July 11, 2008
Hotline After Dark -- Gramm's Folly
Senator Phil Gramm's comments about the U.S. being a "nation of whiners" dominated last night's coverage.
Ex-WH adviser David Gergen, on whether Gramm's comments undermine McCain's efforts: "If you look at the campaigns overall, yesterday, Jesse Jackson made a major contribution to the Barack Obama campaign. And today it was the McCain campaign's turn to make a couple of contributions. This was one of them. ... Of course, John McCain didn't say this, and he didn't mean to have him say it. But it's one of those kind of things that Barack Obama has faced this problem, too. Your surrogates can get you more trouble sometimes than the candidate itself. Does it go away soon? Yes."
More Gergen: "But what it also did today for Senator Obama, it covered up a couple of things on his own campaign that he didn't want to be leading the program tonight, Michelle Obama out today talking about these rebates don't amount to much, $600. Well, you just go out there and spend that on a pair of earrings. Well, you know, a lot of people don't buy $600 earrings. So, this story smothered those kinds of things. And I think this was a real gift to Barack Obama" ("AC 360," CNN, 7/10).
New York Daily News' Errol Louis, on the damage this does to McCain: "I think it would do a lot of damage to him. Among the places that McCain used him as a surrogate was when he went to the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal to try and talk about economic issues. He has attached to this man, and this is somebody who not just made a gaffe today but is deeply implicated in some of these most serious problems in the economy today. I mean, he was chair of the Senate Banking Committee throughout the 1990s. He passed much of the deregulation ... that people believe led to the housing crisis that we have today" ("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
DNCer Robert Zimmerman, on the problem the comment poses for McCain: "It shows that he's not connecting. And it's not just his surrogates that are the problem. It's the fact that he's demonstrating personally that he's not connecting" ("AC 360," CNN, 7/10).
After the jump, more reaction to Gramm, as well as continued talk on Jesse Jackson's comments on Barack Obama
(RACHELLE DOUILLARD-PROULX)
THEY HAVEN'T HAD THEIR PHIL JUST YET
New York Observer's Steve Kornacki, on whether it's fair for Obama to jump all over these comments: "Sure. That's the way the game is played, though. You know, this is the McCain campaign's blunder because they should have realized a long time ago of the tactical usefulness of Phil Gramm as a public surrogate expired with the Republican primary season. His currency, his credentials are good with the Republican base, with some Republican activists who John McCain had struggled to connect with. So you find out Phil Gramm in the primaries when you're being challenged on the right by Mitt Romney."
CNN's Campbell Brown: "What? Many put him in the closet?"
Kornacki: "You're going to fall. They're going to put out Phil Gramm. Oh, yes, he's a former senator. He talks kind of funny. He sticks his foot in his mouth. ... He doesn't mean anything to average people. You don't put him out there on the floor. They were asking for trouble" ("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
PA-based radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, on Gramm's comments: "He was very foolish politically to say what he said. And no amount of mentalism is going to fill my gas tank at $4 a gallon. However, my wife is a realtor. And she says to me every day, 'I've got good product. The interest rates are low. Mortgage money is plentiful. Why isn't the market picking up?' And she is convinced it's because the American public turn on the morning shows and are continually told that the market is in the dump. ... And consequently, it never gets out. And they're waiting for the sign from the media. And let's be fair. That's what he was talking about today. And I think there are grains of truth in that."
DLC chair/ex-Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN): "If that's an argument, Barack is going to win this thing running away. I hear [Smerconish] loud and clear, but you can't make that argument to Americans, to Ohioans and Pennsylvanians" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 7/10).
CNBC's Jim Cramer: "I think the second part of what he said is true. We've never been more competitive. We own the new technology world, which is the world to be able to drill cleaner, the world to be able to make products better. We are dominant. But the whining thing, I mean, hey, wait a second. If you're paying $3 more than you did seven years ago at the pump, if your food price has doubled, don't you really have something to whine about?" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 7/10).
Pat Buchanan: "Look, Phil Gramm has always had sort of the bedside manner of Nurse Ratched. ... But this was a very foolish, politically foolish thing for him to say. I think McCain was brutal in the way he treated him. But the truth is, we've lost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs under George Bush. It is directly related to the free trade policies McCain and Phil Gramm. The dollar has lost half of its value against the euro. ... This is a problem with the Republican Party of today. It is addicted to this free trade ideology ... which has driven away the Reagan Democrats. It is killing manufacturing in the United States" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 7/10).
Newt Gingrich, on whether McCain should dismiss Gramm: "He just ought to tell him to advise him not to advise the country. You know, it probably does not help a lot Senator Gramm to go on television and say random things that are both wrong, in my hudgment, but also politically destructive" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 7/10).
