Feeling Sorry for Small, Classless People on a Great Day

 

Sixteen years ago, President Bush made a surprise visit to our troops in Iraq. It was touching. The troops were clearly delighted. Bush was friendly, playful and very human. In other words, it was a complete disaster from the standpoint of MSM anti-Bush partisans. In one of the most pathetic journalistic petty falsehoods ever printed, the Washington Post’s Mike Allen reported that Bush had tried to serve a fake turkey to the troops. The actual video of his visit was available worldwide so this characterization was especially stupid.

In fact, as Mr. Bush moved about and worked the room, he playfully picked up a plastic turkey centerpiece (there was one on each table) made a gesture offering it and, because they did not work for the Washington Post, the soldiers around him got the joke, laughed and watched POTUS put the decoration down and continue to shake the hand of everyone he encountered. [See correction in comments.]

Mr. Allen and his editors were too graceless, partisan and small to simply acknowledge the truth of a good moment for the President and for the troops and chose to instead run a silly lie to mock the president. They were clearly desperate to tarnish a very positive moment for their political enemy. The flying monkeys of the left picked up the meme and people too dumb to know they were being used suddenly felt mentally superior to the man who supposedly tried to serve plastic turkey. (Dupes mistakenly thinking they are smart are, by definition, the “base” of the Democratic party.)

Today, Donald Trump made a similar supportive gesture with a surprise visit to our troops in Afghanistan. Naturally, the classless, graceless, divisive crowd we erroneously call “journalists” cannot report that as a positive event. Exhibit A:

You would think that this being Mr. Trump’s first visit (I don’t recall President Obama being a frequent visitor) that that would make it even more special. Also—fact check me on this—Mr. Trump has not been in office for 18 years.

In any event, Tapper’s palpable sneering tone is diagnostic of a man too small to rise above partisan and personal limitations to simply acknowledge a positive Thanksgiving gesture by his avowed political enemy. Would it have killed him to say something like “I can’t stand the guy but that was a nice thing he just did.” Keep this petty tweet in mind the next time he lectures us about “divisiveness”.

Despite our obvious differences I hope Jake Tapper has a great Thanksgiving. It is too special a holiday to be petty and divisive.

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  1. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Maybe it’s not the wisest thing, but Trump has tried to have talks with the Taliban. He’s trying something different to speak to the 18 years part.

    • #1
  2. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved.  The Media have been the enemy of the people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    • #2
  3. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    Maybe it’s not the wisest thing, but Trump has tried to have talks with the Taliban. He’s trying something different to speak to the 18 years part.

    Talking to Taliban seems like a low percentage undertaking but anything that can end that mess..

    • #3
  4. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    I recall seeing him lift it. It was very light. It was in a mess hall on a table. Food service would have been up at the chow line. Maybe we need to go to tape…

    • #4
  5. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    It’s nails on a chalkboard to me when people say Trump is the “most divisive” president ever (like happened recently on the R> podcast… ahem). No, we on the (Normal) Right hated Obama just as much as the Left (and Nevers) hate Trump and believed he was ruining the country, we just don’t treat people as badly as they do. My pet peeve is these false moral equivalencies. 

    I know there were times when I thought Obama did the right thing, but they were so rare, I’m having trouble remembering them. What Trump has done for economic confidence and minority employment, for prison reform, for our allies and to our enemies… These small, classless people lack basic human decency. 

    • #5
  6. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I’m at the point where I actually don’t want people like Tapper to say anything ‘nice’ about the President. I don’t require agreement or approval from these people. And if they start approving of Trump for anything, I will have to do some serious work to ascertain why. 

     

    • #6
  7. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Franco (View Comment):

    I’m at the point where I actually don’t want people like Tapper to say anything ‘nice’ about the President. I don’t require agreement or approval from these people. And if they start approving of Trump for anything, I will have to do some serious work to ascertain why.

     

    Well, I would definitely doubt their sincerity. But, if they can’t report the news straight, how about not commenting on it at all?

    • #7
  8. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    It’s nails on a chalkboard to me when people say Trump is the “most divisive” president ever (like happened recently on the R> podcast… ahem). No, we on the (Normal) Right hated Obama just as much as the Left (and Nevers) hate Trump and believed he was ruining the country, we just don’t treat people as badly as they do. My pet peeve is these false moral equivalencies.

    I know there were times when I thought Obama did the right thing, but they were so rare, I’m having trouble remembering them. What Trump has done for economic confidence and minority employment, for prison reform, for our allies and to our enemies… These small, classless people lack basic human decency.

    1. Sending Navy sniper to kill the Somali pirates that had taken an American ship. 
    2. Dead bin Laden. 

    That about wraps it up. 

    • #8
  9. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    I recall seeing him lift it. It was very light. It was in a mess hall on a table. Food service would have been up at the chow line. Maybe we need to go to tape…

    It . . . was  . . . real.  That people still believe it is fake is a testimony to the power of the press to cloud men’s minds.

