Dear Ms. O’Brian,
After your interview with Dr. Paul, I Googled his name and the word "flake" and all I found was one insult on FreeRepublic.com of all places and numerous references to Dr. Paul’s friendship with Congressman Jeff Flake.
This leads to the question: What are you talking about? Dr. Paul may be many things, but his voting record is consistent with what he says going back to the 1970s, he refuses his Congressional pension, refused his own party’s march to war in 2002-03 and has delivered more than 4,000 babies. Where in his character is this "flake" that "many people" say he is?
It is always a mistake to ask someone to defend themselves from a "many people say" question. If you want to ask him if he’s a flake, then quote someone calling him a flake. It shouldn’t be hard if there are so "many" people who say so.
Also, Dr. Paul is beating Fred Thompson in New Hampshire. I guess that makes this the perfect time to browbeat him about dropping out of the race.
Next time do a little homework and you won’t have to embarrass yourself so badly in front of so many people.
Best,
Scott Horton
At least he hit that ball out of the ballpark when she asked it. He gave a convincing speech about the current government being flakes.
I think so too. They are going to have to try harder. Calling him the exact opposite of what he is, at least in a place where he can respond, is a bad move. I once saw a pro-Huckabee blogger advise him not to go “toe to toe” with Ron Paul on the facts. I guess the same rule of thumb ought to apply to the rest of his opposition and to attacking his character as well.
This isn’t helping the cause at all. This is scaring away the media. Pick your battles. That was a pretty decent interview and Ron Paul came off looking great. Don’t discourage this from happening again. Stop and think for a second if this really is best for the Ron Paul campaign.
It’d be one thing if they made him come off as a total douche but they didn’t. So just stop and think. Quit with the mob mentality. This is not good for the campaign.
We should be thanking her for having him on the show, not getting pitch forks and torches!
Dear Soledad. Have you ever given birth to a child before? Has a living being passed through your loins? Was it in a hospital?
If so, perhaps you’ve met one of these (I know, this is a lot of sylallbles) obstetricians (say OB-steh-TRI-shans). They deliver babies. That means–if you have have ever tricked some poor man into impregnating you–you just might be lucky enough get their help. To be an OB-steh-TRI-shan, you need to go to school for a long, long time and learn lots of very difficult things. Like Organic Chemistry, Calculus, Advanced Anatomy and Physiology, Endocrinology, and of course how to be nice and pleasant to people who are screaming obscenities at you. I’m sure you are totally unfamiliar with such things, of course, but as it turns out, Dr. Paul is quite familiar with this. He has delivered 4000 babies and learned how to do it at places such as Duke Medical School.
If you have delivered 4000 babies you do not have the luxury of being flakey. You will lose your job.
This is different than reading words on a screen for a living, Soledad.
William,
You’re right and I’m being immature, but it worked on Nora O’Donnell or whatever her name is…
Scott, FANTASTIC letter! I asked her if she’d dare ask Hillary who she would vote for if she didn’t win the nomination? or ask
Obama how he would respond to people (not me mind you) who call him “racist”! I think we should be calling the media out
for their ridiculous biased behavior toward Ron Paul – I also believe the campaign needs to remember when it’s time to spend
those ad dollars, who gave them the assisine interview questions!
Scott,
Very well and succinctly expressed to Soledad. Keeping your composure is very much recognized also!
Bill,
Ron Paul Meetup Group, Greer, SC
Scott,
Your comments to Soledad were very well expressed and succinct. Keeping your composure was admirable, too!
Bill,
Ron Paul Meetup Group, Greer, SC
I totally agree with William. That was a great question, and it allowed Ron Paul to address it head-on and knock it out of the park. I wish other journalists would ask that direct question. Instead they avoid it (because they know what the answer is), and then cast aspersions when Ron Paul doesn’t have a chance to counter them.
You can parse her question all you want, but we all know Ron Paul and his supporters have been referred to as “moonbats”, “crazies”, “loonies”, etc. by lots of people of “lesser” intelligence. The question was a fair question, and she gave plenty of time for a good answer.
If you’re actually for the Ron Paul cause, you’re hurting the movement more than helping it with letters like this.
Scott….. Wasn’t Frank Luntz the pollster for anti – establishment candidates Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot in years past? Why’s he shillin for the neo-cons bro? Trashing Dr. Paul…He selling out? Did he get his 30 pieces of silver?
I only know of him being a jerk, not from before if there truly was a before.
I’m pretty darn sure he first popped into my consciousness working for Perot and Buchanan campains…both (at least in theory) “outsider” campaigns…..tried to get a detail through wiki, but it just described “Republican Pollster” w/o association with specific candidates…..
Scott’s letter was entirely appropriate. As a foreign observer I am continually amazed at just how soft the media questioning of US politicians is. However there are exceptions and the exceptions seem selective.
