Charlie Rose

D dirk  09/04/2008 06:10 PM Report

Must have edited Ralph Reed out :) A Christian that steals from Native Americans. Good riddance. (Gutting moose skills are vital for being President don't you know)

D dirk  09/04/2008 11:44 AM Report

Ralph Reed? No doubt a super scumbag. They don't go away anymore after disgrace do they?

Once again Ralph Reed? Do you owe him for a stock tip Charlie?

TABS  09/04/2008 04:06 AM Report

The Fools In Town Are On My Side

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There is a difference between being ignorant and being stupid. Ignorance is a state of not having the knowledge. Stupidity is when you just don't know have the capability to figure it out. If the Republicans nixed the nomination of Lieberman for VP because he was a Democrat then that is just plain stupid. They would rather stand on their principles and let the election slip through their fingers than win. Don't they know what the stakes are? It seems the Republicans would rather shoot themselves in the head than survive. They truly must believe in Creationism for if Darwinism is the truth they are going to be extinct.............................................................................................. ..................

That said one has to pick up the sticks as best as one can and move on. Fred Thompson made one mistake in his presentation. McCain was tempered by his being a POW and found that life is far too short to do anything that is not what one thinks is the best course of action. That is what makes McCain a Teddy Roosevelt like figure. Teddy Roosevelt was the President that went against his own Party and busted the Monopolistic trusts and ushered in the modern era of America.............................................................................................. ..........................................

Palin is a good choich in that she brings youth to the Party. She brings a certitude for doing what she believes is right. She brings having your feet planted squarely on the ground when dealing with issues. What she really brings is a sense of the future for the Republicans that can steal some of the Obama thunder. In that sense she was a good choich............................................................................................... ..............................................................................................

The Lieberman speech should be embraced by the Republican wholeheartedly as the only path to victory in the fall. The Republicans just don't seem to get that they must go after the Independent voters, the disaffected Regan Democrats, the Jewish vote, Women Voters. They must reach out and be able to compromise their principles to win this election. They must create a coalition of people that just can't stomach an extremist Liberal who believes that the highest attainment of good is that we should all be our brothers keeper. That individual effort should be subordinated for the good of the collective. That is what is at stake here. The very soul of what made America an extraordinary nation............................................................................................... ..............................................................................

In the final analysis McCain does represent the best choich between the 2 candidates in that he is his own man and will make the choich which he thinks is best and not what is best for partisan politics. He has the experience and a recognizable track record of doing just that. So while McCain has the same philosophical beliefs as GW Bush, he is no GW Bush in practice. The past 8 years was not a failure of the philosophical beliefs it was a failure of the practitioner. That is the very thing that so many of the Democrats just can't conceive of.

TABS  09/04/2008 04:05 AM Report

AHHHH the Regan revolution, funny how that was brought up. The Regan revolution was in truth a revolution of the evangelical christians. They started out in the grass roots of party politics. First taking over school boards and then moving to city councils, county commissions, state senate and assembly seats, govenorships, congressional seats, senate seat and then the big job itself the Presidency of the USA.__________________________________________________Contrast that with the Obama revolution of a "cult of personality" It is a top down revolution where the top man is elected to office and starts to apply change from the pinacle of power. In some countries like Germany that ended the democracy and resulted in a dicatorship.

Preston  09/04/2008 04:05 AM Report

We shall overcome. We shall over-cuh-wuh-wum. The Neolibs... Down!... With you neolibs! HaHaHa...

MotherLodeBeth  09/03/2008 07:08 PM Report

dearme you wrote onon Wednesday, Sep 3 at 01:51 PM Hey MotherLodeBeth, didn't we hear exactly the same line about GWB 8 years ago? That old Dubya was just a down home ordinary sort of fellow who understands real people, not some Eastern elitist egghead who can't hunt or fish? >>>>>>>>>>

LOL He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and the family still has a home in Maine. He is NOT a home grown western man! Goverenor Palin was born in Idaho and has been in Alaska since she was a toddler. BIG difference. So don't go insulting legit western folk! LOL

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:23 PM Report

diane king - Agree. Obama has prostituted his chance of being an honest broker in the ME fiasco as well. Neither party has a clue, but both anxious to sell integrity for a vote or two. Yeah, I know - so what's new?

