MSNBC's Reid aired "Strangelove" attack, but didn't note Romney's agreement with Obama on substance
During an interview with Barbara Comstock -- an adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- on the August 7 edition of MSNBC Live, congressional correspondent Chip Reid uncritically aired Romney's claim during an August 5 Republican presidential debate that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "went from going to sit down to tea with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week." Romney's reference to Dr. Strangelove was an attack on Obama for saying in an August 1 speech that "[i]f we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan, "and [Pakistani] President Musharraf won't act, we will." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, Romney and fellow Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani both acknowledged during the course of the August 5 debate that they agree substantively with Obama's remark, that they would retain the option to act against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, even without Musharraf's consent.
Reid introduced the clip of Romney's attack by saying, "Romney also made headlines when he slammed a Democrat, attacking Barack Obama's foreign policy, accusing the Illinois senator of being wildly inconsistent." Reid did not report Obama's actual statement regarding terrorists in Pakistan, nor did he note that during the course of the debate, both Giuliani and Romney acknowledged their agreement with the substance of Obama's "foreign policy."
In the speech to which Romney was referring, Obama said:
OBAMA: I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an Al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.
Notwithstanding Romney's claim, Obama did not say he would "bomb our allies."
ABC News' chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, hosting the August 5 debate, noted that Giuliani -- when asked about Obama's speech on the August 1 edition of PBS' Charlie Rose -- had said that he would go after Osama bin Laden if necessary over Musharraf's objections. During the debate, responding to Giuliani's denial that he had said he would act, Stephanopoulos said: "No, you said, 'If we had a chance to take bin Laden, we've got to do it ourselves, because we're not sure if someone else is going to do it correctly. Yeah, I think I would take that option.' " Giuliani then acknowledged: "Well, I would take that option if I thought there was no other way to crush Al Qaeda, no other way to crush the Taliban, and no other way to be able to capture bin Laden."
When Stephanopoulos asked Romney his position on the issue, Romney stated:
ROMNEY: It's wrong for a person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and say "we're going to go into your country unilaterally." Of course America always maintains our options to do whatever we think is in the best interests of America. But we don't go out and say: "Ladies and gentlemen of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country, and we didn't think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to come in and get them out." We don't say those things. We keep our options quiet.
As Media Matters has also noted, several print media outlets reported Romney's attack -- which the Associated Press' Mike Glover referred to as one of the debate's "brightest moments" -- without noting that Giuliani had previously echoed Obama's position and both Romney and Giuliani affirmed during the debate that they would retain the option of acting against bin Laden over Pakistan's objections, if necessary.
From the August 7 edition of MSNBC Live:
REID: Romney also made headlines when he slammed a Democrat, attacking Barack Obama's foreign policy, accusing the Illinois senator of being wildly inconsistent.
ROMNEY: [video clip] I had to laugh at what I saw Barack Obama do. I mean, in one week, he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week.
REID: With me now, Barbara Comstock, senior adviser to Mitt Romney. Barbara, did you write that line about Dr. Strangelove?
COMSTOCK: No, the governor came in with that himself, but I think what you saw there was the very good debate performance. But also what -- the reason he is doing well out in Iowa -- and he's leading as you've been pointing out this morning -- is because he has been out doing the work and being in these early states in Iowa and New Hampshire, doing over 60 town halls, going to all these meetings and really getting his vision of, you know, strong new leadership and getting, you know -- understanding that Washington doesn't know everything. Washington doesn't know best.
It's not so much what you say, it's how you say it.
Does anyone really believe Comstock that this was something he came up with all on his own in debate...please this came off so slick and practiced.
Wil Shipley used the phrase "barack strangelove" on a blog way back in January. Meaning that it doesn't seem probable that Mitt (what kind of parent names their kid something like that?) was flexing his creative muscles independent of outside influences. Plus, the guy just doesn't seem very smart.
On the other hand, one would be hard-pressed to find anything at all in the movie which could be referential to anything Obama has said or done, which would indicate an attempt at conservative humor. Meaning that it's higly probable that Mitt (I had a baseball glove once that I named "Mitt") was thinking it would be a real zinger during the debate, and conversely making it highly IMprobable that there will be any stampede for retribution should Mitt (is that short for "Mitthew"?) claim to be the originator of the comparison.
Can someone explain how Romney's Dr. Strangelove reference even makes sense in the first place?
