Ron Reagan was absolutely spectacular last night. In a few short sentences, he totally captured what is going on in this country - both in terms of the electorate and the media.
He talked in one segment of the hypocrisy of the media (in response to a Matthews question as to whether the NYTimes news report's timing was "curious). In the other he explained why so many Bush supporters are wrong on the facts. Quotes below:
First, about the ignorance of the Bush supporters:
MATTHEWS: Let me go to Ron Reagan.
I`m stunned by these new statistics that have come out that show that almost half the people who intend to vote for the president and the vice president still believe that there was WMD, weapons of mass destruction, in that country when we went in, against even what the president said himself. Why the disconnect between what the president is saying and what his supporters believe?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Or is the president not saying it clearly enough or what?
REAGAN: Well, of course, it suits him to sort of muddle that issue.
He knows there was no WMD found. But his supporters still do not.
There`s a kind of cognitive dissonance among Bush supporters now. If you pay attention to a poll that came out from the University of Maryland recently, even Bush supporters acknowledge that, if there were no WMD, if there was no connection to al Qaeda, a real operational connection to al Qaeda and Saddam, that we shouldn`t have gone into Iraq. So they`re left in a very difficult position.
If they support the president and they support the war in Iraq, yet there were no WMD, nor any connection between Saddam and al Qaeda, that puts them in a very rocky place. So they have to deny reality, in a sense. They have to insist in their own minds that WMD were found, that there was a connection, and, more than that, that that is what the Duelfer report and the 9/11 Commission said. We know these things are not true.
Then here is his response to the timing of the NYTimes story - it's beautiful:
Well, let me give you an example of what isn`t a liberal bias in the media. I would maintain that there has been a double standard here. And it works to President Bush`s advantage.
In the last week or two, we`ve heard about how both sides are using scare tactics in this campaign. Kerry is talking about a potential draft and that Social Security might go away. And these politicians are doing what politicians do. But there is a difference.
George Bush is also going around the country and he is saying that John Kerry says--not that he believes, but that John Kerry says he will not defend America until we`re attacked and only then with the permission of our foreign allies. Now, there`s a word for that. And it is not hyperbole and it`s not exaggeration. It is lying. Eric Alterman in "Newsweek" magazine had it exactly right this week.
Now, let me repeat that. George W. Bush, when he says that about John Kerry, is lying. Now, how many people in the press are willing to say that?
How is he his father's son?