This is what I personally consider to be one of the most important posts that I have ever written in my opinion!
Here is the FOX News video link of Bill Clinton fighting back against Chris Wallace in that "interview to remember" from Sunday, September 24:
http://www.foxnews.c... (15:41)
Right below is the MSNBC Countdown video where "Keith Olbermann comments on Bill ClintonGÇÖs interview with Fox News, and calls for an end to President BushGÇÖs GÇ£free pass.GÇ¥ Below the video is the Countdown transcript of these excellent comments!
These comments from Keith Olbermann tell it just like it is in my opinion. I am so proud of both Keith Olbermann and Bill Clinton for stepping up to the plate and for setting a much needed example of how Democrats can fight back against the extreme right wing media and stop taking their crap of being defined by them!
Here is the bottom line of the extreme right wing GOP media strategy that Bill Clinton and Keith Olbermann are fighting against which is very articulated by Norah O'Donnell here in my opinion:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Sept. 14
Read the transcript to the Thursday show
OGÇÿDONNELL: "And also it will work for the Republican Party because again, they donGÇÿt want this election to be a referendum on President Bush. They want it to be a choice election. So rather than looking at your member of Congress, a Republican and say hey, I want change, you see the new ad and guess what this new person that is running against him hasnGÇÿt been defined yet, but you see this ad, I donGÇÿt know much about that guy, oh my gosh, I just learned in this ad that he just an evil-doer.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: ItGÇÿs like the new kid in town, oh, heGÇÿs no good, blah, blah, blah and you believe it because itGÇÿs all you know.
OGÇÿDONNELL: Define your opponent before they can define you...
OGÇÿDONNELL: And this is, what many people forget is that the Republicans and the Bush strategists are brilliant. ThatGÇÿs how they got Bush into office. ThatGÇÿs what the book GÇ£ApplebeeGÇÿs AmericaGÇ¥ that you talked earlier about is. And I remember so vividly early in the campaign, they showed me a chart and they said this is how many people know something about John Kerry, and guess what, before anybody gets to decide, to figure out what they know about John Kerry, weGÇÿre going to fill in the rest of that pie chart for them.
MATTHEWS: Swift Boats.
OGÇÿDONNELL: Well, they did not say that, Swift Boat them, but the flip flop message, etcetera, which was creating the impression of him that they wanted in votersGÇÿ minds."
It is very important that ALL Democrats understand this strategy in my opinion!
Here is Bush's "free pass" documented that Keith Olbermann talks about where David Keene talks about how that the days of the "blank check" have ended for Bush over the Harriet Miers nomination which he did not like:
October 18, 2005
No more benefit of the doubt
"Harriet MiersGÇÖs confirmation hearings are about to begin, so we may be on the verge of learning something meaningful about the presidentGÇÖs choice to replace Justice Sandra Day OGÇÖConnor on the Supreme Court...
Most conservatives have stood with Bush from the beginning. Those of us who know him like him. WeGÇÖve swallowed policies we might otherwise have objected to because weGÇÖve believed that he and those around him are themselves conservatives trying to do the right thing against sometimes terrible odds. WeGÇÖve been there for him because weGÇÖve considered ourselves part of his team.
No more.
From now on, this administration will find it difficult to muster support on the right without explaining why it should be forthcoming. The days of the blank check have ended because no thinking conservative really wants to be part of a team that requires marching in lock step without question or thought, even if it is headed by the president of the United States.
Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, is a managing associate with Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm (www.carmengrouplobbying.com)."
Here is the bottom line good of what Bill Clinton did to help Democrats fight back in the media as is very brilliantly articulated here by David Gergen in my opinion:
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Aired September 25, 2006 - 22:00 ET
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: "Now whether he (Bill Clinton) -- I don't think he calculated it, but I will tell you this. Symbolically, I think it's taking on an importance within the Democratic Party just here in the last 72 hours that far exceeds the -- what actually happened in the interview itself.
COOPER: How do you mean?
GERGEN: Well, I think that his -- his office today was flooded with calls and e-mails and the like, congratulating him, saying, "Thank you for rallying us."
And I think that there is -- you know, Bill Clinton is very sensitive to symbolic moments. Sister Soldier way back in the 1992 convention, when he went to Oklahoma City when he president and that was sort of a turn around moment for his administration when he was in trouble after Newt Gingrich and company took the Congress.
Here I think that he was trying to show Democrats, in effect, listen, when they start to bully you from the right, when they try to roll over you, don't just sit there and take it. Push back, fight back, counter punch hard. That's his belief.
