MoveOn's Media Misstep
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In the three days since they originally took out a full-page ad in the New York Times deriding General David "Betray Us?" Petraeus, MoveOn.org is still the big media story of the week, nearly eclipsing the General's testimony. (Simply while writing this post, it's been covered on two of the three cable nets.)
It's a textbook case of media blowback, with the ad having given supporters of the "surge" a certain amount of rhetorical cover, or at least an opportunity to shift the focus of the discussion from the streets of Baghdad to the well-known activist group and bugaboo of the right.
Joe Klein at Time magazine wrote an article called "MoveOn.Infantile."
Chris Cilizza, Washington Post political wonk extraordinaire published a piece entitled "MoveOn.org: Momentum or Menace?"
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) took time out of her questioning on Monday to lambaste the ad.
The Kansas City Star even felt compelled to publish an editorial demanding an apology from MoveOn, "General Petraeus Deserves an Apology."
And as if that wasn't enough, the ultimate proof that MoveOn had overshot their target? Stephen Colbert mocked them on "The Colbert Report" last night.
Regardless of your politics or position on America's military involvement in Iraq, it's clear that the MoveOn.org ad – whether on its own or through Republican counterarguments – was a tactical failure for the Democrats and left, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) denouncing the ad in a nationally-televised interview.
In a week where Americans could have been focusing in on troop levels, progress and benchmarks, MoveOn.org gave the General's supporters a ready-made talking point. Rather than discuss how 53 percent of Americans expected Petraeus to give an overly rosy depiction of the surge, Petraeus and his supporters were able to get out of their defensive crouch and move the debate in their favor.
Excuse me, but hasn''t the media been telling us for at least a week or two something along the line that the report was going to be written by the White House and then given to Petraeus for approval?
Iraq''s Congress has come back for their rather expensive (for us anyway) month long vacation so I suppose that could be considered "stepping forward".
Why wouldn''t the Pentagon adopt a bizarre formula for counting casualties? Last I heard the White House had adopted cost of living indicators that didn''t include the majority of "luxuries" such as a roof over our heads and food.
The move-on.org ad is wrong about one thing though. I have seen either a story about ethnic cleansing somewhere on tv; probably PBS. That''s where I go quite a bit now. They''re a little more honest... And excuse me, but I listen to Up To The Minute while I''m trying to wake up and don''t really care what''s being said, but didn''t I hear just this morning how we "might" have a withdrawal next summmer if we''re really lucky and the Iraqis step up to the plate from our "temporary" surge that was originally only supposed to last how long?
Pelosi? She''s rapidly making herself irrelevant.
Why don''t you just cut to the chase and tell us how low you think our IQs are.
And just when you thought the Democrats couldn''t look any more foolish, weak, anti-American, or treasonous - they jump the shark - again.
Of course Republicans were going to manufacture a diversion, the same way they can shut down empathy for Fox simply because he has a horrible disease, or Edwards because she''s dying, or because Hillary has female anatomy. If they didn''t have this ad, it would have been something else, and the Democrats would have "handed" them an issue that diverted attention away because they know they have you there to run with it.
Why is this dominating the news? Don''t blame MoveOn. Look in a mirror.
I can''t imagine a Republican saying something so partisan and extreme that the press would ever consider suggesting it might "blowback". They call for assassinations of Democrats, mock triple amputees, savage veterans, manufacture accusations of rape, drug running and murder, or twist McCain''s adoption of a girl into an illegitimate black child. You''ll never see a post about that. You''ll never hear that called a stumble.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
I''m sory... let me catch my breath here. No, what actually happened is when Kerry called on MoveOn to remove the ad about an actual question about Bush''s service, it allowed the press to single-mindedly focus on the non-question about Kerry''s record! You know what''s even funnier? The entire time, the press was very careful not to suggest the SBV nonsense the GOP flacks handed to them had any connection to Bush''s campaign!
Pelosi''s learning curve is as nonexistant as the rest of DC.
By the ways, asking the guy in charge of making the surge work to make an unbiased assessment of the surge is like going back to get a "second opinion" from the same doctor that gave you your "first opinion" in the first place. Pointless. The only people who can''t see the fundamental logical problem with this are the overpaid and lazy "journalists" who melt at the flash of shiny medals.
Anyways, you can also make the case that by turning this ad into a media story, you''ve ended up inadvertantly spreading it''s message far and wide. Everybody now knows that not everyone thinks Petraeus is the Second Coming - a little shine is off of the new media golden boy.
So..a misstep?
Only among whiney liberals who''s default position is the defensive crouch.
