compare and contrast dean and mehlman....it's striking

[Gato Moteado]

in another thread, i queried for the transcripts from yesterday's "meet the press" because a friend of mine who watched it said he noticed a striking difference between mehlman's and dean's responses to the feelings of the american public. A big "Thank you" to stephanie and madfloridian for quickly coming to the rescue with the needed transcripts! :hug:

here is the contrast he wanted to set up:
Mehlman is intransigent and believes that if the messenger brings news, just kill him. Dean appears willing to accept that the polls should not be ignored.

Here are the examples:

MEHLMAN"S RESPONSE TO QUESTION ON POLL PROBLEMS FOR HIS PARTY

MR. RUSSERT: ....This is what the voters say. Preference for 2006 congressional candidates, Republican-controlled Congress, 37; Democrats, 48. Our congressional Republicans, "Do they have the same priorities as you for the country?" Same priorities, yes, 24; no, 58. "In which issues do you prefer the Democrats over the Republicans?" Environment, gas prices, health care, Social Security, education, reducing deficits, energy policy, economy, government spending, taxes, trade issues, foreign policy, abortion, immigration, ethics in government, and Iraq--16 of the 19 issues we presented to the people, they chose the Democrats. Your party's in trouble?

MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, usually, when I get a poll like that, I will fire the pollster. That's my response that I usually do to that.

DEAN"S RESPONSE TO QUESTION ON POLL PROBLEMS FOR HIS PARTY

MR. RUSSERT: ...Strong national defense--look at those numbers: 43 Republican, 22 Democrats. War on terror, 35-26. The Democrats are perceived as the weaker party on those kinds of issues. And that's why they voted for the war when it was popular, it's being suggested. And now, when the war is not popular, they're trying to back off their position.

DR. DEAN: We need to make sure that we can--look, I know what those numbers are, and I think that's a big problem for the Democrats. We need to--we need to make the American people understand that we are strong on defense, and that the strength of our position on defense is not just that we'll support a robust and muscular foreign policy. It's that we'll tell the truth.

[The Witch]

1. BRAVO

Great find <3 rec'd

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Republicans are good at LYING and SPINNING.

[thefloyd]

3. I think melhman was just joking

Obviously the poll was terrible for Mehlman and Since Russert works for the polling agency.....Ha ha ha Mehlman quite the comedian

[Gato Moteado]

6. he probably was joking.....

...or maybe only half joking.

remember that the truth is often expressed through these types of jokes. and there's no denying that the true colors of these people are revealed by their jokes....for exaxmple: Bush's joke about WMD's being hidden under his desk and Reagan's joke about nuking the Soviets.

mehlman might have been joking about actually firing the pollsters, but you know it's what he'd like to do. the repubs don't care what the masses think. i believe dean really does.

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. Joke or no

it was a majorly lame response.

[Neocondriac]

4. Mehlman can't help it ....

they have pictures of him with young Asian boys.!

[PATRICK]

5. This why Dean was right

to CHOOSE this format instead of walking into the same old crossfire. Mehlman couldn't even win points with Russert when he DID respond.

[eridani]

8. Damn, but I HATE that shit about "muscular" and "assertive"

--foreign policy!!!! What it means is that our military leaders don't give a flying fuck about actually defending this country. "Assertive" means that it's just peachy keen to sell off all of our remaining industrial base (and the associated skill sets) to China and India. No biggie--we just have to be "muscular" and take by force what we are no longer capable of making.