    • #9
  10. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back  then that.  At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    • #10
  11. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Kozak (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back then that. At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    Goldwater?

    • #11
  12. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    It was real, even according to Snopes, that bastion of “non-partisan” fact-checking. Look at the bend in that tray.

    See the source image

    • #12
  13. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    It was real, even according to Snopes, that bastion of “non-partisan” fact-checking. Look at the bend in that tray.

    See the source image

    I stand corrected. The meme was even dumber, more false and nastier than I recounted.

    • #13
  14. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Old Bathos: Sixteen years ago, President Bush made a surprise visit to our troops in Iraq. It was touching. The troops were clearly delighted. Bush was friendly, playful and very human. In other words, it was a complete disaster from the standpoint of MSM anti-Bush partisans. In one of the most pathetic journalistic petty falsehoods ever printed, the Washington Post’s Mike Allen reported that Bush had tried to serve a fake turkey to the troops. The actual video of his visit was available worldwide so this characterization was especially stupid.

    These idiots tried to do the same thing with George H.W. Bush and the grocery store scanner.  The press tried to make it look like Bush was so out of touch with the common man, he didn’t even know what a bar code scanner was.

    The truth was the scanner was a new type that could read torn or smeared bar codes.  Of course he was amazed, and said so.  However, the lie already had traction when the truth came out . . .

    • #14
  15. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back then that. At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    Goldwater?

    They hated Nixon ever since the Alger Hiss hearings, and finally got him in the early 70s.  

    • #15
  16. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back then that. At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    Goldwater?

    I could see that.

     

    • #16
  17. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    It was real, even according to Snopes, that bastion of “non-partisan” fact-checking. Look at the bend in that tray.

    See the source image

     

    I ended up having a lot of problems with W by the end, especially his infuriating silence during 8 years of Obama and suddenly finding his voice when Trump became president.   But, his devotion and genuine love of the troops was not one of them.  He made many, many trips to Walter Reed and Bethesda to visit wounded troops, almost always without press or photo ops.  

    • #17
  18. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    No, we on the (Normal) Right hated Obama just as much as the Left (and Nevers) hate Trump and believed he was ruining the country, we just don’t treat people as badly as they do.

    I disagree.  I didn’t, and do not hate Obama, and neither do I hate Trump.   By all accounts, both of them are very likable people in person.  I disagreed nearly universally with Obama’s political world view.  I, like Rush, wanted Obama to fail as President.  I do not agree with everything Trump thinks, either.  And those things I don’t agree on, I want him to fail there too.  

    No, WC, I think you are wrong, and I’ll prove it:  find me a video of someone falling to their knees and shrieking at the sky on Obama’s inauguration.  I am guessing you won’t find such a thing.  

    Now maybe you are using the word “hate” differently thank I use it!  ;-)

    • #18
  19. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    Franco (View Comment):

    I’m at the point where I actually don’t want people like Tapper to say anything ‘nice’ about the President. I don’t require agreement or approval from these people. And if they start approving of Trump for anything, I will have to do some serious work to ascertain why.

     

    Understood, but…

    I might dislike every one of Trump’s policies…

    I might not agree that the UNited States should still after 18 years be over there…

    …and I can still say that it is a good thing that Trump goes and visits the troops.

    But…I can’t do that if I’ve spent that last 2 weeks saying Trump doesn’t care about order and discipline in the military.  

    • #19
  20. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    Jake Tapper complains that this is the first time Trump has visited the troops in Afghanistan, a seemingly endless war going on for 18 years now and having started 15 years before Trump became President. I would like to see Tapper, whose only physical connection to being in Afghanistan was being on the movie set that portrayed an outpost in a film about a battle in that war, explain why we still have troops risking their lives and limbs fighting in that god-forsaken place. If those troops were home in our own country where the president has let us know that he wants them,  he wouldn’t have to fly 8000 miles in secret on Thanksgiving to visit and thank them for their service. However, even though POTUS is being hamstrung from doing what he really wants regarding Afghanistan by forces who hide in the shadows of D.C., he is man enough–human enough– to make the “ginormous” effort to go there, look those men and women in their eyes, and say, “Great job! You are courageous and tremendously competent soldiers and your country always remembers you.” 

    President Trump was doing that while we and Jake Tapper were safe and sound with our families, gorging on a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Jake Tapper, you suck.

    • #20
  21. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    George and Laura Bush never went home back to the ranch in Crawford for Christmas for eight years because they did not want the traveling staff and security entourage to have to be away from their families for the holidays.
    That level of awareness of and concern for the people around them was not the norm for the administrations that preceded and followed the Bushes.

     

    • #21
  22. JuliaBlaschke Lincoln
    JuliaBlaschke
    @JuliaBlaschke

    I think they don’t want to talk about Trump’s support for Hong Kong, something that I suspect none of the Democrat candidates would do. That, Conan and this visit to the troops are all good Trump. If only we would see more of it.

