Rightwing meme surfacing (re: Obama and Egypt)?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

According to right-wing hate radio host Neal Boortz (whose show I caught a few minutes of this evening), President Obama appears to be making himself scarce to reporters lately. Why? Well, Boortz speculated that maybe President Obama doesn't want to answer any questions about what's going on in Egypt. Boortz and a guest he had on his show were speculating that maybe he just doesn't want to be forced to talk about Egypt because, maybe, he just doesn't know what's he doing (out of his depth)? :shrug: :puke: It sounds almost like they are looking for that Bush 9/11 "classroom moment" for President Obama? :shrug: I'm not eager to discuss the filth I hear on AM hate radio but I always think it's good idea to occasionally know (and report) what's going on in the bowels of the right wing media because they may be very well teeing up the next meme.

[Pirate Smile]

1. JFK wasn't out giving a lot of press conferences during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Some complicated foreign policy crises are not particularly conducive to many off-the-cuff responses.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. I totally agree

We don't want our President (regardless of who they are) making a lot of, as you say, "off-the-cuff" responses to an ongoing foreign policy situation- the outcome of which is still in question. Boortz, being a right-wing hate radio host, however, can't seem to keep from suggesting that there is something nefarious or even slightly questionable about it. I personally think he is trying to plant the idea (which may spread to the larger right-wing/corporate media) that he (President Obama) simply doesn't know what he is doing despite the fact, of course, that President Obama seems to be every bit as much "in his depth" serving as POTUS as George W. Bush was OUT of it.
Boortz=:puke:

[barbiegeek]

7. Or Reagon during Iran Contra

[RichGirl]

3. A picture is worth a thousand words.

The Bush confused and perplexed meme came from the footage of Bush confused and perplexed...with a child's book in his hand...who didn't even excuse himself and leave...but continued. It spoke for itself...didn't require any left wing commentary. They will never find anything like that on Obama...not even close.

I hope that there are ambitious right-wingers with lots of time on their hands, who will search out every speech and comment President Obama has made on Egypt in an attempt to catch him looking totally perplexed and confused. What they will see is someone very dignified and presidential, confident, thoughtful and intelligent, who is on top of the situation.

To get this meme going...they will need a little more than their own words.

[JoePhilly]

4. I think this will turn out to be like the incident with the Pirates. Remember that?

If I recall, 3 pirates take a ship's captain hostage. On day one, the right wing hate radio explodes screaming that Obama hasn't made a forceful statement, he's not blustering enough, not be strong like Bush the cowboy. Weak, weak weak, they scream.

The white house makes a few simple statements about the situation but nothing terrobly provacative. And the right wing screaming continues. Obama is weak, weak weak.

Then ... pop, pop, pop ... three shots, three dead pirates, and the captain is rescued uninjured. The white house had stayed calim to give the navy time to set up the rescue.

So now, with the hostage rescued, the right wing's response ... "Why did it take so long!!"

No matter what happens here, they will whine that "Obama didn't bluster enough", which they are already saying, and then when this all works out (through effective diplomatic actions that are not televised), they will claim it took him too long.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. I sure do remember that

I'm not being critical of President Obama at all. It's just that I worry so much about the insidiousness of right-wing lies and figured that we might get ahead of the curve for what might be coming down the pike. Thanks for the timely reminder, though.

[JoePhilly]

10. Exactly ... it doesn't matter what actually happens, they will claim that

whatever happens is terrible.

[DenverDad]

5. A low-level right-wing media tactic

is to speculate on what the left/liberal position is, and then argue against it.

[karynnj]

6. Thanks for the report - I wonder if John McCain's comments diffuse

this to some degree. (Qualifier - I think that McCain is a loose cannon and do not see him as someone I would listen to on FP, but he is one of the more senior Republican seen by the media to having FP gravitas. Lugar, who I do respect, I haven't seen anything from.)

The possible 2012 Republicans have been mostly silent. Romney called for Mubarak to step down before Obama, but after both Kerry and McCain. Huckabee, who was in Israel, demanded we back Mubarak. (This from memory of summary on MSNBC - take with grain of salt.)

I agree that it is good to monitor what they are saying - especially as we have seen that their method of repeating lies - even not credible lies - has led to them becoming very hard to counter as they become CW.

I did listen briefly to Rush when driving - and he was all over the map - not sure what to accuse Obama of. He was referring to Obama as the Chicago Pharaoh and was attacking him saying that his speech in Cairo ignited this (then made a weird comparison of the left accusing the right's speech of causing Tuscon ) - then turned and suggested that if it led to a democracy, we needed to apologize to Bush, who was also behind spreading democracy. (apparently seeing no difference from attacking countries for regime change and the people themselves demanding change.)

[madmom]

8. Meh... talk is cheap... n/t

[treestar]

11. He talks as if Obama is responsible for Egypt

Like it's all his fault and his responsibility.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. That's the idea from what I'm hearing from the right-wing

If Egypt goes the Iranian route and becomes an Islamic Republic a la Iran it will somehow be President Obama's fault. In fact, some of them are already promoting the idea that President Obama is like former President Carter when Iran had its revolution and ended up as an Islamic Theocracy. President Obama is screwed with the right-wing no matter what he does or whatever actually ends up happening. It's aggravating to listen to day in day out (to say the least!)