Juan Dumb

Sorry Joe but it is idiocy to post another statement on Williams. It has been discussed to death already. I’d rather hear from you on something that is really important. That trip you took? I don’t think the people you spoke to give a rat’s a$$ about Juan Williams or the trevails of the traditional media.

And Joe is apparently one big pile of iron filings….

I agree that it was dumb to fire Williams, but I also agree with Greenwald that since CNN fired Nasr for far less, the standards for being fired should apply across the board, if only to illustrate the futility of such standards.

Let me guess. Joe is the smart one here.
.
Here is what is idiotic. In denouncing all the idiocy, you continue to parrot the part of Williams’ statement that has been taken totally out of context. It’s a little difficult to find the full statement. I had to piece it together, but note that what he is saying is that it’s not a war against Islam. Here is the full context:
.
I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous. Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week. He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts.
.
I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Williams continues: “But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it’s not a war against Islam.”
.

Maybe you think he should be fired for the statement about Bush. Geez. Stupid is as…

It is interesting how many times you used the word IDIOT in your article. I guess only an IDIOT would write such a sophomoric piece of garbage. I do believe the author of this
article must be an IDIOT or perhaps need to develop some ethical standard of journalism. Maybe you will be fired and someone will step forward and pay for you to take some writing classes.

If you work for Time, you are a disgrace to the company.

“It was idiotic for Williams to say that he gets nervous when Muslims board airplanes.”
Joe, maybe you want to explain why it is so?

“It was idiotic for Williams to say that he gets nervous when Muslims board airplanes [by avoiding security with the help of unidentified "well-dressed" men].”

Agreed.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/points-of-failure/

Juan should not have been fired for his “true” statements. He was just stating an opinion on how we have all been programed. Before 9/11 no one cared about Muslim men regardless of how they were dressed. Since 9/11 we have been told over and over by multiple sources the we were attacked by “Muslims”.

A shadow has fallen over the land ind it’s name is fear.

Juan was correct in his statement.

It would also be safe to say that when I am walking down the street on a dark evening and I see three doberman pincers on the sidewalk in front of me , my sphincter tightens more than just a little.

This isn’t hard. It is because only an idiot, or, at least someone who can’t do arithmetic AND hasn’t paid attention to attacks on planes, would still say something like that.
.
Arithmetic is that the risk of a successful terrorist attack of any kind, never mind an islamic attack, on an airplane is less than that of a lightning strike, much much less than the chance of being killed on the way to the airport in a car. Only an idiot fears a terrorist attack on an airplane, regardless of whether there is a Sikh on the plane. (Idiots who fear attacks by terrorists on airplanes also don’t know the difference between guys who wear turbans and Muslims.)
.
The not paying attention part is failing to notice that in the very few cases where there are attacks, and in the even fewer cases where they are islamic terror attacks, the attackers do not dress in ways that idiots like Juan WIlliams would regard as “Muslim.”
.
Only an idiot fears islamic terror attacks from guys in jellabiyas on airplanes.

Joe, this is why John Stewart and Steve Colbert are having the Rally for Sanity. The traditional media continues to fail to recognize the chief point of their satire is the press. For those in the press criticizing the rally before it happens is a testimony to their fear of being held up for ridicule.
.
Juan Williams has always been used as a foil on Fox. Whenever he speaks on their Sunday show there is a 2 shot of him and Hume or Kristol smirking at his so called “liberal” statements. That the traditional media has ignored the Fox Republican function for so long is related to their unwillingness to take on a potential employer like Rupert Murdoch.
.
They fear someone like Limbaugh so classify his hate talk as entertainment. The media lives on false equivalencies because they are cowardly. CNN had the crooked, Abramhoff, phony Christianist, Ralph Reed asking him political questions. No word about the fact he is a discredited sleaze. People in the press quote toe sucker Dick Morris, quote Palin from her mystically updated Facebook, and continue to use the same old pundits who are no more experts on every subject then my 5 year old greatgrandson.
.
Whatever anyone says on Fox has to be taken in context as the propoganda arm of the Republican party. The traditional media seems to aspire to the ethically challenged cable news role model.

Joe you must have just “overlooked” putting your own name at the end of your list.

Question for you mind numb left wing America hating droids: Why is it idiotic for Juan Williams to speak the truth? …a truth that the vast majority of non-muslims in the world believe and for good reason?

