Meltdown with Keith Olbermann, Part 32 ♦
Constant Countdown guest and obsequious suckup, Richard Wolffe, along with host Keith Olbermann last night proudly declared themselves to be less sophisticated than — Sarah Palin.
Either that or they showed they think Keith's remaining audience is r— er, "challenged" and will fall for the crudest of propaganda techniques.
Last week on the world's most influential Facebook page, Palin outed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for calling liberal activists "F—ing retards." Of course, everyone gets why Palin would take particular offense because her son (yes, Andrew Sullivan, her SON) Trig has Down's Syndrome.
On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh threw Emanuel's words back in Rahm's face. Last night, Wolffe and Olbermann pretended not to recognize the Emmanuel reference and called Palin a "hypocrite" for not being offended by Limbaugh!
Either that, or both men are themselves…you know; and MSNBC should be congratulated for helping both men find employment and overcome their, ummmm… challenge.
Check out the unintentionally hilarious way in which these two pretend to be having a serious political discussion—as if there is enough "there" there to actually have a guest "analyst" come on to talk about it. (click NewsRealBlog link above for video)
WOLFFE: What would have been consistent–and not that consistency has always been Sarah Palin's strong point—would have been maybe a Facebook entry along the lines of what she wrote about Rahm Emanuel: are you capable of decency, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck? I'll leave you to answer that one.
But the question here for her and for those who love her is this question of does she have the guts to stand up for what she believes in, no matter whether it's Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or anyone else? Because if you can't stand up to a talk radio host, then how are you going to confront Putin when he rears his head?
Yeah, the current guy is doing great with Putin, not to mention Ahmadinejad…
OLBERMANN: Eventually somebody will ask her about say Beck's repeated and public and gleeful use of this word, or press her about Limbaugh's use of it. What does she say then?
WOLFFE: Well, here's the tough thing—of course, for a start, it's hard for journalists to press her, because it's a one-way communication. Facebook does not exactly constitute a press conference.
But the problem for her, the challenge for her, is that essentially however authentic and meaningful and heartfelt her original sentiment was, she is taking a, quote/unquote, politically correct point of view. She is trying to, in the eyes of folks like Limbaugh and Beck, restrict their free speech. This is not a tack you can take with those folks. And by the way, it's not a tack you can take for the libertarian wing of the Republican party, that forms the Tea Party folks who are paying to hear her speak at their annual convention.
So, you know, politically, it doesn't make any sense for her. And that I think is why you're seeing this supposedly authentic politician become just yet another conventional politician.
What parallel universe are these idiots discussing? In his first try, Wolffe blasts Palin for NOT trying to "restrict their free speech," then she says Limbaugh and Beck will resent her trying to "restrict their free speech"… and who appointed Richard Wolffe spokesman for the Tea Party movement, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh?
This isn't even too clever by half.
OLBERMANN: …here she is, once again, using her child to try to beat up the White House, when it's clear she doesn't care when her political buddies and her Fox colleagues are far more guilty of the same offense. Is there a tipping point in terms of doing damage with those who have supported her in the past?
WOLFFE: Well, the greatest disappointment has got to be with those mothers who are—families who are in the same situation as her, who thought she would be that advocate. But authenticity, the sort of genuine nature, the unvarnished nature of her is her currency. That's her brand. And the more she has to create problems like this, and try and get out of them, the more she's worried about offending certain people, the more she just looks like another career politician. And that is ultimately going to be her downfall. She has to take a stand and stick to it. That's what going rogue would really mean.
Yes, Sarah, you need to listen to Richard Wolffe if you want to keep your fan base happy. He's got his finger on the pulse of the Tea Party movement…
Kathy Shaidle previously covered this in a terrific post, but it's worth revisting Rush's comments. Only a – you know– could fail to understand where he was coming from, who he was attacking, and why he repeatedly used the "r-word."
LIMBAUGH: [Emanuel] was getting mad at them about health care. The liberal activists kept blaming the White House for all this health care debacle not happening and not getting done. Emanuel's getting ticked off out there saying, (paraphrasing) "What are you blaming us for? We didn't do anything about it, you F-ing retards." I think the big news is the crack-up going on. But our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are "retards," "retards." I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are Looney Tunes. I'm not going to apologize for it. I'm just quoting Emanuel. It's in the news. I think the big news is thathe's out there calling Obama's number one supporters "F-ing retards."
So now there's going to be a meeting, there's going to be a "Retard" Summit at the White House, much like the Beer Summit between Obama and Gates and that cop in Cambridge.
If you want to look at how this is broken down, Emanuel compares Democrat activists to retarded people, then apologizes to retarded people. Not to the Democrats.
Normally if you call somebody a retard, you apologize to them for calling them a retard. But he has apologized to the retarded people for daring to lump them with Democrats. It's hilarious.
Classic Rush. Perfectly tuned satire that makes liberals gag on their own words.
Sarah Palin, that unsophisticated, illiterate rube from tiny backward Wasilla, Alaska got it—people in Rio Linda probably got it. Olbermann and Wolffe? Over their heads.
Olbermann, by the way, has done this before, playing Rush's deliberate smack at Harry Reid's "light skinned" and "Negro dialect" comments out of context, pretending they were merely racist cracks. (Story on Monday's Countdown: "David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog calls Sarah Palin an 'unsophisticated, illiterate rube!!!'")
In the wake of Olbermann's infamous Scott Brown outbursts, and the revelation that his ratings have dropped 44% in a year , analysts are suggesting that people are tired of the hatred and constant insults against everyone who disagrees with Keith—which would be about 80% of the political landscape. This theory has merit, but I would like to suggest another reason for the ratings plunge.
The AUDIENCE is tired of being insulted.