Tom Bevan from Real Clear Politics joined us last evening on Pundit Review Radio to discuss Bill Clinton’s meltdown on Fox News, the 2006 midterms, the contenders for 2008, and the impact of Tony Snow on the Presidents improving poll numbers.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “Groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
One of the advantages of doing Pundit Review Radio on Sunday night is that we get first crack at discussing the Sunday morning talking head shows. Well, this Sunday is going to be hard to top. Bill Clinton lost his marbles on Fox News with Chris Wallace.
Among the things he got wrong, that Chris Walllace didn’t ask these tough questions to Republicans. Patterico corrects the record.
Clinton’s claim about Somalia, well, that was also untrue. Here’s Clinton,
OK, now letâ??s look at all the criticisms: Black Hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew Al Qaida was a growing concern in October of â??93.
Not a living soul in the world… except for President Clinton’s own Justice Department. The U.S. Justice Department’s indictment of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda’s military commander, Mohammed Atef, on Nov. 4, 1998, for conspiring to kill Americans:
At various times from in or about 1992 until in or about 1993, the defendant USAMA BIN LADEN, working together with members of the fatwah committee of al Qaeda, disseminated fatwahs to other members and associates of al Qaeda that the United States forces stationed in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, should be attacked;
Byron York points out why Richard Clarke’s book isn’t exactly the great defense Clinton thinks it is.
It was a bad morning for Bill Clinton but a great night for us.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called â??Groundbreakingâ? by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Station.
Pundit Review Radio
Sunday evening, 7-10pm EST
Streaming live on Boston’s Talk Station, WRKO
At 7pm we discuss Bill Clinton’s memorable Fox News interview from this morning, and examine some blogger reaction, like that of our friends Dean Esmay and Captain Ed who say it is time to move on.
Here at Pundit Review Radio, we try to bring the best of the blogs to the radio. We are doing that in spades this weekend by welcoming Tom Bevan from Real Clear Politics at 8pm.
Founded in 2000 by John McIntyre and Tom Bevan, Chicago-based RealClearPolitics.com (RCP) is Americaâ??s political web site for intelligent opinion, news, polls and analysis. Each month, more than 500,000 visitors from across the political spectrum go to RCP to take the pulse of American politics. RCPâ??s political commentary, election analysis and polling averages have been featured in national media outlets including The New York Times, FOX News, CNN, The Economist, Investorâ??s Business Daily, The Chicago Sun-Times and many, many more.
It’s not just new media bloggers like us who find Real Clear Politics so valuable, let’s hear from some MSM folks, like America’s newsman, Brit Hume,
“I check RealClearPolitics every day. It is the best collection of political commentary on the web.”
and liberals like Newsweek’s Howard Fineman and a former guest of ours, Peter Beinart,
“A site that makes a credible effort to do the impossible: to provide a comprehensive, real-time (and not just Beltway-based) overview of the entire American political conversation.” – Howard Fineman, Newsweek
“Absolutely indispensable.” – Peter Beinart, The New Republic
Of course, Blackfive’s Someone You Should Know will be happening at 9pm EST and we will also be getting a sneak preview of the Congressional Medal of Honor dinner that is being held in Boston next week in which most of the living recipients of the award will be in attendance, as well as Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called â??Groundbreakingâ? by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Station.
CNN
Democrats warn Chavez: Don’t bash Bush
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two of President Bush’s staunchest domestic critics leapt to his defense Thursday, a day after one of his fiercest foreign foes called him “the devil” in a scorching speech before the United Nations.
“You don’t come into my country; you don’t come into my congressional district and you don’t condemn my president,” Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, scolded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, was blunt in her criticism of the Venezuelan leader. “He is an everyday thug,” she said.
Did The Onion overtake CNN.com? What’s the matter, are the Democrats jealous because Hugo is a better Bush basher than they are? Worried he’s going to steal their best material? I mean, come on. After all that the Democrats have said about George Bush, this is almost too much to take.
What’s next from the Dems, John Kerry telling politicians how to defend themself against attack ads? Er, never mind.
Anne Applebaum gets it exactly right,
All of which is simply beside the point, since nothing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it’s time that it should: When Saudi Arabia publishes textbooks commanding good Wahhabi Muslims to “hate” Christians, Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, for example, why shouldn’t the Vatican, the Southern Baptists, Britain’s chief rabbi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemn them — simultaneously?
Maybe it’s a pipe dream: The day when the White House and Greenpeace can issue a joint statement is surely distant indeed. But if stray comments by Western leaders — not to mention Western films, books, cartoons, traditions and values — are going to inspire regular violence, I don’t feel that it’s asking too much for the West to quit saying sorry and unite, occasionally, in its own defense. The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don’t see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech, too.
Meanwhile, EJ Dionne, well, he could use some help. Captain Ed explains,
Although we do not agree on much, Dionne is a must-read for me as he provides the best intellectual distillation of liberal thinking and usually makes challenging arguments regarding base assumptions. However, in this case, E.J. is just plain wrong, and considering the role freedom of criticism plays in his job, somewhat shockingly so.
How wrong you ask? Here’s Dionne,
But that is precisely why all who are hoping for a liberalized Islam should take Benedict to task, and why he needs to use that great intellect of his to move this discussion in a different direction. … It’s true that Westerners who reject religion altogether may have trouble opening an authentic dialogue with Muslims. But religious dialogue will not progress very far if it starts off with a slap in the face.
Read his whole column, it’s downhill from here.
Sunday night on Pundit Review Radio we discussed The Pope’s comments about Islam, and his unfortunate, furious backpeddling. What a shame. One ounce of moral clarity, and then he cowered in fear at his alleged insult to Islam. Sad. As they threaten to kill him, demand that he convert to Islam, they are doing nothing but proving his point. He should say so.
We also discussed Victor Davis Hanson’s article on the situation in which he said,
And what are we to make of poor Benedict XVI, the scholastic, who, in a disastrous display of public sensitivity, makes the telling point, that Christianity, in its long evolution to the present, has learned to forsake violence, and to defend its faith through appeals to reasonâ??and thus can offer its own experience in the current crisis of Islam. And by quoting from the emperor rhetorician Manuel Paleologusâ??whose desperate efforts at strengthening the Morea and the Isthmus at Corinth a generation before that awful Tuesday, May 29, 1453 all came to naughtâ??the Pope failed to grasp that under the tenets of radical Islam of the modern age, context means little, intent nothing, learning less than zero. If a sentence, indeed a mere phrase can be taken out of context, twisted, manipulated to show an absence of deference to Islam, furor ensues, death threats follow, assassins load their beltsâ??even as the New York Times or the Guardian issues its sanctimonious apologies in the hope that the crocodile will eat them last.
I especially loved this line from VDH,
In short, no modern ideology, no religious sect of the present age demands so much of others, so little of itself.
And you don’t want to miss the analogy of the year from Jay Tea at Wizbang,
Islam is like alcohol, some people can handle it, and some people can’t.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Hailed as â??Groundbreakingâ? by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Leader.
It was our great pleasure to welcome James Hanson, aka Uncle Jimbo from Blackfive, to Pundit Review Radio last night. A retired Special Operations Master Sergeant, Uncle Jimbo is now focused on writing about the military, politics, intelligence operations and foreign policy.
We discussed his post on Colin Powell, the debate over treatment of enemy combatants and also the Pope’s comments about Islam. It was great fun to speak with Uncle Jimbo, and we look forward to having him back on the show.
This interview is also available for download at iTunes.
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Hailed as â??Groundbreakingâ? by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Leader.