Is Glenn Beck preparing to run for president?

a reasonable rational person would not take evidence against a cause from a person who admits to being hostile to that cause. Your willingness to do so shows that your advertising yourself to be a reasonable rational person is a fraudulent claim. Now knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that you are a fraud all of your product here at a2k is now worthy of entertainment value only.

The problem with this construction is that the dude was just asking simple questions; he didn't twist their answers in any fashion. You can see that for yourself on the tape. So your argument here fails completely.



Don't be a ******* idiot, Hawkeye. You're throwing a little fit because I have been calling you on your bullshit across several threads lately, and I understand how that has probably hurt your feelings. But the truth is that you are forwarding idiotic positions as if they were logical ones, and that is entirely an internal problem on your party, pal.

In this case, a guy went to a rally held by the opposing side and got plenty of different people to put stupid and hateful comments on tape. That has nothing to do with his politics at all.

Do you not realize that the major reason that most hold these people's views in contempt is because these folks are dumb? Their positions are not logically thought out; they are highly emotional, contradictory, and indicative of a great ignorance of both the history of our nation and of modern politics.

View for example the fact that none of them had seen or would believe that Beck had called Obama a racist - though he clearly had.

Cycloptichorn

When the person who admits to being hostile to the cause promotes himself to the level glenn beck does, then no matter how rational the cause holder is, he must confront the hostile person.

What does more educated mean to you? A business degree?

No, I believe that the university is broken, I now give less credence to a university degree than ever before. To be educated is to posses the vocabulary sufficient to communicate thoughtfulness, to have a knowledge of the human condition sufficient to understand other people, and to have a knowledge of human history enough see the patterns of the past playing out today.

and you see these things in the tea-baggers?

they have trouble spelling socialist...

I disagree with hawkeye about this interviewer only talking to a few people in 12 minutes. That's the way these things work.

I was amazed at how little these people actually knew. Their ignorance is dangerous.

Are you referring to david or okie? Neither is here.

Do you have in mind the woman who admitted to knowing nothing except those things her sister tells her? Her sister lives in AZ. That alone makes her an authority on . . . cacti, perhaps?

But change the word elite to industrialist or lobbyist and you have the left's strongest "plank."

Oooh! It is the famous, but absent, reasonable rational person again!

I have never been to a tea party event, either real or virtual so I have no way to know for sure. But when I see multiple reports that tea party members (such that they are formally members of anything) tend to be more educated and more successful than the average Joe and then I see a video that claims to be a sampling of those who went to Becks event who are few in number and seem to be not very well educated I then have questions about the veracity of the sample. When I saw that the person who did the video is hostile to the tea party members I then wrote the video off as a left wingnut PR stunt. This guy pretty much says straight up that he thinks that the tea party is made up of a bunch of kooks, and then he goes on camera and acts like is a respectful, calm, rational person who just wants the truth, and we have a2k'ers who are willing to take this obvious bologna seriously?? Come on now...

And Rockhead, I dont know how old you are but there is a pretty good chance given where you live that you have met some older people especially who could barely read or write who were none the less whip smart. I am calling bullshit on you, I think you are saying something that you do not truly believe (that spelling ability equals intelligence) because you think that it will help your argument here. I call on you to be more honorable.

Normally when this is done with only a few people it is done is such a way that there is less slicing a dicing, such as staying on the same people for an extended period and asking questions that lead into other questions so that the viewer gets a sense of context. The way that this video was done gives the impression of cherry picking, and given the presumed motivation of the creator we can assume that is picked the responses that made the persons interviewed look the worst. Hopefully someone is or has made the effort to find these people, and to show them how their responses were cut, and asked for comment.

We are all I hope aware enough of how "reality" shows are made to take on blind faith the assertion of liberals that this video shows how Tea Party members really are, that it is not primarily the product of the editorial views of the one who spliced together the final product. Even very smart people can be made to look stupid on spliced tape, and this guy had the ability to watch and listen to people for awhile before deciding who to talk to on tape, to pick his marks. His being hostile to th Tea Party is in and of itself cause to dismiss his product of any usefulness.

Sooner or later, Beck will implode. Much like the character Lonesome Rhoades, played by ANdy Griffith in the movie "A Face in the Crowd".
Beck is a fraud who is playing his audience.

Maybe, but he has been very good for a long time. And the current that he has tapped into is real.

I'm expecting it to be more like Elmer Gantry.

Here is the director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, Robert Parham, calling beck a fraud:

Fox News host Glenn Beck muddled biblical references with fragments of American history, recreating a pottage of civil religion that says America has a divine destiny and claiming that a national revival is beginning.

At the very beginning of the "Restoring Honor" Rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Beck proclaimed, "Something beyond imagination is happening. Something that is beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God."

Forty-seven years ago to the date, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech," a historical note that Beck and others played off.

"The story of America is the story of human kind. Five thousand years ago...God's chosen people were led out of bondage...Man first began to recognize God and God's law. The chosen people listened to the Lord. At the same time those things were happening, on this side on this land another group of people were gathered here. And they too were listening to God," said Beck.

