As they are wont to do, Fox News is again ginning up outrage over a sentence fragment uttered by President Obama. And as usual, Fox not only misrepresents what the President said, they completely fail to grasp the meaning of his larger point. The fragment in question was…
“With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball.”
The President was referring to the failure of Washington to address the issues that Americans are concerned about most: the economy and jobs. He has tried numerous times to guide the attention of legislators to these matters, but has been met with obstructionism and distractions. Then when he makes high profile speeches to get citizens involved, he accused of “pivoting” to the economy despite his frequent efforts to address it. And it goes without saying that if he were not to talk about the economy, the same people would accuse him of ignoring it.
However, the really big deal, according to the media and Obama’s political foes, is his use of the phrase “phony scandals.” The right-wing media calliope has gone into convulsive fits over what is a demonstrably accurate description of current events. Whether it’s Benghazi, the IRS, ObamaCars (yes, cars), or frantic allegations that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to buy up all the bullets in America, Fox News has been feverishly promoting trumped-up Republican schemes to throw the President off his game.
Fox News has featured several guests who they contend were victims of one scandal or another. They predictably tell their stories with great passion and umbrage. The complaint Fox has is that by using the word “phony” Obama is saying that the tragedy in Benghazi, for instance, didn’t happen. But that’s simply untrue. He is saying that the allegation of a scandal is phony. And that is true. Despite their caterwauling, there has never been any connection to the White House for any of these so-called scandals. They are transparent attempts to sabotage the administration of government by a president they never considered legitimate.
Enter Sarah Palin. The recently re-employed pundit appeared with her pal, Greta Van Susteren, and introduced her latest wingnut innovation, the “Redneck Whiteboard.” The segment was preceded by a two minute long anti-Obama campaign commercial produced by Fox News. If you have the stomach for it, the video is below.
Palin rattled on furiously about how Obama has been given a free ride. She reached back to her 2008 campaign when she contends that she was muzzled by her handlers and “was banned from talking about Jeremiah Wright and Obama’s friend, Bill Ayres.”
“This is important for Americans to understand. I was not allowed to talk about things like that because those elitists, those who are the brainiacs in the GOP machine running John McCain’s campaign at the time, said that the media would eat us alive if we brought up these things. So what did that get us, though? What that got us this kind of complacency and self-censoring of a campaign where we weren’t allowed to tell the truth about who this candidate was, Barack Obama.”
[Update: PolitiFact rated Palin’s claim of being muzzled a Pants-On-Fire Lie]
Of course. It was Sarah Palin being prevented from talking about Rev. Wright that caused Benghazi. It was the suppression of Palin’s “palling around with terrorists” theme that led to Fast and Furious (a Bush administration policy) and Tea Party targeting by the IRS. It’s all about Sarah, after all. Had she been able to hammer Obama freely on his Kenyan birth, America would be enjoying the most prosperous renaissance in history. She went on to hold up an envelope on which she had scrawled a list of the aforementioned phony scandals and said…
“What it got us was a list of these scandals. This is kind of the redneck version of one of those elitist tactics of Karl Rove, how he uses his white board. This is the redneck version of a white board. And on this list the scandals that are destroying America.”
It’s just fascinating to watch conservatives dumbing down their messages to their mentally challenged constituents. It started with Fox News deploying bright colors, hypnotic motion graphics, and game show sound effects. Then Glenn Beck devolved by eschewing modern electronics in favor of an old school blackboard. Then Karl Rove dug deeper by making use of a hand-held whiteboard. Now Palin sucker punches Rove with her redneck version, something even the most remedial Teabagger can understand. Obviously these people know their audience and, therefore, continually craft their communications to match their intellectual level (which is at about the 4th grade, according to the super-secret, exalted, conservative message masters).
