Bill Maher has a section at the end of his HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, called New Rules. It’s a short comedic section where he points out things that bug him and asks that they be put to rest. The final entry is one that he jokes about and then delves into for a much deeper look to end the show.
Last night’s entry was one I entirely agree with. He talked about the need to move beyond the message that is daily put forth by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others of their type.
What he reminded the viewers about is the fact that from the absolute instant Bill Clinton became the President-Elect, these same pundits were on the attack. It didn’t matter what the issues were. It didn’t matter what the decisions were. All that mattered was that a Democrat was in the White House and that person had to be crushed from every possible angle every possible way every single day. It worked so well that the populace completely forgot what the role of President is all about and elected a buffoon to office—twice. Note, I didn’t feel this way about the last two Republicans in office and voted for one of them so don’t try to levy the same tag on me.
For those that weren’t around Maher is dead-on. These guys invented more crap to try and bring Clinton down that it turned Hillary Clinton into the anti-Christ that the Right views her as.
Barack Obama has been the President-Elect for less than a week. The entire world is rejoicing at this choice like never before. Months before he takes a step into the White House as it’s primary occupant the dividends of this selection are already being felt. Meanwhile the harbingers of hate and fear are already engaged in an all-out offensive against him.
I want to make it clear that absolutely NOTHING this mans says or does will garner positive support from these people. He could say that the sky is blue and they’d pilary him for a week over using such a blatant stereotype. The guy has appointed one person to his staff and already they view this as clear evidence that he’s the devil. When word leaked that he might choose Robert Gibbs as his Press Secretary the radio lit up like a Christmas tree. Why? Because Gibbs took on Sean Hannity and totally undressed him on his own show. For these cretins there can be no worse offense. Gibbs is informed and able to call these hypocrits for what they truly are and they cannot accept that. Their only retort is to call this partisan. What it is has nothing to do with partisanship and everything to do with no longer standing for these types of negative messages being put forth, wrongly, as fact.
These guys will say whatever they feel they have to in order to draw attention to their own shows for their own best interests and those interests have absolutely nothing to do with what’s good for the country or us. It has everything to do with what’s best for their own wallets and ego. Their credibility can be exposed by anyone who isn’t biased within moments. Do not forget that Sean Hannity, for example, opened his own show for weeks telling the world that if we elected the likes of Nancy Pelosi to the House that the entire remainder of George W. Bush‘s term would be dominated entirely by impeachment proceedings. Most of his rhetoric is just as inaccurate as this and the same goes for the rest of these messengers.
Dick Morris, Hannity and Limbaugh all tried to make the case that the stock market dropped on Wednesday because Obama got elected. Really? And why did it drop 777 points a few weeks ago? You’ve got to be kidding me. The markets have been bouncing around like a roller coaster and they pick this one data point to try to tie it to their cause? How do they explain it going up so much on Friday? These people simply have no credibility. None.
We have a new opportunity to move on and the best thing that can happen here would be to judge the new President on the merits, or lack-thereof, of the RESULTS of the choices he makes. Who his Chief of Staff selection is should not be fodder for discussion at this point. It exposes the bias of the messenger. Until we see tangible, measurable results from any choice Obama makes then these people should stand down on the rhetoric. To do anything else is to do nothing but continue on down the path of fear and hate.
