Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 8/4/2009
EmailTAPPER: A couple questions. One, is it your contention — is it the White House contention that the anger that some members of Congress are experiencing at town hall meetings, especially over health care reform, is manufactured?
GIBBS: I think some of it is, yes. In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients Rights, that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger.
TAPPER: How is their organizing and getting people to come to town hall meetings and express their feelings any different from a liberal group doing the same thing?
GIBBS: Well, I think what you've seen is they have — they have bragged about — about manufacturing, to some degree, that anger. I think you've got somebody who's very involved, a leader of that group that's very involved in — in the status quo, a CEO that used to run a health care company that was fined by the federal government $1.7 billion for fraud. I think that's a lot of what you need to know about the motives of that group.
TAPPER: OK. And AIPAC just issued a statement saying they're deeply disappointed by the Obama administration's choice to award a presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, and they respectfully call on the administration to firmly, fully and publicly repudiate her views on Israel and her long public record of hostility and one-sided bias against the Jewish state. Do you guys have any comment about that or any other protest you've heard from Jewish groups?
GIBBS: Well, look, Mary Robinson was the first female president of Ireland, and she is somebody whom we are honoring as a prominent crusader of women's rights in Ireland and throughout the world. There are statements that obviously that she has made that the president doesn't agree with, and that's probably true for a number of the people that the president is recognizing for their lifetime contributions.
-jpt
Rick Santorum Sweeps 3 States 
Pentagon to Open Additional Jobs to Women
Sheesh. Axelrod’s mouthpiece is accusing other people of astroturfing. Pathetic.
Posted by: mesquito | August 4, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
“Sheesh. Axelrod’s mouthpiece is accusing other people of astroturfing. Pathetic.”
Probably because right wingers are champion astroturfers.
Posted by: Ryan C | August 4, 2009, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm
Why should the view of a mendacious lobby group such as AIPAC be given any weight in a White House press conference?
Posted by: seanachie | August 4, 2009, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Ryan C, I am a person you would probably call a “right winger” and in my experience most conservatives (another word for me) don’t astroturf because we don’t have or take the time to rally, we don’t get paid to do so by Soros or whoever and we don’t care to be seen as protesters in the first place. But there are issues now at stake–our health care, our children’s futures, our economic stability, our debt to China, just to name a handful–that have gotten me and many of my “right wing” friends out to the streets to voice our opinions. If you think that is astroturfing, I’d like to know where you think we’re getting the money to do this or who is organizing us because I’m doing it for free and on my own time.
Posted by: Kelli | August 4, 2009, 3:06 pm 3:06 pm
We all need to be careful about dismissing people who are likely to be actual voters. Just because someone sent them an email telling them about a town hall meeting, that does not mean they deserve to be silenced, or that Members of Congress should ignore their views. That way lies something very ugly.
Posted by: Robert Hahn | August 4, 2009, 3:08 pm 3:08 pm
“Ryan C, I am a person you would probably call a “right winger” and in my experience most conservatives (another word for me) don’t astroturf because we don’t have or take the time to rally, we don’t get paid to do so by Soros or whoever and we don’t care to be seen as protesters in the first place”
Because the right wing has demonized the very act of protesting one’s government even though its an essential part of our nation’s character it makes actual grassroots support much more difficult to gather.
After all the sheep were already trained that protester = bad.
So there is a reliance on media promotion and astroturfing.
See the tea party attendance with promotion by FoxNews and Talk Radio vs tea party attendance via grassroots.
Posted by: Ryan C | August 4, 2009, 3:14 pm 3:14 pm
“We all need to be careful about dismissing people who are likely to be actual voters. Just because someone sent them an email telling them about a town hall meeting, that does not mean they deserve to be silenced, or that Members of Congress should ignore their views. That way lies something very ugly.”
Its manufactured outrage.
Something the right wing has a good deal of experience with.
See the Brooks Brothers in 2000 when GOP staffers besieged a counting area and FoxNews call them protesters.
Posted by: Ryan C | August 4, 2009, 3:16 pm 3:16 pm
Ryan, have you noticed nobody agrees with you? You might be even less convincing than Gibbs.
Nah, nobody is less convincing than Gibbs.
Wait, Obama is less convincing than Gibbs.
But you’re a strong 3rd, Ryan.
Posted by: bgates | August 4, 2009, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
This makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Nobody is paying me to be AS MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! Got it??!! I work two jobs and every spare moment I have, and then some, is spent keeping informed and protecting my rights and my money from the tyranical crazies in DC. Nobody has to pay me or bus me around. I have to take time off from work when necessary and I spend A LOT of my own money printing signs to get the message out. Obama, pay attention! We the People are taking care of the matters at hand. BTW, Obama, you know that poster of you as the JOKER? That’s what we think of you and your policies. THIS IS OUR COUNTRY AND YOU CAN’T HAVE IT!
