(h/t Heather at VideoCafe)
Sweet Jesus, can we just start calling ABC News "Disney's Fox News" and make it crystal clear their editorial slant?
It is apparent that the Beltway Media is also on some conservative group's email blast list and are collectively too lazy, too stupid or too compromised to think critically about these talking points, instead accepting them wholly and framing questions entirely around them.
Case in point: the pathetic performance of Martha Raddatz, interviewing Kirsten Gillibrand on This Week. Mind you, this is the same outfit that gave Scott Walker a big, fat wet kiss of an interview, without mentioning anything that could detract from his potential 2016 presidential run (!!!).
But Kirsten Gillibrand didn't get a big, fat wet kiss of an interview. No, no, no....those are reserved for conservatives. Gillibrand instead was subjected to a continual onslaught of questions framed entirely to get her to acknowledge that President Obama is now facing his "Katrina": that no one trusts him, his presidency is a failure and everyone hates him. Watch how Gillibrand keeps trying to redirect the questioning back to the big picture and the impact it has on real people and how Raddatz ignores it to go back to the conservative talking points:
RADDATZ: And now, New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joins us. Thank you very much for joining us. I'm going to ask you the same question, can President Obama regain the trust of the American people?
GILLIBRAND: Of course, he can. Because, Martha, what this is about is everyday people needing access to Affordable Health Care. They don't want their coverage dropped because of a pre-existing condition or when they get sick. They want their kids covered up to 26. And they want to have preventive care covered. And that's what this bill does.
So, once we get over this implementation issue, we will then.
RADDATZ: If we get over this implementation...
GILLIBRAND: We will. They can fix this. This is a fixable problem. So, once they fix it, people will see, I have an opportunity to cover my family. And Martha, I was in the emergency room just last week with my son who had an asthma attack and took too many puffs on his puffer. And I looked in the eyes of all the other mothers in the emergency room, these are mothers who don't have health care, who may not -- this may be their only access.
RADDATZ: But whose trust has been shattered.
GILLIBRAND: No, but once -- that's an implementation issue. Once you get beyond it, you then say, look, oh my gosh.
RADDATZ: And you think we'll get beyond it?
GILLIBRAND: We will. You know what though, see emergency room is covered. Do you how much it is to go to an emergency room? You get a bill. It's very expensive.
RADDATZ: Let me ask you this, I want to go back to this implementation, because we can't quite go forward yet. Did you feel misled by Obama?
GILLIBRAND: He should have just been more specific, because the point is if you're offered by a terrible health care plan that the minute you get sick, you're going to have to go into bankruptcy, those plans should never be offered.
RADDATZ: So, were you misled?
GILLIBRAND: He should have just been specific.
No, we all knew, the whole point of the plan is to cover things people need, like preventive care, birth control, pregnancy. How many women the minute they get pregnant might risk their coverage? How many women paid more because of their gender because they might get pregnant? Those are the reforms...
RADDATZ: But we're talking about leadership here and trust. What does this all say about President Obama's leadership these past few weeks? He fell on his sword but he's missed that sword a couple of times.
GILLIBRAND: Well, no one is more disappointed in the implementation issues than President Obama and he has taken full responsibility for the mistakes and the lack of getting this system up and running when it was supposed to be up and running.
But what this was about, Martha, are those mothers in the emergency room who don't have access to affordable health care. I can't tell you how frightening it is when your kid can't breathe. It is a horrible moment. And I looked at every mother, and I'm telling you, we have to fix health care in this country. So, when you talk about President Obama's legacy, his legacy is going to be offering affordable health care to every family in this country.
WT ever-loving F, Martha Raddatz? What in the hell is wrong with you? Gillibrand is talking about how difficult health care has been for Americans and all you want to do is get her to wail that she's been misled by the president because he didn't anticipate just how much bad faith with which the insurance companies would operate? You need her to rend garments because a website was badly rolled out? You need her to supplicate herself with the suggestion that this will be a permanent state for all Americans even though this issue of dropped policies and higher rates affects just three percent of Americans? Why is it that you need to demand of a Democratic representative who supports giving all Americans access to healthcare a virtual public wearing of a hairshirt because everything is not all unicorns and rainbows from the very beginning?
YOU are the reason we can't have nice things, you and all your compromised, corrupted Beltway hacks. The hairshirt belongs on you.