Sylvia Connor  09/03/2008 03:50 PM Report

You should listen to Terry Gross's NPR program today,September 3rd. She interviewed the authors of the book about the Republican's plan to take over the government for the 21st century. One delved into the earmarks and the Bridge to Nowhere of Sarah Palin. She's a hypocrite and most of your panelists are hypocrites as they huff and puff around those issues falling for the "reformer" characteristic. Of course this failure to be truthful keeps the talk shows and hosts going.

dearme  09/03/2008 01:51 PM Report

Hey MotherLodeBeth, didn't we hear exactly the same line about GWB 8 years ago? That old Dubya was just a down home ordinary sort of fellow who understands real people, not some Eastern elitist egghead who can't hunt or fish? Do you really expect to pull of this magic trick twice? For the sake of the country, I certainly hope not. You better hope not too, because another 4 years of Republican government, and there won't be any Federal subsidies left in the treasury to send to Alaska and even if those eggheads still want to subsidize you, it won't be possible.

MotherLodeBeth  09/03/2008 01:40 PM Report

Watching the discussion I admit I was shocked at the ignorance of some of the participants. As an example it was the dailykos.com site that started the nasty rumors regarding Governor Palins baby and then her daughter, which after the media started hounding the McCain - Palin campaign, they issued a factual rely. Fact is they had never meant for a family matter to become public. So it's a LIE to say the McCain-Palin folks made this a news story.

Secondly, I am shocked, coming from the West where my family has been since the early 1800's to see and hear so much ignorance about Alaska and the rural west. Alaska isn't some hick state. Its a BIG economy and besides Asian countries whose representatives have met with Governor Palin, so have reps from Russia and Canada because of fishing and other issues. I recall some Scandinavian reps going to Alaska to learn more about oil and environmental issues. Heck anyone who has watched Ice Road Truckers on the Discovery Channel can see Alaska is a huge economy with some unique issues.

And as harsh as it sounds, I think the men and women in their nice suits and ties from cities in the East, (media types) have NO idea what it takes to work and live here in the West. Be it an island I grew up on in Washington State, here in the Sierras where my family has been since the Gold Rush or even Kotzebue Alaska where family/friends ran a store starting in the late 50's.

And as a woman, knowing how to hunt, fish, use firearms and not take crap off some man, is an art, as well as a means of survival. Those on the show as harsh as it sounds, came off as ignorant latte drinking fools. And I dare say were they ever stranded in sub freezing weather in Alaska and Governor Palin came along, I wonder if I would want her helping such self righteous fools.

Wonder how many 'average' folks those participants on the show even live amongst. Hired help doesnt count. Have they become so overpaid and comfortable they forget that MOST of Americans live outside the areas they work and live in? Do they realize the average American is the one who is busting their butts to put the oil/gas in their car, food on their tables and goods that they buy in their homes? I really wonder since they come off as 'better' than the rest of us.

And for those who think Senator McCain didn't take long enough to 'vet' Governor Palin, I knew more of her than any of the participants on the show, simply because I think outside the box and am curious about rugged self reliant folks like myself. So if any of the particiapants didnt know about her it wasnt because there isnt LOTS of info about her.

Oh and having been married to a great man for shy 40 years, when he died, I want to note that we knew each other two days when we married. And many people I have successfully hired I/we knew less than a week. Here in the West having a quick mind where you can read a person, is often the difference between success and failure, life and death. Perhaps the elite's on the show, live in to safe environments.

Lastly, I also know how to castrate sheep with my teeth, and like all my women friends can change my own tires and oil, and can shoot as well as any man around here where I live! Read Justice Sandra Day O'Connors book 'Lazy B', about growing up on a cattle ranch, if you want a great read on what life here in the rural west was and is like.

Preston  09/03/2008 09:16 AM Report

Well... When you put it that way... They'll continue to ignore you. LOL

madashell  09/03/2008 08:33 AM Report

How about a panel of folks who (for once) have no interest in insider baseball, can actually discuss the policy differences between the candidates, who do not pursue questions which pertain to the unknowable psychological states or motivations of the candidates, and whose continued livelihood on TV does not depend on repeating conventional wisdom?