If what JW said was idiotic (your point joey), why was it idiotic for NPR to fire him? Who wants an idiotic commentator (not newscaster or reporter, btw) on their radio station and why would the “public” want to listen to one?

And why is it idiotic for BH to also speak the truth. There is really no way that this one incident with JW would merit dismissal. George Soros, having bought and paid for the rest of NPR’s soul wanted to show EVERYONE at NPR and ANY left wing media outlet that the “owns” what happens to someone that doesn’t march lockstep. After all, he learned some great tactics while collaborating with the Nazis.
I think BH’s assessment of JW is spot on.

JK, on the other hand, can only get work from Soros friendly media outlets.

For excellent examples of “hate talk” read the posts from liberals aka Marxists aka Democrats on ANY blog anywhere!

Why is it idiotic for Juan Williams to speak the truth? …a truth that the vast majority of non-muslims in the world believe and for good reason?

What is the truth that he is speaking, exactly?

Note to Gadsby: Ahem…WE WERE ATTACKED BY MUSLIMS ON 9/11.

Upon further research, we come to learn that it is the MUSLIM RELIGION ITSELF that does not tolerate western culture or ANY other religion and approves ANY means to convert or destroy non-muslims. Hence the justified fear. Fear, however, should not render us inactive nor unresponsive. In the case of the dobermans, I am prepared to use my concealed carry weapon and remove the threat before any damage is done. Lead by example.

Reply to jackerrhoid: Thanks to political correctness mongers like you, those is charge of protection WON’T BE ABLE TO CHALLENGE would be attackers that appear distinctively muslim. BTW, only an idiot can’t tell a Sikh in a turban from a muslim. Your fearless leader (the messiah, his excellency der NeueFuehrer) thanks you for work as a shill.

Au contraire, he is EXACTLY what Time wants.

FTW

It’s Sunday, so ricardo must be merely quoting his personal version of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others if you think they might do unto you.”

Muslim wearing things:
http://www.washblog.com/story/2008/10/19/124936/95

ricardo4max
.
What is politically correct about the observation that there is no reason to fear someone dressed in “Muslim” clothes will blow up a plane? It’s an idiotic idea. (Yes, I know NINE ELEVEN!! NINE ELEVEN!! but they didn’t dress in “Muslim” clothes, and, besides, terrorist capability of blowing up an airplane ended in a field in rural Pennsylvania that very same day.)
.
I know facts get in the way of baseless fears that have so many self-styled conservatives wetting their beds at the thought of a keffiyeh in their line of sight, but facts are stubborn things. There is no meaningful threat:
.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/nate_silver_on.html
.
A while ago, I had an interesting talk with James Fallows and Bruce Scheier about stupid airline security theatre, policies that reflect this kind of unreasoned fear. Fallows summarizes here:
.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/virtually-speaking-discussion-with-bruce-schneier/38119/.
.
If you want to listen to the whole thing, you can find it here:
,
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2010/03/26/virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd-james-fallows-
.
Of course, your argument isn’t enhanced with mindless, unpatriotic false characterizations of the President. If don’t like it here in the US, with our representative government that operates via free elections, why don’t you leave?

Agreed. Very unprofessional article. Can’t believe this writer works for Time. Pathetic…

Muslim wearing things:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/10/muslims-wearing-things.html

Seconded.
.
For examples of idiocy: The View, Olbermann, daily on The Daily KOS.
.
Just to compare and contrast, once again for those that are still taking Williams’ comment out of context and saying it’s idiotic, terrible, bigoted, here is Bill Maher in context:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/291697
.
Maher added that when he jokes about the Pope or rabbis they don’t threaten him or physically assault him. Cooper proceeded to ask him why a lot of people in the United States and other Western countries censor themselves from joking about Islam
.
“Because they’re violent. Because they threaten us, and they are threatening. They bring that desert stuff to our world. I said the same thing Friday night. You know, we don’t threaten each other; we sue each other. And, and they don’t.” responded Maher. “You know, yes, we do have religious nuts in this country. There was a cleric in Iran who recently said that earthquakes were caused by slutty women. Well, Pat Robertson once said that abortions caused hurricanes, I think. But the difference is Pat Robertson doesn’t have the power to cut your arms off.”
.
Cooper asked Maher if he believed it when people say majority of American Muslims frown upon terrorism and violence and that Islam is a religion of peace.
“Yes, they blow you up. There’s a piece of you over there. There’s a piece of you over there. There’s a piece of you over there,” Maher said. Adding that he doesn’t know if it’s a religion of peace because he has not read the Koran in its original format but said when you read the translation there are “many, many, many passages that are not peaceful at all.”
.

