaam....

Originally posted by mental invalid

the karl rove one looks like a case of bad media:

 

 

http://www.freepress.org/departments.php/d...lay/10/2003/389

 

 

but im not sure:

 

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman10062003.html

Nah, I think that first link you posted was what I was thinking of.

Thanks mang.

i used to think bush was an idiot.

now i have come to the conclusion that he is a egotistical dry drunk that does not articulate well at all, has business associates of extremely poor moral standing that do not conduct ethical business(enron) and was in flagrant violation of constitutional and international law by invading two countries during his term after the country suffered the most horrendous terrorist attacks, which we have yet to see justice done to the people behind it.

holy run on sentences batman.

so you cant really clown as an idiot cause this president who was not elected by the popular vote is getting away with some serious shit.

flat out.....he shoulda been impeached in 02 and should definitley be facing impeachment now.

the idiots are the people that actually belive hes going to do somthing good for this country.

roe? You like Russert? The man's a Republican shill, forcing RNC-drafted questions down the throat of any Dem guest. I wasn't too fond of him to begin with, but after Dean's first appearance on MTP a grew to strongly dislike Russert.

But, like you said, I hope he asks substantive, penetrating questions to aWol. I'm not going to hold my breath, though.

Granted, I won't let my partisanship blind me - Dean did a horrible job that first MTP. Nonetheless, Russert's not my man.

And one more thing -

roe, you have to start [assuming you don't already] checking out Atrios - http://atrios.blogspot.com/ .

He is by far one of the best left bloggers out there, with a penchant for media criticism. I don't post on there, but it's my first stop whenever I open up Internet Explorer.

i really really like russert bobbo...its how i spend my sunday mornings...and i dont think he is republican...

he was fucking hard on dean, but ive seen him be hard to other dems running also(clark and gephardt). and ive seen him be tough with colin and condie also...

so hopefully he will be upfront and not brash, but not taking bullshit either...

and if it seemed like he was asking RNC questions, thats because he does a good job of playing devils advocate, and dean was gonna have to face those eventually, better that he air it out on tv and get the chance to answer em...but that was one ugly interview, though he did go back on recently...and i thought tim was a bit lighter then the interview 7 months ago...

here hoping for wisconsin....deans last stand.

yeah man, as far as main mass media goes, i think timmy is the man...doesnt mean im not going to pull a card when he blows interviews or lobs softballs, but all in all i think he wants the truth as much as i do.

but he doesnt play the hardball like mathews, because well, mathews doesnt get the colins and condies...

so its a tuff game of give and take...

the sunday paper last sunday which usually has a pretty conservitive editorial section pretty much blasted bush all the way around.

im confused why everybody else's face in his admin. was on the cover of newsweek except his.

wasnt history made in 97 or 98 when Clinton got impeached, like he was the first sitting president since some other old white guy in previous century. you see what im saying? talk about a double standard, im sure if his connections to enron were investigated as much as whitewater they could find somthing to impeach him on. and then theres 911 and all the shit he said in the State of the Union during his term.

im amazed at the amount of shady shit this administration has gotten away with. our national debt is like a trillion or someshit we took over two countries and states are going broke while the richest got large tax cuts. congress hasnt done shit except peel away our civil rights and violate the constitution by giving the president the power over the armed forces.

so technically if we followed all the rules, and following rules isnt that bad, we should have a new congress and president and.........

um....i hadda lotta coffee and i have add.......and im bitter.

Originally posted by mental invalid

here hoping for wisconsin....deans last stand.

Extremely unlikely. I think the man's done. What a shame.

Bush on Pumpkinhead Sunday

Full hour. I guarantee this will go down in history as the worst moment in American journalism. Russert got his gig after delivering a fluffer to Bush I.

-Atrios 6:50 PM

hahahaha....i hope he's wrong...ive seen tim buckle before, not often but ive had some yelling matches at my tv...my girl thinks im nuts...

but bobbo that is one hell of site! i suggest other people do themselves the favor and head on over.

I'm glad you like it. It's run anonymously by some dude in Philly, and he's the top baller in terms of the leftist blogging world. Others to check out if you're interested:

• www.dailykos.com - great Democratic blog with multiple authors. It's especially good with primary discussion and candidate discussion. A great feature is the ability to sign up for an account and post a blog as a "diary" available for other users to read and comment.
   
  
• www.talkingpointsmemo.com - by Josh Marshall, a writer for Washington Monthly and The Hill. He has a great deal of contact with insiders in DC (usually Dems, although not limited to 'em), thus giving some good information not obtainable otherwise. He too tends to go in depth into issues. Along with Atrios, my favorite.
   
  
• www.thismodernworld.com - the artist for This Modern World, the greatest comic strip currently running.

i dunno, as far as mass media goes i like timmy russert...yeah i know he can lob softballs sometimes, but then again, ive seen tim go hard and be relentless sometimes.

 

he does get some of the biggest names, and there is a reason for that. you can just have these people on and crucify em, it doesnt work that way.

 

hopefully he wont balk at this. hopefully he will see his journalistic integrity is on the line.

 

ill be watching.

roe | Email | Homepage | 02.05.04 - 12:23 pm | #

Fuck yeah, boyeeeeeeee! I found someone a new addiction.

hahahaha...dood you should by now i cant just stay on side lines! and yes i have quite the addictive personality!

i have to be careful though, i cant edit...

