by Lowell
People sometimes make fun of Politico as nothing better than “Tiger Beat on the Potomac” – all personalities, gossip, scandal, who’s up and who’s down, politics as entertainment/horse race, etc. No substance, in other words. But unfortunately, it’s not just Politico, it’s vast swaths of the corporate media that’s really no better than “Tiger Beat.”
Take this mindless drivel by Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post on how Marco Rubio had a “strong showing” at last night’s debate, mainly because of a silly, schoolyard-style back-and-forth with “JEB” Bush over Rubio’s frequent absences from the U.S. Senate. Of course, Rubio didn’t directly address that perfectly valid criticism, but instead used his abundant rhetorical skills to turn the tables on tongue-tied, pathetic “JEB.”
So here’s the problem: nothing in Tumulty’s inspid article makes the case as to why Rubio had a “strong showing” last night, other than that the corporate media proclaimed him to have had a “strong showing.” On substance, the reality is that Rubio was basically total bull****, distortions, and outright lies. To quote a top-rated comment on Tumulty’s article:
[N]ever mind that he was lying about Hillary’s testimony, lied when he denied that the moderator was correct about his finances, and lied when he denied that the moderator was correct about his tax plan.
A few more whoppers by Rubio jump out at me from the debate transcript as either a) wild lies; b) massive distortions; c) “a” and “b” combined. Yet Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post tells us that Rubio had a “strong” debate last night? My god. Even crazier, THIS is the media the right wingers bash as “liberal?” The fact is, there’s absolutely nothing “liberal” about it.
- “We can’t afford to have another four years like the last eight years.” (In fact, things have gotten MUCH better – despite constant obstructionism and wild irresponsibility from Rubio’s party – since the Bush/Cheney/Republican Great Recession which started in 2007/2008)
- “You have small businesses in America that are struggling. For the first time in 35 years, we have more businesses closing than starting. We have a world that’s out of control and has grown dangerous and a president that is weakening our military and making our foreign policy unstable and unreliable in the eyes of our allies. And our adversaries continue to grow stronger.”
- “[M]y tax plan is a pro- family tax plan.” (No…no it’s not. In any way/shape/form.)
- “I know the Democrats have the ultimate SuperPac. It’s called the mainstream media who every single day…” (Hahahahaha.)
- “[N]umerically, it’s gonna be higher. But the greatest gains, percentage-wise, for people, are gonna be at the lower end of our plan.” (Exact opposite, actually.)
- “I think that Dr. Carson’s ideas are good ideas.” (Name on “idea” of Carson’s that’s a good one. I dare you.)
- “But this is what you’re seeing in the Republican debate that you didn’t see in that Democrat debate. You didn’t see it for a minute. You didn’t see these kind of ideas being batted around, and being batted around in a way that’s civil and smart and that’s trying to help to inform the voter out there.What you saw was a parade of, ‘I’ll give you this for free; I’ll give you that for free.'” (No, Rubio just doesn’t want to see the top 1% pay any more.)
- “The Republican Party is blessed to have 11 good candidates, (inaudible) 10 good candidates. The Democrats can’t even come up with one.” (Seriously? Is this supposed to be a bad joke?)
- “The fact that it’s happened for so many people here throughout our history, that’s what makes us special. But, now for millions of Americans, it’s slipping away.” (To the extent this is true, it’s thanks to Rubio’s own party)
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