Have Halperin, Goodwin, Brooks, et al. brought us so much wisdom, and so raised the national discourse, that they're truly indispensable? Can PBS really do no better than offering up the same miserable establishment voices which get it wrong year after year? And could we have a real leftist for once, instead of somebody who plays a liberal on TV? Does PBS have some kind of exclusive contract with Mark Shields, that he gets to play a liberal for life, to the exclusion of all others?

You really have to wonder: has it ever occurred to Charlie that politics, for some people, isn't sport? That the result of elections really do have consequences, including the difference between life and death. This probably comes as knows to those who don't live in the Beltway and who rarely party with Cokie Roberts, but I assure you, it's quite true.

Amy  09/03/2008 04:42 AM Report

This is the first time that John McCain has been in a leadership position, without the safety net of a larger organization, such as the US Senate and so far, he's failing miserably. As one of one hundred, John McCain may be a fine, even a laudable public servant. But on his own, running the executive branch, juggling scores of policy issues and keeping them all in the air at once, seems like something of a reach for him. He's not a comic book hero, but a flesh and blood man who while likable, has the same kinds of flaws we all do. The Sarah Palin pick exposed a troubling tendency on his part, to do away with worrying about details and going with his gut instinct instead. ..... Haven't we done that?

TABS  09/03/2008 03:44 AM Report

Don't cha get it Boyz? Sarah Palin is NOT a Right Wing sweep. She is a reverse play. She was designed to steal some thunder from Obama, while being acceptable to the base. She had to accomplish the same function as a Lieberman, appeal to the other sides voters. However once the media went in feeding frenzy, well she did cover another base for McCain now doesn't she? One might call that the law of unintended consequences.

amilius  09/03/2008 03:43 AM Report

Reed? Hatch? Drier? McCain can refute how he won the nomination and supported Bush 95% of the time in the last four years so as to REGAIN his 'maverick' status? Charlie's kneepad endorsement of willful ignorance on behalf of the Gray Ole Paleguys party is nauseating. One trusts that foundations who have supported him on PBS as an 'educational' enterprise are reconsidering their support. Their funds would clearly be better applied elsewhere.

Sharon Huntley  09/03/2008 03:22 AM Report

The 'good old boys' network is alive and thriving on the Charlie Rose Show. The chucklefest over Sarah Palin's 'femininity' was especially appalling. Do you think your female viewers are so dense that they would miss the sexual innuendo? If this is the effect that the selection of this totally unqualified female is going have on the male population then this nation is truly doomed. Voting with your pants, not with your brain at the most critical time in our history just makes so much sense.

Ron  09/03/2008 02:59 AM Report

I agree with many of the comments above, those that show disgust and disbelief about the panel's idiocy tonight. To resurrect the absurd myth of McCain the maverick iconoclast fighting corruption, etc., only shows the media Establishment's disconnect with the people. I'm going to stop watching your political coverage, because in spite of infrequent sharp insights by Mark Halperin and a few others, your panels are so Establishment-bound as to be very depressing and discouraging.

e pluribus you-num  09/03/2008 02:26 AM Report

I couldn't believe that a group of supposedly intelligent people all seemed to agree that McCain's sucking up — and knuckling under — to the Republican party's intolerant, theocratic, evangelical extreme right wing base was the act of a maverick. If McCain were a maverick, HIS REAL CHOICE would be on the ticket, namely Joe Lieberman. No one had the insight to call the Palin gimmick exactly what it is — a political gotcha the likes of the Clarence Thomas nomination to the Supreme Court. This collective abdication of objectivity sadly echoed the Charlie Rose show earlier in the campaign that discussed whether McCain was beholden to lobbyists when right there on the show was Charlie Black, McCain's campaign advisor, HIMSELF a lobbyist who routinely conducted lobbying activities directly from McCain's campaign bus. The echo chamber at work.

Roman Mica  09/03/2008 02:08 AM Report

I was really disappointed by tonight's John McCain almost all old white boy fan club. I didn't hear or see anything that even began to question the obvious one-sided and frankly dishonest talking points that the Republicans on the panel espoused.