As he spoke, two Native Americans appeared behind him to stand next to a rabbi. They were followed by a white preacher.

Facing these three individuals with arms outreached, Beck said, "God's chosen people, the Native Americans and the pilgrims."

Beck claimed, "When people came together of different faiths... the first thing they did was to pray together."

Some two hours later, during his lengthy, disjointed speech, Beck said, "This day is a day that we can start the heart of America again. And it has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God...turning our faith back to the values and principles that made us great." {POM's interjection: How is this different from the Muslims?}

Warning that Americans were at a crossroad and had to decide what they believed, Beck said, "Abraham Lincoln found God in the stars of Gettysburg. He was baptized and gave the second inaugural. He looked to God and set men free. America awakened again."

He soon segued to Moses.

"Moses freed them. Then they forget. They wander until they remember that God is the answer. He always has been. And then they begin to trust," said Beck.

"Have trust in the Lord. And recognize that Moses and Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were men. They were just like you...Man makes a difference. What is it that these men have that you don't?...The answer is nothing...They relied on God...America is great because America is good...We as individuals must be good so America can be great. America is at a crossroads...Look to God," pled the TV talk-show host.

He told the audience of religious and Tea Party conservatives: "If you find out who God truly is, I warn you, I warn you, if you know who he is, it will be the biggest blessing in your life. But it will also be the biggest curse in your life."

Saying that America needed to go to "God's boot camp," Beck said, "We must insist that our churches stand for things that we know are true because they are universal and endless in nature."

Having recalled earlier how disciples had fallen asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus' arrest, Beck returned to that theme of slumber. He said that the nation and its churches had fallen asleep.

Beck said that 240 years ago America had the "black-robed regiment," preachers who opposed the British and were among the first killed by the British.

"The black-robed regiment is back again today," said Beck.

On cue, 240 men and women marched up and stood behind him. Obediently with arms linked on the front row were Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land and fundamentalist pastor John Hagee. Religious-right mythmaker David Barton stood next to Sarah Palin.{POM's interjection: Does this sound like one of Hitler's rallies?}

"America, it is time to start the heart of this nation again. And put it where it belongs. Our heart with God," proclaimed Beck.

Claiming these clergy represented the thousands of clergy in the audience who represented 180 million people, Beck said, "We can disagree on politics. We can disagree on so much. These men and women don't agree on fundamentals. They don't agree on everything that every church teaches. What they do agree on is that God is the answer."

He called for a group of bagpipers to play "Amazing Grace."

Mixing Christian faith with military images, the rally included video clips of soldiers, flags and eagles. The Bible was also read. {This is getting more and more dangerous. - POM}

C. L. Jackson, pastor of Houston's Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, prayed for the "ministry of Glenn Beck."

The crowd - as viewed on Beck's own streaming video broadcast - had very, very few people of color.

The white audience listened at one point as two African-American men read different passages from the Bible and two Africa-American women sang solos with recorded tracks.

Another African-American woman, Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., gave a sermon, referencing "Uncle Martin," failing public education, the "womb war" and hope that prayer would one day be welcomed back in public schools.

No amount of Bible reading, sermons masquerading as prayers and Christian hymns can cover up Beck's civil religion that slides back and forth between the Bible and nationalism, between authentic faith and patriotic religion.

He treats the "American scripture" - such as the Gettysburg Address - as if it bears the same revelatory weight as Christian Scripture.

What is important to Beck is belief in God - God generically - not a specific understanding of God revealed in the biblical witness, but God who appears in nature and from which one draws universal truths.

Not surprisingly, Beck only uses the Bible to point toward the idea of a God-generic. He does not listen to the God of the Bible who calls for the practice of social justice, the pursuit of peacemaking, the protection of the poor in the formation of community. Beck has little room for God's warning about national idolatry and rejection of fabricated religion.

For Beck, God-generic is a unifying theme and religion is a unifying force for what appears to be his revivalist agenda for Americanism - blended nationalism and individualism.

Robert Parham is executive editor of EthicsDaily.com, where this essay first ran, and executive director of its parent organization, the Baptist Center for Ethics.

No, he has not been at it a long time. Although he looks much older, he was born in 1964. Surprisingly, he was raised a Roman Catholic. He had a serious drug problem. He considered committing suicide while listening to Kurt Cobain. He and his second wife have been Mormons for about a decade. He's been doing radio for a long time but it was generally Top 40. It wasn't that long ago that he was in trouble for ridiculing a Chinese listener. He created his current persona after his conversion to Mormonism and has been on Faux for only two years.

As for the current he tapped, well, shall we say that they are the lost, perhaps, people like him who conquered a drug habit and are looking for another addiction?

Glen Beck is not a Clergyman, a politician, nor a journalist. He is a huckster, and he is very good at what he does. What you should be concentrating on is what he is showing you that Americans are hungry for, not as you are doing, giving him **** for not being pure and therefor dismissing the truth. You are failing to prioritize, and you are failing to understand the meaning of things. You are behaving like a poorly educated person.

says you...

you are the one being led around by someone you refer to as a huckster.

this gets better all the time.

Palin is one of your educated persons also?