    • #22
  23. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Spin (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    No, we on the (Normal) Right hated Obama just as much as the Left (and Nevers) hate Trump and believed he was ruining the country, we just don’t treat people as badly as they do.

    I disagree. I didn’t, and do not hate Obama, and neither do I hate Trump. By all accounts, both of them are very likable people in person. I disagreed nearly universally with Obama’s political world view. I, like Rush, wanted Obama to fail as President. I do not agree with everything Trump thinks, either. And those things I don’t agree on, I want him to fail there too.

    No, WC, I think you are wrong, and I’ll prove it: find me a video of someone falling to their knees and shrieking at the sky on Obama’s inauguration. I am guessing you won’t find such a thing.

    Now maybe you are using the word “hate” differently thank I use it! ;-)

    Yes, you are using it differently than I intended. I was short-handing for the over-the-top response of the Left “falling on their knees and shrieking at the sky” on Trump’s inauguration. Right-wing “hate” looks different from Left-wing hate, because we believe fundamentally in the dignity of all human beings created in the image and likeness of God, even if their worldview is a force for chaos and destruction. We also tend to believe in objective truth, so when a left-winger does something objectively good, we can acknowledge it. This isn’t possible for a left-wing (and sometimes Never) outlook.

    • #23
  24. Misthiocracy grudgingly Member
    Misthiocracy grudgingly
    @Misthiocracy

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    It’s nails on a chalkboard to me when people say Trump is the “most divisive” president ever (like happened recently on the R> podcast… ahem).

    It’s pretty hard for a President to be more divisive than Abraham Lincoln.  The country literally divided into two countries.

    • #24
  25. Misthiocracy grudgingly Member
    Misthiocracy grudgingly
    @Misthiocracy

    Franco (View Comment):

    I’m at the point where I actually don’t want people like Tapper to say anything ‘nice’ about the President. I don’t require agreement or approval from these people. And if they start approving of Trump for anything, I will have to do some serious work to ascertain why.

     

    The only times I ever hear about Jake Tapper is when conservatives complain about him.  Maybe if conservatives stopped giving CNN (and MSNBC) free advertising their ratings would fall even further?

    • #25
  26. Misthiocracy grudgingly Member
    Misthiocracy grudgingly
    @Misthiocracy

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back then that. At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    Goldwater?

    They hated Nixon ever since the Alger Hiss hearings, and finally got him in the early 70s.

    I presume that the media had a hand in keeping Nixon out of the White House in 1960, no? 

    Of course, history books prefer to say that JFK was more “media-savvy” than Nixon was, which just seems like an attempt to absolve the media of its responsibility.

    • #26
  27. Kipputt Member
    Kipputt
    @Kipputt

    Trump visited North Korea, no President has ever been there, what is Jake Trapper think of that?

    • #27
  28. Misthiocracy grudgingly Member
    Misthiocracy grudgingly
    @Misthiocracy

    Kipputt (View Comment):

    Trump visited North Korea, no President has ever been there, what is Jake Trapper think of that?

    If Trump did it, that means it was a bad thing to do.  If it was a good thing to do then it follows that a better President would have already done it.  Q.E.D.

    • #28
  29. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    The left didn’t really change that much.  There was wide support for Roosevelt and he embodied almost everything the left endorses except the silly ethnic, gender, race insanity.   The left simply did not understand the sources of the Great Depression and there were few folks around to counter them because  establishment Republican notions were not what came to be called conservatism.   The National Review and William Buckley brought Neo classical liberalism back which younger students adopted as serious thought and Reagan articulated  so well it spread widely across the country.  We wrongly called it conservatism.  The Democrats called their Neo socialist confusion liberal because  Fascism made  names for their approach unfashionable.  They needed a good word.  Liberal was it because liberalism was killed by the Great Depression and even before by radicals like Wilson.  Unfortunately the Bushes didn’t understand what Reagan/Buckely et al were saying and we lost the momentum.  The left simply did not and does not understand the sources of the Great Depression and there were few folks around to counter them because  establishment Republican notions were not what Buckley and Reagan articulated. Now  that our left openly endorse all the real nonsense, maybe we can get our word back.  What we call conservatism isn’t conservative, it’s rooted and firm but it’s the thing that causes more change than anything man has ever come up with so it’s not conservative. 

    • #29
  30. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Kozak (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    I think the centerpiece turkey seen with Bush was not plastic but a real turkey that was not carved. The Media have been the enemy of then people since 2000 when the election was virtually tied and the Media joined the Democrats.

    Oh it goes way further back then that. At least to the 80’s and Reagan.

    I agree but the Democrats and the Media went insane over the “hanging chads” in 2000. I actually blame Carl Rove for the tie as he must have known about the Bush DUI and agreed to conceal it.  That left the evangelicals sitting it out after Bush had spent years claiming to be one.

    Reagan had a largely sane Democrat Party to deal with.  Iran Contra was as far as they went down the road they have gone with Bush and Trump.

    • #30
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