White House Press Corps Imply War Going Badly for U.S.

GOPUSA ^ | March 26, 2003 | Jeff Gannon

[Columbine]

WASHINGTON (GOPUSA News) -- The military action in Iraq has been going on for only a matter of days, but from the tone of the questions hurled at White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer lately, one might think that the war is not going well for coalition forces.

Tuesday's briefing began with intense questioning by Bill Plante of CBS about the delay in the humanitarian aid President Bush said would begin flowing to Iraq. Fleischer responded by saying the aid to Iraqis has been delayed by the regime's mining of the harbor. Fleischer added, "This serves, once again, as a reminder of how Iraq is willing to starve its own people to accomplish its military aims."

Plante followed by asking, "So nobody gets fed until the mines get removed?"

[Illbay]

Hi, Columbine, how's Harlequin?

Apparently this strategy is working. Polls show that only a minority of the public believes "the war is going well."

[wretchard]

The press is all set to declare victory for Saddam provided he survives, even in ectoplasmic form, and the US does not succeed according to the media timetable. By setting the bar low for Iraq and the bar high for America, the press can adjudge the contest anyway it wants. Except.

Except that real war produces clear winners and losers. It topples governments and replaces them with new ones. It forces surrenders to victors. It sees the destruction of one army by another. And none of these can be changed by the press.

By any military definition, Iraq is mortally wounded. It's only port is taken, it's oilfields in allied hands; it's northern territories are de facto lost. It's capital is invested. Now it is struggling desperately to avoid being cut in two by Army and Marine forces driving from the Euphrates to a point on the Tigris -- right across the bottom of the Land Between the Rivers.

The Baath regime is finished.

[Robert Drobot]

"Polls show that only a minority of the public believes "the war is going well."

Says who?

[JusPasenThru]

Seems like they're banging butt to me.

[Verginius Rufus]

On Brit Hume's program Tuesday evening, they showed a Pew poll which purported to show that only 38% of the public believed the war was going well, as of Monday.

[Puddleglum]

Media bastards! Thay made sure to flood the weekend airwaves with every doom and gloom story they could cook up.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

This should be required reading for all media types on this side of the Atlantic:

WINNING BIG [Required reading for Chicken Littles and Weak Sisters who think we're "losing" the war]

[Southack]

It's actually a thing of beauty. Oh sure, it is initially irritating to watch the press put such a negative spin on the war, but then you have to remember that there are consequences to all actions.

And for the press, their negative spin is soon going to be juxtaposed against a clear-cut victory.

The mood of the American populace (which overwhelmingly backs the war anyway, except for one flawed poll) can only get better.

Victory, as it is said, has a thousand fathers (while defeat is an orphan).

How many presstitutes are still claiming that things are going badly in Afghanistan, after all?!

Soon, the same thing will be true for Iraq.

What will the press be able to do, deny that Saddam lost Iraq even as U.S. GI's are handing out food and water in downtown Baghdad?!

[legman]

The best barometer of how the public think the war is going is the little green/red arrow in the bottom of the Fox News screen.

[Illbay]

Fox News. 38%, down from 71%.

Remember that this is the first "real war" in three generations.

[Robert Drobot]

Do you remember the source of the alleged poll?

[Illbay]

Pew.

[Let's Roll]

The press said the same things about Afghanistan. They must think they look good with egg smeared on their perpetually yapping jaws.

[ThomasMore]

Most of these reporters are liberal nay-sayers, anyway! What should we expect? They WANT the war to go badly so they can blame the conservatives and BUSH on the whole thing. In fact, if the war goes well, which IT IS, it is egg on their faces.

[Republican Red]

The last time I watched Chris Matthews was a Friday show in early December 2001 which he mouthed off about how badly Afhganistan campaign was going, that we were losing, that the Bush administration screwed up in the war plan, that we'd be in fighting for Afhganistan for months if not years. That weekend city after city in Afghanistan fell and we took complete control. These idiots don't have a clue. It's just wishful thinking on their part.

[cyncooper]

Fleischer responded by saying the aid to Iraqis has been delayed by the regime's mining of the harbor.

Plante followed by asking, "So nobody gets fed until the mines get removed?"

I saw this. Ari had to spell out to the boob that if the food-laden ship enters the port and blows up from a mine, the food gets blown up, too.

[finnman69]

This is like the negative coverage at the beginning of the Afghan campaign but worse. Give the press more rope and they will hang themselves with it.

[Southack]

CBS News/New York Times Poll. Latest: March 24, 2003. N=427 adults nationwide. MoE ± 5.
.
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"
		Approve	Disap- prove	Don't Know
		%	%	%
	3/24/03	70	26	4
	3/23/03	71	23	6
	3/22/03	68	26	6
	3/20-21/03	67	26	7
	3/15-16/03	58	35	7
	3/7-9/03	56	37	6

[Illbay]

They still have wet-dreams about their misspent youths as "cub reporters" covering the Vietnam protests.

No doubt reinforced by the memory that they could "get it up" every night with willing, starry-eyed coeds they met in the picket lines.