Here is what the other half of the U.S. that views Fox News is watching and thinking:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580286,00.html
O'REILLY: On the economy itself, you give the president a…
ROVE: C-.
O'REILLY: C-.
ROVE: Yeah, look, the stimulus bill was not stimulated. The American economy is strong enough it's going to come out of recession. The question is did these policies impede or speed up its recovery? I think they impeded its recovery. I don't think they sped it up.
***
O'REILLY: Foreign policy overall, you give him a…
ROVE: I'd give him a C. Look, maybe even a C-. What has he been able to achieve? We thought that, you know, he sort of led us to believe that his presence on the stage would change all these relationships. It hasn't changed the relationship with North Korea. It hasn't changed the relationship with Iran. It hasn't changed the relationship with Russia. It hasn't changed the relationship with Europe. They're happy to have him around, but they don't seem to really respect him or fear him.
O'REILLY: OK, but wouldn't you say that the world in general now likes the USA better than it did two years ago?
ROVE: You know, that's not what matters. What matters is do they respect us and do they follow us? And they don't do either one of those things as much as they should today. And they certainly aren't doing them as much as they did last year.
O'REILLY: OK. And you give him a failing grade in governing as he campaigned?
ROVE: Yeah, I give him — I'm sorting through my pieces of paper here. I give him a D-. This is a guy who ran as a relentless centrist, who said that he would control spending, reduce the deficit, that it was not red state, blue state but it was the United States, that he would govern from the center. And he is governing from the very far-left wing of his Democratic Party.
And while I think he has set a good personal tone, in fact, I would give him an A- in the sort of personal behavior, I mean, he has set a good example, he and his wife and family as our nation's First Family. You know, he's a little bit too prone to say I and he's very much too prone to say hey, it's not my responsibility. It's somebody else's.
I thought today was a key example of that. Here he is lecturing these banks about irresponsible lending, and he, when he came to the United States Senate, was defending the irresponsible lending by Fannie and Freddie by refusing to join a filibuster to subject them to the same kind of regulation we give banks, savings and credit unions.
So I mean, there's a little bit of disconnect. But he has been a good example of what we would, as a nation, like to see in our chief executive in his personal behavior.
O'REILLY: All right. Now finally changing the tone in Washington, he did campaign on that. You give him a…
ROVE: I give him a C-. He has aspirational rhetoric, particularly early in his term. But I think his speech writers are getting worn out. And look, this thing on the banks again, I mean, he says I don't want to vilify or demonize anybody, but then he goes and attacks them as fat cats. I didn't come here to Washington to bailout, Wall Street.
O'REILLY: But they are fat cats.
ROVE: Well, they are fat cats, but…
O'REILLY: Do you really want to…
ROVE: ...is that really appropriate for the president of the United States? That's what we expect Barney Frank to say. But the president of the United States ought to have a different tone. And look, how much do you think those guys like being used as a prop for him to go out and demonstrate his populace appeal to the American people?
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