Oil revenues would bring investment, employment, and prosperity to Iraq. No matter who is running the Iraqi government, or if the country is divided, Oil will still bring the necessary commerce to the People of Iraq no matter what form of regime they settle on to rebuild their war torn country.
I believe the Maliki Government is misleading the Bush Administration into believing that they are willing to give the majority (70%) of the Oil revenues to Private Multinational Corporations. As long as the Bush Administration is supporting Nuri al- Maliki''s Government with $money and military force they will take it without accountability.
It would appear very doubtful the Maliki Government would be able to hold control over all of Iraq without US support. And, if the US should suddenly pull their operations (like WTC Building 7) the Bush installed puppet government in Iraq is destine to collapse and a power vacuum will take place for control of the Oil Production and the guaranteed revenues, investments, and prosperity.
Iraq doesn''t need the US, they have Oil.
This might well be the Joe McCarthy moment for the left. Moveon has demonstrated conclusively that it has no decency.
Iraqis
Liberation
OIL!
The Oil Production is all we should be talking about at this point and going forward with the United States involvement in Iraq. George WMD Bush is an Oilman, and should speak in Oil nomenclature to the American People. How much Oil is being produced and the future potential production, and how long, or how much are proceeds going to re-pay the American People for our costs in Liberating the Iraqis people from Saddam Hussein (an evil dictator).
All this other reporting from Military Generals and Whitehouse Cabinet Memebers such as Colin Powelle, David Betraeuse, Condoleeza Rice, and *** Cheney is insignificant to the eventual conclusion to the Oil situation and budding windfall to a controlling body.
Cost of the war today: $451,143,285,810
Is there going to be a pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow for the American People?
"Now, anyone who has had the opportunity to meet the General, and anybody who has bothered to follow his career or his academic pursuits, knows that these are dangerous and unwarranted allegations. However, there might be a silver lining to this slander. Libel, really, because it was printed [in the] The New York Times. Now, all of America understands [why] MoveOn.org and other groups like it are called the nutroots of our society. These people are nuts and they don''t care who they hurt, they don''t care who they smear they don''t care who they libel. Politics is more important than anything else and power is the most important anything of all."
Priceless, Senator. And right on target.
"Now, anyone who has had the opportunity to meet the General, and anybody who has bothered to follow his career or his academic pursuits, knows that these are dangerous and unwarranted allegations. However, there might be a silver lining to this slander. Libel, really, because it was printed [in the] The New York Times. Now, all of America understands [why] MoveOn.org and other groups like it are called the nutroots of our society. These people are nuts and they don''t care who they hurt, they don''t care who they smear they don''t care who they libel. Politics is more important than anything else and power is the most important anything of all."
Priceless, Senator. And right on target.
Posted by One_American at 12:45 PM : Sep 13, 2007
Well said, now we need to get through making Politics of the United States interest in Iraq.
Our President will be speaking to the world tonight, and I hope that his bi-partisan desire is genuine, and he will be able to show us what direction the reconciliation, restoration, and conclusion to our involvement with Iraq will be.
Now THAT''S comedy gold!
To be fair to One_American, we don''t know for certain he isn''t being entirely consistent here about his concern for our veterans. Can you say with absolute certainty he didn''t vote for Kerry out of anger over the Swiftboat Vets? I mean, maybe the fact that Kerry was a Democrat didn''t make any difference to him when delegates at the GOP convention wore bandages to mock his war wounds because he honors the service of any American who fights for our country, regardless of politics. His patriotism might have trumped partisanship when his party went after a triple-amputee, or a candidate who got her legs blown off. Conservative partisans can''t be so predictable that we can make those kinds of assumptions when we don''t know the facts.
I take One_Americans claims of genuin respect for the people who serve this country at a face value until One_American tells us otherwise.
Even more interesting, after reading the major media websites (CBS, CNN, Fox and MSNBC), Fox is the only site that I have found that mentions this.
That is why "Fair and Balanced" really does only apply to Fox, the rest are just promoting the liberal viewpoint.
For a complete debunking of this nonsense, go here: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12873.html#more-12873
You don''t know how much MoveOn paid. You have no idea. This was pulled out of thin air. That''s why you won''t see it reported by any reputable news org.
You are full of ***, the link you suggested I read to get the "truth" does not dispell it at all.
It says the Times refused to say how much they charged MoveOn, and that their prices vary depending on several factors, I am sure one of which is what view (political) the ad is trying to convey!
I am not a Republican, I am Independent and think every issue should be looked at by itself.