H/T Paul-no:
Muslim terrorist wearing things:
http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/apg_mohammed_atta_100910_main.jpg

Hero Muslim mother wearing things:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-03-1Amuslims911_CV_N.htm

Given their stated ethical standards Williams should have been fired a long time ago, for simply going on Fox. His statement the other day is just further evidence of his lack of judgement. He was obviously playing to the same crowd that is attracted to a propaganda network, that poses as an objective purveyor of news, one that thrives on logical fallacy. No serious journalist would have anything to do with Fox.
.

I think it is admirable that some organizations still have standards.

Pictures above are all of Muslims. Which one should Juan be fearful of?
.
How about this guy Juan? Muslim, killed military recruiter. Should I be afraid to board a plane with him?
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/us-terrorists-more-cases_n_502079.html

Fox has a habit of hiring people other news organizations fire because of unprofessionalism.

Funny James Wolcott on Fox and Juan.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/10/-when-the-camera-is.html

Jay, good to see you around. Obviously agree, though I wouldn’t stoop to engaging this noxious fool.

“If don’t like it here in the US, with our representative government that operates via free elections, why don’t you leave?”

However, while I appreciate the irony, “love it or leave it” still makes me cringe. Let’s not adopt rightists’ language.

Since pea-brained, hysterical, leftist/feminist, National Peoples Radio dingbat Nina Totenberg’s wish that Jessie Helms’ grandchildren die from AIDS, along with Helms, had the predictable effect of garnishing Totenberg additonal love and admiration from the red-eyed, frothing at the mouth, whack job leftist political activists at the execrable National Peoples Radio, maybe National Peoples Radio employees should publicly declare that they hope for the AIDS deaths of Obama and his children. That nut job loon running National Peoples Radio would have no objection, right?

Paranoid, zenophibic, frothing at the mouth, bewildering to the senses, insulting to the intelligent, stinky F@rt News pundits and associated rabid troll cohorts et. al.. Un-useful idiots exploding non-issues into faux relevance for mis-represented, un-suspecting, hardly working, ill informed wrong wing masses.

I just could not resist!!

Wolcott sure can slice and dice.
.
Thanks for the link, apr.

Sorry, zenophobic.

You’re right, of course, jcapan. The irony tag doesn’t really work here.

Try: Xenophobic, genius.

You’re right, of course, jcapan. The irony tag doesn’t really work here.

Thanks Textee! You should know.

I have only one question. WTF is “Muslim Garb?”

When I get on a plane and see a member of the Washington press corps I know I’m in danger of being killed by conventional wisdom.

After 9/11, I seem to remember a congressman from Louisiana suggested that it was, “a diaper on your head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper …”

If Williams’s overall thrust was anti-prejudice, why at his age has he not been able to free his own mind from such stereotypes?

See Muslim on plane. Get worried. Stereotype. Is the guy Pavlovian in his reactions?

Sorry but those are Juan’s own loose-cannon words on Fox, and in fact are not consistent with any standards at NPR nor any other free-minded American.

Why. Because terrorism is not a “Muslim” province nor a “Muslim” issue. It is an extremists & thugs province and issue. All stripe, all ethnicities. And Juan knows it. He ground the axe of the network that pays him to be on.

A frothing RWNJ in California was recently busted and pled guilty to threatening Nancy Pelosi and her family repeatedly after she got in the trenches to extend the right to health care services to all Americans. Another one in CA, just busted on his way to shoot up the offices of the ACLU and Tides Foundation in San Francisco.

These extremists, these terrorist thugs, are not Muslim.

Juan is wrong for linking the two even for an unhinged moment, and is a known lackey for the media corp that incites terrorist lunatics I’ve mentioned.

- Balkingpoints / www

You two snickering about the Uncle Tom comment? Oreo funny to you? Any other racial terms and comments you think are hilarious? Honky, cracker.
.
Gotta keep ‘em on the plantation, huh? That kind of commentary makes me want to puke.

Joe, you forgot one: It was idiotic for anybody to call Williams’ termination a violation of his freedom of speech.

