The Labor Department announced the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point, to 9.6 percent in August so, as the AP noted, it “has exceeded 9 percent for 16 straight months,” while the economy lost 54,000 jobs. Yet, without avoiding the dire numbers, ABC, CBS and NBC managed to find a “mixed picture,” “mixed bag” or even a “silver lining” for President Obama and Democrats two months before election day.

“It’s a mixed picture here, but it’s giving some encouragement to those who are out there looking, some who are hanging onto their jobs and their businesses by a thread,” Brian Williams insisted on Friday’s NBC Nightly News. On the CBS Evening News, fill-on anchor Erica Hill saw “a bit of a mixed bag” before Anthony Mason asserted that “weak as the job numbers were, they were better than Wall Street expected” and he touted: “With American businesses creating 67,000 jobs in August, the private sector has now added jobs for eight straight months.”

Over on ABC, fill-in anchor David Muir elevated Obama’s spin, teasing World News: “More jobs lost and the President, just today, taking the Republicans on. Are they standing in the way?” He introduced the subsequent story: “This country lost another 54,000 jobs in August, and the President today took on the Republicans, saying they’re the ones blocking help for small business.”

In a lengthy set up leading into a report from Jake Tapper, Muir trumpeted:

But some economists say there is still a silver lining in these new numbers, because if you take away the 115,000 temporary government jobs – those Census jobs we knew were going away — a slightly different picture emerges. The crucial private sector actually adding 67,000 workers in August, health care and construction leading the way. And that comes after the private sector added 107,000 in July, 61,000 in June…

Nice that Muir realizes the private sector is “crucial”!
 
Earlier today, from Julia Seymour of the MRC’s Business & Media Institute: “CNN’s ‘Glass One-Quarter Full’ Spin: Emphasize Private Job Gains”

David Muir, on the Friday, September 3 ABC World News:

We do turn now to the political storm brewing in Washington over the new jobs numbers out today. This country lost another 54,000 jobs in August, and the President today took on the Republicans, saying they’re the ones blocking help for small business. That, in a moment, but first, the numbers.

Word that the nation’s employers cut another 54,000 jobs in August, marks the third month in a row that this country has seen a net loss of jobs. But some economists say there is still a silver lining in these new numbers, because if you take away the 115,000 temporary government jobs – those Census jobs we knew were going away — a slightly different picture emerges. The crucial private sector actually adding 67,000 workers in August, health care and construction leading the way. And that comes after the private sector added 107,000 in July, 61,000 in June. It’s growth, but still not the number of private sector jobs needed to keep one the nearly 15 million Americans still looking for work.

And as I mentioned, the President was quick today to frame the numbers his way and so lets turn right now to Jake Tapper.

CBS Evening News:

ERICA HILL: Back home, a new sign the economic recovery will be a long, slow journey. Today the Labor Department reported private businesses added 67,000 jobs in August, but overall the economy lost jobs as the Census Bureau laid off more temporary workers. And the unemployment rate inched up to a tenth of a point, a tenth of a point, rather, to 9.6 percent. Wall Street was encouraged by the news that businesses are hiring, though. The Dow jumped 128 points today for its first positive close week in a month. Anthony Mason is our senior business correspondent. So overall, Anthony, it’s a bit of a mixed bag?

ANTHONY MASON: Yeah Erica, weak as the job numbers were, they were better than Wall Street expected and seemed to give investors confidence the economy can avoid a double-dip recession. With American businesses creating 67,000 jobs in August, the private sector has now added jobs for eight straight months…

Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News:

Turning to the U.S. economy and the latest reading on the job market for August. Employers cut 54,000 workers from their payrolls, less than what analysts had predicted. The unemployment rate ticked up a notch: 9.6 percent now as discouraged workers restarted their job search. It’s a mixed picture here, but it’s giving some encouragement to those who are out there looking, some who are hanging onto their jobs and their businesses by a thread…