I just wonder what’s next. Hand signals and a series of grunts? Given the importance of conveying that Obama is destroying America, the right needs to make sure that their message is received and understood. And that’s why they have adopted intellectual giants like Plain, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Bachmann, Trump, etc., as their thought leaders. It’s a strategy aimed at taking America back – to the Dark Ages, when science was considered blasphemy, and education was reserved for the aristocrats.
The biggest scandal in Washington is the republican boycott of doing anything constructive and spending every second on the job trying to wreck the Obama administration.
I’ll buy the 2nd part of your “scandal” as it isn’t helpful behavior by the GOP – but for once look at Barak Obama for what he is in this shameful chapter of government – a lousy president with zero leadership ability – totally in over his head. He is a joke – no one respects him, which is why things are the way they are. Bill Clinton had it just as hard/bad and he was able to get things done – both good and bad.
He hasn’t done anything?-http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/march_april_2012/features/obamas_top_50_accomplishments035755.php?page=all
Evidently you did not read the article. You’ll get better and more information if you listen to the Onion instead of the misinforming Fox News network, whose owner was born and raised in Australia, and is not an American. The most obstructing Republican Congress in history wants to take this country back to a King George III monarchy which supports a Oligarchy, Aristocracy, Military junta, or Plutocracy types of government, instead of Direct democracy the form of democracy in which the people decide, which you do not support but you do advocate the wealthy classes of this country to rule you in a surreptitious fashion.
Poor leadership!? Really!? Apparently you can lead an elephant to water but you can’t make it drink. This is NOT about leadership because the Right Wing Nuts want allow him to lead. They’re obstructionist and callous about their intent. And that is to portray him as not being a leader. People like you are so god damn bent on prejudice or along party lines that you suffer from tunnel vision. AGAIN for Christ sake, HE CANNOT LEAD IF HE HAS A WHOLE PARTY THAT REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING IN FAVOR OF THE COUNTRY’S BEST INTEREST IF IT MAKES THE PRESIDENT LOOK GOOD. THE ONLY WAY HE CAN GET COOPERATION FROM THEM IS TO BOW DOWN. AND THEN YOU MORONS WOULD BE SAYING HE’S WEAK. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Well said Bobby! It’s about time for the Republicans to take their share of the blame instead of spending their time thinking up ways to discredit Obama. Man up Republicans….if you ain’t part of the solution then you are definitely part of the problem! Own it!!
Steve in York, if no one respects him, how did he get reelected to a second term? You mentioned leadership too. He’s trying to lead…but the Teapublicans block him at every turn. The Tea Party Republicans are the ones ruining our country!
Steve….where is congress here? Clinton had a partner in crime..Nafta….Obama has Mitch…”One term President”…..Government has changed since those days…Try to be a little more objective in your thoughts.
“No. Rather, the biggest scandal in Washington is that there are ANY political parties legally allowed to exist ANYWHERE at ALL!!!”
You are the media of whom she speaks. You’re useless and serve no purpose. Except of course those non-informational ones who want to ‘forward’ division.
Anyone who is proud to say ‘look at me I’m an ignoramus and proud of it’ is a disgrace
and that is exactly what this idiot says everytime she opens her mouth!
What a maroon!
What an ULTRA-maroon! What an im-bessil! lol
You’ve got me. When you said “maroon”, I hope you were trying to say “moron” because that is exactly what Palin is.
“Maroon” is Bugs Bunny-speak for moron 😉
“Redneck whiteboard”?
Makes perfect sense, considering that Palin’s interpretation of digital media is to write crib notes on the palm of her hand with a Sharpie.
I thought Fox was distancing themselves from Palin. I feel sorry for Palin after seeing this. She is now entering the sad and pathetic part of life of the stupid hot where the hot has left and she just left with the stupid.
The stall play? Seriously? Who’s running a stall play? The least productive congress in history, isn’t it? Talk about projection!
There is no way to keep up with the amount of stupid being proclaimed here. It’s fucking embarrassing as all hell.
43 people died in foreign embassies, not a peep out of a SINGLE republican when that happened.