You and Mattcat do nothing but spout the typical leftist view on every thing you write about.
Then you say I''m full of it because the link I gave you says the NYT''s doesn''t give out how much people pay. Which is what I said. Then you say I should just believe it''s low and based on partisanship because they have a policy of not disclosing that information based on... well, your partisan bias as an independent.
I would suggest that a news organization needs more than that to run the story, or should. Before they go on the air charging the NYTs with unfair charging based on partisanship, you would need a) how much MoveOn paid and b) how much other partisan organizations pay and c) clear data demonstrating a direct correlation between how much people pay and their partisan leanings, that can''t be explained by other objective criteria.
You have none of these, but we should report it as fact anyway merely because you love the nefarious implications. SBV 101.
Where were you in 2002 ?
Cleland served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, attaining the rank of Captain. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, including during the Battle of Khe Sanh on April 4th, 1968.
Running for Max Cleland''s Georgia Senate seat in 2002, the Republican Chambliss questioned his opponent''s patriotism. You may recall he even ran TV ads with photos of Cleland alongside those of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The ads were roundly maligned at the time as a new low in political dirty tricks. But, of course, they had the desired effect...... Chambliss won.
Posted by memekiller at 01:02 PM : Sep 13, 2007
Exactly - this guy thinks he is the next Eisenhower. - Didn''t he have the job of training the Iraqi Army and Security forces ? Where are they ? - Wasn''t there a GAO Report about 190,000 missing weapons under his watch ? Where are they ?
He dug that grave himself.
Run it again, MoveOn!
I have stated the reasons for why I think Bush and the Republicans have created this situation in Iraq and continue their policy was to take (barrowed) $money from our Federal Treasury and divert it to the private sector at $12 Billion Dollars per week. That''s a *** load of cash unconceivable to most except to the Republican War Machine.
George Bush''s Profit Sharing Agreement was stifled yesterday by the Iraqi Parliament. The bill drafted by the US State Department (Richard Cheney) was to have the Iraqi Parliament approve the privatization of the Oil Production for all of Iraq. The PSA would''ve turned over 70% of oil profits to 4-5 Multinational Corporations for the next 30 years. In essence the Iraqi Government would have been working for the Oil Companies.
Instead the Kurdish Province from the North of Iraq abstained from turning their oil over to the Oil Companies and opted to enact contracts to have private companies work on their behalf to produce oil and gas.
Bush hasn''t given up on obtaining the oil from Iraq, our troops will never come home, and the cost will continue to register. The US Congress will not be able to change the policy in Iraq because of obstruction from the Republican Party and the Veto Powers of the President.
The only thing I can suggest is for Americans to preemptively impeach the next Republican President.
Thank-you Ms. Pelosi.
Next, Moveon needs to apologize, in a full page add.
You know what gkc99. I''m going to do you a favor.
Your hatrid has blinded you to the results of your actions by posting the above. So, what do you think your party''s officals would think of the above post?
With CBS''s new format, do you think it will get more viewing by the public exploring the site ?
So, question is - did you further the cause for the left, or the right? You aren''t terribly bright are you ?
In a sane world, it probably wouldn''t hurt the cause near as much as Anne Coulter mokcing a triple amputee, saying, "no wonder you lost the war", then claiming he was drunk, which wasn''t true, and hadn''t earned his medals. It might set back the cause as much as Boehner saying American soldiers are a "small price to pay" for the success in Iraq, or the Bush campaign using McCain''s torture and internment to spread rumors he was a "Manchurian Candidate". Or, Coulter praising Timothy McVeigh for blowing up the Federal building, or Congressmen calling for the assassination of judges, or writing editorials, hopefully pining for another 9/11 to rally the Republican party. Or possibly Limbaugh''s on air fantasy of every opponent of Mr. Bush''s war getting their heads chopped off on insurgent videotape -- we''d love Bush''s war then! Or claiming Abu Ghraib is a result of women in the military. Or using the suicide to suggest murder.
However, the world is not sane, and you will back the party of this partisan venom for its politeness and bipartisanship because being polite, just as being patriotic, means obeying the Boy King and demonizing the heathens.
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by houser123
September 14, 2007 2:46 PM PDT
- Yep. MoveOn over shot that target by a wide margin. Who is the knucklehead that came up with that less than brilliant idea. Don''t misinterpret this comment as defending this war, for it is not. I was apposed from the beginning and remain that way today. What MoveOn did show is that the gutter can be occupied by both the the Swift Boaters and the MoveOn''ers. This just goes to prove you dont have to be real smart to spend a lot of money on advertisement.
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