You know, there's a whole sense, a larger sense in which Democrats are viewed as weak. You know, they're weak on terrorism. And in effect they can be pushed around. And I think Bill Clinton is trying to send a message to other Democrats, if you fight back we'll have a much better chance in this election.
So even though conservatives look at this and say, 'Well, you know, he sort of blew his top here. It shows, you know, he's got this temper," I do think that underneath Clinton was pleased about the impact. I don't think he planned it, but I think he was pleased that he was able to show you can fight back; you can make your argument."
Even the extreme right wing Neocon leader William Kristol understands the concept that David Gergen is talking about (even if he is wrong about his assumption that Bill Clinton "knew what he was doing"):
Why Clinton
"Lost His Temper"
The former president knew what he was doing.
by William Kristol
09/25/2006 11:16:00 AM
"In the Fox interview, and in other recent interviews (Meet the Press, the New Yorker), Clinton has shown himself well aware of Republican efforts (engineered by the dastardly Karl Rove) to paint Democrats as unreliable in the war on terror. Clinton would have known that these were doing some damage to Democrats, and that Bush and Rove have had a few good weeks on this issue. And he would know that the Democrats haven't fought back well (e.g., they're now in a difficult position on the Bush-McCain detainees legislation).
In this interview, Clinton rallied Democrats. He reminded them of their talking points on Bush's alleged passivity in his first eight months in office (remember Richard Clarke!), and on the alleged distraction posed by Iraq from the more worthwhile war in Afghanistan. He nicely laid the predicate for the leaked portions of the National Intelligence Estimate that appeared in the press the next day. If the Bush-Rove war-on-terror offensive stalls out this week (and much of the media is committed to making this happen), and Democrats do well in November, Bill Clinton can take credit, at a crucial moment, for discrediting the terror issue as a mere political ploy, and showing Democrats how "to fight back" and how "to stand up to the right-wing propaganda machine" (in the words of Howard Dean)."
I completely agree with the concept that Bill Clinton's interview with Chris Wallace on FOX News was "trying to send a message to other Democrats, if you fight back we'll have a much better chance in this election."
That is why this media momentum that Bill Clinton started must continue and cannot end here. The GOP spin machine and extreme right wing media are trying very hard to put out this fire in the national media and among their own supporters now. Here are just a few examples of this:
We have got to seriously fight back against this very powerful and highly organized extreme right wing media machine and keep this fire going in order for Democrats to have the best possible chances of winning back at least one branch of Congress in the midterm election in my definite opinion!
The concepts that I have talked about and that I have credibly documented in this post are exactly what I have been talking about on a regular basis for over two years now when I have commented on how very important that the media issue is to the Democratic Party!
This is also cross-posted on Gen. Wes Clark's blog with some additional and relevant comments:
Please forward this on for ALL people to see and understand before the midterm elections because the documentation and concepts in this post will cut right through Bush's bully pulpit speeches and the extreme right wing media spin machine and will help to expose them both for being the hot air that they really are!
This is the main thing that is keeping Bush and his rubber stamp candidates alive politically in this election and we have the opening and grand opportunity now to finally fight back and sink them politically in this upcoming election!
Mitch Dworkin
http://www.securinga...
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program:
An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda which will help our local candidates to win their races!
http://securingameri...
Gen. Wes Clark's endorsement of Jim Webb against George Allen
http://securingameri...
ANALYSIS: The 2006 Elections are "An Accountability Moment!"
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http://video.msn.com...= (10:28)
GÇó Olbermann: Clinton spoke the truth
Sept. 25: GÇ£CountdownGÇ¥ host Keith Olbermann comments on Bill ClintonGÇÖs interview with Fox News, and calls for an end to President BushGÇÖs GÇ£free pass.GÇ¥
Countdown
--------------------------------------------------
A textbook definition of cowardice
Keith Olbermann comments on Bill Clinton's Fox News interview
SPECIAL COMMENT
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
MSNBC
Updated: 1 hour, 24 minutes ago
Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
GÇó Profile
The headlines about them are, of course, entirely wrong.
It is not essential that a past president, bullied and sandbagged by a monkey posing as a newscaster, finally lashed back.
It is not important that the current PresidentGÇÖs portable public chorus has described his predecessorGÇÖs tone as GÇ£crazed.GÇ¥
Our tone should be crazed. The nationGÇÖs freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nationGÇÖs marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose wouldGÇÖve quit.
Nonetheless. The headline is this:
Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years.
He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration...