Gingrich on the ‘Daily Show’: Stewart Asks About the GOP’s Double Standard

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Stewart: “John McCain approached Hagee for his endorsement…Falwell and Robertson said 9/11 was because we secularized our culture, yet they’re still allowed to play the game. Don’t you find that surprising?”

And then here’s the complete segment, which comes courtesy of our friends over at Crooks & Liars. It is worth the watch, it’s both humorous, and incredibly true. If anything else, it’s fun to watch Newt get all uncomfortable realizing he isn’t in the comfy confines of Faux News:

I also felt is appropriate, seeing as though the topic is religious hypocrisy, to include a video I made a month or so ago which deals with the very question Stewart poses to Gingrich in the clip above:

Hillary’s Gas ‘Outrage’: Comical-She Hasn’t Touched a pump in Years

Hillary has been leading an all out assault on Senator Barack Obama over the past two days due to his statements pointing out just how counter-productive lifting the “gas tax” for a arbitrary three month span would be for American’s and the infrastructure of this country. Through a blitz of attack ads and stump speech’s Hillary is doing her best impersonation of a typical GOP head hunter; “attack, attack, have surrogates and 527’s attack, then attack some more.” This is nothing new of course, Hillary managed to show her true colors early on in this race –a race I should mention she lost two months ago but still doesn’t realize it courtesy of her ambition goggles– but this latest Clinton-jamboree of smear is humorous for totally different reasons.

Today on The Hotline, the National Journals online magazine, Mike Memoli focuses on a fascinatingly entertaining piece regarding Hillary “Yes, I made $109 Million in seven years but he’s the elitist” Clinton’s latest PR campaign in Indiana and North Carolina, where apparently she is continuing to prove what a “good ‘ole girl” background she really has — a background which had her growing up in an upper class, republican, Chicago suburb where she attended the best schools:

The message of the week, in both North Carolina and Indiana, has been Clinton’s plan for a gas tax holiday. So the bit of showmanship was a creative way to keep reporters talking about it — even as the story line and tepid back-and-forth grew stale.

And like all publicity stunts, it was transparent. The worker, Jason Wilfing, belongs to a union that has endorsed Clinton (though he maintained he is undecided). Rather than Clinton meeting Wilfing at his home, he came to her hotel to pick her up. Wilfing actually lives outside of South Bend in the town of Plymouth, 45-minutes away. Perhaps best of all, he wasn’t even driving his own car. He had to borrow the pickup of his supervisor so that Secret Service could come for the ride, too.

The story continues to talk about Hillary’s interaction with Wilfing, you know, “The Real American”, Hillary was spending the day with:

the logistics of the enterprise presented a challenge. Driving ahead of Clinton was a dirty-green GMC truck, with its rear doors lashed open. One network cameraman, shooting for all national outlets, joined local cameraman, two still photographers, and a couple print reporters crammed into the rear to chronicle it all from afar.

Meanwhile, all other outlets huddled outside on the chilly morning at the Marathon station (with some smarter reporters choosing to wait it out inside the mini mart). The campaign had the fill-up choreographed to a T, all the way to which specific pump they would use so that cameras could be in position when they arrived. Within the shot for many was the large sign displaying the $3.75-per-gallon price tag.

I can only imagine how funny it would have been to watch the camera men, producers, and campaign aides furiously working to get “the most natural shot” of Clinton during her first visit with someone whose net worth was below $50 million, Jason Wilfing. Anyway’s we haven’t gotten to the best part, here’s Memoli talking about Clinton’s behavior while at the gas station:

Clinton hopped out of the truck without incident and joined Wilfing at the pump. She seemed very interested in the actual set up, *acknowledging later that she hasn’t pumped her own gas in years.*

For some reason, Clinton chatted with Wilfing so quietly it was as if they were at a library and not an outdoor fueling station. Eventually, a reporter shouted out a question, prompting Clinton to turn and launch into her stump on how the impact of high gas prices has impacted prices across the board for consumers.

