And the Beat Goes On.....And the Beat Goes On....
Reported by Donna - June 28, 2005
In preparation for tonight's presidential speech at 8 p.m. EST, Shepard Smith spoke with Brit Hume on Studio B today.
Smith started off the segment by saying that the president was going to make his case for going into the war with Iraq. He made the usual talking points -- it's the one year anniversary since the U.S. had handed over sovereignty to Iraq, the Iraqi people had gone to the polls, and that nearly half of the military casualties have been suffered by the Americans (that's because so many Iraqi Security Forces have been getting killed lately).
The following are most of the points they spoke about.
Smith began by talking about what O'Reilly had to say about the situation in Iraq. He said that O'Reilly stated that in the latest polls less than 40% of Americans supported the war, which O'Reilly called a 'disaster'. He said that O'Reilly said there were other problems as well.
He then brought on Brit Hume who gave his thoughts, that the insurgents, the terrorists, have not succeeded in making much headway against Iraq's emergence as an independent country and one with a democratically elected government. (Talking points, talking points)
Brit said what the insurgents were successful in was 'making the news' and making it everyday. (And this is not supposed to be reported?) Hume said that the attacks were spectacular and they were bloody and that they were 'eye catching'. He added that a daily diet of this is discouraging and the public is discouraged. (Ya think?)
He said that the president obviously needs to remind them that this obscures the underlying reality which is very much brighter. That this is an insurgency with no real political message or meaning. (Stay on target, stay on target)
After some additional talking points on the insurgency, Smith told Hume that coalition forces had killed more than 20,000 insurgents and that some on Capitol Hill would argue that this war is creating more terrorists, not getting rid of them. Hume said this would hold water with those who oppose the war, but not with this administration.
Hume went into the speech about fighting them in Iraq as opposed to fighting them here.
Smith had another comment on the President's approval rating being down 20 points from what it had been a couple of years ago and Hume said that his presidency will be defined by this war. He said this is the big one, as long as he has public support, he will keep this going. (What public support, oh, the support he's trying to get from tonight's speech)
There was further discussion by Hume that this was not another Vietnam and about democracy spreading to the rest of the Middle East. And, of course, to tune in tonight to Brit Hume and the All Stars after the speech.
Comment: I think Hume pretty much laid out Bush's speech. His arrogancy 'this may hold water with those who oppose the war (reminder, the majority of the American public) but it didn't hold any water with this administration' (which shows you how out of touch this administration is) was easily perceptible.
In contrast, I turned on CNN after Studio B and found them also speaking in regards to the president's speech. They were talking about a new ABC poll that had just come out that said 52% of Americans believe the Bush Administration had intentionally mislead the American public in the case to go to war. CNN also spoke about the Downing Street Memo being a likely source of people starting to feel this way.
I'll see you guys a little before 8 p.m. EST tonight where we are going to have a live forum, kind of like we had during the debates. Other News Hounds are going to try and be around so that we can make it a good discussion. At least a very supportive one. Don't forget to come back when the speech is on (translation: eat now, talk later).