Posted by: Sweeney | August 4, 2009, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
See the tea party attendance with promotion by FoxNews and Talk Radio vs tea party attendance via grassroots.
Posted by: Ryan C | Aug 4, 2009 3:14:07 PM
____________________________________
I see and if one Code Pinker shows up at a Tea Party and all the lib MSM’ers run over and start slobbering, that’s not promotion?
Posted by: Hannitized | August 4, 2009, 3:39 pm 3:39 pm
“Posted by: Concerned in OH | Aug 4, 2009 3:30:49 PM”
Speaking of manufactured outrage, its the Ashley Todd hoax spreader.
Posted by: Ryan C | August 4, 2009, 3:48 pm 3:48 pm
We elect our representatives by vote, not townhalls. Members of Congress would do well to remember that.
Posted by: jhw539 | August 4, 2009, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
Concerned in OH:”That’s a good point, Ryan C. That completely invalidates my observation that this Administration is full of crooks,”
Well yes, it does seriously undermine your credibility. Ever hear the story about the boy who cried wolf?
Posted by: jhw539 | August 4, 2009, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
So was Geithner’s obsenity laced tirade at the various regulatory agencies yesterday “manufactured outrage”? This administration and congress in general is pathetically out of touch with the public on so many levels. Their so-called campaign against “dis-information” is nothing but code for looking for ways to silence opposition to the soft coups we are all bearing witness to. Everything from trying to deny the uncut video showing Obama in his own words stumping for single-payer healthcare to trying to paint the stimulus as a success with 9.5% unemployment. They cannot mobilize Acorn fast enough to TRULY “manufacture” an opposition voice to the actual citizens asking legitimate questions of their representatives in Congress. The longer the broadcast media wrongly tries to paint this as some fringe element of the right, the louder the public outcry will get.
Posted by: Mike in Costa Mesa | August 4, 2009, 4:15 pm 4:15 pm
What ever happened to dissent being patriotic? It was this time last year when people were protesting our involvment in Iraq. Why can’t we protest other government activities?
Posted by: MuzeEuterpe | August 4, 2009, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Congress and Obama had better remember those words
Posted by: Bianca | August 4, 2009, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
Gibbs continues his Bagdad Bob routine. Outrage? What outrage.
The Obama admininstration is fooling themselves if they think this is fake.
Actually, they know darn well that it is real but they don’t care. They won. They are trying to convince/fool/influence a portion of the American public that this outrage is fake.
Why not just push ObamaCare single payer/government run health care through? They have the votes…
They hesitate because they know the outrage is real.
Posted by: Blue Skies | August 4, 2009, 5:22 pm 5:22 pm
Once more connect the dots.
After having presided over the disgraceful Durban conference that passed the famous Zionism is Racism resolution (The US and Israel walked out), former Irish president Mary Robinson joined Rashid Khalidi on the faculty at Columbia.
Rashid Khalidi? Rashid Khalidi?
Where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah, the LA Times refused to release the tape of Obama at the Bill Ayer’s sponsored party for PLO spokesperson for for master terrorist Yasser Arafat, Rashid Khalidi.
Posted by: Blue Skies | August 4, 2009, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
Mary ‘I am a jew’ Robinson may retract her views on Israel, or she may not.
What are her views that caused such an uproar? She brazenly asked the state of Israel to abide by “international legal norms relating in particular to proportionality and collective punishment.”
How dare she!
Posted by: Flash Override | August 4, 2009, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
hannitized, the FreedomWorks people and Code Pink do get disparate treatment. When Code Pink does something, the media gives them credit for it, but when FreedomWorks does, its just “outraged Citizens”.
How unfair!
Posted by: Flash Override | August 4, 2009, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm
This woman deserves nothing.
Posted by: KansasGirl | August 4, 2009, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
Flash, how can you repeat such lies. Do you really not see that many of your fellow Americans are outraged?
You either live in a liberal enclave or you have a limited social network if you truly believe what you are posting.
Posted by: Blue Skies | August 4, 2009, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
Maybe the Hope & Change thugs should re-read their boss’ Inauguration speech. Shouldn’t they be taking the high road?
“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.
“We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Posted by: Pimp My Cluncker | August 4, 2009, 5:59 pm 5:59 pm
Isn’t it interesting how lefties react when advocates on the right adopt Saul Alinsky’s tactics…did they think they owned the rights to his book?
Posted by: Uh, Clem | August 4, 2009, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
Being against the policies of Israel is not being anti-semitic . . . next . . .
