BRODER CONFESSES! Six years later, a lawless old dean explains why he pand

[springhill]

From the Daily Howler:

BRODER: Bush was elected twice, over Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry, whose know-it-all arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself. The country thought Bush was a pleasant, down-to-earth guy who would not rock the boat. Instead, swayed by some inner impulse or the influence of Dick Cheney, he has proved to be lawless and reckless. He started a war he cannot finish, drove the government into debt and repeatedly defied the Constitution.

Remarkable! Apparently, Broder was too dumb to know how to parse Bush’s record in Texas (more below). Staring out dimly from fine press corps suites, he somehow believed, during Campaign 2000, that Candidate Bush was “a pleasant, down-to-earth guy who would not rock the boat.” Meanwhile, The Dean was rankled by Candidate Gore, bothered by his “know-it-all-arrogance.” Result? Today, he moans about Bush’s conduct, pretending that none of it could have been forecast. And as we mentioned just this Wednesday, he and the rest of his worthless old cohort still won’t admit they were wrong about Gore. (Nor would they do so, or change their scripts, if Gore ran again in 2008.) “They hate Gore,” Mickey Kaus said, reporting from New Hampshire in January 2000. (Kaus’ emphasis. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 6/20/00). Six years later, Broder cops, and even explains; his powdered cohort hated Gore because Gore had a “know-it-all arrogance.” Of course, Broder himself is too dumb and too arrogant to explain just what those starting words mean. The insult is simply typed up again, justification for Broder’s bad judgments.

By the way, how bad was Broder’s judgment about Candidate Bush? No, Bush’s deviance wasn’t fully predictable, but Broder is a screaming fool to pretend that the problems could not be foreseen. Just re-read this piece by Lou Dubose—a Nation piece from April 1999—if you think that Bush’s kleptocratic style is something that emerged from thin air. Dubose spelled it out rather clearly: The handing of major Texas state agencies to Bush’s grasping corporate cronies; the large tax favors to the rich; the refusal to attend to the health of poor children, even when the feds were paying; the compromised earlier business career; and, alas, forerunner to Broder, “a capital press corps that is so friendly to the governor that some reporters regularly violate the state's archaic sodomy statute, which Bush supports.” We’d have skipped the sodomy business ourselves, but then, as now, the “press” had surrendered. According to Dubose, the Texas press corps had walked off its posts long before Bush announced for the White House. And then, in the months after Bush announced, the great Dean Broder walked off his post too. He proved it with that bizarre pair of columns about those crucial convention speeches. And now, this week, he has finally confessed; just as Mickey Kaus (and Al Hunt) had said, this lazy old man hated Gore.

David Broder’s column this week is an important part of recent world history. Six years later, he finally describes his own remarkable set of misjudgments. But please note: He still pretends that Gore was a bad man, and that there were no troubling signs from Bush. Nor does he tell you what he did because of his own self-pitying judgments. But go ahead! Re-read that remarkable pair of columns about the 2000 convention speeches. You’re gazing on the work of a crook—a fixer, a con man, a corrupt, lawless pundit. And you’re seeing how a similar “lawless” man ended up where he now is.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/

[BurtWorm]

1. That was an excellent DH.

Start to finish.

:toast:

[Phredicles]

2. David Broder has been dean of the Servile DC Press as long as

I can remember, and I am by no means a young person any more. Good to see him finally get called on his rim-jobbery.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. K&R

[tomreedtoon]

4. Isn't it better to consider how "know it all" stuck so well?

And don't say it was the media or Republican lies. They helped, but they didn't help as much as the campaigns run by the candidates. I'm sorry, but Gore and Kerry DID come off as people who felt haughty and superior to the common man. And Bush made hay on that phony "common man" business.

[Cosmocat]

6. Look ...

Uptight and a "deer in headlights" as The Big Dog said, for both Kerry and Gore ...

Yeah ...

But, arrogant, haughty or "superior the common man, whatever the freak that means" ... Only in the mind of the bigoted or corrupted ...

I can say for a FACT, and I mean it, from the moment I set eyes on Bush as a presidential "candidate" I saw him for what he was, a petulent tool, literally ... He was an open book to me, a swarmy 80s coke and good times guy ... Meanwhile, I saw Kerry and Gore for what they were, decent, intelligent men ... Uptight and stiff, yeah ...

It really WAS the simple, but it took a concerted effort by the right, with the willing cooperation of the MSM to paint Bush as a "guy you would have beer with" ( like, that should even be in the top 1000 things in considering someone as president ) and that Gore was arrogant, for example cause he "said he created the internet" ...

Bottom line, is either lie cuts along the wrong freakin line of reasoning for choosing a president ... Who cares if someone is a "man of the people" or even if they would be "arrogant" ... Jesus, we are talking about the presidnent of the gall darn United States, not a caddy at a golf course ... I could give a rats tail IF someone was arrogant, as long as they were intelligent, decent and in the game to serve the best interests of the people ...