Actually, Joe, he said that in the aftermath of 9/11 he felt nervous on planes when he saw Muslim men identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslim. An emotional reaction most likely echoed by the overwhelming majority of Americans in the short period after the attacks in September 2001. Jaun did not say that these sentiments were rational, he did not say that he still felt this way. He simply expressed his sincere emotions directly following the attacks. I say he was rather brave to publicly express this personal weakness. But in this era of self-interested marketing, yea, I guess he’s just an idiot.

N-R:
.
Not sure about your past-tense frame. The quote I saw was:
.
“… when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
.
Sounds like that’s the way he still feels. Though I didn’t see or read the larger exhange. Mind you, I can give two sh!ts about Juan or Joe or NPR.

Then why are you commenting?
.
Obviously you do, but you want to present the persona that you don’t. OK.
.
Maybe Juan got tired of being called Uncle Tom, sellout, oreo, porch monkey, and said enough. I’ll just go work at Fox where they don’t F with me.

liberalmelt: Where are you finding those words, in your fevered imagination?

liberalmeltdown: The only place you are finding those ugly words is in your own disgusting mind. Please look at the pictures I linked and tell me which of those Muslims Juan should be concerned about.

Actually April, it’s from the article you provided. The left loves to call blacks that cross them Uncle Toms, oreos, sellouts. You have a long history.
.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/10/-when-the-camera-is.html
.
Well, now he can Uncle Tom to his heart’s content and feel like he’s Solzhenitsyn.
.
Who’s ugly now?

It’s still you.
.
Looks like that guy you linked works for VF, not NPR. I’m willing to bet that they’re not anyone who posts here, either.
.
So, you’re just reading things and magically attributing them to others.

A bit unusual for the right to be playing the race card. Normally, they complain about that sort of thing. Unlike logic, where it is imperative, consistency is not one of their stronger points.

Lot’s aof people are missing the point. If you think that the phrase “Muslim Garb” makes sense then you are already demonstrating prejudiced thinking. Shall we now start referring to “Black Garb” or “Jewish Garb”?

It is,of course, possible to not be an idiot,and to comment intelligently on this foofooraw.
.
Fallows.
.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/why-npr-matters-long/65068/

Sure thing Dirks. That’s why so many of use scare quotes.
.
(Sitting here in my jellabiya as I write, thinking about the taxi drivers who fill the parking spaces up by the mosque on Fridays.)
.
It’s like Glennzilla says. This is all about feeding the fearmonster that the military/industrial/security monster needs to remain in operation. Of course, talking about this is in journalistic sphere of deviance.
.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/moredetails.aspx?showBleed=false&ProductNo=447953160&colorNo=1&pr=F

Bunch is also not an idiot.
.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/NPR_and_journalisms_new_Sharia_law.html
.
BTW, if you have not read Will’s Tear Down This Myth, you do not really understand the Cult of Reagan, how much it deviates from the political career of Ronald Reagan, and how that deviating cult came to be.

Thanks for the tip about the book. I’ll have to check it out.
..
I’ve always been amazed with the revisionist history effort regarding Reagan. I also find it amusing that many of the current GOPers cling to the myth of Reagan while adopting positions in direct contrast to what Reagan actually did or believed. Their lack of historical perspective and knowledge is astounding.

So, is political correctness good now? Or is it still bad. Or is it whichever is currently convenient.

Will and I talk about the book at episode 125 here:
.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/virtually-speaking-blog-talk/id305728848
.

Actually Bunch is pretty stupid and his book much ado about little. The world changed after 1981 and his dramatic tax cuts set off the greatest period of wealth creation in US history. Per capita incomes is the USA are now almost 40% higher than n France and will continue to climb at a higher rate after the GOP gets the house back in 2010.

Just consider one momumental acheivement. He cut marginal tax rates from 70% to 28%. That’s a 42% reduction. Since then Presidents have played at the margins. Obama can’t even rescind the Bush tax cuts to get back to Clinton levels.

The fact is Bunch is pissing in the wind. The conservative media is far more effective in selling books and idea’s. They’re not just defining Reagans greatness they’re boosting Truman and Ike at the expense of Wilson and FDR. I am 57 and I was taught Wilson was a great President ahead of his time. He failed miserably with his disaster of a 14-point peace plan setting the table for the slaughter of WWII. It’s also now known he was a racist and a nasty one at that. At the same time this myth the New Deal ended the depression has been fully exploded and FDR completely abandoned it after 1938 to prepare for WWII. You will find than Obama’s failed stimulus puts the nail in the coffin and Keynesian economics.

