I’ll Be On CNN Tonight (Update 2) (Vid Update 3)

UPDATE THREE

Kinda interesting how the guy who voted for Obama was disappointed, and the gal who voted for McCain was pleased…

UPDATE TWO

Well, a heavily edited version finally ran this AM around 10:00 AM PST.  I missed recording it, but in sum I was intro’d as someone who protested the Vietnam War in the sixties and dropped out of politics (seeing it as a fixed game back then) until it became obvious what a threat Bush & Cheney presented.  Said I liked the tone of Obama’s speech, but noted the Republicans sat on their hands for the most part;  that it takes two to tango;  and noted his good natured ad lib about not getting an applause line from the R’s regarding his prior and proposed future tax cuts. Left out was my comment that I thought Obama needed to be more confrontational, to take the gloves off with “the party of nope.”

In watching the rebroadcast of the speech, I was really struck by Obama’s comments directed the Supreme Court members sitting right up front for their Citizens United ruling, taking them to task for putting foreign corporations into a position to negatively influence  our political system (making it even more corrupt than it already is). As Glenn Greenwald observes in his latest post “Justice Alito’s conduct and the Court’s credibility:

As I wrote at the time, I thought the condemnations of Rep. Joe Wilson’s heckling of Barack Obama during his September health care speech were histrionic and excessive.  Wilson and Obama are both political actors, it occurred in the middle of a political speech about a highly political dispute, and while the outburst was indecorous and impolite, Obama is not entitled to be treated as royalty.  That was all much ado about nothing.  By contrast, the behavior of Justice Alito at last night’s State of the Union address — visibly shaking his head and mouthing the words “not true” when Obama warned of the dangers of the Court’s Citizens United ruling— was a serious and substantive breach of protocol that reflects very poorly on Alito and only further undermines the credibility of the Court.  It has nothing to do with etiquette and everything to do with the Court’s ability to adhere to its intended function.

BTW, the interviewer was Casey Wian who used to be Lou Dobbs’ main reporter.  I promised that I wouldn’t hold that  against him! A really nice guy and his producer was a gem.

Tagged as: Casey Wian, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Justice Alioto, Lou Dobbs