“I think it’s important we start trying to focus our attention on taking care of people like Mr. Wilfing and his family for a change,” she said. “That’s my passion in this campaign and going forward, we’ve gotta start getting our priorities straight. And this is a big wake-up call.”

A few more questions followed, with Clinton staying on message, referring occasionally to Wilfing, who stood silently to her side. “This is a very complex problem that somebody needs to start unpacking, and begin to answer questions for people like Mr. Wilfing.”

Clinton then shuffled off to go and pay her “exorbitant bill.” While inside, she stopped at the coffee machine, struggling a bit to get it working before pouring a French Vanilla cappuccino.

Now, at this point I am beside myself with laughter, visualizing Hillary fumble around with a foreign object, known by common folk as the “gas pump”, while at the same time trying to look “country” is simply to much for me to handle. Then, to top it all off, she goes in and doesn’t get a coffee “no cream, no sugar” instead she gets a cappuccino. Ha ha, I know it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just that it comes across as such a beacon of “please Hillary, the gig’s up” sentiment regarding her; “A day in the life of a real American” shtick.

Media Uncertain How to Cover Wright/ Obama Split–Colbert Answers

Right now there is the same type of back and forth going on in the newsrooms all the way to the living rooms of America regarding whether or not Obama’s “divorce” from former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is enough of a “split” or disassociation per se, between himself and the man who said on national television Monday morning that “Louis Farrakhan was one of the greatest men to come out of the 20th and 21st century.” This is where the American mainstream media finds themselves regarding Obama, his denunciation of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and how exactly they want to cover the story in terms of “was it enough” and/or “is this even a story any more?”

So let us do what we have done so many times before when America had an important question that needed answering: And that is too look to our trusty W.W.S.C.D bracelets for help. For those of you who are not familiar with what I am talking about, the W.W.S.C.D bracelet simply stands for “What Would Stephen Colbert Do?” And here is the man himself shedding his always brilliant analysis on the situation:

Look no further then the transcript and you will see that the answer to the Reverend Wright dilemma has bee answered:

COLBERT: Well, today, a disgusted Senator Barack Obama broke with his pastor in no uncertain terms saying, “I am outraged by the comments that were made…saddened over the spectacle…they offended me…I find these comments appalling…I am completely opposed to this…it is completely opposed to what I stand for…it not only makes me angry it saddens me…it shocked me…it surprised me…it directly contradicts everything I’ve done during my life…all it was was a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth…I find it objectionable and offensive…Reverend Wright does not speak for me…he does not speak for our campaign…I don’t think anybody could attribute those ideas to me.” A clean break, leaving only one question.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Does this put the Wright controversy behind Barack Obama?

COMMENTATOR: I don’t think so.

COLBERT: Oh, thank god. Oh, thank you, Jesus. [Referring to image of Wright] We almost lost you today…We will have more on this Reverend Wright controversy as often as we can.

It’s scary to think of where America’s media be without the guidance of Stephen Colbert, I mean this guy has the insight of Galileo, instinct of Edward R. Murrow, and intelligence of a Tom Brokaw. Making him more or less a “super” pundit, one which all the others looks to daily for leadership.

Video of Hillary Clinton’s Interview With FOX’s Bill O’Reilly

Here are the highlights from Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Hillary Clinton that will air as a two hour series beginning tonight at 8 PM est on FOX’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” The Huffington Post got it’s hands on portions of the interview transcript from ABC. Watch Hillary comment on the Wright controversy and much more, then take a look at the transcript which is located directly below the video:

From ABC News:

Hillary Clinton, in her first appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” matched Barack Obama’s declared outrage over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying she was offended by the pastor’s statements about America.

In a two-part interview to air Wednesday and Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, Clinton said it’s up to voters to decide whether the mounting controversy over Obama’s retired pastor should impact the race.