There’s also the fact Reagan defeated the USSR and freed Eastern Europe. The fact is he followed Jimmy Carter, NIxon, Johnson and Kennedy and was then followed by GHWB, Clinton, GWB and Obama. There’s no debate he’s the greatest President of the last 50 years and probably the last 100.

How ironic is it that the left didn’t care for Truman or IKe, despised LBJ for Vietnam and utterly despised Reagan while adoring JFK, Wilson and FDR. IN the last ranking of the Presidents by an independent panel of 100 historians and political scientist polled by the Heritage foundation FDR was 3rd and in the top 10 were Truman, Ike and Reagan. Wilson was near 12th and JFK near18. Because it’s now been widely reported Wilson was such a racist he’s going fall out of the top 20 along with JFK. He was once ranked in th top 5 but that was emotion. As the 1st supply-sider, the moon program and the peace corps he did much good but he also liked killing people and caused Vietnam. Contrary to liberal myth he did nothing for civil rights.

In 2010 few conservative books are even reviewed by the NYTs yet dominate it’s best seller lists. Reagan is adored on the right and what you call myth will continue to sell. We are a center-right nation as Obama will find out next week and Reagan is the reason why.

I think we already do. I’ve heard many references to ‘ghetto’ garb, ‘hiphop’ garb and others which clearly refer to blacks. As far as Jews isn’t the reference to the yarmulke when describing what they’re wearing pretty common?

What Juan did was more than fine, it was common sense and that’s why this is such a disaster for NPR. The burka and hijab are just two examples of things listed as traditional Muslim dress in wikipedia. I think it’s pretty sane to assume someone wearing what is commonly understood to be traditional western dress to be muslim just as anyone wearing a yarmulke would be understood to be jewish or anyone wearing rosary beads christian. That PC clowns want to erase this commonsense connection is stupid and will fail.

The 2nd connection of Islam to terrorism is also clear and decisive and you can’t deny it eithe. While only 5% of muslims are considered radical support is far, far wider among the muslim community.

So it makes sense when getting on a plane and seeing muslims to have a nervous reaction much as one would seeing a bee land nearby. Juan made cear you can’t treat these people, who are innocent, any different. Why the left is trying to do via their PC police is to punish thoughts and that’s not just absurd it’s orwellian.

Also stupid. She compounded it by saying Juan should have kept it with his shrink. There’s a lawsuit there. The 80% of Americans who are not liberals understood Juan and agree with him. Most of those who call themselves liberals agree with him but would never have the balls to say so because they’re afraid of the PC police. This is bad for NPR and I think it’s clear Princess will have to go. She is a well connected liberal bureaucrat who will land another job living off the taxpayor and do just fine. This next Congress is going to defund NPR and possibly PBS.

It’s not a personal weakness. It’s a commonsense reaction. If after thinking about it he refused to get on the plane you’d have a point.

Sorry but those are Juan’s own loose-cannon words on Fox, and in fact are not consistent with any standards at NPR nor any other free-minded American.

Why. Because terrorism is not a “Muslim” province nor a “Muslim” issue. It is an extremists & thugs province and issue. All stripe, all ethnicities. And Juan knows it. He ground the axe of the network that pays him to be on.

**********************************************************************
This is absolutely, positively not true, the vast majority of terrorist acts are carried out by muslims and a large portion of muslims approve of them. Suicide bombers in Palestine are revered as national hero’s. There have seen a series of attacks against us and in Europe and they’ve all been by muslim groups.

Jihad is practiced by one religion and one religion only.
Tim McVeigh was a lone whackjob, not part of any organized group or movement. He was a loner with two friends. Osama is part of an islamic infrastructure waging war against the west using terrorism.

This is a politically correct argument you simply cannot win because it defies common sense. The reason the ground zero mosque won’t get built despite being perfectly legal is because by a 3 to 1 margin Americans don’t want it built and they don’t want it built because muslims killed 3,000 people in the name of their religion there.

Joe gets livid over that one too. He’ll be getting livid the rest of his days. Political correctness cannot defy commonsense nor can it control thought. It’s absurd you try. This is an example of how far left and how far outside the mainstream Joe is.

The real damage is NPR isn’t this illiberal snobbery but the fact the politics are so bad now. There has to be spending cuts and in this age of 300 channels there’s just no justification for govt funding of NPR or PBS. While they won’t cut every penny the GOP will try. Given their market share is so tiny it’s going to be very hard to gin up public support.

