Why 'memogate' will hurt the Republicans.. IMHO :-)

[DarienComp]

Even as Kerry has started to reclaim the momentum in this race, there are some of us who are still considering hara kiri because of this 'memogate' story.  We're completely forgetting what happened the last time the right went up against the Clinton people with a "scandal".  Remember?  It was 1998, the Republicans were pushing impeachment, and every pundit thought they would strengthen their majorities in Congress.  Well, guess what?  Democrats were the ones who made gains on election day, and Clinton won the impeachment battle, all while enjoying an approval rating in the high 60s.  Clinton made fools of Republicans.  Humiliated them.  

Having apparently not learned anything, the Republicans are trying to make a thing of the memo story, but once again, their case is pretty weak.  

Here's what they have:

Two phone calls involving Burkett and the Kerry people-- one to Cleland, and one from Lockhart.  By all accounts, the conversations lasted no longer than 4 minutes each.  The memos only incidentally came up with Cleland, and never came up with Lockhart.  All the parties involved corroborate each other's story, so it's pretty much a dead-end.

Then there's the Mary Mapes issue.  She apparently gave Burkett's phone number to Lockhart because it was the only way to get him to release the memos to 60 minutes.  Well, firstly, this completely blows the idea of collusion between Burkett and the Kerry camp out of the water.  How could the Kerry people know about the memos beforehand if Burkett hadn't released them yet?  In any event, the media is focusing on the unprofessional behavior of Mapes (and it WAS unprofessional of her).

They keep saying that "every day, we find a new contact", but this is all they've got.  Unless some bombshell comes out, and I very much doubt that will happen, this is all they're going to get.  My guess is that the Kerry-planned-this angle will be dead by the end of the weekend at the latest.

In general, the media have been responding to this story by putting their primary focus on Dan Rather and CBS.  Many of the non-partisan media hosts and pundits (like Dan Abrams, David Gergan, and others) have actually defended Rather's honor and given him credit for directly apologizing.  I even saw Diane Sawyer make an emphatic defense on Larry King tonight.  The only people who are accusing Dan Rather of malice are the right-wing pundits, but the rest of the media doesn't seem to be taking the bait.  

Meanwhile, each time I see a Kerry person on TV, they are very effective at throwing this whole thing back in the Republican's faces and making them look like they don't want to discuss the very serious issues of this election, ESPECIALLY Iraq.  And this is where the Clinton influence comes into play.  In 1998, they made the Republicans look out of touch with the concerns of the American people because they were focusing so hard on Lewinsky. They're doing the same thing right now with this memo story.  Bush's continuing happy-talk on Iraq is only underscoring our point.  And the Republicans did themselves absolutely no favors with this ridiculous new "John Kerry Likes to Windsurf, Vote Bush" ad, a flip and superficial offering at a time when Americans are being murdered on a daily basis in Iraq.

And to top it all off, CBS is enjoying a 17% jump in their ratings.  This is going our way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. IF I am home that is the only newscast I watch

for the most part, no tele for me, I can't stand it any more


{Except the Daily Show that is)

[Melodybe]

4. I agree thanks to the Daily Show, Outfoxed, and F9/11

Even republicans don't trust the media.

The rest of the "news people" shined their spotlight onto a giant Mirror with Dan Rather's face floating in it.

They have only exposed themselves even more to the American public, focusing on Rather was a mistake in our favor.

[Mr_Spock]

2. I hear ya - it's the old reverse logic that doesn't seem obvious

but you need to think of these issues historically. Believe it or not, people can tell the difference between a "smear" campaign, ie SBV and a botched story that is still essentially true AWOL. Yes, I tend to agree with the story because I am a Dem who hates Bush, but there are very few in the other camp who don't realize that something very odd happened with Dumbya. Kerry & co slammed the SBV allegations directly, Bushco will only attack the peripheral documents, the gist of the story - which was already there undenied before the memos - is still untouched by the Bushies because they don't want to go to jail for lying.

[movonne]

3. Where did you hear about the 17% jump in ratings??? I love it...

[DarienComp]

6. Countdown with Keith

nt

[pacalo]

7. Actually, it was 14%. :)

[DarienComp]

10. I stand corrected.

Still a good number, though.

[pacalo]

15. Sure is! Olbermann made a comment after mentioning the

figure & said, "Wonder what it'll be next time?", meaning that he expected they would only go up more.

Btw, I read Olbermann's transcript from last night's show & they are now showing the figure as 15% -- go figure!

:)

[Robbien]

5. Ha! I just read this on your Kos diary.

And yes, this smacks of a bad boomerang all right.

