Tapper's profile of "Barack Hussein Obama" asked: "Just who the hell is Barack Obama?"
On the January 16 edition of ABC's Nightline, during a report on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) decision to form a presidential exploratory committee, ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper referred to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama" and asked: "Just who the hell is Barack Obama? And why, in these dangerous times, should he be entrusted with the most powerful job on Earth?"
Earlier in the report, after playing a portion of Obama's video announcing his decision, Tapper suggested that Obama has no plan for Iraq, saying, "Left unanswered today: responses to tough questions on how to win the war in Iraq." Tapper went on to note that, in 2002, Obama was "[r]allying against the [Iraq] war in Chicago," but made no mention of several interviews Obama gave, including one on Nightline itself, in response to President Bush's January 10 address, during which Bush called for 21,500 additional U.S. troops to be deployed to Iraq. On the January 10 edition of Nightline, Obama told co-host Terry Moran that the problem in Iraq is "political," not "military," and said that "[a] phased withdrawal is the only leverage we have to force that political accommodation."
Moreover, Tapper failed to note that on June 22, 2006, Obama voted for a nonbinding amendment sponsored by Democratic Sens. Carl Levin (MI) and Jack Reed (RI), calling for the "begin[ning of] a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq this year" and urging the administration to submit to Congress its plan for continued redeployment beyond 2006.
Later in the report, in noting what voters "may not like" about Obama, Tapper referred to "a questionable land deal he was involved in with a political operative since indicted for fraud." But as Media Matters for America noted, in a December 14 Slate.com article, headlined "Barackwater," Slate chief political correspondent John Dickerson reported "no evidence" Obama did anything wrong.
After Tapper aired a clip of Obama saying, "One of the things I'm pretty confident about is that when people know me, they conclude, not that I'm perfect, but that I am in this thing for them," he concluded: "We shall see. It's up to them. It's up to you."
From the January 16 edition of ABC's Nightline:
OBAMA: We are one, people. All of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes.
TAPPER: If three years ago, in January 2004, someone had told you that this man, then an Illinois state legislator named Barack Hussein Obama, was thinking about running for president, you might have thought he was, well, unhinged.
OBAMA: Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
TAPPER: But a lot can happen in a short period of time. Nasty politics can get even nastier. A president's popularity can plummet, and an already brutal war can devolve into a catastrophic civil war.
[...]
TAPPER: Left unanswered today: responses to tough questions on how to win the war in Iraq, sensitive debates about race in America, and many other hurdles facing Obama on the campaign trail. But not only did the man, who's only two years into his first term in the U.S. Senate, target all those politicians whose experience outmatches his, today, he seemed to be saying that their experience may be part of the problem. After all, as Obama told Nightline anchor Terry Moran just a few months ago --
OBAMA: Donald Rumsfeld has one of the best resumes in Washington and yet, I would also argue that -- that one of the consequences of bad judgment on his part is some of the problems that we've seen in Iraq.
TAPPER: That was Obama's message today, too, if you read between the lines.
OBAMA: We're still mired in the tragic and costly war that should never have been waged.
TAPPER: A war that should have never been waged, he says. Of course, back in 2002, supporters of the war included all his potential major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination: Senators Clinton, Biden, Edwards, Kerry, Dodd. Where was Barack Obama in 2002? Rallying against the war in Chicago.
OBAMA: I don't oppose war in all circumstances, and when I look out over this crowd today, what I do oppose is a dumb war.
[...]
TAPPER: But beyond the excitement among Democrats and some in the media, it's not tough to discern a certain sense of confusion up here on Capitol Hill, fueled, in part, by jealousy and resentment, sure, but the question you hear bears answering: Just who the hell is Barack Obama? And why, in these dangerous times, should he be entrusted with the most powerful job on Earth?
Obama's biography is part of his selling point. Born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and an African father, Obama moved around a lot as a child.
[...]
TAPPER: Former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie does not know Obama and disagrees with his politics, but admires his talent, who he seems to be.
GILLESPIE: He enjoys the benefit of a pretty broad appeal.
TAPPER: But Gillespie notes what Obama himself has acknowledged, that right now, he's, in many ways, a blank slate on which fans are projecting their views and their hopes. That this popularity is unlikely to sustain the more people find out about Obama.
