David Gergen supplies some cover for GOP: Bachmann ‘Reinforced What Ryan Said’ ‘But Provided a Lot of Facts and Figures’
Click here to view this media Apparently David Gergen agreed with fellow CNN contributor Erick Erickson following Michele Bachmann’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address that either Michele Bachmann or Paul Ryan had any factual information to share with us. GERGEN: But I agree with Erick, she reinforced what Ryan said. She reinforced what Ryan said. She came at it a different way but provided a lot of facts and figures. Facts and figures huh? Okay David. As I already linked in my post with Bachmann’s speech , Media Matters’ Political Correction decided to be a whole lot more responsible than CNN with fact-checking of Michele Bachmann . Granted they had a research team to put work before they had to weigh in on what Bachmann said, unlike the immediate response here, but don’t tell me that these talking heads at CNN didn’t realize that Bachmann was telling some obvious lies as well. And don’t tell me that CNN could not have put a fact checking team together as quickly as Media Matters did if they wanted to. Since their management apparently doesn’t care that they barely need to be one step above the right wing liars over at Fox, I’m sure they won’t have any problems with what was said during this segment. And you can’t really say time is a factor with their lack of fact-checking on Bachmann since a day later, they’re still getting it wrong . Good thing we’ve got that “best political team on television” looking out for the rest of us, isn’t it? Here’s a little more from Digby on this: Bachman? Hilarious. I wonder if Palin is going to make fun of her odd use of the teleprompter. But more hilarious than that was the response of the CNN gasbags, who said she reinforced Ryan’s Reaganesque message, but (according to David Gergen) with more facts and figures. Meanwhile, gasbags everywhere were very concerned that Obama didn’t concentrate more on deficit reduction and the obvious necessity to destroy Social Security and Medicare as soon as humanly possible. They seem to be on something of a crusade. Here’s more of the transcript via CNN of their round table pretending that they weren’t giving a crazy lady air time by choosing to air Bachmann’s SOTU response. BLITZER: All right, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann speaking on behalf of the Tea Party movement. She’s the chair of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, making the case — we’re going to dissect what she said. Erick Erickson is here; Anderson Cooper; members of the “Best Political Team.” I want to go to John King, though. He’s up on Capitol Hill. Give us a thought on this extraordinary development. Usually we just get one official response. Today we got two. KING: Well, Wolf, she said right at the top, it was not a competition with the official Republican response, but in many ways it was. In tone, it was very different. You heard the president of the United States, especially talk about health care, saying, “Let’s not re-litigate the last two years. Let’s look forward and fight about other issues and debate other issues.” Well, that Tea Party address from Michele Bachmann was a re- litigation of the last two years. She used “Obama care” over and over again. She said “repeal Obama care.” Her tone was a bit more alarmist. You heard Mr. Paul Ryan say, “I would like to work with the president. His tone was much more conciliatory.’ But Paul Ryan’s tone was much more conciliatory. Let’s see where we go. That was a very much a Tea Party message of fighting President Obama. And the challenge, Wolf, is not just for the president. The challenge is, “How does the new Republican House majority manage that energy, that verve, that confrontational spirit from the Tea Party members at a time when it, too, is on trial with the American people. The president has a lot to prove, but so does the new House Republican majority. And the Tea Party’s faction in it makes Speaker Boehner’s job’s a tough management challenge. BLITZER: Let’s get Erick Erickson to wear in. Eric, she wanted to be in the Republican leadership. The guy said no to her. Is this her little way of responding to that? ERICKSON: You know, I don’t think so. And you know, having seen this speech now and read through the transcript, for several days since this was announced, the narrative that’s been built up is, even by some Republicans, is this is going to be in opposition to what Paul Ryan says. But this speech very much seems to reflect it. We build up these narratives in anticipation before we know what we’re going to get. And here we’re also talking about how this is somehow combative towards Republicans. This actually, I think, played very well off the Paul Ryan speech and got to the nuts and bolts. It’s what, when you listen to the State of the Union political addresses or any of these other political address, you sometimes wish they would get to the point. That’s what she did. That’s what she did. That’s very authentic for the Tea Party movement. MARTIN: How simple is this? Paul Ryan said our debt is the product of many presidents and congresses. Yet when you hear she speech, she said we wondered whether the president would cut spending and implement real job creating policies. Was she talking about President Obama or president Bush? Republicans taking some form of responsibility is they say deficits were high under President Bush. To sit here and somehow suggest that all of a sudden things were great prior to President Obama coming in, clearly that mistakes the reality of where this country was in 2008. BLITZER: Because David Gergen, the national debt doubled during the eight years of the Bush administration. Six of those years Republicans also controlled the congress. GERGEN: Yes. And President Obama in his State of the Union laid the blame for the deficits and the debt squarely on George W. Bush. Two wars that weren’t paid for, you know, prescription drugs that weren’t paid for, tax cuts that weren’t paid for. So each side wants to make its partisan points on this. But I agree with Erick, she reinforced what Ryan said. She reinforced what Ryan said. She came at it a different way but provided a lot of facts and figures. BLITZER: You know, Candy, it’s one of these nights that we have to absorb a lot and sometimes it will take days for us to fully appreciate what happened here. CROWLEY: It is. But I’m reminded, listening to Michele Bachmann here, what John Boehner said this morning, it is what it is, and I think that’s about right. BLITZER: All right, guys. This has been an amazing night, I must say, one that I’ve enjoyed, listening to these different perspectives. The debate is only just beginning in Washington on all of these issues. The president of the United States is going to have to deal with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. He’ll have a much smaller Democratic majority than he used to have in the U.S. Senate. This is one of those times when we could see a dramatic shift by the president. We’ve already seen some drama already. We’re going to continue all of our coverage right now with Anderson Cooper and 360.
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on January 27, 2011. Filed under