*meant to say you "cant just..."

and yeah that is a great comic strip....

Kurtz: Mock sessions held at White House...

Bush to Defend Record on TV

Talk Shows Have Garnered Key Role in Presidential Politics

By Howard Kurtz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, February 6, 2004; Page A12

 

President Bush suggested to his staff that he appear on "Meet the Press" on Sunday as a way of answering questions about Iraq after a barrage of Democratic criticism against him, a White House official said yesterday.

 

Bush's decision to submit to an hour-long interrogation by NBC's Tim Russert comes as Democrats John F. Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards and Wesley K. Clark have been denouncing him not just on Sunday morning shows but on programs ranging from "Hardball" and "Larry King Live" to David Letterman's "Late Show" and Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," where Edwards announced his candidacy.

 

The president has stepped up his television presence over the past year or so, granting interviews to ABC's Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, NBC's Tom Brokaw and CNBC's Ron Insana. But at a time when he has dipped in the polls and is on the defensive over the failure to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, "Meet the Press" and its audience of 5 million represents a roll of the dice.

 

Communications Director Dan Bartlett said that Bush, who plans to appoint a commission to examine intelligence failures on Iraq, "felt it was important that the American people hear his thinking on this issue and pursuing the war on terrorism." On Tuesday, Bush suggested "Meet the Press" because of the "lengthy format" and because "Tim Russert has an enormous amount of respect," Bartlett said.

 

Others were puzzled. "Frankly, it seems that they're overreacting," said GOP consultant Don Sipple, who worked for Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in Texas. "I don't think it's the best forum for him right now." But, Sipple said that "he's in a much different race than they thought they were in a month and a half ago."

 

Adam Levine, a former White House aide who portrayed Russert in mock sessions with administration officials, said: "There are times for the White House when it makes sense to do a big, high-profile, difficult interview." He said a Russert interview "is going to be fair and straightforward, and if you pass that test, you've moved beyond those [negative] stories."

 

Russert, who typically confronts his guests with videotape and graphics of past statements to try to highlight inconsistencies, had asked for an interview two weeks ago but was turned down.

 

"The biggest challenge is trying to distill everything down to an hour," said Russert, who will tape the session at the White House on Saturday. "You could literally have a 12-hour interview and want more. Tone is everything. You realize that anything and everything a president says usually has some impact."

 

Bush, who did his first live Sunday interview as a presidential candidate with "Meet the Press" in 1999, is not the first White House incumbent to make an appearance. Bill Clinton did it twice, in 1993 and 1997; Jimmy Carter in 1980; and Gerald R. Ford in 1975. Richard B. Cheney has appeared on "Meet the Press" 10 times as vice president.

 

James Carville, the former Clinton adviser, said that "the president is having a hard time breaking through. The Mars thing was a dud. The State of the Union was a dud. They've got some definite news they're going to try to make. I don't think he's just going to sit there and try to hit pitches."

 

Appearances on the show have been a factor in the Democratic race. Both Dean and Edwards stumbled after rocky performances and declined to return for months. Dean came back last Sunday and assailed the president.

 

Bush "has been the punching bag for the Democrats and, to some degree, for the news media for about a month now," said Tobe Berkovitz of Boston University's communications school. "Bush needs to show he is the commander in chief of substance, and you don't do that with David Letterman or Jon Stewart or Jay Leno."

 

Clinton pioneered the talk show campaign in 1992, trading barbs with radio host Don Imus and playing the sax on Arsenio Hall's show. As president, Clinton schmoozed with Larry King, did a town hall session with Ted Koppel and discussed his underwear preference on MTV. Such venues became so popular that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy with his friend Leno.

 

After Dean lost Iowa's caucuses, he appeared with his rarely seen wife, Judith Steinberg, in interviews with Sawyer, MSNBC's Chris Matthews and CNN's Wolf Blitzer, and joked with Letterman that there would be "no more crazy, red-faced rants." Edwards recited his own "Top Ten" list for Letterman late Wednesday.

 

First lady Laura Bush has also raised her profile, appearing on the NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN morning shows Tuesday and last night with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

 

Bush often appears most comfortable in informal settings, such as when he and his wife appeared with Oprah Winfrey in 2000. By contrast, said one Republican strategist, "Russert is relentless, and Bush can get prickly under questioning."

From Atrios:

Russert's Rep On the Line

His big moment is Sunday. Nick Confessore has this to say:

This should really get Russert's goat, if it hasn't already. For President Bush -- a man famously bad on his feet, who has created problems for himself at virtually every single one of the few press conferences he has given -- to put himself in Russert's hands for a full hour, when a few simple questions are all that are needed to break this story wide open, would seem to be a real risk. Unless you believe, as some folks do, that Russert's reputation for toughness is at best lived up to erratically, and at worse undeserved. Will Russert prove his critics right, or will he prove them wrong?

My guess is Russert will prove his critics right, while simultaneously proving that when there's a choice between sucking up to Republican power or proving your cred as a journalist, it's a no-brainer. Then we can cease all discussion on this topic and simply recognize the truth.

talkingpointsmemo is fresh, i peep that here and there.

i got somebody who'll tape it for me sunday..can't wait

to see the fraud on the spot.