In interviews with ‘serious’ candidates (i.e. those with a high probability of winning) the media always bow and scrape and soft ball their questioning. Why not question Guliani directly about his family members’ involvement in organised crime? Or his great ‘discovery’ that he had been married to his cousin for 15 years and urgently needed an enulment? How did he find out? Was he reading the family tree over breakfast one morning and made the big discovery? Why not question Hilary about her demands on Bill Clinton that he bomb Kosovo? Why not ask her how she feels about all the mass graves from this alleged genocide that international investigator have so far been unable to find? And what about the real graves of the real people that NATO really killed? How does she live with that? The media’s ‘hard ball’ and often ad hominem questioning of low probability candidates is exactly the opposite of what they do with low probability of winning candidates. So much for the media as the public’s watchdog.
Presumably this selective toughness is because the media companies want to cultivate their long term relationship with any incoming administration. Here in Australia we once had a leading state premier (equivalent of state governor under the US system), Queensland’s Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who used to refer to his press and media interviews as “feeding the chooks”, that’s Australian english for “feeding the chickens”. Joh’s phrase captured the real relationship between an administration and the media to a “t’. The media live off and fight over whatever corn their masters throw them.
Beyond that this Soledad O’Bryan is a stunning looking woman. Maybe Paul should ask her whether her brains or her looks helped the most in getting the Chicken Noodle News job!!
pfttt! his middle name is sellout, even though he only worked for Perot for a month, that doesn’t excuse him from being a professional bullshit artist from the “Contract ON America” with his buddy Newt, to his “Language of the 21st Century”. he’s just another con man.
This is a copy of “my” response to Soledad:
I don’t want to say that my comments are negative or positive-you should have another choice–neither! It was obvious that you do not believe that Congressman Ron Paul is correct in his views or that he has a chance, that’s OK, it’s not necessary for you to believe in him to do a good interview. There were very many good things about your interview with Congressman Ron Paul. You enabled him to explain his views on several topics without interrupting (as some have done.) I appreciate that, thanks. However, I do take exception to the “flake” comment. I believe that he has not been called a flake more than once or twice in the mainstream media. Why bring that up? What real purpose does that question serve? Mostly it is his followers that have been called “flaky.” We can take that, even if that is wrong also. We are: white, black, Hispanic, Oriental, students, business owners, retired, active military, veterans, peaceniks, agnostic, atheists, Muslim, Catholic, Baptist, right-wing, left-wing, used to be apathetic, always engaged, young, old–in other words lots of types of people. That can include a few kooks and nuts! That’s part of the package. But we are all Americans! And we all believe in our country as it was supposed to be. Please put another interview on your schedule for Congressman Ron Paul, he does have the support out there. Just like my comment above about having another choice, i.e. “neither,” Congressman Ron Paul is our choice.
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I have never written to a TV host before.
(This is not a spam letter.))
Catch more flies with honey…
Catch more flies with honey… NAAAAH
It is better to be feared than loved……Chazz Palminteri (in A Bronx Tale)……quoting
MACHIAVELLI? DANTE? Vineyardsaker…..where are you now that I need you?
…Ya catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and he who is feared…is also hated
I did not send the letter I wrote here. It was a rant, and I was bloviating with less precision than I would have liked. It would have been crossing the line for me to send it.
But.
Scott’s letter was entirely appropriate, and not too harsh. Soledad probably makes about 100 times what Scott makes in a year, and yet she does only about 100-fold less work as a journalist.
She is a perfumed princess. Ideas are a marketplace, and the public must demand a better product all the time. Otherwise, we get…THAT.
…Ya catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and he who is feared…is also hated
Tell it to Lee J. Cobb in On The Waterfront…..
…Well yeah, sure Steve—But you’re correct only in the collective sense…You’ll recall in the end that Charlie Friendly [Lee J. Cobb] lost his ass, and his pre-RICO Operation in the bargain. All thanks to Terry Malloy’s [Mr. Mumbles] testimony to Elia Kazan’s cunning deification of Feds and The Catholic Church depicted as Socialists in effect—Ya know, all the Proletariat working together to create a better Waterfront through The (sic) Rule of Law. The film was largely a Political pretense of attacking The Post War Left-ex-Communists of the McCarthy era; this strictly for the sake of appearances…Trouble with me, you, and most Libertarians is that they’re by and large: Solipsists…That means one ass to a customer…And in that context, you’re better off using honey when it comes down to brass tacks every time. You can’t get anything done alone; especially with piss and vinegar.
…Uh huh, and you saw how he ended by the end of the film too
Typical performance by a CNN professional Bimbo “News Reader”. Fox News will probably try to steal her away, as she has all the credentials to work on their network. She also has all the credentials to work as a fastfood drive-thru based upon this interview.
I am amazed at the patience Dr. Paul has with these knuckleheads.
Great letter Scott!
It’s all perfect, really!
Soledad saying “flake” gave Dr. Paul a useful opportunity.
Overall I thought the interview was not bad, and it gave him more media coverage. Today is Money Bomb day!