Yea, I get it guys, Sarah Palin is a maverick, crime busting female, just like my wife, with more experience than Obama, and a gift to our country.

Instead of questioning this silly line of reasoning the show presented a bunch of inside baseball chummy reporters who laughed at their own bad jokes and congratulated themselves on their own obvious wisdom and connections.

Sorry Charlie but you and your guest basically promoted the convention's talking points hook, line, and sinker for the better part of an hour.

I was expecting much more from your show.

sullivan  09/03/2008 01:54 AM Report

Charlie, you and most of the men on your panel tonight giggling over Orren Hatch's comments on Sarah Paulin's femininity was disgusting. You all looked like silly school boys. Grow up. Please.

diane king  09/03/2008 01:53 AM Report

David Dreier said that Gov. Palin's only scheduled meeting since the weekend was with the American-Israeli PAC (AIPAC).

That's just great. She's being tutored on foreign policy by the archetype of lobby groups in this country. This stinks.

TABS  09/03/2008 01:42 AM Report

The Republicans cried wolf with Clinton being "Slick Willy." The Republicans cried wolf with Al Gore and his inventions, The Republicans cried wolf with "swift boat" Kerry being too Liberal. Each time America believed them and pulled it out for the Republicans by giving them the keys to the kingdom. This time they are really faced with a wolf at the door, Obama is the real revolutionary and if given the keys to the kingdom will make vast and sweeping changes to the American political and economic landscape. Ones that will change the very character of the American soul.

TABS  09/03/2008 01:24 AM Report

Dear GDRiley:_____________________If genetics mean anything, McCain's mother is 96. She looks better than some of the commentators on the tube who are 2/3 her age.

CJ  09/03/2008 01:21 AM Report

Let me tell you the difference between TRUTH and FICTION. The truth is that Sadam violated every aspect of the treaty he signed after the desert storm event and violated several key UN resolutions after which the US Congress, while Clinton was in office, resolved that he should be removed and Clinton AGREED but was too busy getting blow jobs in the Oval office to actually do anything about it. Then along came GWB and got the job done even though 90% of the liberals in the US have been supporting Sadam and his band of thugs from that day forward. The fiction is that this was a bad idea, when in FACT it has also opened the door to many other positive changes to come in the middle East. The truth is that the Bush administration could have sent 10 times more troops into the Iraq area over the years than were sent initially and that would have exposed 10 times as many of our soldiers to terrorist attacks than were exposed the way it was done. And it would have cost the taxpayers 10 times as much too. And the truth is that we didn't have 10 times as many troop to send over there anyway because during the Clinton era Clinton cut back our armed forces and left second rate hardware behind so that GWB had one hand tied behind his back from day one. The fiction is that all of this was GWB's fault when you only have the Clinton administration to thank for that. The truth is that GWB has totally revamped our intelligence gathering capabilities and our home land security both at home and abroad. The fiction is that the democrats in congress are able to do anything better… BUT, at least they can allocate funds to make these things happen after they first exposed our country, in so many past years, to all the threats that we had to absorb thanks to them. The truth is that GWB has never made any promises that he had no intentions of keeping. The fiction is that Obama will be able to keep any of the promises he made during his acceptance speech. The truth is that there is NO war going on in Iraq right now. Instead the US military is there holding the fort and assisting the NEW Iraq government… our allies not our enemies BTW… in their efforts to stabilize a region and to kill as many bad guys as we can before the democrats get back in control and let the terrorist regain their strength all over again. The fiction is that electing Obama and entrusting this nation to a democratic congress is somehow going to make us safer when it sure as hell will NOT. The truth is that the economy of this country really is not going into recession or falling apart as Obama and the democrats would have every believe. What a pack of fabricated lies and scare tactics! The fiction is that folks like myself, who are looking for work and trying to sell our homes, would be better off under Obama or a democratic congress making false promises and blowing smoke when all we really need is a leader who will poke a few holes in all this misinformation and get us started drilling for oil, firing up some nuke reactors, cut through any red tape stopping us from generating wind energy or shipping as much natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 as possible. The truth is the democrats love to generate fear and false information in order to get votes. The fiction is that most of the citizens of this country are dumb enough to go for that and Obama is going to get their misguided votes.