GILLESPIE: Right now, I think they're probably a lot of moderate Democrats who assume he's a moderate Democrat; a lot of liberal Democrats, who assume he's a liberal Democrat, but in the end, given his numbers, somebody's gonna be disappointed.
TAPPER: They may be disappointed to learn that, as a teenager, he did cocaine.
OBAMA: When I was in high school, you know, I did a lot of stupid things.
TAPPER: They may not like what they hear about a questionable land deal he was involved in with a political operative since indicted for fraud.
OBAMA: We paid higher than the appraised value, but, you know, it's a situation where I missed, sort of, the potential appearance of impropriety, or at least the possibility that he was doing me a favor by selling me this land. And I expressed regret publicly.
TAPPER: Or voters may also decide that they want the skinny guy with the funny name to be their next president.
VALERIE JARRETT (Habitat Company managing director and executive vice president): If you ask Michelle [Obama's wife], she'll give you a list of the flaws. They usually have to do with not picking up after himself, and not doing the dishes, and stuff like that. But, you know, he is a -- I'm not gonna say he's flawless -- everybody has flaws -- and he's the first to recognize his flaws, which is a little unusual as well, and he would say he's a work in progress.
OBAMA: One of the things I'm pretty confident about is that when people know me, they conclude, not that I'm perfect, but that I am in this thing for them, and that I generally exercise good judgment.
Come on. Hurry up. I'm cold.
TAPPER: We shall see. It's up to them. It's up to you. This is Jake Tapper for Nightline, on Capitol Hill.
And why, in these dangerous times, should his views be broadcast to millions of homes on the public airwaves.
That's the funny thing about swords... they cut both ways.
Has Jake Tap-uh-whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-is ever been on the cover of Time ?
>>>TAPPER: "Nasty politics can get even nastier. "<<<
'As I, Jack Tapper, shall now demonstrate'
>>>TAPPER: "Or voters may also decide that they want the skinny guy with the funny name to be their next president."<<<
'This is how I, Jack Tapper, know these are my viewers' low standards for judging a president: by their weight and their name.'
>>>TAPPER: "...confusion up here on Capitol Hill, fueled, in part, by jealousy and resentment"<<<
'Resentment by media figures like me, Jack Tapper, who don't like candidates like Obama that aren't mud-splattered yet. But I'll fix that soon enough.'
Barack Obama isn't that funny of a name. Well, unless you're a middle-aged white middle class man, maybe. Named Jake Tapper.
I'm amazed how early the mudslinging against Obama started.
This is just the first few love-taps.....If he gets the nomination, the right-wing machine will smear him like he can't even imagine.
Unless he has a clear plan to neutralize it, he'll be swept under.
If there is one lesson the country should have learned (if we survive George W. Bush's presidency) is the danger in electing someone with no foreign policy experience to the most powerful office on the planet. Give me a seasoned old guy who knows world leaders and understands why war is always a last resort.
Obama may be young and inexperienced by politics standards, but from what I've heard from him so far, he "gets it" more than some of the older pols and media figures who seem to think like 5 year olds most of the time.
A lot is made of the fact that Obama isn't well known, or at least the general public doesn't seem to know much about him, and I'm not saying I'm in his corner with as little as I know about him, but I think I've got a pretty decent BS detector. In the few minutes I've heard him speak, I've heard more adult comprehension of what the world's about than in 6 years of listening to the chimp-in-chief.
Of course, that's my bias, being one of those America-haters who doesn't have an over-excited reflex response to little flags and chicken hawks pl;aying dress up.
familiar names and the people who love them, would it be too depressing to think that some Americans voted for GWBush because his name was familiar? (Those cons whose sense of history could span the 8 years of Clinton to remember Daddy Bush)
Could it be the same comfort of predictability that brings McDonald's so much business that might actually discourage a few in the stoopid brigade from voting for a name/face that seems unfamiliar?
Why do you hate America so much, HBL? ;>)
The problem with Bush wasn't his inexperience per se. It was the fact that 1) everything he had was handed to him and 2) he destroyed everything he had handed to him.
Throw in his religious fanaticism and pro-corporate policies and you've got a damn good reason to keep him out of office.
his profound stupidity.
John Muqtada McCain has a lot of experience.
And he's a "real straight-shooter."