In that regard, even now, you are playing the game at the level these clowns wanted it to be played ... PERSONAL vs competence ...

My oldest daughter has had two surgeries now, where she went under ... The LAST thing I was looking for in the docs who did the surgeries was if I "liked" them ... I wanted the best docs we could get ... Screw having beer with them ...

Next to the man who holds the life of my daughter in his hands, not much more important person in my life than the president of the united states ... Same applies ...

[tomreedtoon]

19. You NEED the votes of the "bigoted and corrupted." Duuuh!

And I think it's rather snooty of you to say that only one "class" of people should count. To put it plainly, would you disenfranchise everyone below a certain education level? Or is someone who lives in a trailer camp automatically forbidden to vote? Are they the "corrupted" people you hate so much?

A leader is supposed to lead everybody. That means gathering support in all kinds of ways. I've noted that most people on DU love intellectual ideas above all else. That's good, but how can those ideas be implemented and how can the guy be elected if the common people don't trust him?

The important point about Bill Clinton was that he appealed to a wide range of personality types. He was an educated, sophisticated man of the world, but he was someone that the ordinary person felt he could call "Bill" without getting a stern rebuke.

Al Gore's campaign song during the Clinton Presidency was Paul Simon's "My Bodyguard" with the lyric "you can call me Al." I don't know what it was when he ran in 2000 - a Mozart sonata, perhaps - but it wasn't anywhere near a common touch thing. The same goes for Kerry, who looked like an actor who played a Democratic candidate, but went home after work to choose a selection from his wine cellar.

This has nothing to do with Gore or Kerry's beliefs. But it is an important matter. You might ask how George Bush, a man who hates black people, poor people, sick people and foreign people, managed to get more votes than the people who don't. (And don't bring up election fraud - it helped Bush, but he didn't need much help.) It's because he ACTED like he liked those people and talked their language. And the Democratic candidates didn't.

If we were to get a Presidential nominee that would support progressive ideas - and LOOKED and SOUNDED like he cared for the people he wanted to help - there'd be fewer worries for 2008. As of yet, there isn't such a person.

[roseBudd]

13. I don't think Kerry or Gore could help that impression, they have no

charisma. They just aren't Clinton. Clinton without charisma would be a know it all arrogant.

[tomreedtoon]

20. Bush can fake Charisma. Why can't Democrats?

I posted something in this same thread to someone who didn't understand this point. Let me continue on with this idea.

Bush, to my perception, doesn't have charisma. Neither did Kerry or Gore. But Bush was able to successfully fake it for a long time. Now, he looks like a wreck, a shaking neurotic who you wouldn't let drive a school bus. He's the male Ms. Crabtree: "Sit down and keep quiet!!!!"

A central problem with Kerry and Gore is that, when they try to fake charisma, they fumble. I'm reminded of Dukakis and the photos of him in a tank, and Gore looking extremely uncomfortable in a flannel shirt. Kerry...well, I don't recall him making any obvious blunders, except maybe he just didn't even try to fake charisma.

Come on! The Democratic Party includes a lot of actors. Some of them are the best actors; we have better actors than the Republicans do (think Charlton Heston on their side). Why can't these guys coach the next generation of Democratic candidates in how to act in a likeable manner?

[springhill]

24. I will say exactly that.........

because it is absolutely true.

[Eurobabe]

5. David Broder is a 1st class putz

Sorry, but I find alot of people from the Midwest to be extremely servile and gullible. (I am allowed to say that because I WAS one until I moved at a young age to another part of the country and broadened my horizons.)

Don't get me wrong, there are many nice people in the Midwest, it's just many of them don't lead, they follow. And they don't exercise curiousity. David Broder's comment typifies the stubborn Midwest mindset.

[vssmith]

11. Sorry, but what you say is wrong!!

[Flubadubya]

7. Good read...

I just wish more "pundits" would get a sharp case of buyer's remorse and be prepared to watch their damned mouths in the next presidential election.

Even so, it looks like Broder only learned a "partial" lesson. Hah! He still would like to believe that Cheney "corrupted" Shrub somehow. Bwahahaha!!!

Look you dumb Pundit Putz, they're both evil as hell! :thumbsdown:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I want more of this, but I want to put a stake in their hearts.

All those people who thought Al Gore was arrogant or an elitist were either intimidated by his intelligence or threatened by him because they rely on skirting the law to make their money. Gore would have, assuredly, put an end to all that.

[Rageneau]

9. I wonder if Broder has any IDEA how low we esteem him.

[WinkyDink]

10. Yes, having a brilliant man as president is SUCH a bummer.

[Leopolds Ghost]

12. It is called BLACKMAIL.

Broder is afraid of what Bush cronies, and especially Karl Rove, might know of him, if nothning else, of his political beliefs, in his private e-mail correspondence.

E-mail (and message boards like this one) can be a powerful tool for controlling the ambitious, who don't want their words to come back to haunt them. You don't even need to make threats in order to chill the atmosphere.

