The View: Hard Hitting Journalists?

After watching John McCain and his wife Cindy appear on The View today, I came to the conclusion that the women on the panel of The View are doing a better job of asking the tough questions of the presidential candidates. While I am sure Elizabeth Hasselbeck was initially in her glory, I think the rest of the panel simply wanted to get some answers.

Even Barbara Walters, who usually annoys me with her constant need to keep a middle ground, went after John McCain like a pit bull…WITH lipstick. She pressed McCain hard on what exactly it is that Sarah Palin is trying to reform, seeing that it's been a Republican in office for the last 8 years? McCain also stated that Palin never had earmarks when she was Governor, which we know is not true.

McCain digs himself into a huge hole when he states that judges should interpret the constitution as the founders intended. When Whoopi asked McCain if this means she has to worry about becoming a slave again, he backtracks. And when McCain calls Roe vs. Wade a "very bad decision", the load groans from the audience was hard to miss.

Cindy also came out looking as if she were dressed for a formal cocktail party. She also gets prickly when asked about how many houses they have. When she says that this issue isn’t part of the campaign, she then goes on to talk about her parents and what they did for her. So I suppose that only her houses are off limits, not her family. So much for Elizabeth's veiled comments the other day about Michelle Obama and how much more open Cindy is in comparison. Cindy did admit that she doesn't agree with Palin, on Palin’s no exemption for abortion in cases of incest or rape.

If John McCain thought that being interviewed by a group of women would be easy, he was sadly mistaken. They (Whoopi, Barbara, Joy) skewered him, and did it well. In fact, they did it much better than the mainstream media has been doing. They tried hard to get solid answers to the questions on everybody’s mind than the other national news shows and talking heads. Sadly, McCain didn’t get it, at one point, he gave a heavy sigh, seemingly frustrated that they were asking real questions! And I for one felt that at least there ARE people out there trying to get real answers, and I’m glad that it came from a woman’s talk show.








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Part 2: Will Elizabeth Hasselbeck Please Shut Up

Please shut it! Thank you.

Back in July, I wrote about my disdain for Elizabeth Hasselbeck, begging that she just shut up.

Clearly, she didn’t listen. Speaking in Minneapolis at a Republican function, she took a shot at Michelle Obama, which even seemed to elicit a collective gasp from the audience:




Personally, I'm confused as to what Elizabeth refers. Is she saying that Michelle Obama is a primadonna that makes topics off limits to people? This is a new allegation to me, and I have yet to be able to substantiate Elizabeth’s attack. Is she trying to make Michelle out to be unreachable and elite? Again, I have never heard or seen any evidence of this, in fact, everyone seems to speak very highly of Michelle's approachability. Frankly, Michelle seems like an open book whenever she has appeared in television interviews. And that includes her appearance on The View.

In all honesty, it’s getting to be a little tiresome seeing Elizabeth try to use The View as her personal soapbox for the Republican Party. I was actually sickened when they gave her so much air time earlier this week to show her "behind the scenes" coverage of the Republican convention. It’s clear to me that she is just as opinionated as Rosie O’Donnell was on the show, and it’s getting in the way of encouraging true debate and intelligent dialog on the show. And her comment at this Republican function seemed so out of place that even the audience seemed a little uncomfortable.

So I ask one more time, Elizabeth, please give it a rest.

If anyone out there has any information that could substantiate, or rationalize Elizabeth’s accusation, I’d sure like to see it.


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Michelle Obama – Off Limits or Fair Game?

First of all, full disclosure here. I am supportive of Barack Obama for the presidency. I actually voted for Hilary Clinton in my state’s primary, and while I would support her should she become the democratic candidate, right now my vote goes to Obama.

But today in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, Senator Barack Obama criticized the Tennessee Republican Party for an ad highlighting comments made by his wife, Michelle, that some say are unpatriotic. In this ad, produced by the Tennessee GOP, Michelle Obama is featured saying, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." (I recall when this statement she made surfaced months ago, and knew that it would probably end up resurfacing in some shape or form later in the campaign.)

On GMA, Senator Obama said, "The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record…If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family…For them to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class and I think they — most of the American people would think that as well,” he said. “I would never think of going after somebody’s spouse in a campaign.”

The four-minute video (below) replays her comments many times, interspersed with comments by Tennesseans stating why they were proud of the U.S. (More commentary and information after this video, so keep reading.)




Michelle Obama has since clarified her original statement (video below) , saying she meant she was proud of how Americans were engaging in the political process, and that she had always been proud of her country. (More after video.)




OK, this situation is a little tough to call. Looking at the big picture here. Hillary Clinton has taken a lot of heat for what her husband, former President Bill Clinton has said on the campaign trail, and she’s made comments about it. It really hasn’t stopped the assault. One may argue that Bill is more actively campaigning, but where does one draw the line on how much campaigning can a spouse do before it’s fair game for attack ads? Historically, this election season is not the first time a spouse has been the target in a presidential election. Sometimes the spouse deserves the heat, sometimes they don’t. My initial impression is that Barack Obama’s statements on this issue with the attack ad on his wife has had the opposite effect – it made more people look at the ad and comment about it. And I think that since Michelle has been campaigning for her husband, her comments should be fair game. But, I say this with some conditions.

What we have to hope is that voters are willing to dig into the subject matter more deeply rather than dismiss her comments as unpatriotic. Her whole message where the statement was initially made should be put into context. Personally, I think when you have anyone working for you on the campaign trail – spouse, children, parents, anyone – who is speaking on your behalf, they should take the heat for whatever comments they make while campaigning. But, it is way out of line for the Tennessee GOP to take one line out of context and try to make it into something that it’s not. To me, it’s horribly unfair to take sound bytes and clips only, and not take in the whole context,

If anything, this ad has only made me more resolved to vote for a Democrat in the upcoming presidential election. Low blows like this ad do not project the image for a party that I want to have anything to do with.


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