CNN Disgraces Itself by Claiming Obama has Accomplished Nothing

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:45 am

 

CNN embarrassed itself today when Candy Crowley told David Plouffe that the Obama administration has not accomplished any of their goals.

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Here is the video:

Transcript via CNN:

CROWLEY: Joining me now is White House senior adviser David Plouffe. David, thanks for being here.

Let me start with the first big question which is, is the fact that the president is saying virtually the same thing that he said four years ago when he was campaigning a recognition that he is has not been able to achieve his goals?

PLOUFFE: No, the president laid out this week a very important speech in Ohio the choices facing the country about the right things to do to grow the economy and strengthen the middle-class. And we have a lot more work the do. We have to rebuild…

CROWLEY: Is that the — is that the economic message? We have a lot more work to do?

PLOUFFE: Well, no, Candy. The point is what direction is the country going the take? I think that we would all openly admit the economy has to strengthen, we have to e create a lot more jobs. And question is what is the best way to do it? Our approach is let’s reduce the deficit in a fair and balanced way, let’s have an economy where hard work is rewarded and everybody gets a fair shot. And as we reduce the deficit we have the ability to invest in things like rebuilding this country, a new energy future, make sure we continue to lead the world in innovation.

But the important thing is that there is a choice here. Governor Romney and his allies in congress, they want to go back to the same policies that created the recession. We know that won’t work. And so really the American people have to decide which direction they want to go.

CROWLEY: So, those are goals. That he is setting out, but it is not a plan. What does the next four years look like? What is the big idea that people are going to vote on in November?

PLOUFFE: Well, it is a plan. It is about what is the right way to get $4 trillion in deficit reduction.

CROWLEY: But you have had four years to do that…

PLOUFFE: First, we have accomplished a lot. Obviously education reform, a lot of progress on energy, health care reform. We have cut taxes for the average middle-class person $3,600. So we need to build on that. So the plan is an all of the above energy strategy to make sure we take advantage of our resources here, but doubles down on the clean energy future, make sure that we have a education system that is producing the kind of workers and innovators and entrepreneurs that we need.

CROWLEY: What makes you think that the things that you’re talking about — and I take it that there is no big idea that is different from what you are doing now, and it is stay the course, this is a stay the course message.

PLOUFFE: Well, these are all big ideas. This is the direction that the country needs to go.

CROWLEY: But these are the big ideas that he has been trying to do for the last four years, right.

PLOUFFE: Some of them we have accomplished, some we haven’t, some we have more work to do.

CROWLEY: So what makes you think that you can accomplish in the next four years what haven’t been able to accomplish now.

PLOUFFE: Well, listen this — first of all some of these challenges predate the recession. This isn’t just about recovering from the recession, it’s about making sure we have more stability and security for the middle class. So this is going to take a long time.

CROWLEY: How do you do that? I guess is why people say, what is the plan here?

PLOUFFE: Well, how you do it is to focus on education for instance. We have engaged in a lot of reforms and a lot of Republican support. We need to make progress to bring college costs down. Energy, we should be able to come together in a bipartisan way and make sure that we’re doubling down on a clean energy future as we make progress and continue the lead the world in natural gas…

CROWLEY: But you haven’t been able to do that so the question is what is different in the next four years?

PLOUFFE: That’s not right we’ve gotten a lot done. This president has led a resurgence in the clean energy future, education reforms, health care reform, cut the taxes for the middle-class, cut taxes for small business. So to suggest we haven’t gotten done, we have gotten a lot more done. We’d get a lot more done, by the way — it was amazing this week, there was a story that Republican congressman openly saying we’re going to basically take the rest of the year off. We’re not going to do anything to help the economy, because we want to help Mitt Romney.

It is remarkable to see at a time of great need in the economy, where we can make a huge difference — the president’s job proposals, every independent economists say they would create a million jobs, but these members of congress are sitting on their hands.

So we have gotten a lot done. We need to get a lot more done. This congress is sitting in the way. And by the way, Mitt Romney is with John Boehner…
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For Candy Crowley and CNN, here is Thomas Lane’s 2 minute summary of what Obama has done for us:

Oh, you don’t want to watch the video and would like a list?

Here you go courtesy of Obama’s Achievements Center:

  • He’s killed Osama Bin Laden.
  • Eliminated several other Al-Qaeda leaders
  • Ended the War in Iraq
  • Begun the drawdown of forces from Afghanistan
  • End-run Republican obstructionism by recess-appointing Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Board.
  • Obama has overhauled the food safety system
  • Advanced women’s rights in the work place
  • Ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) in our military
  • Stopped defending DOMA in court.
  • Passed the Hate Crimes bill.
  • Appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court.
  • Expanded access to medical care and provided subsidies for people who can’t afford it.
  • Expanded the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
  • Fixed the preexisting conditions travesty [and rescissions] in health insurance.
  • Invested in clean energy.
  • Overhauled the credit card industry, making it much more consumer-friendly.
  • While Dodd-Frank bill was weak in many respects, it was still an extremely worthwhile start at re-regulating the financial sector.
  • He created Elizabeth Warren’s dream agency: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  • He’s done a lot for veterans.
  • He got help for people whose health was injured during the clean-up after the 9/11 attacks.

****Obama also signed an Executive Order in 2009 that would have closed GITMO, but Congress has repeatedly blocked funding for the closure of the facility and the relocation of detainees for nearly three years.****

Not too shabby for a president who CNN claims has no plan, and hasn’t accomplished anything.

When CNN finally figures out that their pandering to the right is destroying their network, they might want to take a lesson from Rachel Maddow.  In December of 2010, Maddow examined Obama’s accomplishments and concluded that the president had already accomplished 85% of his agenda.

CNN has become a total embarrassment that would rather beg for Fox News’ scraps than behave like an actual news network.

Last week, CNN and Crowley complained that Obama wasn’t compromising enough with Republicans. As preposterous as that was, the former “most trusted name in news” managed to outdo themselves today. After all nothing screams tea party “journalism” like ignoring a president’s entire record in order to build the case that he has accomplished nothing.

As their on air failures increase, CNN continues to hire more conservatives. On its current course,  CNN is entering into a slow demise. We are watching a shameful end to a once proud news network.

Shame on you CNN for pandering to the right, and double shame on you for distorting the facts of this president’s record.

 



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