Comments on: Media For McCain: Jake Tapper Thinks Only The Elderly Can Be “Confused”

By: badgervan

badgervan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:28:33 +0000

I’m surprised that more media types aren’t mentioning the fact that McSame came in like number 880 out of 890 Annapolis grads. The man is just not smart. I see no desire to learn, no curiousity, no itch to dig out the facts from McSame.
What I do see is more of the past eight years.

By: z_adura

z_adura — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:08:23 +0000

It is not by accident that Obama is using these words. He’s a smart guy and it’s smart posturing. I don’t see why we should feel affronted by this. We’re also going to hear Obama referred to as “urbane” and “uppity” and “elitist” as though we don’t know what the opposition is saying.

It happens to be the case that McCain is old and confused and losing his bearings, so in addition to using clever and manipulative wording, Obama is also speaking to a fundamental truth.

By: Tyro

Tyro — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:34:37 +0000

You know, I think that Obama was taking shots at McCain’s age by saying how he was “confused.” There were also echoes of this when he said that McCain had “lost his bearings,” in the hopes that people would make the implied mental association with McCain having “lost his marbles.”

However, Tapper responds to this needling of McCain with all the sensitivity of someone whose just heard his father’s manhood questioned.

By: Mold

Mold — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:26:30 +0000

St Reagan was more loved as the doddering grampa than as the man who stole scholarships from academically gifted poor children, the man who said ketchup was a vegetable..for the poor, the man who gave weapons to murdering scum in Nicaragua, the man who eliminated taxes for wealthy contributors, the man who invited criminals to the public treasury….

By: Preyanka

Preyanka — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:24:11 +0000

Did you see the comments on his website? They were there for a long time before anyone caught on; here they are, saved for posterity: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/11/2165/55268/106/533829

By: PTCruiser

PTCruiser — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:50:27 +0000

A lot of these guys treat John McCain as if he were their daddy.

By: Duros62

Duros62 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:46:28 +0000

On the other hand, voters might not have these concerns!

Well, they do now. Thanks, Jake.

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:35:44 +0000

Tapper, writing in his own voice:

“Hoping to bridge that chasm, the Obama campaign and Democrats harped on comments McCain made on the Today show this morning, repeatedly calling the 71-year-old presumptive GOP presidential nominee “confused,” seeming to feed into concerns voters might have about the Arizonan’s age.”

Doesn’t get any slipperier than that! Tapper wants us to know what an Obama spokesperson’s words “seemed” to mean. Of course, later in the very same article (but way, way down there), he gets around to actually asking the person who said those words what they meant. And–what do you know?–it turns out those words weren’t what Tapper says they “seemed.”

But wait! There’s more! The words “seemed” to feed into concerns voters “might” have! Do voters have these concerns? I don’t know and neither does Tapper! He even admits he doesn’t know by allowing that those concerns are only a possibility. On the other hand, voters might not have these concerns!

In short, Tapper has a story to tell. The facts must be trimmed nicely to fit.