O’Reilly: “Some people say it’s not a big difference between you and Barack Obama, overall philosophy, overall outlook. It’s a democratic liberal line, he’s more liberal than you, but it’s the same thing. It’s a personality run, which is why before Rev. Wright derailed him, Barack Obama had some momentum because you are a more polarizing personality than he is. Do you agree with that?”

Here’s the transcript courtesy of ABC/Huffington Post:

• O’Reilly: “Perceived as a nicer guy.”

• Hillary: “Well, I’ve been around a long time. I bear a lot of the scars, ideological and political battles, I stand up for what I believe in.”

SOT-3321 - TRT: :37 - oc: in today.

(Hillary / O’Reilly interview - subject: Rev. Wright)

• O’Reilly: “Can you believe this Rev. Wright guy? Can you believe this guy?”

• Hillary: “Well, I’m going to leave it up to voters to decide.”

• O’Reilly: “Well, what do you think as an American?”

• Hillary: “Well, what I said when I was asked directly is that I would not have stayed in the church.

• O’Reilly: “You’re an American citizen, I’m an American citizen, He’s an American citizen, Rev. Wright. What do you think when you hear a fellow American citizen say that kind of stuff about America.”

• Hillary: “Well, I take offense. I think it’s offensive and outrageous. I’m going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. It is part of just, you know, an atmosphere we’re in today.”

Feedback From the Obama/Wright "Divorce" - Opinions From the Web

Today will be membered as one of the major landmarks in Obama’s candidacy. Regardless whether or not he end up winning the general election, the Wright issue Obama was forced to finally confront this afternoon, will be taught to our children’s, children in history class many years from now. That said, I think it is important to point out that Barack Obama just may have saved his candidacy in giving that speech the way he did this afternoon, at least when comparing what road it was on this time last night. Here are a few of the political media’s biggest players and Networks in general, and their handling of Sen. Barack Obama’s “divorce” from longtime Pastor, Jeremiah Wright:

• Andrew Sullivan- “today, we found that he can fight back, and take a stand, without calculation and in what is clearly a great amount of personal difficulty and political pain. It’s what anyone should want in a president. It makes me want to see him succeed more than ever. It’s why this country needs to see him succeed more than ever.”

• Marc Ambinder- “OBAMA HAS used the power of his rhetoric to end controversies before, and the campaign hopes now that Obama’s angry sound bites will now replace some of Wright’s more radical utterances on the cable news. The campaign won’t say whether, in their North Carolina tracking polls, they discovered any fall-off among white voters. The bet they’re making is that by extending the active phase of a story for at least one more day, they can prevent its long tail from influencing too many votes next Tuesday.”

• ABC News- Led with Obama‚Äôs ‚Äúpoint-by-point‚Äù denunciation of Rev. Wright‚Äôs comments. Stephanopoulos said Wright had been a ‚Äúmortal threat‚Äù to Obama, and his comments worried super delegates and ‚Äúreally teed off‚Äù the Senator. Noted that Clinton, meanwhile, is continuing strongly in Indiana and North Carolina.

• CBS News- Called Obama‚Äôs press conference ‚Äúmajor damage control‚Äù after Wright‚Äôs remarks Monday ‚Äústruck a nerve‚Äù with the Senator. Jeff Greenfield said Obama‚Äôs firm distancing was necessary, given the harm Wright was causing. Package on Bush‚Äôs press conference noted that Obama disagrees with McCain and Clinton on the gas tax suspension. Report quoted a ‚Äúsenior administration official‚Äù predicting that Congress will do little to advance the idea.