Our President has been blocked and filibustered more times than ANY OTHER President in the 236 years of the USA’s existence.
Republicans are an embarrassment, and are doing all they can to hurt our country. FUCK YOU!
This was SO hard to watch… I cannot believe there are people that eat this crap up with a spoon. No wonder the country is in the position it’s in now. Being a former Republican, I can not believe what the party has come too. Corporate money has completely ruined the GOP.
I love when Palin talks about people that use the internet to look up facts will see the truth! And the truth is she’s full of shit.
OMG, please Tina Fey take this “redneck whiteboard” and run with it. It’ll be hysterical, like Palin. It’s so fun to mock her because she is so ignorant. She makes it too too easy. LOLOL
Since she came on everyones radar, Sarah Palin is such a joke. She loves to hear herself talk. I believe the Half-Term Egomaniac Governor actually thinks people listen to her! I hope she reads the comments on HuffPost and other websites so that she understands how despised she truly is. I get a pain in my stomach if I ever am made to listen to her speak. Not sure if it is the annoyance of her voice or the pure ignorance of the words that spew forth.
I can hear her head whistle when she walks…
She must have run out of black professional basketball players to keep her satisfied.
Any truth to the rumor that she and Victoria Jackson were slated to star in the movie “Dumb and Dumber 2:The Documentary?”
Contract talks broke down when they realized they both couldn’t play “Dumber.”
Obama is phony. He is a terrorist. He is dividing and destroying this country! Take another vacation, you piece of shit!
Truly a well-researched and thought-provoking post, Michael. You’ve made quite a few salient points and your sources carry a massive amount of gravitas. I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I, for one, have been forced to drastically reconsider my worldview.
Szekely, why don’t you concentrate on being the first of your kind to walk on only two legs, and leave the thinking to people?
Brainiacs? Those brainiacs got her through the election. It wasn’t their fault she was so stupid during her interviews. She’s turned into a shrill loser who will do and say anything to get her face on TV. She is beyond redemption. History will not be kind to her.
Sarah Palin the quitter & ignorant person who is so dumb & racist that she is pathetic.
Palin has the nerve to use the word “hypocrisy” and the republicans are the biggest hypocrites of all!
She is a scandal and phony – the biggest of all. Enough said.
For Palin to point fingers on Obama as a liar, and a phony, is simply over the top. This woman is nothing but a dishonest shill for the right, a person who whines and complains while offering no positive leadership. It’s all about Sarah. She can’t stop taking about herself. What a narcissistic self-consumed moron who brings no value to U.S. politics. She lives up to the bumper sticker, “You’re not totally useless, we can still use you as a bad example”.
Wow .. someone who never watched Bugs Bunny?? Really?
“The Republicans are ruining this country!” “Obama and the Democrats are ruining this country!” It gets pretty tiresome to read this screed coming from both sides. It could be much, much better in many ways. But if low life, squalid pieces of shit like Nixon and Reagan didn’t manage to destroy it, despite their best efforts, it may yet survive.
I get sick of these critics of President Obama that are personal attacks without any facts. Like he don’t get any respect or that he’s a joke. I say the last president was the joke. Fact on what president watch was 9/11. On what president watch did he managed to get this country in two unpaid wars.Fact on what president watch we had the worst financial crisis since the great depression. On what president watch he had a shoe thrown at him as a sign of no respect. I can go on but I think I made my point. These things happened they are facts. By now if the tea-party republicans had any facts of wrong doings by the Obama administration it would have been known by now.The fact only Fox is pushing this scandal BS is proof enough it’s BS
I will never forgive McCain for unleashing this retarded harpie onto America
And then Fox has the balls to whine about how people criticize their reporting. They are the masters of dishonesty and delusional thinking, and try to position people like Palin, Malkin, Coulter and the rest of the lying shrews as being maintstream thinking. It’s absolutely amazing. Fox is the single most discredited source of propaganda on the air today .. the worst of the worst.