Notice the difference in media treatment of Bush during the period when Rove was under investigation, to the period since then. Why do you think the media hates Rove so much? They know. They hate Rove like they hate themselves, for their own complacency.

[UTUSN]

14. When DH is good, it is very VERY good, which is almost always n/t

[drbtg1]

22. Unfortunately, his hypocrisy pisses me off

He slams Mr. Olbermann for spending time between MSNBC and ESPN radio while he also spends his time between media analysis and the educational system analysis. Fucking hypocrite.

[indepat]

15. May there be a special place in hell for all media whores

[farmbo]

16. Don't forget Broder's little handie in the article for Dewine (R Ohio)

<snip>Similarly important, though less publicized, is Republican Sen. Mike DeWine's race in Ohio. DeWine is an ally of McCain & Co. in forming a center for the Senate; his opponent, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown, is a loud advocate of protectionist policies that offer a false hope of solving our trade and job problems.<snip>

This during a week when Ford Motor Company laid off another 15,000 union workers from Ohio assembly plants... and started the process of moving those jobs offshore.

Broder and the beltway cocktail party elites are in the midst of a full throated, well-funded media campaign to save the status quo from the Jacksonian unwashed.

[Cha]

18. Go Sherrod Brown!

"What Can Sherrod Brown Do For The Democrats?"


snip~

"The road to the Democratic Party's renewal runs through Allen County, Ohio. And Sherrod Brown is on it, looking for the towns his party forgot and the voters who got away. "We have a government in Washington that has betrayed the middle class and the working poor in this country," the Democratic Senate candidate tells a crowd gathered in the back of a Carpenters Union hall in Lima, the manufacturing town that is the turbine in the county's sputtering economic engine. "You know what I mean when I say 'betrayed.' There's no other word for it. And I'm not one of those Democrats who is going to hesitate to talk about that betrayal. The stakes are too high for places like this." "Amen!" comes a call from the crowd. "Sherrod's talking the language people here talk," says Derry Glenn, a Lima city councilman, who stands in an open doorway at the back of the hall. "You start by establishing that you understand what's wrong. Kerry never did that."

Theoretically, Lima should be Democratic turf. A blue-collar town with a solid union base and a substantial African-American population, this city of 40,000 has lost 8,000 manufacturing jobs and a quarter of its population over the past two decades. A few years back, a PBS documentary crew titled a report from Lima Lost in Middle America. Though Lima still has a Ford plant and an Army tank facility, the deindustrialization that has hammered Ohio during George W. Bush's tenure has taken a particular toll here. The local unemployment rate sits at 6.9 percent, a full point above the Ohio rate, which is a full point above the national rate. Yet in 2004, Democrat John Kerry only managed a tie with Bush in the city, while the Republican swept Allen County by a 2-to-1 margin. The inability of the Democrats to capitalize on economic issues to put towns like Lima in their column has contributed mightily to Republican domination of Ohio, where all major statewide offices are in GOP hands and where the last two presidential elections handed Bush the electoral votes he needed to secure the presidency. No matter what one thinks about the electoral shenanigans Republicans pulled before and during the 2004 presidential vote, a Democrat has to hold his own in places like Lima and Allen County if he wants to win by a big enough margin to put talk of recounts behind him. "We are going to do a lot better than Kerry in these towns," Brown says, as he whirls through another sixteen-hour day at senior centers, union halls and Farm Bureau meetings in communities that don't see many big-name Democrats.

Brown, a seven-term Congressman who gave up the chance to be a key..."



http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061002/nichols2

[Cha]

17. I'm much smarter than broder..and

that goes for all of DU, too..except for the little tiny minded trolls trolling around looking for chances to show how dumb they are.

[bridgit]

21. i would hope that all journalists of repute would just stop for a....

moment...and choke on the tears of many widows & mothers without their sons, families torn apart, the innocent blood split, lost; the squandering of billions, and all as a result not of unanswered questions...but questions never even asked

imo america's free press has failed her, at her most profound time of need; it is well, well, well, well, well, well past time for these various folks with the power or access, to the pen, the ink, the printing press & the paper to do so, such as Broder for one (1); to attempt to at least make themselves square once again with the right bestowed upon them that so much death & defense of lofty notions is said to preserve

sorry, i'm not going to say here, "thank you, Mr. Broder, for your timely thoughts in this matter." when he owed it to the nation to have been a proper journalist from the Gitmo

[RobinA]

23. From Day One

Broder was totally clueless on the subject of Bush. I used to marvel at the most naive statements made in his column. I didn't start out hating Bush's guts, I figured he would be incompetent but harmless. Before Florida, that is. After that it became rapidly apparent what Bush was all about. Not to mention the fact that Bush was owned by the right wing from day one and it should have been obvious what that would mean. There is just no excuse for somebody who is even averagely intelligent to not "get it" when it comes to Bush. To just be "getting it" now is incomprehensible. I mean...torture? Hello...TORTURE.