• NBC News- Led with economic woes, Bush‚Äôs presser. Showed NBC/WSJ poll numbers on presidential approval rate, economy. Noted Clinton, McCain, Obama quarrel over gas tax. Then moved to Obama making it clear Rev. Wright was ‚Äúout the door.‚Äù Showed several sound bites, contrasted it with when he ‚Äúcasually dismissed‚Äù the remarks Monday. Russert weighed in, said issues raise ‚Äúbig question mark‚Äù about his relationship with Wright. Said he‚Äôs trying to prove himself to undecided voters in Indiana, North Carolina and undecided supers.

• Jonathon Singer- Currently, there are a lot of folks saying that they think Obama needs to change his message, or that he needs to develop a new stump speech, or that he needs to tinker with his campaign in some other fashion. The thought behind this is that although he is still on the inside track to securing the Democratic nomination — it is still difficult to conceive of a way of Hillary Clinton to put together the necessary number of delegates from those remaining to be taken — the fact that Obama has not been able to put Clinton away to this point suggests that he needs to create a new narrative, to change the storyline.

• Michael Silence (Advice For Obama Supporters)- “Quit splitting hairs. You’re only making the story drag on. Most of us will not be basing our votes on who the candidate’s preacher is/was. We will, however, be basing our votes on a candidate’s forthrightness and candor. And the latter has taken a beating lately.”

There you have it, I would have to say from everything I have parsed through since the speech earlier today I would have to say the coverage, and overall feelings are good — or at least better then they were, a lot better actually.

Now Barack has to roll those sleeves up, and hit the ground in North Carolina and Indiana because he has a set of primaries to win in exactly one week to the day. This is going to happen my friends, stay the course, keep the faith, and never get discouraged to the point you find yourself saying; “whatever, I don’t even care.”

New Zogby Poll Shows Barack Obama as the Democrats Best Hope

Earlier this afternoon Zogby International released their latest nationwide polling numbers, and simply put – Thing’s do not look good for Clinton. Not only does this re-affirm the mainstream media’s ongoing; “she’s still in this one,” too be flat out untrue, the numbers are beyond daunting. Here is the reality of the situation regarding the Democratic primary, when asked who they thought would be the next President, McCain led the way with 45%, compared to 40% for Obama. Just 11% said they thought Clinton would be the next one to occupy the Oval Office. Only 20% of Democrats said they think Clinton will be the next President, compared to 63% who are confident Obama will get the job done.

As far as the head to head match ups are concerned; Obama leads McCain nationally, while –you guessed it– Hillary’s running a second place to McCain when matched up nationally head to head (click image to enlarge):

• Zogby International: 04/25 -28, 2008. Likely voters. Margin of Error +/-1.1

• Barack Obama- 45%

• John McCain- 42%

And…

• Hillary Clinton- 34%

• John McCain- 44%

In an interesting sidenote, it’s worth mentioning that 1% of American’s responded that they think former vice president –turned Nobel Peace Prize Winner– Al Gore will somehow end up getting the nomination somehow and then continue on to capture the presidency. Wonder where those 1% have been the last 4 months.

Obama’s Speeking Live: Denounces Rev. Wright & His Comments

Senator Barack Obama is in the process of giving a speech regarding Reverend Wright that could very well end up saving his campaign. He is clearly, without hesitation or any doubt denouncing, disowning and stating that he obviously didn’t know Wright as well as he thought he did.

He pointed out the specific arguments which have him the most upset — they include Wright’s claims of the government creating Aids and giving it to blacks, the notion that Louis Farrakhan is one of the best men to come out of the 20th to 21st centrury, and he really takes Wright to task on his innuendo’s that Obama was just playing politics as usual in regards to the media questions into the original YouTube clips.

April Has Been the Deadliest Month For US Forces Since Last Year: 44 KIA

With the unfortunate news this morning alerting us (even though it was largely ignored by the main stream media) that four more United States military personnel were killed in battle yesterday the Associate Press points out a grim reminder of the ongoing War in Iraq:

“At least 44 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since last September.”