Or, maybe he's just a tired old right-wing hack, propped up by the right-wing media.
True. Experience is important, but it's not everything. It's important for a president to surround him/herself with people who do have experience and to listen to experts in the field - including those who have differing views on important issues. Bush doesn't do this. It's important for a president to be actively engaged (Bush is not) and to learn as much as possible about issues. Being a president requires one to have a reasonably high level of curiosity and intelligence. Bush has neither.
ABC has really low standards these days. I rarely watch it. This Nightline episode with JT trying to make the link between Barack Obama and Saddam is only one of many, many examples of ABC's low standards. Come on - they hired Glenn Beck. How much lower can they go?
Same old, same old. You don't bother to read anything a Democrat writes, or listen to anything he says, and that makes it easy to claim he does do anything or have any positions.
And why, in a remotely sane and rational world, would a reporter go to a professional propagandist like Ed Gillespie for comments on a Democrat? He smears Democrats for a living.
If Tapper was doing a piece on a Republican candidate, it would have been much softer and non-accusatory.
And he probably would have sought ought the political wisdom of some neutral and non-partisan individual like Cal Thomas or Glenn Beck.
is Jerk Tapper?
Conservative media, could we at least try not to make our attempts to paint Obama as a "nobody" so obvious? Luckily people seem to be catching on by word of mouth, but I can't say the same for the rest of the country.
It's sick that even traditionally harmless stations like ABC News are becoming part of the propaganda machine.
Based on the exit polls, Kerry won three states that he would lose in the official count: Ohio (by 8.8 percentage points), Nevada (7.5 points), New Mexico (7.0 points); had a lead within the polling margin of error in three more: Florida (2.6 points), Iowa (2.3 points), and Colorado (1.4 points); and was trailing within the margin of error in three others: Virginia (0.3 points), North Carolina (1.1 points), and Missouri (1.4 points). The net result is an electoral victory for Kerry of 282-174, with 82 electoral votes too close to call.
From the book: “Was the 2004 Election Stolen? exit polls, election fraud, and the official count.”
This is not a partisan book, and the most convincing evidence is provided by computer professionals and polling experts from Johns Hopkins, Stanford and MIT.
But, of course, don’t take my word, read it yourself. It’s pretty amazing.
he should stay the hell off of major TV networks until he knows what he is talking about.
But if he did that we'd never see Tapper again, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
...when someone like Tapper says "Hussein" to titillate. If that's what he has to provoke debate, concern, or interest, then he's a monstrously unskilled journalist and a monstrously crappy citizen.
I predict that you will seldom hear him referred to as simply "Barack Obama" any more, especially in the Right Wing Propaganda mill. He will ever be "Barack HUSSEIN Obama". Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have paved the way for this schoolyard style "journalism", and the MSM will stupidly tag along.
tag along? Or, "gleefully tag along."
Tapper: "If three years ago, in January 2004, someone had told you that this man, then an Illinois state legislator named Barack Hussein Obama, was thinking about running for president, you might have thought he was, well, unhinged."
Logical fallacy. Obama wasn't thinking about running for president then. But frankly, given his dynamite speech at the Democratic convention later that year (notice how carefully Tapper chose "three years"), there were many people who realized his presidential potential then, even before he became a senator.
And I will echo the opinion above that first-hand experience is important, but not perhaps as important as Tapper would seem to think. I remember teaching a class in which we were discussing the ideal presidential candidate: he was a man in his fifties, with some military experience, some business experience, and some political experience. He was a man of honesty and integrity, intelligent but humble, and a hard worker.
"Be careful what you wish for," I told them. "Add them all together and you get Jimmy Carter." Don't get me wrong, I love Jimmy Carter like he was my own grandfather, but in no way could you call his presidency a roaring success.
When a president doesn't have experience at something, he needs to have close advisors who do have that experience, and he needs to at least display some capacity for learning on those subjects. But frankly, nothing will help him overcome deficiencies in intelligence, integrity, or a willingness to do hard work. This, needless to say, is part of GW's great failing.
and wasting NO time positioning themselves for an unprecedented run at a second consecutive MMFA "Misinformer Of The Year". Go Mickey!
and it occurred to me that we don't have to wonder at all ' "Just who the hell is Barack Obaba?". Tapper skillfully informed us that he is a skinny, half-black, drug-using crook with a name like a terrorist.