sock puppet  09/03/2008 01:18 AM Report

Well said GDRileyx, "If McCain's hero is Theodore Roosevelt, then McCain should be doubly aware of how possible it is for a VP who nobody thought would become President can become President. He should have integrity enough to protect the country against the possibility of his health going awry, and like Franklin Roosevelt picking Truman; pick somebody you want to take over for you if you die."

sock puppet  09/03/2008 01:08 AM Report

Palin as a reformer is outrageously bogus. Lobbyists and earmarks make venal whores of them all and makes the whole system a putrid stench. She's shown she is adept at the status quo. McCain nor Obama will be able to change the lobbying and earmarking as reelection means more than statesmanship. Perhaps one term limits would defang the lobbists, but that solution is far off if at all. Palin will have to play along, but on her own she's a counterfeit reformer.

GDRileyx  09/03/2008 01:00 AM Report

I have to give Mark Halpern kudos for having the guts to say that the Palin choice is insane.

Any good no-limit poker player could tell you what McCain is doing with his VP pick. He representing a hand he doesn't have.

McCain's big weakness is "Are you really voting for John McCain, or are you voting for the person who is going to take over when McCain gets sick or dies?" I'm concerned that he is not even going to make it to Election Day, much less a full term. Campaigning for President is alot harder work than being a Senator.

Republicans asking McCain to limit himself to one term, because he's too old for two, exposes this weakness. If he's too old for two terms, maybe he is too old for one term. Presidents seem to age 20 years in their first term, and McCain doesn't have 20 years left in him. McCain doesn't have the health Reagan had when Reagan was elected. Heart problems, skin cancer, the damage to his constitution when he was a POW....,

The odds are 50/50 that he can survive a term. And that is Damocles' swift boat hanging over his head. When some 420 group starts running commercials making people afraid McCain is going to die in office - he's through.

So McCain is heading that off by saying, "I'm so sure I can last out the term, that I don't even have to pick somebody qualified to step right in. I'm going to be the President for four years, so it doesn't matter if I pick somebody unqualified. In fact, I couldn't get somebody qualified, because they'd be too bored in the job."

If McCain had picked somebody as qualified as Biden (and I can't think of an actual Republican as qualified as Biden) - and the press praised this pick as being ready to step in and be President - it would have hurt McCain.

This looks better. It says, "Palin is not qualified, and she doesn't have to be - because McCain is not going to die." McCain is literally representing his weakness as a strength.

The fact that she is not qualified doesn't really hurt McCain, relative to any other likely choice. Huckabee and Giuliani aren't qualified either.

I also want to say that I'm offended by this pick. The first woman President should be elected, not slip in the back door. I'm also mad at McCain. If he's dead, he won't be in a position to suffer the bad effects of this stunt, he's pulling to try and get elected. The rest of us will be stuck with the least qualified President in history. If McCain's hero is Theodore Roosevelt, then McCain should be doubly aware of how possible it is for a VP who nobody thought would become President can become President. He should have integrity enough to protect the country against the possibility of his health going awry, and like Franklin Roosevelt picking Truman; pick somebody you want to take over for you if you die.

RE Mant  09/03/2008 12:49 AM Report

Tonight Doris and I were on the same wavelength. In fact I wrote the McCain campaign in virtually the same words a month or so ago. And I was thinking of the Stevenson quote at the same moment she said it. The problem has been I think for him to gain control of the party and I was afraid that the attack ads which had begun appearing would ultimately prove very damaging. That's also why I suggested announcing the early choice of Huckabee as his running mate. Like Palin it would secure the base, and the South, and enable him to go back to being himself. I felt that Huckabee not only shares his contempt for selfishness (Huckabee said so himself), but also his compassion, which would help to reinforce that quality particularly with women. I see the choice of Palin as going me one better.

calico  09/03/2008 12:15 AM Report

Take this discussion as a whole, and you see exactly why we ended up with GWB for 8 years. Knaves and fools run this country, and knaves and fools provide the running commentary for 6 and 7 figure salaries. Do these people have any contact with, or understanding of, real life, and the moral mechanism to distinguish true from false? Are they aware that not everybody is rich, and that the outcome of national elections actually does have consequences for folks who don't live in the Beltway bubble?

