david gregory Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Monday Morning News Roundup

Watch Raising Adam Lanza on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

For the most part, I enjoy watching Frontline. This particular Frontline tells the story of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings. Unfortunately, half of this episode spends a lot of time trying to re-create who Adam Lanza really was. I find that most re-creations are superficial and are not helpful. The second part deals with the debate over gun violence and gun control. This I find more fascinating. One reporter stated that this is the most divisive topic in the United States. There is no middle ground. He compared it to the abortion debate. I agree 100%.

I’m not sure why former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has decided that it’s time for him to step back into the spotlight. He still believes that he lost the presidential race because ObamaCare was too attractive to minority and low-income voters. One of these days, he will read some polls that were not generated by his own campaign and figure out that he was simply unpopular.

One of the promises of the Internet was that it was going to be able to bring high-quality education to everyone. New research suggests that people who are already at the back of the class, as far as learning goes, do poorly with online learning scenarios. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-03-05T21:09:32-04:00March 4th, 2013|NFL, Obama administration, Party Politics|Comments Off

Republicans still have no plan

The Republicans and other conservative politicians talked about wasteful spending. “Slash earmarks,” they cried. “Cut the budget!” These are all very nice ideas which all Americans can agree on. The argument comes when we have sit down and cut something. (Senator-elect Paul has already started to waffle on earmarks.)

From Political Animal:

When it comes to the Senate, no one’s further to the right than South Carolina’s Jim DeMint (R). And with the GOP planning to slash spending, one would assume that DeMint would be waving the biggest hatchet.

But Jon Chait flagged an interesting exchange from the right-wing senator’s recent appearance on “Meet the Press.” DeMint emphasized his demand that the country be on a “path to balancing our budget,” and noted the need to “look at the entitlement programs.” It led host David Gregory to ask a reasonable question. (see clip above, start at 3:43 time mark)

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that arguably the Senate’s most far-right member is desperate to cut spending, but when pressed, says he wants to leave Social Security and Medicare alone.

The second is that DeMint twice referenced Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) “roadmap.” Maybe DeMint’s a little behind on his reading, but there’s a disconnect here — while vowing not to cut seniors’ benefits, he’s also endorsing Ryan’s budget plan, which calls for privatizing Social Security and gutting Medicare. It also fails miserably in the goal DeMint claims to care about — cutting the deficit. As Paul Krugman recently explained, the Ryan plan “is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future.”

What should be clear to the American people is most conservatives are great at talking. They aren’t great at making plans that will help the American people. They have no idea how to do what they are proposing. There will be a big showdown over earmarks. Who knows what’s going to happen on the budget? I don’t suspect that major cuts to Social Security or Defense are really on the table.

By ecthompsonmd|2010-11-09T16:01:32-04:00November 9th, 2010|Budget, Congress, Party Politics|Comments Off

President Clinton on Meet the Press

I have yet to warm to David Gregory. I thought he was an okay White House corespondent. I think his questions here, though, frankly, suck. Take for example this question, “Do you think the president has leveled with the American people on this fact, that Americans are going to have to pay higher taxes if they want healthcare reform?” Which Republican wrote this question? Clinton does a masterful job answering this question, but the fact remains that the question is slanted. Gregory could have asked the exact same question without the conservative bias. “Will Americans need to pay more to get more people covered under healthcare reform?”

With that as an aside, Clinton does a very good job in framing the healthcare debate. This is why he was a two-term president.

Watch the video:

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