ABC's Jake Tapper has posted on his blog the video of his Good Morning America segment this morning, asking readers what they think.
The segment runs less than two minutes, but Tapper managed to squeeze in two rather glaring flaws.
First, Tapper presents Republican Senator Jim DeMint as the voice of the “American people.” Even worse, DeMint is shown criticizing Obama for ten seconds before he is identified; even then, the only indication that he is a Republican is a small “R” that appears next to his name for less than two seconds.
Next, Tapper snarks: “When you're pushing your big project, in this case the stimulus plan, Bipartisan means more than a cocktail party and a Super Bowl kegger. Republicans ... say Democrat leaders in Congress have not really tried to make the stimulus bill bipartisan.” Then he showed Republican Senator Chuck Grassley claiming Republicans had been excluded from stimulus negotiations. Tapper omitted any other viewpoint, and he somehow forgot to mention the concessions Democrats have made to Republicans during the stimulus debate. Like, say, the AMT amendment agreed to by the Senate Finance Committee. Guess who introduced that amendment? Yep: Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
As I explained in my column last week:
The Democrats -- who won landslide electoral victories in both 2006 and 2008 and whose policy positions enjoy broad public support -- offered a bill that included a mix of tax cuts and spending, that removed provisions the Republicans didn't like. The Republicans, having lost badly in the past two elections and enjoying about as much popularity as a kick in the head, offered a bill that consisted solely of their own priority, tax cuts.
And yet the Mark Halperins of the world blast Obama and the Democrats for not compromising enough. Absolutely incredible.