sock puppet  09/03/2008 12:12 AM Report

Kudos to Mark Halperin who virtually warned that the unvetted Palin would produce even more discredit to herself and McCain. Sure enough in 24 hours she's produced abuse of power firing a state trooper for a personal grudge, obtaining pork for her city while mayor yadda, yadda. McCain's judgment is impaled on his own petard of impetuous attempt at sensationalism. A backdoor gift to Dems?

Linda Mae  09/03/2008 12:12 AM Report

Governor Palin is a qualified woman who has an 80% approval rating from the residents of Alaska.

Her husband had a DUI 20 years ago - Obama confessed that he experimented with drugs. That "sin" is a wash.

Whatever the press throws at her, it comes back to point out how unqualified Obama is to lead this country. He's been in the Senate for @ 2 years and has spent the past 18 months running for office. Some have claimed that his campaign has given him experience to be President. I'd rather have the candidate who was mayor of a city on 7,000 and then a governor for almost 2 years take the helm of our country. She has hands on experience to bring to the table. Obama is a creation of the media. They love him. I still cannot excuse him for his decision to work out at the Ritz Carton rather than - without cameras - visit the wounded troops in Germany. There was no excuse for that decision. It showed very poor judgment.

Sarah Palin reminds me of CT's own Ella Grasso. She was a feisty woman who certainly would have taken the press to task for their sleezy coverage of Palin and her family. Where was the press when Obama was selected? Why wasn't his background vetted? Wright? Resko? And a few other issues.

judithod  09/03/2008 12:08 AM Report

Much better discussion of the RNC candidates and the issues tonight than of those relating to the DNC. The panelists appear to be more open in discussing the pros and cons of the Republicans versus adoring the Democrats. I appreciate insights over fawning. Please continue in this mode.

Hist Ory  09/03/2008 12:01 AM Report

How can McCain be an agent of change when his administration will be a clone of Bush's?

McCain has overlapping lobbyists, a similar agenda, and now, another right-wing overly religious oil head with Palen, only this time, even the dudes on your show are smitten with her beauty! Thanks for pointing out how men react to a pretty woman.

Bush has returned, only this time, she will be adored by those who cannot see below the skin.

If the nation gets a crush on Palen, we are doomed.

jrd  09/02/2008 11:52 PM Report

You really have to hand it to Mark Halperin, Doris Kearns Goodwin and the rest of the gang: no matter what the occasion, these fixtures of Serious Commentary manage to generate absurd, self-infatuated, removed-from-reality commentary from other planets, as if they never heard that politics is deception and never acquired the ability to distinguish drama from reality. Does it take an ordinary person without a famous father or a inflated academic reputation to realize that political conventions are TV shows designed to sell unpalatable products, not Grand Moments in American History Understood Only By TV Pundits Who Invent Their Own Reality?

Are there no really better minds in America, to tell us what's really going on, instead of what's going in the minds of pundits, who, no matter how often and how disastrously they're wrong, somehow never lose their access to the Charlie Rose Show?

Ralph  09/02/2008 11:42 PM Report

Al hunt just said that nothing new really happend about Palin today. But I read that she was on the board for two years of a 527 political fund with ties to Ted Stevens.

I just don't see her reformer credentials standing up.

Iqbal Faizer  09/02/2008 06:51 PM Report

Seconded. How can Charlie be so mean-spirited and denigrating toward any leader in the Muslim world -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Ahmaedinejad -- and yet so welcomingly embrace the figures of fundamentalist intolerance in America who have done far more to make the world a worse place in encouraging the most egregious American militarism abroad and the most vicious persecution of the poor in the name of bogus moral authority. I'm disappointed by the inclusion of so obvious a scumbag opportunist biggot as Ralph Reed. Behold his ties to Jack Abramoff:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08012008/profile.html

sock puppet  09/02/2008 01:54 PM Report

Ralph Reed? RALPH REED???? Charlie, you diminish yourself and everone on the panel.