Dan Rather--quiet ally?

[Jade Fox]

I was struck by two things that Rather did during the RNC:

Right after the Cheney speech ended he immediately mentioned the
protester who disrupted the proceedings, even quoting what the protester
shouted (Haliburton/ Cheney connection), then gave the Republican denial of
that assertion. It put the protests right up front.

After Bush spoke last night, Rather's comments were about how much speech time
had been spent mocking Kerry, and that this seemed to be a prized
tatic of the Republicans, mocking the opposition.

When Rather made the "mocking" comment I realized this is what Reagan did--
came on all folksy and cheerful, and then mocked criticisms leveled at him rather
than responding. And people ate it up. If Bush starts to use this tactic,
which I think he was last night, I'll be very nervous. It worked amazingly well
for Reagan.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Rather is a Democrat!

He's subtle about it because he's not Fox.

Dan also called Dick Cheney a "Hitman" for the Republicans.

[apnu]

2. Big difference...

Regan, somehow, had charisma. I don't know what it was about the guy that made people fall in love with him, that made people feel like $100 bucks when he talked to him, but Regan inspired that.

So does Clinton for that matter, and more so, I'd say.

Bush doesn't have that quality. He gets away with his bullshit for the same reason he got away with it in Yale. Entitlements, associations and connections. He's the GOP's candidate. So there are many who will vote for him simply because he has a (R) next to his name in the voting booth. It doesn't matter if he goes on TV, then boils and eats babies, at least 30% of the US will vote for him.

Its sad really.

Now, on the other hand, at the very worst... I'd say 47% of this nation will not vote for Bush under any terms. Although, I suspect that a majority of American's are sick of spinning their wheels in the mud with Bush and would vote for a brick and two rusted nails before they voted for Bush, but I can't really prove that.

Don't be scared about Bush winning people over with his "folksy" ways. All the people he's won over with that bullshit he won long ago. He won't be getting anybody new with that schtick.

[Jade Fox]

7. Reagan was also and actor, if not a good one at least a trained one....

He understood timing and cues from long experience before he even got
in to politics. Bush can rarely pull that off. That he succeeded fairly well
last night was due no doubt to hours of rehearsing and, I'm guessing,
medication. He looked drugged to me, especially turning the first 2/3 of
the speech, although he'd clearly been coached to go real slow so as not
to embarrass himself as he usually does mangling the language.

[MuseRider]

3. IF we manage

to defeat the voting machines and get Kerry in office I will be very interested to hear from Rather. He has certainly made me angry but I have always had the feeling that he is keeping track to lay this out for history. Still, I am awfully angry that he has often towed the official line. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say because I do not think for a moment he is happy about this. I could be wrong.

[Jade Fox]

8. I'm sure Rather is in a very precarious position right now...

I bet old-time honest reporters and newscasters, regardless of how
well-respected, are being bullied and subtly threatened by today's
conservative-owned, profit-pursuing media mogels who retain none of
the old spirit of doing a public service that used to fuel the news media.

[pa28]

4. Rather is a good reporter

He's covered Iraq and the runup to war straight as an arrow and I think he may be the only in the major media who has done so.

[flordehinojos]

5. Be very nervous. They know the tactic. They know how to use it well, and

they also know that criticizing their opponent's strength (Kerry really was in the war, Kerry was really wounded, Kerry IS the real war hero, Bush is not) also works doubly well (that is why they came up with the SBVT to attack Kerry's medals and heroism) ...they also know the voting machines belong to them and the absentee ballots identify on the back of the envelope whether or not one is a Dem. Any vote counter can decide whether or not they want to disappear any absentee ballot marked Dem or not).

They are a really, really, dirty, evil crew and that includes the silent direction and support from the side lines of their evil conductor:POPPY BUSH.

We are up against the onslaught of a full-forced scaled evil hurricane named Bush. They want the country. They want our resources. They want the world. They want to take whatever resources there are in the world. They know it. They don't care and Bush's speech last night makes all of that even clearer. The fascist leaning tendencies of this administration were out in full view for all those who really, really listen, during Bush's speech last night and that is even more frightening. And, even more frightening than that is that he is pulling the wool over people's eyes, or there are a lot of people who want to have, uphold and defend fascism as their governing form in this country and they know Bush is their vehicle to get there...And, an intimidating thing about that is that those who want this fascist regime are, many of them, the sons and daughters of people who supported fascism in Nazi germany but were dispersed when Nazi Germany fell. They are also the sons and daughters of Cuban-Americans who were supporters of the right wing dictator Fulgencio Batista Y Zaldivar who are looking for a way to eliminate Castro and establish another right wing, fascist government in Cuba. They think Bush is their ticket to get there.

As a country who supported Bush after 9/11, we have been had. Or, in a more modern terminology, Bush screwed us all! Bush is exploiting that. That RNC this week was, as Arundhati Roy pointed out, more the meeting room and celebration of a cult than it was a political convention, and those delegates who were interviewed by Amy Goodman of www.democracynow.org -- all to the last one of them responsed to a cue that they were looking for a leader who could defend us from terrorists and that Bus was the only one who could do that. One of them said that Kerry flip-flopped his views from interviewer to the next. When asked where he got his news from, he said FOX NEWS. They also said that what was important to them was truthfulness, honesty and integrity in a leader and that Bush provided that ... (CAN YOU IMAGINE?!!!!!) wE REALLY ARE ALL UP AGAINST A WALL OF REPUBLICAN HOT AIR and they have the advantage... to the point that the media, on cue, ignored all of the protests and protesters in New York this week and that had it not been for Democracy Now and Indymedia, none of it would have been shown nor documented and the world, along with the rest of America might not have known that there are people right here in these United States who are opposed to bush, to his stinking ass, to his stinking regime, and to his stinking war.

[jimshoes]

6. Smirky (I read like a 6th grader) McChimp

shouldn't be mocking anybody. There is a universe of ammo that can be used against him if he should take that tack.