'Fearmongering' and loathing on Sunday talk shows
by Christi Parsons
At first it looked like Sen. Evan Bayh might be about to make news on Face the Nation.
He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said, and had been told that it's not a question of whether the U.S. will be attacked again by al Qaeda, it's a matter of when.
But then pressed on the matter, Bayh said he just meant that "Our intelligence people have said that publicly," and that the point he was trying to make is that voters should think seriously about which presidential candidate will handle the terrorist threat properly.
It was a theme on the Sunday talk shows this morning, as surrogates for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama heightened the debate about that "red phone" moment: Who do you want answering the White House phone when there's something scary going on?
Bayh, a Clinton backer, said "I don't think it's fearmongering" for her to raise the point with her new TV ad, which shows children sleeping while, in the background, the White House phone is ringing.
But Sen. Chris Dodd argued that Obama is the guy you want, and not just because he has the "character, integrity and life experience" called for.
For authority he invoked another Senate committee, and another Indiana senator. He noted that Dick Lugar, when he was chairman of the Foreign Relations committee in 2005, picked Obama as his travel partner to Russia to visit nuclear and biological weapons destruction sites.
He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said, and had been told that it's not a question of whether the U.S. will be attacked again by al Qaeda, it's a matter of when.
But then pressed on the matter, Bayh said he just meant that "Our intelligence people have said that publicly," and that the point he was trying to make is that voters should think seriously about which presidential candidate will handle the terrorist threat properly.
It was a theme on the Sunday talk shows this morning, as surrogates for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama heightened the debate about that "red phone" moment: Who do you want answering the White House phone when there's something scary going on?
Bayh, a Clinton backer, said "I don't think it's fearmongering" for her to raise the point with her new TV ad, which shows children sleeping while, in the background, the White House phone is ringing.
But Sen. Chris Dodd argued that Obama is the guy you want, and not just because he has the "character, integrity and life experience" called for.
For authority he invoked another Senate committee, and another Indiana senator. He noted that Dick Lugar, when he was chairman of the Foreign Relations committee in 2005, picked Obama as his travel partner to Russia to visit nuclear and biological weapons destruction sites.
"It's not just who picks up that phone,"Dodd said,
"it's what they say."
Over on ABC, they went over similar ground. Obama advisor David Axelrod argued that the question of judgment has already been illuminated. Clinton voted to authorize the war in Iraq while Obama spoke out against it. (If you feel like you've heard that before, that's because it's such a conversation-ender for the part of the Democratic base motivated mostly by hatred of the war.)
But Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, countered with a new turn of phrase likely to come up, at least in concept, in the days between now and the Tuesday Democratic contests.
Obama got his point of view on the record with a speech in 2002, when he was a member of the Illinois Senate, Wolfson noted, not a member of the U.S. Senate who actually had to vote on the matter.
And that speech, said Wolfson, is a "metaphor for his career."
"Powerful speech, powerful words," said Wolfson, "followed up by no action."
When Obama got to the Senate, said Wolfson, he voted pretty much like Clinton did, and didn't act on his concerns about the threat in Afghanistan. He never held a substantive hearing of the Senate subcommittee on European Affairs, which he chairs and which has jurisdiction over NATO, the U.S. ally in Afghanistan.
Think this is turning nasty? So does New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the former presidential candidate now trying to preserve his options with both campaigns. Indeed, on Face the Nation, he praised and critiqued his former rivals equally.
Posted by Christi Parsons on March 2, 2008 11:01 AM |
But Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, countered with a new turn of phrase likely to come up, at least in concept, in the days between now and the Tuesday Democratic contests.
Obama got his point of view on the record with a speech in 2002, when he was a member of the Illinois Senate, Wolfson noted, not a member of the U.S. Senate who actually had to vote on the matter.
And that speech, said Wolfson, is a "metaphor for his career."
"Powerful speech, powerful words," said Wolfson, "followed up by no action."
When Obama got to the Senate, said Wolfson, he voted pretty much like Clinton did, and didn't act on his concerns about the threat in Afghanistan. He never held a substantive hearing of the Senate subcommittee on European Affairs, which he chairs and which has jurisdiction over NATO, the U.S. ally in Afghanistan.
Think this is turning nasty? So does New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the former presidential candidate now trying to preserve his options with both campaigns. Indeed, on Face the Nation, he praised and critiqued his former rivals equally.
Posted by Christi Parsons on March 2, 2008 11:01 AM |
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