Posted by: danita | August 4, 2009, 6:23 pm 6:23 pm
danita – among Robinson’s many statements and actions against Israel, she also presided over the U.N.’s Durban Conference on Racism, which the United States boycotted for its unprecedented hostility to Israel and its final outcome document that equated Zionism with racism.
So are you saying that just because she agrees that Zionism is racism, that does not make her an anti-semite? How about you tell us what you believe an anti-semite is, just so we are all clear.
Posted by: Mike in Costa Mesa | August 4, 2009, 6:34 pm 6:34 pm
Sweeney, you said it right. I call, email, fax my senators and I am for real. Not paid off to do it, I’m just P.O’d. AND I will continue until 2010 so I can vote them ALL OUT!
Posted by: Carol in Alabama | August 4, 2009, 7:08 pm 7:08 pm
Yeah Mike, I am clearly stating the woman is not anti-semitic, she is against some of the policies Israel has implemented.
The last ‘battle’ in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis had a kill rate of approx. 1400 Palestians killed; 13 Israelis killed.
It’s called a wanton slaughter. And those are just the ones killed, never mind the higher count on those maimed and injured. Woman, children . ..
You go ahead and support this type of slaughter for whatever reasons you can come up with . .. I don’t.
Posted by: danita | August 4, 2009, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
So are you saying that she believes racism is a policy of Israel/Zionists and that by claiming they have a policy of racism it is not the same thing as being anti-semite? You still haven’t answered my question as to what you believe anti-semitism actually is.
p.s. The Palestinians were lobbing hundreds of rockets randomly over the border into Israel before Israel responded with their own strikes. Should they have just ignored it and hoped for the best? What if Mexico was lobbing rockets into San Diego?
Posted by: Mike in Costa Mesa | August 4, 2009, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
Heh. . .the Babe Ruths of manufactured anger complaining about being the recipients of . . . manufactured anger.
Posted by: vinman | August 4, 2009, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
If politicians in Washington want to believe the protests at Townhalls are manufactured, do so at your peril. But I will be at my representatives townhall and you can bet I will be heard. I have had it with big spending Republicans and Democrats. It is not your money, it never was, and my children do not deserve to inherit the backbreaking debt that you so selfishly heap on their backs.
Posted by: dbc | August 4, 2009, 7:42 pm 7:42 pm
Blue, yes we are all outraged that special interests have stopped us from getting national health care for the last 60 years.
We (70% of Americans) want a single-payer system. We don’t want to be a second-rate country.
Posted by: Flash override | August 4, 2009, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Mike, I DARE you to deny the racism:
50 Palestinian families were evicted last week from East Jerusalem. The Israeli court ruled that “the homes were owned by Jews dating back to the late 19th century, and were abandoned during a spate of Arab attacks in the area in the 1920s and ’30s” (Note, by the way, that the “Jews” alleged to have owned the homes are not the Jews, nor the ancestors thereof, of the Jews who have moved into the homes, they were just “Jews”. They weren’t the Cohens’ home, or the Lieberman’s home, they were just “Jewish” homes.).
Posted by: Flash Override | August 4, 2009, 7:56 pm 7:56 pm
obama was a community organizer. the communities are now coming together to protest. so what is his problem?
Posted by: kk | August 4, 2009, 7:56 pm 7:56 pm
Bragging? FGS, grow up Gibbs. You’re outta touch.
Good question, Jake.
Posted by: jennifert7 | August 4, 2009, 7:57 pm 7:57 pm
We (70% of Americans) want a single-payer system. We don’t want to be a second-rate country.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cite your source, please. Kos polls don’t count, unless I get to poll my extended family. BTW, I’d get 100% against single payer.
Posted by: jennifert7 | August 4, 2009, 8:02 pm 8:02 pm
Harris Poll. heh Keep hanging your hat on that one.
Posted by: jennifert7 | August 4, 2009, 9:49 pm 9:49 pm
jennifert . ..
“Harris Poll. heh Keep hanging your hat on that one.”
_____________________________________
If the Harris Poll wasn’t enough for you, well then add on the Abt SRBI poll on July 27 and 28 that found . ..
Sixty-three percent said they would support providing health-care coverage for all Americans, even if the government had to subsidize those who could not afford it.
Fifty-six percent said they supported a “public health insurance option” to compete with private plans.
Posted by: danita | August 4, 2009, 10:12 pm 10:12 pm
Ryan, have you noticed nobody agrees with you?
****
You either live in a liberal enclave or you have a limited social network if you truly believe what you are posting.
*****
If politicians in Washington want to believe the protests at Townhalls are manufactured, do so at your peril.
*****
From the mass memos(paraphrased)
Inflate the numbers; rattle rather than engage in intelligent debate; pretend you’re part of the majority and that most people are protesters just like you
Posted by: Alyson | August 4, 2009, 11:25 pm 11:25 pm