Keith Olbermann is a news anchor and commentator on MSNBC. He currently hosts "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," an hour-long nightly newscast that reviews the top news stories of the day. He closes each show with political commentary that reminds me of a contemporary Edward R. Murrow. And let me tell you, if there ever were a time we needed such a commentator, it is now. And if there were any commentator who could fill the shoes of Murrow, that person is Olbermann. So it seems more than fitting that Olbermann closes each show with Murrow’s arresting and substantive adage: "Good night, and good luck."
In the past two months, Olbermann’s impact on the political landscape is obvious from the skyrocketing presence of his name, quotes from his commentaries, and distribution of his closing editorials on the blogosphere and You Tube. It is also evidenced, most unfortunately, in the fact that he was the target this past month of a mail attack – an envelope sent to his home contained white powder. (Read commentary about this here and here.)
Some of his most recognized commentaries recently have been the following:
The President of the United States owes the US an apology
Olbermann on Bush: Have you no decency, sir?
Comment regarding Bush’s interview on 9/25
Tonight, Keith Olbermann delivers yet another landmark editorial on the President’s prevarications in his speeches while campaigning this week in Nevada, Arizona, and California. You can watch the editorial in its entirety here.
Here are a few highlights:
And lastly tonight, a Special Comment, about — lying. While the leadership in Congress has self-destructed over the revelations of an unmatched, and unrelieved, march through a cesspool… While the leadership inside the White House has self-destructed over the revelations of a book with a glowing red cover…
The President of the United States — unbowed, undeterred, and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: The Democrats.
Yesterday at a fundraiser for an Arizona Congressman, Mr. Bush claimed, quote, "177 of the opposition party said 'You know, we don't think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists."
The hell they did.
177 Democrats opposed the President's seizure of another part of the Constitution*.
Not even the White House press office could actually name a single Democrat who had ever said the government shouldn't be listening to the conversations of terrorists.
President Bush hears… what he wants.
Tuesday, at another fundraiser in California, he had said "Democrats take a law enforcement approach to terrorism. That means America will wait until we're attacked again before we respond."
Mr. Bush fabricated that, too.
And evidently he has begun to fancy himself as a mind-reader.
"If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party," the President said at another fundraiser Monday in Nevada, "it sounds like they think the best way to protect the American people is — wait until we're attacked again."
The President doesn't just hear what he wants. He hears things, that only he can hear.
It defies belief that this President and his administration could continue to find new unexplored political gutters into which they could wallow.
Yet they do.
Just 25 days ago, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this same man spoke to this nation and insisted, quote, "we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us."
Mr. Bush, this is a test you have already failed.
If your commitment to "put aside differences and work together" is replaced in the span of just three weeks by claiming your political opponents prefer to wait to see this country attacked again, and by spewing fabrications about what they've said, then the questions your critics need to be asking, are no longer about your policies.
They are, instead — solemn and even terrible questions, about your fitness to fulfill the responsibilities of your office.
No Democrat, sir, has ever said anything approaching the suggestion that the best means of self-defense is to "wait until we're attacked again."
No critic, no commentator, no reluctant Republican in the Senate, has ever said anything that any responsible person could even have exaggerated into the slander you spoke in Nevada on Monday night, nor the slander you spoke in California on Tuesday, nor the slander you spoke in Arizona on Wednesday… nor whatever is next.
Well, you get the point.....I could quote the speech in its entirety, it is that relevant and significant.
10:52:48 PM  | |
|