When did Strangelove ever advocate or direct the bombing of allies? It's a wacky reference-- Romney's obviously a fool. Did he ever see the movie?
Last night on O'Reilly's show, hosted by Michelle Malkin, Juan Williams was there as the FoxNews version of a liberal.
Another speaker made a false statement, and Williams' reply was "I disagree." That's insufficient.
Two people with two different opinions can disagree. When facts are involved, there is not that same option.
The comment by Romney was an unfair and inaccurate slam of Obama.
When Chip Reid said "Romney also made headlines when he slammed a Democrat, attacking Barack Obama's foreign policy, accusing the Illinois senator of being wildly inconsistent," that was not an adequate description of what happened. He accused Obama of being wildly inconsistent when the facts are that he was not. He accused Obama of holding an outrageous opinion when Romney holds a similar opinion. The fact is that they apparently agree substantively with each other on this issue. Casting Obama as an outlier when he's not is unfair, and for the journalist to ignore that fact is not right.
This is absolutely sickening. And it's equally sickening when Democratic candidates do it. They are, essentially, using a technique perfected by Rush Limbaugh. Romney has taken a perfectly logical statement by Obama and run it through the GOP Strawman filter, then repeated it as fact. This might be cute in a rhetorical sense, if not for the fact that the lazy, lapdog press takes it and runs with it, never bothering to point out that it is, indeed, a gross distortion of what Obama actually said.
Romney didn't score any points...he took a cheap shot.
I find it amusing that Romney managed, in the same statement, to slam Obama for wanting to use dipolmocy AND for talking tough. Suddenly, Obama doesn't fit the pansy-diplomacy-wuss image that the Republicans so love to use to portray Dems. I know it's difficult, Mitt. But try to keep in mind that its not always one OR the other. Not in the real world.
You may be on to something. Do we really want another Black and White thinker in the White House?
I'll just settle for someone who thinks.
Yes, Neonlove, that "Fonda/Strangelove" line reeks of ghost authorship -- and rather poor ghost authorship at that, since the goal of such writing is to sound like the person for whom you are writing the material. There's absolutely nothing about Romney that suggests he is clever enough to have thought of something that coyly allusive -- indeed, I suspect Romney has never even seen Dr. Strangelove.
Somehow, I doubt that it's on the list of Mormon-Approved movies.
If he had seen Strangelove, would he have realized that his analogy to the movie vis a vs Obama makes absolutely no sense?
Conservative humor = insanity
The irony of using Dr. Strangelove is that the movie was such a good satire on cold war thinking; now revived in the phony "war on terror."
Mitthew (thanks, Neon) and his rhetoric match Sterling Hayden's character very well (although I think that Mitt is just trying to appeal to the republican wacko base)
Well, there IS this exchange late in the movie which seems oddly Mormon-friendly...
President Muffley: Well I... I would hate to have to decide.. who stays up and.. who goes down.
Dr. Strangelove: Well, that would not be necessary Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Slams down left fist. Right arm rises in stiff Nazi salute. Arrrrr! Restrains right arm with left. Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. But ah with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years.
The media loves a phrase like the Dr. Strangelove comment. It seems clever and they get to replay something over and over to fill time and pretend they are covering the campaign.
We know the reality is that the comment made no sense but the media doesn't want to spoil its own fun and explain that or they couldn't run it and have any credibility. They might even claim that it would be taking sides to analyze that comment.
The only way for it to be dealt with is for one of Barack's supporters to make it an issue by going after Mitt at some event with a sign that says:
Romney's Against Hunting Down Osama in Pakistan!
He needs to be put on the defensive so the press will raise his stupid remark and ask him how he can claim to be for going after Osama after declaring that Obama was wrong to take the exact same position. The great thing is that the media will love to do that given his constant flip-flopping on other issues. It will fit their profile of him.
By the way, we can't dismiss Romney as a losing candidate yet. While he trails in the largely meaningless national polls, he is likely to win Iowa, which could propel him to victory.
Indeed, Barack must be hoping for the same thing. A win in Iowa would negate Hillary's strong lead in national polls among Democrats who are paying little actual attention.
The question is, will the Religious Right wackos support a Mormon? You know that most evangelicals consider Mormonism a cult, but if faced with a choice between Romney the Mormon and Hillary the Whore of Babylon...what's a good troglodyte to do?
I fail to understand how someone who is receiving 8% in the GOP race continues to be taken as seriously as Romney. Could it be that he is the media's GOP candidate? Surely not.