What’s behind the Cafferty tirade on CNN?
Pigs fly, and liberal CNN pundit Jack Cafferty is very angry at Obama for breaking his campaign promise about health care debate transparency:
[See a transcript here.]
Not only is Cafferty unequivocal in calling Obama a liar, but he’s pretty blunt when he says, “Here’s hoping the voters remember some of this crap when the midterm elections roll around later this year.”
Cafferty has clearly had it right now with the Obama administration. But why is he going so far as to break ranks to say this? I don’t pretend to know, but here are my guesses:
(1) It’s not just that Obama lied, it’s the obviousness of the mendacity. There’s no wriggle room on this one; anyone who’s been paying any attention for the last two years knows it’s a bald-faced lie. And in addition, there’s been no explanation for it, and no excuses. The administration is simply ignoring the lie as though it doesn’t matter, and insulting the press in the bargain. This makes pundits who liked and supported Obama look foolish, and they don’t like to look that way. Thus, the anger—it’s personal now.
(2) I’m not familiar with Cafferty’s stand on health care reform, but my guess is that he may have wanted it to go much further than the current bill, and therefore is angry because that point of view will not be heard. Note that Cafferty begins this way:
How dare they? President Obama, Democratic leaders have decided to bypass a formal House and Senate conference committee in order to reconcile those two health care bills. Instead, White House and Democratic leaders will hold informal ”” that’s another word for secret ”” negotiations, meant to shut Republicans and the public out of the process.
The “public” that’s being shut out isn’t just the Republicans. If it had been, somehow I very much doubt that Cafferty would be speaking out against the process, despite the broken promises. But shutting out everyone else—including liberals and the press—well, “how dare they?” indeed!
Jack, Jack, Jaaaack…The has been NO TRANSPARENCY since January 20, 2009. It was only blather. Errrrr…for those of you from DC, that means Lies. From a Lying Liar who Lies.
He does it as easily as breathing. This Punk is making Billy Bubba Clinton look like a tepid fibber.
There, Jack. Hope I’ve helped. I am, after all, a Giver.
Was Jack upset when Barry did a 180 on accepting federal campaign funds?
My thought on the matter was more Machiavellian.
The Libs-Progressive-Dem-Media Complex knows that it is known. Their propaganda and power grabbing and thievery and bullying and abusive and malicious behavior is on clear, daily, public display.
They also know that they need one more lection cycle to pass and they have complete and total victory. However, the now open nature of their tactics threatens that. Therefore, the odd jounro or another will surface to be mildly critical of the Animal Farm Pigs. This is no doubt orchestrated from the office of the head Animal Farm Pig.
Cafferty is perfect for it. He doesn’t care. He has job security out the whazoo. This will even enhance his rep when he inevtiably kisses and makes up after some cosmetic and fake play at being more open is offered for public consumption in the near future.
You’ll know i was right and that it worked when…You see a Cafferty piece on CNN starting something like, “Many of you know and many more of you took me to task for criticizing Obama a few weeks back for a broken campaign promise. Well, since I am a hard nosed no-nonsense journalist and proved it there, I am happy to report that the Adminstration seems to have heard the vox populi and is now well on its way to being the open admin we all prayed for. Nice going Barry! And justb remember, I’ll be watching you so be good!”
I’ve seen Cafferty lie and play the propagand-meister too many times to think he cares a wit about right, wrong, good, bad or otherwise.
He wants to be an elite talking head for socialism. He fancies it. He’s the updated version of the guy who shilled for Stalin.
Mike Mc.: I’m not meaning to suggest that Cafferty has had some sort of “change” experience and is abandoning Obama or the liberal cause. But I disagree with some of your assessment. I read Cafferty as being genuinely angry at Obama and Reid and Pelosi, not so much for lying, as for shutting him and his causes out of the process. His words were not just perfunctory; they were very strong.
Isn’t it more important what the viewers think? I think it puts a chink in Obama’s anger precisely because it is real anger. I don’t know that later blah blahs will erase the first impression.
Now if we get the story out that married couples will pay more for coverage than cohabiters or significant others, the chink might develop into a crack wide enough to let in some light on the character of the Won.
The ‘put the health care negotiations on CSPAN’ promise by Obie is one broken promise too many. Once this story broke, it had legs, so the Day Late and a Dollar Short Media covered it. They had no chouce.
Cafferty remains a proglibtard shill. He just thinks this makes him look ‘fair and balanced’.
Like abused spouses, most of them will return to Obama and the left.
If we apply the same treatment strategy domestic-violence counselors do, we will not be discouraged, and always try to get someone to the next step. She actually left the house this time, with the kids. She stayed at her sister’s overnight this time. She actually moved out into her own apartment for a few months this time. Like any abused person, however, journalists are afraid of being unable to survive without access to the inner circle; also, and more grimly, the possibility of the abuser retaliating is there as well.
Who are the rubes now?
Hasn’t Congressman Wilson already said that: you lie?
Spurned suitors are the most bitter.
