On September 15, 1972, while serving as a regional chairman of the Committee to Reelect the President (the Nixon reelection campaign), I stood on a speakers\u2019 platform just feet behind the president\u2019s deputy campaign manager, Jeb Stuart Magruder, as he addressed a press conference at the opening of my largest regional phone bank in West Chester, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
As he responded to questions from the Philadelphia press corps, he seemed to be not quite himself; his mind was not on the task at hand.\u00a0 At some point I whispered to my executive director, suggesting that Magruder seemed to be \u201ca bit distracted.\u201d\u00a0 She nodded her agreement.<\/p>\n
Of course, we would not learn the reason for Magruder\u2019s apparent distraction until we returned to our offices.\u00a0 It was then we learned that, in the early morning hours that day, a team of five men were found bugging telephones inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Complex in Washington, DC, and that several members of the \u201cblack bag\u201d team had connections to the Nixon reelection campaign\u2026 reporting directly to Jeb Stuart Magruder.\u00a0 My guest of that day had good reason to be \u201cdistracted.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I was asked what I thought would happen, I replied, \u201cUltimately, they will take Nixon down.\u00a0 Once the sharks of the Washington press corps get a taste of a powerful man\u2019s blood, they never give up until their target is utterly destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something they do, not because it\u2019s necessary<\/em>, but just to show the world that they can<\/em>, that they are so powerful they can even bring down a president of the United States.\u00a0 And although they much prefer to destroy conservatives and Republicans, they will also destroy liberals and Democrats if the opportunity arises and if their reputations may suffer if they fail to do so.\u00a0 The urge to bring down the mighty is so strong in them that they are powerless to resist.\u00a0 Now it is Barack Obama\u2019s turn in the barrel and the lead sharks are beginning to circle.<\/p>\n The August 17, 2012 edition of Newsweek<\/em> magazine carries a cover story by Niall Ferguson, titled \u201cHit the Road, Barack \u2013 Why We Need a New President.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In his devastating critique of the Obama presidency, Ferguson says, \u201cIn his inaugural address, Obama promised not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.\u00a0 He promised to build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.\u00a0 He promised to restore science to its rightful place and wield technology\u2019s wonders to raise health care\u2019s quality and lower its cost.\u00a0 And he promised to transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, the president\u2019s scorecard on every single one of those bold pledges is pitiful\u2026 The total number of private sector jobs is still 4.3 million below the January 2008 peak.\u00a0 Meanwhile, since 2008, a staggering 3.6 million Americans have been added to Social Security\u2019s disability insurance program.\u00a0 This is one of the ways unemployment is being concealed.<\/p>\n \u201cIn his fiscal year 2012 budget \u2013 the first he presented \u2013 the president envisioned growth of 3.2 percent in 2010, 4.0 percent in 2011, 4.6 percent in 2012.\u00a0 The actual numbers were 2.4 percent in 2010 and 1.8 percent in 2011\u2026 Unemployment was supposed to be 6 percent by now.\u00a0 It has averaged 8.2 percent this year so far.\u00a0 Meanwhile, real median annual household income has dropped more than 5 percent since June 2009.\u00a0 Nearly 110 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011, mostly Medicaid or food stamps.\u00a0 Welcome to Obama\u2019s America: nearly half the population is not represented on a taxable return.\u201d<\/p>\n The Newsweek<\/em> story was followed closely by an August 19, 2012\u00a0 New York Post<\/em> opinion piece by Phil Mushnik titled, \u201cSee no evil<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 In his piece, Mushnik describes himself as a \u201cregistered, but less-than-loyal, Democrat\u201d who has long scoffed at the notion that the mainstream media have a left-leaning, anti-Republican bias.\u00a0 Then he admits, \u201cBut now I know \u2013 and have for some time \u2013 that I was pulling my own leg.\u00a0 The notion of such a bias is not merely a notion; it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n As proof of his new-found enlightenment, Mushnik cites the largely unreported case of Obama\u2019s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, a senior Obama advisor.\u00a0 In December 2010, Plouffe left the administration to give two speeches in Nigeria.\u00a0 Plouffe was paid $100,000 for the two speeches, the tab being picked up by MTN, Africa\u2019s largest wireless telephone company.\u00a0 As Mushnik explains, Nigeria is a country that ranks 158th<\/sup> out of 177 in economic development, a country in which an estimated 70% of the population live in severe poverty and in the mortally unhealthy conditions that accompany nothingness.\u201d<\/p>\n So how and why does a cesspool of poverty and human misery pay an Obama acolyte $100,000 for two speeches?\u00a0 Could it be that Plouffe was merely repatriating\u2026 into his own pockets\u2026 some of the USAID funds that Obama has sent to Nigeria?