When the hell are we going to rid ourselves of this God-awful LIBERAL MEDIA?
They have given Tammy Bruce a venue to spew her fallacies and misinformation, hired on Glenn Beck, this guy Tapper, etc. Who is making these decisions and what is their agenda? When protesters again hit the streets to protest the Bush Administration, I for one wish they would target places like ABC. Then maybe we might get a bit more balance out to the nations citizenry.
the same VP who recently received an award from some conservative group. In her acceptance she stated that MSM must recognize that people want conservative information (indoctrination) and it was her mission in life to evangelize the world through televison media. Keep in mind this is the same outfit (abc) who ladled out that pigpath to 9-11 trollop. They also recently hired Glenn Beck (huh?), they own the radio station in San Francisco that broadcasts Muckmouth Melanie Morgan, and if I recall correctly they are also somehow connected to the folks who graciously bring us the lovely Rush Limpballs. They also hired Limpballs and then Dennis Miller to provide commentary on Monday Night Football (WTF?).
Ironically, Billdo is on Faux News Channel wailing and crying about NBC being Soooooo liberal because they called the Iraq conflict a "civil war". But, Mr. Independent doesn't say a word about abc.
Makes ya wonder.
For abc news, this is Flack Crapper.
these haters better watch out because hate that is flung on somebody who is popular with the public just comes back at you. Witness Bill Clinton - target of the most vitriolic hate from the right wing for years, yet always popular. If Obama can connect to the people like Bill did then all this hate will just make him stronger in their eyes.
If I'm reading your response correctly, you would not want a fresh face working the foreign policy scene because he doesn't have the international experience....
....may I remind you that Dubya has that good 'ol boy network of foreign policy makers who go back to the Nixon administration w/their experience.....problem is, all this experience you think we need to accomplish a foreign policy mission has led us into this pig sty of a war we are currently engaged in...
....maybe a fresh face w/the ability to bring new ideas & a realization of the cultural nuances of implementing solutions is EXACTLY what we need now....we can't do any worse(or possibily the DEMS can) but I opt for the fresh face
I think we need new blood. Out with the old, grumpy John McCains and old, centrist Democrats. I'm sick of just about all of them. I'll take a Russ Feingold or Barack Obama anyday over all the cynical, power entrenched pols of either party.
Usted ha hablado bien.
... when I've seen him referred to as "Barack Hussein Obama" by Limbaugh and now this Tapper guy, that they were trying to use it as a way of connecting him to terrorists and/or Saddam Hussein.
Hussein is a name to me, like any other. I've known many people named Hussein, and didn't even reflect on the usage here. I feel like an idiot.
Excellent point, Berken. Why Gillespie of all people?
But why did MMFA edit out portions of the original program? And how do they decide what to include in their clip and what to cut out?
I just happened to have a recording of that Nightline, and I watched the entire segment. The parts that were not included in the MMFA clip were some of the most favorable for Obama. For instance, Bill Daley's comment (former Clinton Secretary of Commerce) was completely omitted from the MMFA clip. He praised Obama for his early stance against the Iraq war at a time when most Democratic politicians were in favor of it.
If you didn't see the entire segment, and only watched MMFA's clip, you would come away with the impression that the segment was more negative than it was.
And why, in these dangerous times, should he be entrusted with the most powerful job on Earth?
Try reading the transcript while imagining scary music and grainy photos. The cost of this piece should be counted as a contribution to the RNC.
The rightwingnut noisemakers and their compadres in the corporate media are going to continually play up his middle name: Barack HUSSEIN Obama.
But I say this is a GOOD thing . . . what can possibly be wrong with having a middle name that's the same as a former King of Jordan?
The earlier they launch they're attacks on Obama, the more harsh the attacks are, the clearer a sign it is that Obama scares the hell out of them. :-) The old Rovian tactics are failing. Perhaps the Repooplikan base is wising up to the fact that they've been malinformed and abused.
That is just unacceptable. We can't have the leader of the free world doing cocaine thirty years ago. Oops, too late. Let's see how many conservative pundits use that bit of information while trying to skirt their way around Bush's record in that department. I bet they can do it. Come on, Karl Rove, do that voodoo that you do so well.