It’s hard to know which was worse about Donald Rumsfeld discussing Ukraine on the Hannity show last night: the way his own colossal blunders were swept under the rug or his utter lack of professionalism or grace during this tense situation. Instead, Rumsfeld tag teamed with Sean Hannity in using a serious international confrontation for partisan hackery.
From beginning to end, the segment was designed solely to use the Russia/Ukraine situation to smear President Obama.
The politicization started right in Hannity’s first question, when he asked Rumsfeld if he agreed with Senator John Mccain’s accusation that Obama “doesn’t understand Putin’s ambition.”
Rumsfeld also made just about the entire discussion about Obama. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you might have thought that Obama was the sole cause of the whole problem. Rumsfeld said:
The central problem is American weakness. We’re managing our economy like a juvenile and telling the world that in the next decade or two we’re not gonna be there. We’re cutting back our defense fund. …We’re sending a signal that America’s weak, that we’re in decline and weakness is provocative. We’ve created a leadership vacuum in the world, it’s being filled by Putin and it’ll be filled by other Putin-like people.
…And what’s tomorrow? …It could be Iran or North Korea, it could be the People’s Republic of China.
Hannity ate up every word. He said, “It seems like Putin is enjoying… sticking his middle finger in Barack Obama’s face, like with Edward Snowden.”
If so, Putin is not the only one. As I said in a previous post, I’m beginning to think there’s a real party atmosphere over at Fox at this latest opportunity to smear our president.
In fact, Hannity seems to be looking forward to more, bigger crises that he can use against Obama. He asked Rumsfeld:
Are you saying that because of President Obama’s weakness… we are undergoing, the world right now, a geopolitical shift and do you foresee this alliance, if you will, a new axis being formed with China, Russia, maybe even Iran, Syria, involved in this? Do you foresee that getting to be a big problem?
Of course, Rumsfeld thought so. He said:
The idea that we would have created an environment that is hospitable for (Putin’s) absolutely outrageous behavior – but mark me, it’s not just Putin. It’s gonna be the People’s Republic of China, even if it’s not in cahoots with Putin.
And then the worst part, given George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, a much more serious threat to Americans:
How the man can go play golf and go to Democratic fundraisers and spend his time attacking Republicans this week… It’s inexcusable that this man has no concept of what a president ought to be doing. He simply is not doing the job of a leader.
But I can guarantee you that if Obama were to go into some kind of full crisis mode, Foxies would be attacking him for overblowing the significance. Conversely, if Bush were president, they’d be praising him for sending a message that the U.S. is operating as usual.
Hey! Remember me?! Sure Bush played golf after 9/11, so what?! An sure Bush joked about turrists under the podium, so what?! I know what I stand for – Freedom with the barrel of a gun!!! Putin is delusional so we needa give him a boot to the head! Oh, and send Paul Bremer to the YouCrane to fix their constitution!
I agree but there are a couple of practical considerations on my end. It’s a lot more time consuming for me to rip, edit and upload video rather than just using someone else’s. Sometimes I just don’t have the time.
Also, sometimes, I just can’t do it, as when I am working away from home and can’t plug my computer into a television. Sometimes I’m not near a television during prime time and sometimes the hotel I’m in makes the output inaccessible.
The other thing is, for the sake of creating a record, Hannity’s behavior with Rumsfeld, e.g., will probably be worth referring back to at a later time. In that case, it may carry more significance than an awful discussion among “strategists” and “analysts.”
I’m not claiming my system is perfect, just explaining the “nuts and bolts” behind my triage.
“Putin is makin an ass of Obama, he clearly doesn’t respect him.”
Hey Johan: I have one question: if you’re that worried about Putin, HOW ABOUT YOU OR YOUR MILITARY AGED LOVED ONES ENLISTING? I’m sure the line at your local armed forces recruiting center is not long. It’s time for rightwing loudmouths like you to PUT UP OR SHUT THE HELL UP!
And to the Franco-German troll, you’re not fooling anyone. You know if you really were of enough foreign mixture to retain such a foreign-sounding name, your teabagging buddies would be attacking you.
I’ll also point out to you that when it comes to “leadership qualities,” Obama > Bush by at least a factor of 100.
Number of wars that Obama’s led us into—ZERO.
Number of wars that Bush led us into—TWO.
Number of wars Obama’s gotten us out of—ONE (with another to be done by the end of this year)
Number of wars that Bush got us out of—ZERO.
Number of wars Obama’s people have endorsed—ZERO.
Number of wars Bush’s people have endorsed—COUNTLESS.
Oh, and number of Osama bin Ladens remembered, tracked down and killed during Obama’s administration—ONE.
Number of Osama bin Ladens remembered, tracked down and killed during Bush’s administration—ZERO. (Bush, don’t forget, called off the hunt for bin Laden and largely shut down the unit dedicated to tracking him down.)
Like Bush, he can be a great “Leader” and a “war” President, even though he can’t aim his aggression at the correct Country!
And all the war mongering right-wingers would praise his leadership…right?
Even a Republican would assume a Rumsfeld is coming from a somewhat biased perspective, but takes the less famous “former Pentagon official” or “Lt. Colonel” much more seriously as a source of presumably more objective analysis, just as I think VanSusteren does far more damage to the body politic by her uttely phony pretense of thoughtful objectivity than a blatant partisan cheerleader like Hannity.
Jane S, (if you’re reading this thread), I’m sorry I never got to that awful discussion with Ralph Peters which was worse than this one in a lost of ways. I’m busy with some extracurricular activities this week so my blogging will be a bit lighter than usual.
I can only expect we’ll be getting a missive from Greenwald describing how outraged L’il Eddie is with his new country of residence and its intolerable and unconscionable belligerence against its smaller and less powerful neighbor.
Or not. After all, in the world of L’il Eddie and Glenn “I’m not a reporter but I pretend to be one following my own set of journalistic criteria” Greenwald, Putin isn’t using drones against a bunch of brown people. No. Putin just orders airstrikes to bomb civilian targets and send in ground forces to kill civilians in the WHITE Muslim parts of Russia. Also, Putin (in their eyes, anyway) doesn’t suffer the crime of “being Obama.” No wonder the FoxNoise kkkrew loves Putin so much. He’s practically a Republicon.
That line, is exactly how Slanthead opened his Tuesday radio hate fest.
[I didn’t listen at all today, as mercifully, baseball kept Hannity off the air in NYC again and I had to go out instead of hang around to see if he’d get a last 30 minutes or so in.]
Ellen, did Slanthead or Rumsfeld bring up Benghazi?
If not don’t worry. Benghazi will emerge — if it hasn’t already — as the prime cause of all Russian ambitions in that part of the world.
Keep in mind that Benghazi serves a very convenient dual purpose for all the FNC slime balls: they can use it to tar and feather Obama despite the fact that he’s essentially a lame duck. And what a wonderful noose to hang around Hillary’s neck, for what, another ten plus years!
Benghazi! Benghazi! BENNNGHHHAAAAAAAZEEEE!!!
The only question on my mind is whether Hannoccio will drag up Benghazi as much as he has mentioned Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, unrepentant terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn, et. al. — all of Obama’s “associations.”
Slanthead started mouthing their names way back in the 2008 campaign, and repeated them so many times on a daily basis ever since. Could he have brought them up over 100 times in one day? Very possible.
Hannocchio’s mouth is like a clogged kitchen disposal: it grinds and sputters, and every few seconds, it regurgitates the same smelly garbage back up into the sink!