Especially since this is encouraging more articles comparing Bush and Rather such as this one on http://www.outletradio.com/grantham/archives/000753.php

Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor

* given documents he thought were true
* failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
* reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
* when confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation
* number of Americans dead: 0
* should be fired as CBS News Anchor

George W. Bush, President of the United States

* given documents he thought were true
* failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
* reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
* when confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation
* number of Americans dead: 1100
* should be given four more years as President of the United States

[DarienComp]

8. Caught me :-)

I thought it was worth posting twice. :-)

[Robbien]

11. Yes, it is. In fact

I still had the tab open considering whether to post your entry myself in the DU editorials forum.

edit: By the way, it is great that Kos diary entries are showing up now in Google news searches.

:thumbsup:

[DarienComp]

12. Feel free to post it elsewhere

just make sure you give me credit. :-)

[Robbien]

13. That is true

The last couple of DailyKos entries posted here have all been attributed to DailyKos. Now with the diary entries it is important to doublecheck and make sure who actually wrote the article.

[Barney Rocks]

9. I agree.

these things have a nasty way of backfiring. That is why we need to do everything we can to keep this story in the news. I believe that it is going to backfire on the Republicans (there will be evidence that they were behind the forgery). Also, we need to press the AWOL issue and we have to get past the memos to do that. I still want Bush to answer the questions that Rather gave to him. No one is asking why he has ignored Rather's questions.

[Cronus Protagonist]

14. I think it miffed my Republican friend no end... I threw it in his face

I'll paraphrase the conversation for brevity. It went something like this:

I conceded that Rather should have known better (I left WHAT he should have known better about dangling - I meant the Republican smear machine), and I conceded that the memo hardly matters at all anyway, and surely something 30 years old isn't all that relevant today anyway.

My Republican friend seemed quite pleased with that, until I followed up with, "Everyone knows that the sons of Congressmen, Senators, and the wealthy got out of serving in Vietnam by gaining access to National Guard champagne units - it's a fact of history - so I don't know why everyone's whining about Bush having the same privileges as his peers."

Heh. You should have seen his face fall.

I continued, "After all no one's complaining about Dick Cheney's documented 5 (or 6?) deferments, so why bag on Bush when he at least served in a Texas National Guard champagne unit?"

Then I went on, "That was what was so totally unfair about the draft during Vietnam - the privileged elites never went to fight unless they chose to, like John Kerry and Al Gore. And whatever anyone thinks about their medals or war stories, they did go, they did fight, and they were in danger, unlike some of their peers... like Bush and the other monied elites who were too afraid to go and fight for their country."

hehe. It was fun all the way. I'm sure Edwards can do pretty much the same thing on a national stage. It sure clamped up my friend :)

Fascism: We Report You Decide
http://cronus.com/fascism

You might be a Republican if...
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Commentary by a Republican...
http://cronus.com/republican

The REAL Republican Platform...
http://cronus.com/platform

Bush's Illustrated Resume
http://cronus.com/bushresume

Isn't That Strange?
http://cronus.com/oil

:)

[Snivi Yllom]

16. on the contrary CBS is getting hammered in their ratings.

September 23, 2004 — Ratings for Dan Rather’s “CBS Evening News” have plummeted drastically in New York since the Bush-documents scandal broke wide open this week.

The perennially third-place 6:30 p.m. newscast averaged 135,000 viewers on WCBS/Channel 2 Monday — the day Rather issued an on-air apology for the mess.

That’s down 49 percent from the 266,000 viewers who tuned in to Rather’s newscast the previous Monday, Sept. 13, according to Nielsen.

[Robbien]

18. No, wrong. That is the Evening News, and only the New York market

The "liberal media" is cherry picking just one stat out of many which backs up the story they want to say.

Sixty Minutes increased 14% and is now the fifth highest ranking show for last week with 16 million viewers. Sixty Minutes is the show on which Dan Rather reported that Bush did not fulfill his reserve duties.

[Snivi Yllom]

20. you dont think the NY market is not a MAJOR market for CBS?

and before you become suchs CBS cheerleader....

The CEO of CBS's parent company endorses President Bush.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005669

[rocktivity]

17. If the GOP really was behind Memogate, they outsmarted themselves

because so many people DO think that the GOP was behind it. I think it's been a major factor in the recovery of Kerry's "momentum" in the polls.

:headbang:
rocknation

[charlyvi]

19. I agree, rocknation.

So many repub talking heads are on the news shows trying to say dems were behind this to try and smear shrubya* (as if he needed to be smeared--the truth is good enough). Anyway, why do you think they are doing that? I think they're trying to deflect blame from the GOP. I hope they don't succeed.