The Villagers circle the wagons
by digby
It’s one thing for each side in the political divide to accuse the other of lying. But when someone suggests that the press is partly responsible for the fact that Americans are being misinformed, just watch the fur fly. Here’s the entire This Week panel attacking Paul Krugman for suggesting the press fell down on the job in reporting Romney’s epic lie fest in the debate:
This was on and on and on, with Matalin sneeringly referring to Krugman as “doctor professsssser” as if that was synonymous with child molester. I especially love walking cliche Jonathan Karl jumping in with the “he said/she said.” If you wrote him as a character in The Newsroom, we’d consider him a cartoon — even by that show’s standards.
Here’s an example of Matalin the arbiter of truth:
MATALIN: You have mischaracterized and you have lied about every position and every particular of the Ryan plan on Medicare, from the efficiency of Medicare administration, to calling it a voucher plan, so you’re hardly credible on calling somebody else a liar.
But this is exactly what the Ryan proposal is — turning Medicare from a “defined benefit” into a “defined contribution” plan. Seniors would get a voucher from the federal government that they could use to help pay for a selection of private plans.
Although the Romney/Ryan campaign has shied away from this phrase in favor of the euphemistic “premium support,” Ryan himself has specifically referred to his proposal as a “voucher” program in the past.
The woman has chutzpah.
I also enjoyed Carville saying the good news is that the Republican base is fully embracing Romney and so will not be able to disavow him if he loses. Shortly thereafter, Peggy Noonan lugubriously declared that the Romney who showed up at the debate was the grown-up, reasonable moderate Governor of Massachusetts. Does anyone believe that those two comments compute?
All in all, this show made me miss Ann Coulter. I don’t think I need to explain just how bad that makes this particular show.
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