CNN/YouTube Questioner Kicked Romney 'off my property' [CNN LIBERAL PLANT]

The American Thinker ^ | 11/30/07 | Ray Robison

[Enchante]

It was bad enough that CNN handed the microphone over to an official, Gen. Kerr of a Hillary Clinton campaign committee to conduct an extended rebuttal of Republican candidates.

But bloggers are continuing to dig in to and are exposing some pretty damning evidence that CNN slanted the questioning via activist proxies. A setting that was supposed to be about undecided Republicans (a primary debate) getting to know the candidates turned out to be a litany of gotcha videos from liberal activists.

Some problems were apparent at the start. For instance, CNN declared that it had selected twenty-four "undecided Republican voters" at the University of Tampa. That was an eye-roller. I went to the University of Tampa, and I think you would be hard pressed to even find twenty-four Republicans there, unless you brought in the ROTC department.

My suspicions were quickly confirmed. One of those "Republicans" was not pleased with any of the candidates but found common ground with that great conservative thinker John Edwards. I think this is where John Stossel might cry "give me a break". She was one of the folks whom CNN also used for that gee-wiz happiness meter shown after the debate to demonstrate what Republican voters thought of the candidates [cough].

Another questioner named Mark Strauss of Iowa asked Ron Paul to run as an Independent. Wasn't it a little bit of a tip off to CNN producers that Strauss is not interested in Republican issues when his question was nothing more than an encouragement for a candidate to leave the party?

But clearly, CNN likes the idea of a Republican candidate taking Republican voters to the Independent block for the general election. In case you missed it, Nader did this to Gore and Gore lost. Perot did it to Bush, Sr. and Bush lost. Wonder what CNN might have had in mind by promoting this idea at the debate and selecting it out of thousands of questions that actually would have mattered to Republicans?

Strauss was not randomly chosen as CNN presented a previous video of his at the Democrats' debate. There is a history between him and CNN. So the "we did not know" defense shouldn't play here any more than it does in the case of Gen. Kerr who had been on CNN previously.

Strauss's website is easy enough to find. He writes there:

In October 2006, Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts came to my door in Iowa, yes, at my house. He was there walking up and down the street with Robby Smith campaigning with him. Man, did he pick the wrong door. What is the Governor of MA doing in IA, with a young rookie running for state house? He is a Republican first-American second...hopefully not our next "decider".

Strauss uses the term "decider" as a pejorative against Republican President George Bush and other Republicans throughout his website.

Mitt asked me what I woud [sic] do in Iraq. I proceeded to explain how we need to get not only the effected nations in the region involved, but strike meaningful discussion and secure true resilution [sic] with the world thru the U.N.. Mitt laughed and called the U.N. a joke. This is the man that wants to be President. Don't we already have a decider in office that considers the other world leaders a joke? I then said "I have no use for you, get off my property", and I closed the door. This guy cannot be elected into office in 08.

Wow! His fair minded openness to Republican candidates is just oozing off the page.

As mentioned previously, Strauss had a question for the Democrats at their debate. He asked a reasonable straight forward question about healthcare for seniors.

To the Republicans, he brags about kicking one off his lawn and asked another to leave the Party. And in doing so is encouraging a situation that would take Republican votes in the general election.

I cannot imagine a much more unfair venue than the debate-hoodwink that CNN launched on the Republican Party. Every Republican candidate should make sure it is the last time CNN gets a shot at such cheap tactics.

Ray Robison is proprietor of Ray Robison: Pointing out the Obvious to the Oblivious.

[night reader]

The author missed a couple of errors from the idiot's site. ("affected" and "who") This guy is a moron.

Makes one wonder how he ever graduated from college and wrangled a commission, much less rose in command. Political payoffs? Influence? Had the dirt on someone in the high command?

[Morgan in Denver]

The debate also showcased Republicans willingness to debate in any forum, even CNN, where they had to know they were being set up. That has to be compared to Democrats refusing to debate on FOX News because of perceived bias, which is total BS. Democrats cannot stand a forum where their bogus viewpoints might be exposed or they are asked legitimate questions with follow up.

[Wilhelm Tell]

It is frightening that the special interests that control one political party also control the mass media (the other major political party is partially controlled by these same interests). There are movies, television shows and news stories that do nothing but teach the party line and there are staged events of a faux "democratic" nature. Kind of like in the old Soviet Union.

If the Democrats win in 2008 and they get to pick a Supreme Court Justice or two, there will be NO First or Second Amendment rights recognized. It will be a "hate crime against nature" to question global warming. It will be "hate speech against the poor" to question taxes or illegal immigration. Churches will be forced to perform gay "weddings" and criticizing other lifestyles or religions will be a serious "hate crime." Pastors who question government policy will be arrested for "violating the separation of church and state." True, there will be some First Amendment "rights" remaining. Islamofascists will be able to freely recruit. Perverts will be able to go to the public library and view child porn on the Internet. People who want to harm us will have almost unlimited "rights" while the the average citizen will only have the "right" to remain silent and think only approved thoughts.

[Hunterite]

Mitt laughed and called the U.N. a joke.

Romney’s stock just went up a tick or two.

