I would of gotten to this story sooner if had not been for that damn day job.
I’m certain everyone has already heard about this story, but as usual I just have to throw my two cents into the mix. Last night we found out that one of the YouTube questioners, Brigadier General Keith Kerr, was a Hillary Clinton supporter and served on her steering committee along with John Kerry’s steering committee. Here is his question:
After which Cooper hit Romney with a 13 year old quote of his in which he said he looked forward to the day when gays could serve in the military.
It was a big gotcha moment, and it came from a Democrat operative.
Andersons excuse for the plant? They didn’t know….
COOPER: “Bill Bennett earlier mentioned he was getting some reports
from friends of his on the Internet that Brigadier General Keith Kerr,
who asked a question about gays in the military during this debate, was
on a steering committee for Senator Hillary Clinton. That was something
certainly unknown to us, and had we known that, would have been
disclosed by us. It turns out we have just looked at it. Apparently,
there was a press release from some six months ago. Hillary Clinton’s
office saying that he had been named to some steering committee. We
don’t know if he’s still on it. We’re trying to find out that
information. But certainly, had we had that information, we would have
acknowledged that in using his question, if we had used it at all.
An excuse that is almost insulting seeing that they could find the time to dig up that quote from 13 years ago but couldn’t find out about Kerr’s affiliations with the Democrats. I don’t buy it and no one else does. Wizbang:
Anderson Cooper would have you believe that a network that could select
this question, find that 13-year-old Romney quote, create the trap for
Romney (which he fell face first into), and (presumably) fly Kerr to
the debate, could not type “Keith Kerr, retired Colonel” into Google
and find the link to the Hillary Clinton press release, which prior to
the debate appeared in the first 10 results for that search?
The blogosphere went into overdrive and discovered that Kerr was not the only plant. In fact it’s looking like you would be hard pressed to find one of the questioners who WASN’T a Democrat plant:
This girl asked the abortion question and can be seen in this video of hers wearing a Edwards shirt and declaring on her blog that she is a Edwards supporter. (h/t Michelle Malkin)
This guy asked the log cabin Republican question and is a Obama supporter as evidenced by his profile page: (h/t SixMeatBuffet)
Powerline has a few more:
Adam Florzak asked a question on Social Security. It turns out that Florzak quit his job with Caterpillar to work with Dick Durbin on Social Security reform. Then there was Mark Strauss, who pleaded with Ron Paul to run as an Independent. It turns out he’s a Richardson supporter (more here).
Now many would say that just because most of the questioners were Democrats AND supporters of the Democrat competition, that this fact does not invalidate their questions, to which I would agree.
But the lack of any disclosure on the part of the CNN, when you know damn well they could have found all this stuff out quite quickly, speaks volumes to me. The network pretended to be neutral but came up with “gotcha” quotes that are 13 years old in an attempt to sandbang the candidates AND on top of that they put on a bunch of Democrats to ask the questions from over 5,000 submitted.
It doesn’t invalidate the questions but it invalidates the debate in my mind.
And one more reason why, as I stated in my first post on the debates, this format sucks ass!
Its not Presidential, its amateurish, and makes the candidates on both sides look foolish having to answer some cartoon character.
Oh, one other thing. I thought the left’s battle cry has been that Fox is a shill for the GOP. In fact the Democrats run and hide from debating on that network. Meanwhile the Republicans say “bring it on!” to a network that will pull this kind of stunt.
What does that say about the Democrats?
See author page
I would of gotten to this story sooner if had not been for that damn day job.
Hear, hear.
One of the questions at the end of the Republican debate should not be “did any Republicans actually get to ask any questions”?
In one sense, I’m surprised at how ham-handedly CNN handled their role after the drubbing they’d taken a few weeks before but in another sense I would like to see more of this except above board.
Have Republicans field questions from Democrats and vice versa. You should always be able to take whatever comes your way. If it’s a chance to stand up for what you believe in then say it loud and if someone is making a false statement then nail them dead to rights. In real time.
It’s the deception that bothers me.
Curt – It gets even worse for CNN when you read the fact that they claimed that this debate would be vetted to make sure to get questions which were important for Republican voters. They said they intended to make this “a debate for their party”. So apparently they feel that having Democrat-voters ask questions that interest THEM is representative of the Republican Party voters? Uh huh.
This was such a sham and downright pathetic. The Democrat Party and the mass media are colluding to undermine the entire Presidential campaign and the mass media does not even report on it. This morning, the only places where it was known that the debate was full of Democrat plants was FOX News Channel and the right side of the blogopshere. Pathetic.
Here is the part to which I alluded earlier about CNN’s intentions for the debate:
*****
From: Sneak Peek at CNN/YouTube Debate Videos/By Ariel Alexovich, dated November 21, 2007.
…many of the remaining posts involve asking the candidates to defend their opposition to gay marriage and abortion. Those kinds of “lobbying grenades†would be disqualified by the CNN selection team, Mr. Bohrman said.
“There are quite a few things you might describe as Democratic ‘gotchas,’ and we are weeding those out,†Mr. Bohrman said. CNN wants to ensure that next Wednesday’s Republican event is “a debate of their party.â€Â
[ . . . ]
Some crafty people seem to think that addressing debate host Anderson Cooper in their video will give them the edge to be chosen, but Mr. Bohrman said such pandering to CNN is grounds for disqualification. Mr. Cooper and two of his researchers are involved in the selection process, Mr. Bohrman noted.
*****
Have Republicans field questions from Democrats and vice versa. You should always be able to take whatever comes your way.”
Brian – If this were the general election, I would agree with you. But this is the primary process where Republican voters are trying to determine which candidate should represent their ideals, principles and values. As such, Republican-voters should be asking the questions about issues most important to them. We should not be having Democrat-voters asking questions about issues most important to them. This is the Republican primary. It is ridiculous that Democrats-voters are allowed to frame the debate about what the Republican party will represent in 2008.
But, as I said, in the general election, I think your suggestion is a good one. Because really, that is when the candidates will want to appeal to Independents and opposition party voters. So it makes sense to ask questions from them.
What was that nonsense about the Confederate Flag?
Down here in South Carolina we remember when that was a huge campaign issue. But it no longer is.
There are many more things the GOP voters are interested in learning about from candidate debates and among the issues that concern us most we would not include the flag issue, don’t ask, don’t tell, jailing women you abort fetuses or the rest of that You Tube crap!
This debate revealed once again the deep seated prejudices and biases of both CNN and the You Tube boobs whose questions they selected.
A couple of interesting links…
About the debate – it keeps getting worse!
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/cnnyoutube_questioner_kicked_r.html
And about Fox news – they might be getting worse as well…!
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/fox_news_youtube_and_our_frien.html
Good coverage.
It’s been said, but it’s worth reiterating: during the GOP primary, the only questions that are “valid” are those that actually matter to GOP voters. Do most GOP voters give two farts about DA/DT? Enough to base voting decisions on it?
Anderson Cooper and his CNN buddies are elistist and snobbish, and the questions were either selected because CNN really believes we’re a bunch of rednecked morons, or, at the least, they wanted to create that impression.
I’m happy to say that, for the most part, our candidates presented themselves (and us) pretty well in this regard.