Gretchen Carlson Robert Gibbs: Carlson: CANDIDATE OBAMA SAID THAT? Gibbs Spins the Surge Video

Among many incongruities in this video, Fox News' Gretchen Carlson questions Obama's Press Secretary, whose spin leads Carlson to ask "Candidate Obama said that? Carlson had two things on her mind, both of which Robert Gibbs tried to ignore: (1) the surge worked, but Obama said it would not, and (2) will the President give President George W. Bush credit for the surge in his speech tonight.

Gretchen Carlson

Gibbs insists Obama actually said the surge would work. Gretchen questions that statement and asks if Gibbs' spin is how Obama will address his own flip-flop tonight.

Gretchen asks over and over if Obama will thank President Bush tonight for the success of the surge, and gets no answer. Watch at 4:42 in. Carlson is not amused.

Then in the second video listen to Obama's comments on the surge, where Obama says that Bush was wrong on the surge.

OBAMA: I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse. I think it takes pressure off the Iraqis to try to arrive at the political accommodation that every observer believes is the ultimate solution to the problems we face there. So I am going to actively oppose the president’s proposal. I don't doubt his sincerity when he says he thinks this is the best approach, but I think he is wrong. And I think the American people believe he is wrong. (NBC News)

The third video has clips of Obama saying none of the experts believe the surge will work, but then experts tell the real story. Obama began the flip-flop in July 2008 when he scrubbed his campaign website of all criticism of the massive effort that would allow troops to come home within two years.






Gretchen Carlson and Robert Gibbs: Candidate Obama said that? Experts Weigh-in on Obama's Opposition to the Surge (video)
Linked by: Ran at Si Vis Pacem who has a great pic of Baghdad Bobby Gibbs
Karen at The Lonely Conservative

Liz Carpenter Dies: Liz Carpenter Gone to that Great Democratic Convention in the sky

Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson died today in Austin, Texas at the age of 89. She once described dying as "going to that great Democratic Convention in the sky." She described herself as a "foot-washing, Psalm-singing, total immersion Democrat.

Liz Carpenter

Johnson daughter, Luci said:

Liz was Mother and Daddy's dawn to midnight 'can do' supporter...I have had an infinitely more exciting and worthy life because Liz was my mentor and my friend. There are thousands like me who feel the same.

She is credited with writing Lyndon Johnson's remarks after exiting Air Force One as the newly-sworn President succeeding President John F. Kennedy.

Growing up during the Depression, she beame a staunch champion of the underdog and downtrodden. She covered, and fervently believed in, Roosevelt's New Deal programs and helped Johnson launch his Great Society. 

With roots sunk deep in the Lone Star State - her relatives fought for women's suffrage, one died at the Alamo and a great-great-uncle wrote the Texas Declaration of Independence - the sixth-generation Texan was a much sought after storyteller for events ranging from dinner parties to elaborate conventions.

She was the author of Ruffles and Flourishes.

Robert Gibbs, Beta Press Secretary: Walking Away from Afghanistan Not an Option

Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary said today "I don't think we have the option to leave [Afghanistan]. That's quite clear,..." Gibbs said. That make a good headline. I clicked the link immediately with high expectations. What I got was a Beta press secretary saying nothing.

I see nothing here that quotes President Obama. Is this the best the White House can do?

"I don't think we have the option to leave" is not declarative. He did not say 'we don't have the option to leave,' so why is he even addressing the question? Because it makes a great headline?

This from Beitbart says:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn't a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year.

But that's not a quote, and it is followed by the "I don't think... statement. Maybe the quotation marks were erroneously omitted? Hmmmm. Apparently not, all reports seem to say the same thing.

White House Dissident Database: Health Care...What's Next?

In a comment this morning online, I mentioned that the White House seems unconcerned about asking us to "flag" anyone they find with dissenting information on the Obama administration's health care reform. Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary tags us as liars and then lies about what will be done about the names that are flagged. See video below. The Presidential Records Act requires that all correspondence with the White House be kept - forever. In the video below, Gibbs refuses to acknowledge that truth, or he acknowledges it and then denies it. Gibbs also has the gaul to say that the videos of some years ago of Obama saying he was a proponent of "single payer health care" was "spliced together." From the White House press room, Gibbs calls us liars. While many of us have had a good time "flagging ourselves," and explaining to the President exactly why we are concerned about health care, we must wonder what is next? Will flagging morph into dissent over taxes, dissent over government motors, dissent over the Mexico City Policy. Just what will conservatives be flagged for? Think about the possibilities the White House might see, with our names flooding into the office of Rahm Emanuel. Byron York points out that the Freedom of Information Act does not extend to the White House - which means the information gathered is not required to be released, if requested through the FOIA

In addition, the lawyers say the collected emails likely will be covered by the Presidential Records Act, which requires the White House to preserve and maintain its records for permanent storage in a government database. Phillips' request suggests that whatever information the White House receives on health-care reform "disinformation" will be used to further the goal of passing a national health-care makeover, which is, of course, one of the president's main policy initiatives. Such material, and whatever the White House does with it, would qualify as presidential records. Only after more than a decade would such records be publicly available.

"So the White House, whether by design or accident, has requested information from the public that will become 'records' under the Presidential Records Act, yet would be impermissible for any government to otherwise collect under the Privacy Act," writes one Judiciary Committee source. "Where were the lawyers in all of this? What is their legal basis for authorizing the collection of these records?"

Where are all the Democrats who scream about privacy? It is not much of a stretch that names have already been forwarded on all manner of dissent. You know how Liberals are. While we had some fun with this, it may not be a laughing matter. Both Jake Tapper and Major Garrett ask important questions in this video. A White House dissident database is not what America is about. White House Dissident Database