*******************

dittos

[Waco]

The RAT party is screaming “we’re communists”. How come so few are listening?

[Manic_Episode]

What a charade.

If the candidates go back there for more of that nonsense again they don't deserve to be CIC.

They should all agree to go anywhere but CNN.

[ontap]

According to every source I have gone to he is indeed a general.

[anton]

Scary thing is that CNN is probably more fair than NBC. The RNC should have regulated these debates to assure fairness or refused the venue. Losing television coverage on CNN or CNBC wouldn’t miss but a handful of potential GOP voters anyway.

But, the sound bites from these debates are a whole other matter. They live on and on and on. Fortunately, the candidates did not make too much of a mess of this.

[ex-NFO]

He was probably really good at kissing butt (oops, did I say that out loud?)

[Enchante]

re: General vs. Colonel

He certainly represented himself as a “retired Brigadier General” BUT according to the item in Human Events below that may be extremely misleading at best (can any Freepers who know enough about both US Army and California National Guard ranks run down whether he is representing himself accurately??) — at the very least, saying you are a “retired brigadier general with 43 years of service” is meant to give the impression that you retired from the US ARMY as a Brigadier General??? According to the article linked below, he retired from the US Army as a Colonel and only received an honorific retirement certificate in Calif. giving him an honorary retirement rank in their own political system as a Brigadier General. Sounds like he may be a “Brigadier General” only to California liberal politicians and not in any actual service, but can anyone get to the bottom of this for us? Why would Calif. be allowed to make the “General” rank up on its own? (ok do we even have to ask???)

---

“Brigadier Gen. Keith Kerr (Ret.): My name’s Keith Kerr, from Santa Rosa, California. I’m a retired brigadier general with 43 years of service. And I’m a graduate of the Special Forces Officer Course, the Commanding General Staff Course and the Army War College. And I’m an openly gay man. I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.”

---

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23698

But there’s more. According to Col. Bill Campenni (USAF, ret), one of President Bush’s squadron mates in the Texas Air National Guard, there is no such thing as the California National Reserve of which Kerr claimed to be a former member.

Campenni told HUMAN EVENTS that Kerr is not even a retired Army General.

“He retired as a California Army National Guard colonel,” said Campenni. “It is common at Guard retirement ceremonies to give an honorary promotion to colonels to the STATE rank of Brigadier General…[but] it has no meaning other than a fancy certificate for the wall and use of the title at local Guard functions.”

Campenni said the rank of general is not federally recognized and the title can not be used or the rank worn outside the state.

[ontap]

Thanks for the info. Once again I was duped by the MSM.

[Swordfished]

Mitt asked me what I woud [sic] do in Iraq. I proceeded to explain how we need to get not only the effected nations in the region involved, but strike meaningful discussion and secure true resilution [sic] with the world thru the U.N.. Mitt laughed and called the U.N. a joke.

Now we're talking.

[gridlock]

If Romney thinks the UN is a joke, and is willing to say so, he goes up greatly in my estimation.

[Russ]

I lost respect for each and every candidate after that CNN “debate”. Not one of them was man enough to tell CNN to shove it and walk off the stage. In fact, all of them should have walked off when some of those questions were asked. If none of them can stand up to CNN how will they ever stand up to terrorists or foreign powers such as Chavez. Right now I’m leaning toward voting for “none of the above”.

[ontap]

I think you may be over reacting a little here. Support for none the above in actuality is support for the Dummycrats.

[Cedric]

Get a grip and think it through. Had any of the candidates walked off the stage THAT would’ve been the big story coming out of the debate, not deceit and duplicity of CNN and the Dems.
The GOP candidates did the right thing.

[EternalVigilance]

I’m voting for the one Republican candidate who was excluded from the CNN debate, Alan Keyes.

Dr. Keyes is on the ballot in Florida, where this so-called debate was held, by the way, and is polling ahead of Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo there.

There’s no doubt that had he been there, he would not have accepted any of the premises of the questioners, or of CNN. Before answering, he would have pointed out the falseness and the silliness of the questions.

Which is why they excluded him, of course.

[ChessExpert]

I did not watch the debate and need some help on questions of fact.

I did not realize that the questioners at the Republican debate were supposed to be Republicans. I think this is a key bit of information. Ray Robinson states:

Some problems were apparent at the start. For instance, CNN declared that it had selected twenty-four "undecided Republican voters" at the University of Tampa.

Can anyone confirm that CNN claimed these were undecided Republicans? Were these people from Youtube, live, or both?

To me, this is mostly about full disclosure. If CNN says, “here are questions from your critics,” that would be O.K. But if CNN said “here are questions from undecided Republicans,” and presented Democratic type questions from people that CNN knew to be Democrats, selected by CNN, that would be a fraud of Rathergate proportions and everyone, liberals included, should learn of it.

[Rockiette]

Isn’t little Andy Cooper the son of the poor little rich girl, Gloria Vanderbilt? Andy is a snotty little leftist with an attitude of “me,me and only me”. He carries the same virus as Hillary, the “I am not to be questioned” disease and it seems to be infiltrating all the Demo candidates thinking.