Last updated on June 13th, 2012 at 09:54 pm
Despite the fact that President Obama has spoken of compromise throughout his presidency, CNN attacked the president for not compromising with Republicans.
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Here is the video:
CROWLEY: Let me — since you brought up the $250,000 tax cut, should they or should they not be extended for those making over that amount —
AXELROD: Let me just — let me just — let me just clarify something. He wants $250,000 above and beyond the extension of the Bush tax cuts so let's make that clear, but anyway, go ahead.
CROWLEY: Let me just read you something that Claire McCaskill, Democrat from Missouri facing a tough re-election, had to say. "If you want to do something in the spirit of compromise, you don't start out by saying, I refuse to do this or I refuse to do that. It's not my preference to extend tax cuts to millionaires, but I want to keep every option open in the spirit of compromise." So it's not just Republicans. As you know, there are others, Bill Nelson of Florida, who have said I don't know, I don't know that we shouldn't go ahead and extend those tax cuts.
AXELROD: Candy, Candy —
CROWLEY: You've got problems in the Democratic Party as well, correct?
AXELROD: Candy, first of all let me say I agree with Senator McCaskill, that we ought to have a spirit of compromise, I watched —
CROWLEY: But the president said he'd veto it.
AXELROD: — I watched Governor Romney on the stage saying that he wouldn't accept one dollar of new revenue even for $10 of tax cuts. That's not the spirit of compromise. That's what is animating the Republicans in Congress. They share that view.
CROWLEY: Is the president veto threat a spirit of compromise?
AXELROD: Let me ask you a question, if we want to compromise, why don't we compromise on the thing that we all agree on? We all agree that we should renew those tax cuts for the middle class. Ninety — if they sent him a bill that would renew those tax cuts for 97 percent of the American people, the president would sign it today. If we want to —
CROWLEY: Sure, they'd agree to it —
AXELROD: Let's compromise on the things we can agree on.
CROWLEY: But obviously they know they would then lose their leverage because you wouldn't go back to do it for those that they want to continue —
AXELROD: Leverage for tax cuts for the wealthy. We have to make a choice as a country, Candy. We do have deficit issues, we do have debt issues. Are tax cuts for the wealthy more important than bringing down the deficits and investing in things like education and research and development and energy? The things that are going to grow our economy and grow the middle class. That's really what the debate is about.
Candy Crowley is becoming a Sunday regular when conservative media bias is discussed, but her claim that if Obama vetoes an extension of the Bush tax cuts, he is rejecting compromise was preposterous by even her standards. Crowley’s intentional ignorance would not be so aggravating if her profession was something other than a reporter at a national cable news network.
The fact is that this president spent more than half of his first term working towards compromise, and has been routinely bashed for it by the media and members of his own party. Obama was accused of caving by extending the Bush tax cuts. He was accused of caving again on the debt ceiling. Until the second half of 2011, the most common complaint from the left was that Obama "caved."
Over the past month and a half the media has complained about Obama attacking Romney's record, and criticized the president for being too aggressive, (As you know an aggressive Democrat goes against the right wing stereotype, which depending on the day of the week is that all Democrats are tyrants who are looking to run their lives, or Democrats are flower waving, weak kneed hippies who are afraid of a fight).
Crowley's latest adventure in pandering is a fine example of what happens to the media when they decide to check their intelligence at the door in order to appeal to a certain audience. A presidential veto does not signal an unwillingness to compromise. A veto a strictly an Executive Branch decision. An willingness to to compromise would occur if the president and legislative branch entered into negotiations and one side refused to give a single point, as the Republicans have done.
This sort of journalistic abandonment of basic human intelligence is why CNN has lost 52% of their viewers, and this is why Democrats should fall to the floor in convulsions of laughter when the right breaks out their tired old liberal media bias Trojan Horse.
As Democrats and progressive pick their jaws up off the floor as they absorb the latest media attack on facts and reality, understand that broadcasters are in bed with the GOP. They have billions of dollars in profits on the line in the 2012 elections. Media bias is real, and they will go to any absurd length to protect their financial interests.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