\u00a0 More importantly, how could the mainstream media fail to report Plouffe\u2019s little scam until now?\u00a0 This is not the first time Obama decided he could screw things up without Plouffe\u2019s help\u2026 at least for a short time.\u00a0 In 2009, Plouffe took a furlough from the White House to accept $50,000 for a speech before a group in Islamic Azerbaijan.\u00a0 The press chose to overlook that incident, as well.<\/p>\n Of course, all of this takes place against the backdrop of the recently-released Gerald R. Molen film, \u201c2016: Obama\u2019s America,\u201d<\/em> written by conservative Dinesh D\u2019Souza.\u00a0 The film, which traces Obama\u2019s early life across at least three continents, projects what the United States might be like if he is allowed a second term in the White House.<\/p>\n Molen, producer of the Academy Award winning film \u201cSchindler\u2019s List,\u201d <\/em>Best Picture of 1993, was a bit confounded to read the early reviews of the film.\u00a0 He was especially stung by a review written by Washington-based political writer Mariah Blake.\u00a0 Ms. Blake wrote, \u201cWhile the film itself was not yet available when this (review) went to press, the trailer resembles a cross between a high-budget feature and standard Tea Party agitprop.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to Ms. Blake\u2019s review, Molen wrote: \u201cIf you thought being one of the producers of one of the greatest anti-hate films in history, one that exposed hatred, bigotry, and anti-Semitism would make you immune from being labeled a hate monger, think again.\u00a0 Schindler\u2019s List<\/em> left its mark on the world and did so by telling the truth about man\u2019s inhumanity to men.\u00a0 Yet the slings and arrows came at me to impinge my credibility, the work of Dinesh D\u2019Souza, and to once again use hate as their passport to the dark side.\u201d<\/p>\n Molen told a reporter for the Christian Post<\/em> that Blake\u2019s article was \u201cthe first one that stung a bit, primarily because she did a review of the film and hadn\u2019t seen it.\u00a0 That just told me that it didn\u2019t matter (to her) what the truth was.\u201d\u00a0 The mainstream media are not accustomed to that sort of criticism from one of their own.\u00a0 Can Obama be far behind?<\/p>\n But moviegoers have a totally different attitude toward the film, playing to packed houses across the country.\u00a0 A black female blogger from Waco, Texas, writing under the name Godschild,<\/em> reports that all showings of \u201c2016: Obama\u2019s America\u201d<\/em> were sold out in Waco theaters.\u00a0 She reports that she attended a matinee where only a few front row seats were available.<\/p>\n She goes on to say that, \u201cEven the dumbed-down are beginning to panic.\u00a0 What is coming is as plain as the nose on your face\u2026 One theater had so many people that they opened up five more theaters than originally planned.\u00a0 Theater managers said they had never seen anything like this before, where thousands were buying tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n What we see happening is what Ronald Kessler describes in a Newsmax<\/em> article of August 20.\u00a0 He explains, \u201cJournalists are not idiots.\u00a0 They recognize that Obama, as the Newsweek<\/em> cover story documents, has been a failure.\u00a0 But they are also lemmings who will not depart from their traditional support of Democrats unless given permission by their peers.\u00a0 The cover story in Newsweek<\/em>, one of the most liberal-leaning publications in the country, does just that\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cHaving been a reporter for the Washington Post<\/em> and Wall Street Journal<\/em>, I know how susceptible journalists are to the herd instinct.\u00a0 The Newsweek<\/em> cover story in effect tells journalists it\u2019s okay to begin telling the truth about Obama and expose his presidency as the failure Newsweek<\/em> says it is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cherd instinct\u201d was validated once again by ABC\u2019s White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, in an August 21 interview with conservative radio talk host Laura Ingraham.\u00a0 Tapper said, \u201cI have said before\u2026 [that I] thought the media helped tip the scales [toward Obama].\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think the coverage in 2008 was especially fair to either Hilary Clinton or John McCain\u2026 Sometimes I saw with story selection, magazine covers, photos picked, campaign narrative, that it wasn\u2019t always the fairest coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n Many on the left\u2026 and some on the right\u2026 suggest that Newsweek<\/em> has gone out on a limb to support Obama\u2019s defeat because their bottom line is shrinking and they\u2019re merely looking for increased circulation.\u00a0 I prefer not to be that cynical.\u00a0 I prefer to believe that the sharks have had their first taste of Obama\u2019s blood; they are beginning to circle the quarry and they will not give up until they have done him in.\u00a0 The love affair with the media is over.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On September 15, 1972, while serving as a regional chairman of the Committee to Reelect the President (the Nixon reelection campaign), I stood on a speakers\u2019 platform just feet behind the president\u2019s deputy campaign manager, Jeb Stuart Magruder, as he … Continue reading