Oh well, at least Gitmo will be closed in two weeks. That’s one promise we know Obama will keep.
When I was much younger Jack Cafferty was the newscaster for Channel 4, WNBC in NYC. He was straight down the line, a very professional newsreader. I was stunned when it turned out he was as big a moonbat as they come.
I have a different thought, slightly. I think you are seeing the pro’s, not the Olbernuts or Chrissy’s, starting to get angry. Even in the cocoon of media it is starting to get thru that they were played for chumps, as if they had just gotten off the boat. It’s OK to lie to the rednecks and hicks, but not the bon vivants.
Now, some reason that in the end like battered wives they will return. I think that if Dear Leader keeps tanking and showing his non-majority liberal ideas that survival instinct will set in and the MSM, like quite a few Dems, will jump before they sink.
In a Cecilia Holland historical novel, King Henry II says to one of his barons: “You don’t even take the trouble to lie to me; I find that insolent of you.”
This situation is the reverse: Obama thinks so little of his acolytes that he does not even trouble to pretend not to lie. Perhaps they tire of being treated with such contempt.
I’m hoping Franken will write another Lying Liars book . . . but this time tells the truth about HIS Lying Liars. Is that Irony or Oxymoron? I don’t remember.
Hong, I love this. “Spurned suitors are the most bitter.” Touche’
At some point Cafferty (and others) have realized that every time something like this happens, Sarah Palin can say “I told you so”. And she’s been able to say that a lot in the past year.
I noticed that Insty linked to a Jon Stewart bit that criticized Obama. But he couldn’t help bashing Bush and sort of excusing Obama in the end.
The real horror for these people is bigger than just being totally in the tank for Obama. They were like the sophomore cool group and they elected Obama president of the sophomore class. Does Obama even really want to be the grown up US President? Or did he just want to get elected? I think the latter. He will probably get very angry (subconsciously) at his wife and all the racialists in the media who pushed him into a job he is woefully unable to do because of the color of his skin.
But back to the real horror for Cafferty/Stewart/Dowd types: They slandered and used Bush. Bush is a good man. Every other good person knows Bush is a good man. That has nothing to do with how good of a Preisdent he was (although it works that good men can only do so much harm). They slandered him. They still “use” him to weael out of tough spots, and in lieu of making any kind of argument or case for themselves.
Therefore, there are a multitude of huge evils here: the slander and abuse of a good man; the promotion of a bad man; the irresponsibility of electing an amateur because of his skin color (and applauding themselves for doing so); the untold suffering and misery that has and will ensue in the economy and security situations because of it….
That large clique will be despised and scorned by history. They deserve to be. We need to bring scorn and shunning back into society so that these people can serve as object lessons too.
Then: “Read my lips: no backroom deals!”
Now: “There’s never been a more transparent process…”
I think that MikeMc and Neo-Neocon make some good points. However, it is always a bad idea to believe that liberals are sincere when they criticize fellow liberals. I don’t think Cafferty is honest enough or self-aware enough to be truly angry at Obama for lying about transparency. Neo-neocon is correct that his anger most probably stems from the fact that there is no government option, etc. If the bill had all the goodies that liberals wanted, Cafferty would be championing Obama’s resolve in getting the thing passed.
However, I have never known liberals to be logical or consistent. There will be a rapprochement bewtween Cafferty and the Obama administration, you can bet on it. Either Cafferty will catch hell from his feloow travellers or he will realize that his tirade caught the attention of his political opponents and his desire to prevent any benefit for republicans will be enough for him to change his tune. Jsut wait. The fact that liberals are so dishonest and the fact that they put their own ego gratification above all else will assure that Cafferty won’t be scrutinized for contradicting himself when he returns to the liberal reservation.
Obama has been a serial liar for his whole term. It is surprising that Cafferty is just now noticing.
Rick
supporters of the “Public Option” actually believe that in a fair debate the public would overwhelmingly support it … the only time the public has appeareed to support it in polls was when the questions were slanted in their favor. Any balanced poll question that lays out the pro’s and con’s of the public option fares much worse …
Now even if they did run things on CSPAN it would only be democrat debating and even then the “public option” still looks bad …
of course so does the individual mandate and the “tax and cut for 10 years, spend for 5 years” deficit gimmick … and the “special” exemptions or kickbacks …
Its hard to imagine a single section of the bills that doesn’t look worse under the “glaring” light of even a Dem vs Dem debate on the issues …
But…but…but…the press was supposed to be part of the process!
Cafferty needs to learn the first rule of tyrants…they don’t share power…ever.
The administration is simply ignoring the lie as though it doesn’t matter,…
Ignoring past words and actions are par for the course for this administration. It’s how they’ve managed to plunge the country $1.4 trillion into the hole then claim afterward that deficit reduction is a priority.
Does anyone still remember the post-bills-online-for-five-days-before-signing-them pledge? I wonder, how many have actually been posted for the requisite five days?
I too watched the Jon Stewart piece.
