Phony Fox Democrat Pat Caddell also smeared Elizabeth Warren while he was at it.
On Fox Report Weekend, yesterday’s Political Insiders panel focused on Hillary Clinton’s formal announcement that she’s running for president.
The usual panel was assembled: Democratic wanker Doug Schoen, Clinton-hating Republican John LeBoutillier and Caddell, identified as usual as a former pollster for Jimmy Carter. Other than being Fox News contributors, it wasn’t clear that any of them had been inside a campaign in a decade or more.
In previous Political Insiders segments, Caddell (and Schoen) has spoken sympathetically about rancher Cliven Bundy’s threatened armed insurrection against the U.S. government. Caddell has also teamed up with Citizens United to make an anti-Obama movie, has appeared as a CPAC panelist and once said on Fox that he was “worried” about Hispanics moving away from the Republican party. And that’s just a taste of Caddell’s “Democratic” role on Fox.
Host Harris Faulkner began the discussion by noting that Hillary Clinton has left The Clinton Foundation. She asked Caddell if that was necessary.
Caddell got right to attacking Clinton.
CADDELL: I would have done it a long time ago because she has already invited scrutiny and simply now jumping off doesn’t solve the problem. …All it does is actually, in my opinion, bring it to the fore some more.
Then, while he had the airtime, he gratuitously added: “But I do have to say, that announcement was about the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Really?” Faulkner – a GOP mouthpiece if ever there was one - sounded astounded.
CADDELL: I swear to God, I thought it was one of those ads they keep running, you know, for BP or something, the beginning of it, because it took so long to get to her. And then she does it. It’s disconnected. I’m sorry, her problem is, what does she believe in and what is her vision and that stuff just looked, I thought, terrible.
Faulkner pointed out, “It’s just an announcement. …Should we expect the announcement to have much more than just 'I want to run?'”
Of course, LeBoutillier thought so.
Faulkner moved on to compare Clinton’s announcement to Ted Cruz’s. “Liberty University, huge crowd, big spiritually-led message, motivational, talked about all sorts of things, right? And then you have this on tape,” Faulkner said.
Schoen did say that unlike Cruz, Clinton is the frontrunner, with no real opponents, and that she has received President Obama’s endorsement. Schoen called Obama’s endorsement a “huge, huge positive.”
But to Caddell, Clinton is “very weak” and Elizabeth Warren is too cowardly to challenge her.
CADDELL: I think that somebody (else) should get in. I think she’s very weak and we have a long, long way to go. She has – yes, Democrats like her but they’re getting a little nervous given the numbers that keep showing that she has trustworthy problems.
…They don’t look like much now but inside the Democratic Party they could. And look, if Elizabeth Warren had the courage of her convictions, rather than her ambitions, she would run now, when the Democrats want her, and Hillary would be in deep trouble.
Long-time political reporter and columnist Doyle McManus has written about why Warren isn’t running. Let’s just say that lack of courage has nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, why doesn’t Caddell have the courage to admit he’s not a legitimate Democrat?
You can watch his charade below, from the April 12 Fox Report Weekend.
Doug Schoen was on Dobbs tonight, and actually mustered a little backbone to defend at least HRC’s video announcement. Of course, then he had to brag about how the Clintons listened carefully to his advice back in— whenever it was in history.
He sure isn’t a Hillary fan, but he’s still got just enough professional strategist juice to recognize a great campaign roll-out when he sees it.
I thought her video was a wonderful — and unabashedly feminine — contrast to the strutting and bloviating of the right-wing boys before screaming crowds of fanboys.
- the huge crowd at the Cruz announcement was REQUIRED to be there
- “if Elizabeth Warren had the courage of her convictions, rather than her ambitions, blah, blah, blah” Really? She does have the courage of her convictions, and she’s decided she can do more in the Senate at this time.
Ellen, I’m shocked. You seem to write that like being “inside a (recent) campaign” makes any difference to FoxNoise. There’s only ONE requirement for a gig at FoxNoise: Bash Democrats (especially the ones named “Clinton” or “Obama”). As other businesses might say, “No other experience necessary.”
Faulkner moved on to compare Clinton’s announcement to Ted Cruz’s. “Liberty University, huge crowd, big spiritually-led message, motivational, talked about all sorts of things, right? And then you have this on tape,” Faulkner said.
And other people might suggest it’s a way of dealing with insecurity. You know, like the stereotypical way that middle-aged men deal with a “midlife crisis” by having affairs with women (or men) half their age or buying flashy sports cars. For a politician, nothing screams “insecurity” quite so loudly as "appearing before a hand-picked (and “forced to attend or else”) crowd at a very friendly venue and resorting to meaningless platitudes designed to fit the target audience. (I mean, it’s not like Cruz really made any realistic announcements that would appeal to people OUTSIDE his target audience. Any appeals to defending civil rights or ensuring that the American right to vote would be protected from real fraud—mostly proven to have been done by GOPers—or ensuring that he would heed Jesus’s words and treat “the least” of people as he would treat Jesus? Not that I’m aware of.) Hillary, by contrast, has little reason to feel a need for some grandiose gesture. In fact, you just know if Hillary had made some Cruzian-style announcement, she’d be getting grief from the FoxNoise types as well.
And look, if Elizabeth Warren had the courage of her convictions, rather than her ambitions, she would run now, when the Democrats want her, and Hillary would be in deep trouble.
Huh? FoxNoise would be all over Warren for being “too ambitious” if she announced/announces a run for the Democratic nomination. They wouldn’t think she had “the courage of her convictions” in a bid for the White House—hell, they’d probably lambaste her as harshly as they did Obama, given Warren’s only been in the Senate since Jan 2013 and Obama had only been US Senator for 2 years when he made his first run; granted, Cruz has only been in the Senate for a little over 2 years but he’s a GOPer and that makes all the difference to FoxNoise.