SAY YOU'RE SORRY, MR. JACKSON
Pundits and politicians continued to discuss Jackson's comments last night, and how they will affect Obama.
Georgetown prof. Michael Eric Dyson: "Jesse Jackson has consistently and vigorously talked about the necessity for black people to take their destinies into their own hands. ... So, there's no way that anybody can read Jesse Jackson as not being emphatic about personal responsibility. But he wants to fly the plane of black progress with two wings. Personal responsibility is a critical one, but it is not an exclusive one. You must also have social responsibility. And I think what he's trying to talk about is personal and social responsibility together "("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
Washington Times' Tara Wall: "[Obama's] message is resonating. And the reason there's frustration with Jesse Jackson, I think, is because the old message is over. The message that of big government and victimization has evolved in the black community with people like Barack Obama and a Kendrick Meek and a Jesse Jackson Jr., who understands that self-responsibility is critical to the black community. I think the black community is very forgiving. And that they quite frankly understand, if you listen to black radio today, understand where Barack Obama is coming from. I don't think they disagree with anything Barack Obama has said. And I think it is right on target. There is just the frustration with Jesse Jackson because he understands that his time and message is well and way overdue and it's not working in the black community" ("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
CNN's Brown: "It still seems to a certain extent that he's not really letting Obama have his moment in the sun. Do you agree with that?"
Dyson: "Well, no, I think that, look, Jesse Jackson is an extraordinary leader. Barack Obama is an ingenious and extraordinary leader. What Jesse Jackson is suggesting is that if we're looking at it as marathon, then the baton has been passed on to Barack Obama. It doesn't mean that there's no role for Jesse Jackson. If Barack Obama becomes the president, Jesse Jackson is not out of a job" ("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
Film director John Ridley: "I think we're being a little polite here. Jesse Jackson is talking about emasculating Barack Obama. Look, if a white person said that, we wouldn't be having this discussion. They would not be in any job anywhere at any time. Quite frankly, it's offensive. It's one thing to have an ideological problem with him. It's another thing to say, look, I want to emasculate this guy because I don't want him to have the job."
Dyson: "Well, there's no question that Jesse Jackson has admitted that was street talk. It was street rhetoric that was not only offensive. It was, as he said, dumb. But, at the same time, I think what we have to acknowledge here, if you're talking about Jesse Jackson, to apply to Barack Obama, who is my candidate, if you're going to call black men boys, if you're going to say that any fool can have a baby, don't just say that to black men. Say that to all of America. Don't be race neutral when it comes to speaking to white America, and race specific when it comes to black people. Let's be balanced. And I think that Barack Obama has done a brilliant job of moving forward from that place" ("Election Center," CNN, 7/10).
DLC Chair/ex-Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN), on why everyone is focusing on Jackson's comments: "First off, Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama have over the years both been strong proponents of a larger self-responsibility for all Americans. And at times have aimed their comments directly at African-Americans, and black men in particular. So this is not new. I think the unfortunate and cruel comment and stupid comment that Reverend Jackson made on that live mike there has perhaps amplified this a bit and perhaps made us all think this is a first of its kind. Two, it does signal in a lot of ways a different kind of leadership, not just for black Americans, but for all Americans. Barack's leadership, his approach to politics, is unique."
More Ford: "The real challenge will be for Senator Obama is, how do you merge some of the things that Reverend Jackson talked about? There's no doubt that government will have to play a role in building bridges and addressing infant mortality and addressing the quality or lack of quality of teachers in schools. So I think we've made a lot out of this, but the reality is Barack has always been more moderate, more conservative when it comes to family values, and values in the household, and morality being taught more so than we thought" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 7/10).
Independent Women's Voice pres. Michelle Bernard, on whether Obama can use these comments to gain white voter support: "Absolutely. I don't think the glow is gone. I feel like Reverend Jackson is the gift that just keeps on giving, particularly in this instance for Senator Obama. ... The reason that it is different and the reason that it marks the era of a new black politics is that traditional civil rights leaders have said, don't air your dirty laundry in public. And we have seen Senator Barack Obama, we've seen Bill Cosby do it" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 7/10).
Newt Gingrich, on whether this could be Obama's "Sister Souljah" moment: "I don't think that Obama needs a Sister Souljah moment. I think that he is a much more reasonable and moderate politician. I think he doesn't have to prove that he's free of the left. I think what he has to prove -- and is beginning to fail to do -- is that he has a set of clear values and a set of clear policies that he'll stick with. I think that's a very different kind of problem than the ones that Bill Clinton had in 1992" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 7/10).
Posted at 09:17 AM
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