He and his comic sidekick simply had to bash G.W. Bush (and his father) to insulate Obama from his multiple outright lies and failures as much as possible.
What’s amazing is that the left hates everything about Bush. Everything. Heck, they want him in jail, or dead.
Yet when Obama fails, the defense is, “But Bush did it too!”
So Bush should be in jail or dead for his “lies” but Obama gets a pass because he does the same thing.
This is causing liberal heads to explode.
Bush’s Gitmo won’t be closed; it’ll be moved to Illinois. Same bad guys held forever without trial. Or sent back to Yemen to kill more Americans.
Patriot Act still in force.
All the “shredding of the Constitution” Bush did, still being done by Obama, but worse.
Atta boy, Barak! I’m proud to have been your first campaign donor and god father of your children. God damn America!!
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Rick Caird: The point I’m trying to make is that he’s just noticing now because now he’s the victim of the lies, not just us right-wing nuts, or the American people as a whole. He’s been kept out of the loop on an issue of huge concern to him.
I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised.
After all, during campaigns, politicians say things they don’t mean all the time. Obama perhaps is only guilty of saying more of them.
Obama became clear to me when he went back on his pledge to keep limit his fundraising to that necessary to receive public funding.
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I like to think that all my fellow Americans have a Jiminy Cricket sitting on their shoulder, whispering in their ears to remind them to tell the truth.
As I say, I like to think that’s the case.
Or maybe Mr. Cafferty declined to be a parrot patriot and rejected the lies because he was channeling Jiminy”s hit, “I’m no fool, no siree!”
Greg Toombs, give me one example where a President was proved to have completely and unequivocally lied during a campaign. Otherwise, you’re just making excuses for your boy Obama.
“Read my lips: no new taxes”
And I’m on your side.
You need to raise your cynicism level about politicians a bit. Otherwise you will find yourself in the same boat as Mr. Cafferty one of these days.
“Oh well, at least Gitmo will be closed in two weeks. That’s one promise we know Obama will keep.”
And we will all live in peace, harmony, and total safety ever after.
Kathy K, Greg Coombs I’m planning a post on the subject of why Obama’s lies are different than the usual political lies we’ve come to except. I don’t think anyone here is naive about politicians. Obama’s lies are of another magnitude from politics as usual—and I’m including Republicans and Democrats in that equation, as well as Clinton and Nixon, both of whom were liars. The topic is too large to take up in a comment here, however.
Greg Coombs—I agree with you about the public funding 180 degree turn being the tipoff as to who Obama was. I’ve written about that a number of times—it was a watershed moment for me.
Could someone please send Jack a link to the US Constitution so that he could see where the Congress and the executive actually are?
If he had the brains that God gave guppies he should know that no president can tell a congress how the congress should produce legislation.
It’s not just the lies. Regretfully we’ve come to expect that and in the end it’s our fault–if we monitored what our politicians did and rewarded those who do what we say we want…make the hard choices, talk straight to us, etc….we’d have that kind of politician.
But part of Obama’s hubris is that he was above all this, that the old ways were gone, that any legislation would be as easy to find as clicking a link on your computer, that everythign would be done out in the open for all to see.
When Pelosi says that there is no need for CSPAN to show the health bill negotiations because this has already been the most transparent legislative process in history, you have to assume she knows she’s lying. With the president, I’m not so sure. He seems to believe himself and that’s always dangerous.
Obama has been giving us Helen Keller transparency: You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t talk about it. You can certainly smell it, though, because it stinks to high heaven.
Jack: have you figured out who the rube is yet?
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Cornered rats get vicious, may attack other rats. But they still are and will always be rats.
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Cafferty offers some refreshing fairness and honesty …wow!
1. Obama’s campaign spent more money on the media than McCain’s. This was the down payment.
2. The promise of transparency was important to the media; It gives them stories. This was consideration to be paid later.
So the media supported Obama. They had their reasons. But they’ve been defrauded.
Your speculation about this being about the sellout to insurance companies is what this is about.
That is becoming a big problem within the party. The left is at a loss over unemployment, Afghanistan surge and the financial bailouts. But the sellout to the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies is really angering those in the know.
Olberman and Howard Dean have been reigned in.. but others are still furious.
I don’t think anyone who’s been in the business as long as Cafferty has would have been the least bit naive about Obama’s “transparency” promise. In the first place you’d have to be a fool or a liar to make such a promise: it’s the nature of politics that deals are cut in backrooms in the dead of night. Until now he hasn’t acted as though he thought otherwise.
What’s changed is that Obama & co have abandoned any pretense of cutting the kind of backroom deals Cafferty approves of, I think. No public option = 20 years minimum to corrupt “reform” into a single payer system and a tax on “Cadillac” health care plans to pay for the reform means Cafferty either pays more for his health care or he drops his plan. He’s angry at being thrown under the bus with the rest of Obama’s loyal followers.
Cafferty is just looking for a bigger bribe. I lived in Chicago for 15 years. Every one knows how it works.
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