NBC political director: B. Clinton 'unprepared for 21st century media'

Fenian_Bastard · Apr 29, 2008

Thanks, Doc.
Did you see Ryan Lizza on Hardball last night?
He ventured the notion that there might be some guilt-by-association going on in the Obama-Wright story and that journalists ought not to engage in that. Matthews and Jill Zuckman looked at him like he had two heads.
I thought about you and zeke.

Some Guy · Apr 29, 2008

bigpern23 said:

Who cares how well Bill Clinton would or would not have handled the internet as President?

Fuckin' Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't have handled Beltway traffic very well. :
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Yeah, you kind of missed the point there.

Chi City 81 · Apr 29, 2008

Sorry, Fens. I can't abide that pompous windbag Matthews any longer. The only political shows I'll watch now are Countdown, TDS, Colbert and Real Time.

DemoChristian · Apr 29, 2008

2muchcoffeeman said:

Armchair_QB said:

Ben_Hecht said:

Armchair_QB said:

bigpern23 said:

Who cares how well Bill Clinton would or would not have handled the internet as President?
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Right now I would guess his wife cares quite a bit.
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She's not letting him run loose right now, except among the real hicks he'd be hard-pressed to truly offend.
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I know. That's this guy's point. Bill caused all kinds of problems for the campaign because he didn't know how to handle new media. He can't lie and get away with it anymore.
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Not just him, or her — none of them can, of any party.
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Did you miss the part where our current Liar in Chief was re-elected a few years ago? It was at least partially because the media wouldn't do its damned job and call him on his bullshit.
We have talked ad naseum about the lies leading up to Iraq. How about holding the wiretaps story until after the election? Or treating the Swiftboat liars as if they were legitimate sources who had stories to tell instead of guys with axes to grind who were bankrolled by the GOP?

The Big Ragu · Apr 29, 2008

2muchcoffeeman said:

Interesting tip-of-the-iceberg article that could have led to a deeper discussion of how the Internet could change campaigning and political coverage.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6555285.html?desc=topstory

But as NBC News political director Chuck Todd sees it, none has gotten burned by this new-media phenomenon quite like former President Bill Clinton.

“It’s fascinating: Nobody’s been a bigger victim of the so-called YouTube moments than Bill Clinton,” Todd said. “I think Bill Clinton was woefully unprepared for 21st Century media.”

8>< snip ---

When Clinton was running for president, Todd said, he and his fellow candidates could misspeak -- and even willfully obfuscate -- with relative impunity.

“It was like a Jedi mind trick with him,” he added. “It would take a few days for the media to catch up [and] by then he had moved on.”

But in 2008, Clinton’s gaffes -- calling Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war a “fairy tale,” inviting charges of race-baiting by comparing Obama’s campaign to Jesse Jackson’s, reviving his wife’s Bosnia trip for another spin in the news cycle -- sparked immediate blowback that seems to have caught him by surprise.
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I really disagree with this guy's analysis. I don't think it has anything to do with the Internet. I think that people in 2008 just don't find Bill Clinton as charming as they did in 1992. The charm wore off. Prominent people inspire different responses from people. There some politicians who can go from not being appreciated to growing on people with time. Clinton was charming as all hell and people loved him. Until they started to get sick of him. And I think that is the reason he could get away with things 10 or 14 years ago that he can't get away with today. People feel differently about HIM, not the way they are being exposed to him.

Bob Cook · Apr 29, 2008

Well, some people feel differently about him. The vibe I get from my Hillary-supporting Hoosier homies is that they want Bill to have a third term.

Piotr Rasputin · Apr 29, 2008

The Good Doctor said:

As an aside, who the fuck do you think you are? You "hope he can back it up"? Who are you, his father?
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People are pretty regularly asked to back up their statements on political threads. Sometimes they're asked for a link, sometimes to "show your work."

Flying Headbutt · Apr 29, 2008

That's a true story.

Guy_Incognito · Apr 29, 2008

The Good Doctor said:

As an aside, who the fuck do you think you are? You "hope he can back it up"? Who are you, his father?
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As an aside, who the hell asked you. You showed me that he can, thank you. You can keep your asides.

Ben_Hecht · Apr 30, 2008

dixiehack said:

Ben_Hecht said:

Armchair_QB said:

bigpern23 said:

Who cares how well Bill Clinton would or would not have handled the internet as President?
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Right now I would guess his wife cares quite a bit.
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She's not letting him run loose right now, except among the real hicks he'd be hard-pressed to truly offend.
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But there's no such thing as hiding out from the spotlight now, even "among the real hicks." Google Breaks Interstate Park, home of the macacca clip, and see what you think the area's demographics look like.
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Understood. But as I've previously mentioned, Allen had a wonderful career fully exploiting the winking, nudging, easy racism of Richmond and other similarly-spirited
sections of Virginia until he had a moment when he was . . . even more stupid than usual.

Ben_Hecht · Apr 30, 2008

The Good Doctor said:

From our good friends at wikipedia. Feel free to check the footnotes and annotations in the article for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Allen_(U.S._politician)#Confederate_flag_affinity

"Allen has a long history of interest in the Confederate flag, in spite of his never having lived in the South until his transfer from UCLA to the University of Virginia as a sophomore in college.[7]

Allegedly, Allen has displayed the Confederate flag, in some way, from 1967 to 2000.[7][47] Allen wore a Confederate flag pin for his high school senior class photo. He displayed a Confederate flag in his family's living room until 1992. Allen has stated that the flag was a part of a collection of flags. In 1993, Allen's first statewide TV campaign ad for governor included a Confederate flag. Greg Stevens, the political consultant who made the 1993 TV ad, confirmed its inclusion. Allen has confirmed that the pin in his high school yearbook was a Confederate flag. Allen has said "it is possible" that he had a Confederate flag on his car in high school.[7]

Minority groups, especially African-Americans, in Virginia criticized Allen for his policies and his embrace of the Confederate flag, which the NAACP condemns as a symbol of racism and hate. Allen also opposed a state holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.[48] The state holiday in favor of Martin Luther King Jr. was initially attached to Lee-Jackson day, a day honoring Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. There was much controversy in Virginia about combining the days. Governor Jim Gilmore proposed splitting the days into a Lee-Jackson Day and a Martin Luther King day.[49]

In 1995, 1996, and 1997, Allen proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month and called the Civil War "a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights."[50] The proclamation did not mention slavery, and his successor, Republican Governor James Gilmore, changed the proclamation and wrote a version that denounced slavery.[47]"

As an aside, who the fuck do you think you are? You "hope he can back it up"? Who are you, his father?
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Some of us here have terribly-convenient memory lapses that somehow allow them to get through the day.

But we thank you.

JayFarrar · Apr 30, 2008

Clinton was president in the 24 hour news cycle.
He knows the score.

Whenever Bill Clinton opens his mouth, he’s accused of saying something dishonest, self-serving, or at best politically unwise. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I think this has less to do with any difficulty that Clinton has had in accommodating himself to the You Tube era--which is not, after all, such a quantum leap away from the 24/7 news environment in which he successfully conducted his presidency--than with a desire on the part of the Washington media panjandrums to exact some revenge.
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http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/04/28/quot-you-get-a-very-bad-grade-in-history-quot.aspx

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NBC political director: B. Clinton 'unprepared for 21st century media'

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