I’d think the CEO questioning his sanity, just one slur, after not giving him even a hearing put such a bad face on this she’s toast. When most Americans agree with Juan and don’t think it’s bigotry to be told you’re nuts for doing so won’t win too many friends.

Very bad form, worse timing.

It’s amazing that such a long-winded rant that frequently uses the word “fact” can be so utterly fact-free. It appears that blatant ignorance is your calling card. Well played.

Lots of facts.

The tax cuts of 1981 set off a nearly 30 boom. Our per capita incomes are 40% higher than France. He really did lower rates from 70 to 42%. The New Deal extended the depression. Unemployment was 20% in 1938 when FDR abandoned it. Reagan didn’t beat the USSR by himself. He stood on the shoulders of Truman and the other cold warriers but among the best stuff to read about the politics of the 80s are the quotes from Reagan versus his liberal foes regarding the USSR. He said, ‘ashbin of history”. They said we had to share the planet so lets get along and sing campfire songs. He was right. they were demonstrably, embarrassingly wrong.

That is a great title for the book however, for both sides. It’s snarky and clever. It’s also a reminder of what it’s like to have a President with a flair for the dramatic and a spine.

Don”t know if you are a Wilson fan but he is taking a beating. With the inept Hillary calling herself a progressive and Obama making a similar claim it brought a lot more attention to the progressive ERA and Wilson was not an attractive fellow. His brand of racism is reviled today. He is so toxic it’s hard for modern historians to defend him or even see him as a viable source to study. you cannot ignore his racism nor defend it. Gone are the days the liberal media decides what is to be known. It would be unthinkable for a popular popular historian such as a Doris Kerns Goodwin to go near him. Jonah Goldberg wrote a bestseller called Liberal Fascism popularized on the right by people like Beck and Hannity and the basis for placing fascism on the left was Wilson. To be progressive is to be fascist. Wilson nationalized industries and threw thousands in jail for years without a hearing. The history channel ran a documentary on the 1919 peace talks essentially blaming Wilson for the failure of the talks and the harsh settlement that led to the emergence of Hitler in Germany.

Wilson is not an attractive figure and Goldberg buried him. What is cool is how he used political correctness to disarm his critics. It’s virtually impossible for a liberal to be enthusiastic defending a man all agree was a racist. Once you establish what kind of a man he was to a TV or Radio audience he is very hard to defend.

your point that many people attribute things to Reagan that are not true is dead on.

For example if you ask any liberal if a GOP President is bright they’ll say not, not at all and be serious. The funnny thing is they always come to regret it. Bush was famously ‘misunderestimated’. He loved feeding the theory. Bob Schrum, Gores campaign manager, very much regretted this when a few days before the Bush – Gore debates he realized Bush just needed to show up and avoid slobbering all over himself to exceed expectations and win. Let the record show Bush got his 1st lead after the debates and never trailed. Just one reason why Schrum never won a Presidential race. He went on to make the very same mistake managing kerry.

Liberals did this to Reagan and Ike as well. Reagan of course got an economics degree in 1928 and despite the depression was successful at everything he tried. He was reading academic economics journals most of his life and owned a 1st edition of “The road to serfdom” by F, Hayek one of the most famous economist of the last century and now almost certainly the winner of the small govt versus big govt (Keynes) argument.

Of course the most important economic change since the New Deal was the collapse of tax rates under Reagan. JFK was actually the 1st supply-sider lowering rates from an astonishingly stupid 90% to 70% . The intellectual arguments for this can be found in Hayeks book which was written in the early 40′s and it still being printed. The Reagan was stupid line exposes the speaker as a moron.

Note: Keynes wasn’t really a big govt guy and he’s turning in his grave as a stimulus plan enacted as ‘Keynsian’, but nothing of the sort, is being declared a failure, which it is. As Larry Summers explained before it was designed, it had to meet the 3 T’s, Timely, Temporary and Targeted. It was none of the 3. The conservative media is going to hand the failure as a failure of Keynsian stimulus rather than botched legislation. Obama handed Reagan total victory. Reagan lowered taxes 42% Obama can’t even raises taxes1% on the rich.

See post 13.1

This column nails the whole sad fiasco.
.
It’s only sad because so many liberals, have that knee jerk sheep reaction. Gotta follow the herd.
.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_debra_j_saunders/a_witch_hunt_for_bigots_singes_american_media