@Phoenix32890,
Phoenix32890 wrote:I was very disturbed when I found that the Obama campaign refused to deal with the TV channel that aired, politely and respectfully, what were, IMO, very legitimate and important questions about Obama's philosophy.[/b]
You think asking the guy "how Obama is not a Marxist" is a "very legitimate and important question"? Are you serious? I mean, that's pretty far out there.
Proposing to raise the tax rate on the wealthiest by a couple of percent - what is it, 36% to 39%? - when it was as high as 60% (Nixon) or 80% (Eisenhower) under Republican presidents of the past - that raises the question of whether Obama is a Marxist?
Suggesting that now is the time for tax
cuts for the 95% of Americans who are not in the top tax brackets as a way to spread wealth suggests the guy is a Marxist?
How is that even a remotely reasonable contention to ask about?
I mean, I could care less - ask away, no matter how dumb the questions. But calling such questions "very legitimate and important" is kind of ... well ...
FWIW, I don't agree with the retort from Swampland that Soz posted -- I'm used to Dutch and English journalists, I think they should be able to ask anything they want. But yeah, if you ask questions that make you look slightly, umm, intellectually challenged, then you're probably no longer on the list of first people to talk to next time, thats the flip side. I mean, it's not like this was Fox or NBC, it was a local station. There's a dozen stations in every state. I think Obama, McCain and the lot should answer every question they encounter, but considering how few days they got left I don't blame them if they choose to give the next interview on another station either. I mean, you wouldnt expect McCain to go on Air America or Obama to go on Rush Limbaugh in the midst of an election campaign either. That hardly portends some kind of general clampdown on the media in their presidencies.
And I mean, dear God, to think of the context here - Sarah Palin was kept out of the media (
all the media) for weeks on end, but if Obama/Biden stiffs one local station it's a portend of a media clampdown to come? And this is a fear seriously targeted at the Democrat after eight years of Bush giving less access to the media than any recent President?
And in seriousness, to complain that
Obama "wears his hostility toward anyone who ... disagrees with him on his sleeve" when his opponent is John McCain, who cant keep himself from continuously rolling his eyes, sighing and smirking even in a televised debate when he's faced with Obama; who couldnt even stand looking Barack in the face in the first debate; who started every sentence with "what Sen. Obama doesnt understand" in one debate and scornfully referred to him as "that one" in another?
I mean, in a way you could even have sympathy for McCain for at least not dissembling about his disdain for his opponent, but to then complain that
Obama wears his hostility on his sleeve?
Just .. yeah.