Look, we obviously started out on the wrong foot. You are new here and you started off badly by slandering Obama supporters and liberals in general. Not good form. And I will admit my response was not the best way to handle the situation. All I asked was for some proof of your assertion that Obama supporters denounce any criticism of the President as racist. But anyway, I never meant to drive someone away from D&D.
Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between this cartoon and all the other political cartoons printed in newspapers and other media across the nation in terms of free spech protection? I personally find this cartoon disgusting and disrespectful to our President. But in terms of free speech how is this any different from the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed in a similar fashion? Last time I checked, a majority of this board supported the Danish cartoonist's right to exercise free speech even if it was disrespectful and downright offensive to Muslims across the world. What's changed?
So much that I wouldn't know where to begin. The character assassination of President Obama goes far beyond anything I've seen in the past, and I remember Ike running against Adlai Stevenson. Not well, but I remember it. Sure, LBJ ran a TV commercial against Goldwater that was terribly unfair, but LBJ didn't question Goldwater's citizenship. He didn't question his patriotism. He didn't question his religious beliefs. He didn't use every sneaky trick in the book to attack Goldwater's ethnicity, his race, while ardently denying that he was doing so. The hypocrisy going on right now is breathtaking. I see it here on this board and it disgusts me.
Until recently most presidents have served in the armed forces and usually wars so attacking their patriotism is easier now but Kerry was attacked as was McCain. Many questioned having a catholic president in JFK and certainly attacked his Irish heritage. Any and all things that can be used against a person politically have been used in the past and will be used in the future.
Yes, but not nearly to the extent President Obama has been attacked. One major difference is that there were far fewer media outlets to use for political assaults. The three major networks, public broadcasting, and a cornucopia of radio stations, newspapers, and magazines. Now we have countless cable outlets, internet sources, fewer newspapers and magazines and they are owned by far fewer people, giving those "far fewer people" much more influence via the media in the political process. The same with radio, where there are not nearly as many "independent" radio stations as there used to be. We constantly see "viral" political attacks that seem to come out of nowhere, but are, in reality, very calculated. Thanks to the radical Roberts court, there is a vast increase of corporate money flowing into the political process, something we are only beginning to see in this election cycle. Just wait until the next one. It will be insane.
When did anyone ever attack McCain's patriotism? Hell, McCain was the guy running in 2008 that really wasn't born in the US, and nobody was questioning his citizenship.
I agree that the 24 hour news cycle has brought it much more in your face but the attacks on race and religion have been there in the past. I hate it also but don't act like it never happened. It is obvious the attacks and climate are keeping people from serving in public office. Politics are closer than ever to the American Idol level. Quite sad.
During the primaries he was killed for it. Of course Democrats could not attack it but by that time no one cared about Iraq because of the increased success and the economy.
CaseyH, in my post that you quoted I said (addressing whether this stuff had happened before), "Yes, but not nearly to the extent President Obama has been attacked." In other words, I clearly didn't "act like it never happened." On a national level, this is as bad as I've seen, and I've seen a lot.
I'll take a stab at this I think what has changed is that there is a group of people in this country that will do anything, and I mean ANYTHNG to delegitimize Obama's presidency. They simply will never accept that he is our duly elected president. And it has now manifested itself into the most nasty character assassination we have ever seen. Sure Bush took a lot of crap. But never to this degree. Never to the point where we're seeing people intimate the idea of assassinating the president.
Sorry I made it sound that way in my response. the first post you made cited several examples of religion, race and patriotism not being used. I realize you did not dispute them. I think it is obvious the reason such fringe groups are getting attention is there are now 23 hours more hours to fill on 5-6 more channels.
No problem. I was more concerned someone else might misunderstand what I thought. Yes, the 24 hour news cycle is crazy, but far crazier than it needs to be. The various cable news channels have gone so far into perceived "ratings driven" personalities that the news frequently becomes practically a hindrance that gets in the way of the personalities. A perfect example was the idiot recently fired from CNN, Rick Sanchez. CNN is one of the channels I watch (I watch pretty much all of them, at least part of the time), and I could never stand Sanchez. I kept expecting this lightweight to literally float away during a broadcast. That Jon Stweart razzed him was no surprise at all. Sanchez was a joke, but there he was, taking up hours of the CNN American broadcast day, something that never failed to surprise me. Cutting that fool loose was one of the best moves that network has made in a long time.
It is not hard to follow the course of events. Time to fill, create news by having extreme views and stories on the air.
I don't think they do. I am not a believer that the news actually changes views, it just changes what people are talking about (or outraged about).
Then this is something we disagree about. I've had conversations (heck, I've had them here) with people repeating some bogus story they heard on a cable news channel as if it were gospel. More than once, I can assure you. Heck, basso profundo "makes his living" here starting threads centered on the stuff, either from a cable news channel or a blog. So often that if I didn't know better, I'd think he was using a legitimate source. Thankfully, it's not a problem for me any longer.