Which was the deadliest month since August, which was the deadliest month since June, which was the deadliest month since, which was the deadliest month since…

When does it end, I mean it’s been five years and I think it’s crystal clear the only reason our countries braves are still in Iraq is because we have a President who is unable to swallow his pride, even if his the inaction costs the life’s of the men and women of our armed services.

Groups Like "Code Pink" Equally Disgust the Majority of Liberals–Like Me

This is an old video –approximately a year or so– however I felt like throwing it up because I was just watching the news and the Code Pink ingrates made an appearance, trying to make their usual argument, which was neither coherent, relative to anything going on in the panel testimony they chose to interrupt, and most importantly, counter productive on the grounds that they acted in a way that was both obnoxious and asinine. The thing that is really starting to get me is that these people are calling themselves “liberals,” they aren’t. I am a liberal, these people are — well, they’re just complete lunatics who are so far lost to the fringe, trying to rationalize or have an intelligent discussion with them is out of the question unless you agree with 100% of what they are saying. Which luckily for the country, makes up about a .03% of the population.

So here’s a clip of a mock debate before members of the United States Congress, a few writers from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report decided to get their message across, Code Pink style — their mocking of Code Pink is so spot on that I know can’t help but laugh whenever I see these idiots on TV, or rambling incoherently on the street corner.

And then here is a classic clip of Democratic Senator, and harsh critic of the war from day one, Robert Byrd kicking the Code Pink looney tunes out of a Senate hearing, giving them a piece of his mind on their way out:

I cannot stress it enough just how much a huge majority of us on the left also look at these people as nothing more then a well funded sideshow. That said, I also would like to point out the fact that you will be very pressed to see and republican condem any far right wing fringe group in the sense so many on the left have regarding Code Pink.

Iraq War Mastermind Douglas Feith–Fired From Georgetown Law Position

Well if you were ever looking for a reason to believe in the power of karma, it doesn’t get much better then this. Douglas Feith, a primary architect responsible for setting the table of lies leading into the war in Iraq, has officially been released from his role as a full time professor, at Georgetown Law School. Apparently a sizable group of fellow ‘Hoya professors became uncomfortable with the idea of having Doug Feith, –a poster boy for horrendous policy decision making, and implementation– teaching on topics relating to the national security policy, using the Bush administration as the overriding model:

The distinguished practitioner in national security policy in the School of Foreign Service will not be returning to teach at Georgetown next semester after the university chose not to renew his two-year contract.

“Technically I was appointed for two years and there was no extension of the appointment,” Feith said in an interview. “My understanding is that there were some members of the faculty that didn’t want me on the faculty.”

Before coming to Georgetown in 2006, Feith served as under secretary of defense for policy from July 2001 to August 2005 under President Bush, playing a pivotal role in planning the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

When asked what he thought about subsequently being fired, in such a public, shameful manner, Feith put on his “Captain Obvious” hat, and hinted that it just may have had something to do with the fact he helped lie a country into war, and spent years figuring out ways around the Geneva Conventions “torture” mandate:

But Feith said he got the sense that the reason his contract was not extended was because of political views and past work that generated controversy among many faculty members.

“I think it is the only reason,” Feith said.

When Feith was first hired in May 2006, several SFS faculty members objected to him joining the faculty. At least 35 professors signed a letter criticizing Feith’s role in planning the Iraqi invasion, saying that his actions “constitute war crimes … which the most sympathetic [person] would have to think a highly dubious grounds for further employment.”

Feith more then likely saw this coming, seeing as though he clearly was not accepted by the vast majority of the Georgetown faculty from the get go, not to mention he kept running into those pesky “students” who had a tendency to protest his lectures. Dougie is now considering what to do next as he says good-bye to his alumni that for the most part wanted nothing to do with him after doing Bush’s dirty work and will head into the sunset.

As to what he planned on doing next — well, Feith just said he would probably not return to the public sector after what happened at Georgetown. And to that I say, it’s probably a good idea this slug stays as far away from impressionable youth as possible.

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