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In a list of famous Americans with a parent (or both) born in another country, the un-bylined last page “Back Story” of this week’s Newsweek listed “BARACK OBAMA (Kenyan Father)” on the page headlined: “What’s So Scary About an ‘Anchor Baby’?” The brief text below the headline, and on top of the diaper, made clear the magazine’s attempt to undermine those suggesting citizenship should no longer be automatically conferred on anyone born within the United States:

There’s a movement afoot to alter the 14th amendment, the one that guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Combine this with anti-immigrant policies like Arizona’s and you begin to question the idea of America as a melting pot — as a nation of mothers and fathers welcomed here to seek better lives. But the country has benefited richly from their sons and daughters (right).

An “anchor baby” is a child born to parents in the U.S. illegally, so is the magazine suggesting that Obama’s father, as well as parents of the 32 others in their list, were all illegal aliens at the time of the births of their famous offspring? Talk about flinging scurrilous allegations and encouraging the “birther” crowd.

Larger jpg image of the page (50 Kb), full size jpg image (1 Mb). I scanned the page and the blotches/darkness within the white areas are from bleed through from the other side of the very thin paper Newsweek uses.

Imagine the reaction of the left and Newsweek if a conservative figure had called Obama an “anchor baby.” They certainly would consider it one more insult to add to the right’s “lies” about Obama.

The “anchor baby” list with Obama appeared in the very same Newsweek, the September 6 issue, featuring a cover story by Jonathan Alter on the “lies” told about Obama:

The outlandish stories about Barack Hussein Obama are simply false: he wasn’t born outside the United States (the tabloid “proof” has been debunked as a crude forgery); he has never been a Muslim (he was raised by an atheist and became a practicing Christian in his 20s); his policies are not “socialist” (he explicitly rejected advice to nationalize the banks and wants the government out of General Motors and Chrysler as quickly as possible); he is not a “warmonger” (he promised in 2008 to withdraw from Iraq and escalate in Afghanistan and has done so); he is neither a coddler of terrorists (he has already ordered the killing of more “high value” Qaeda targets in 18 months than his predecessor did in eight years), nor a coddler of Wall Street (his financial-reform package, while watered down, was the most vigorous since the New Deal), nor an enemy of American business (he and the Chamber of Commerce favor tax credits for small business that were stymied by the GOP to deprive him of a victory). And that’s just the short list of lies.

The 32 on the list (not online) in addition to Obama:

Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Alex Rodriguez, Frank Sinatra, Joan River, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, Vera Wang, Bobby Jindal, Colin Powell, Olympia Snowe, Frank Zappa, Henry Mancini, Eugene O’Neill, Henry Heinz, Groucho Marx, George Gershwin, Leonard Nimoy, Nikki Haley, Rene Zellweger, John Cassavetes, Ray Bradbury, Michelle Kwan, Spiro Agnew, Joan Baez, Oscar Hijuelos, Ralph Nader, Norah Jones, Larry King, Eric Holder, Benny Goodman and Narcisco Rodriguez.

Spiro Agnew (“Greek Father”)? Not a name you’d think Newsweek would tout.

Earlier, my post on Newsweek’s previous edition: “Newsweek Ranks U.S. the 11th ‘Best Country’ – Bush’s Fault, But Obama Can Stem the Slide”

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Earning applause from the audience inside Manhattan’s Ed Sullivan Theater for Wednesday’s Late Show, Donald Trump gave David Letterman his take on placing a new mosque near Ground Zero: “I think it’s very insensitive to build it there. I think it’s not appropriate, a I think it’s insensitive and it shouldn’t be built there.” Letterman frowned, prompting Trump to point out to the audience: “I don’t know if he agrees.”

Letterman eventually asked “what about the notion” of when the “pilgrims came over…looking for religious expression? And as far as I’ve always known, that’s a fundamental building block of what makes this country great.” Trump agreed, but “it’s caused such a storm that the people doing it would make so much good will” if they moved it to a different location.

When Trump repeated his point, to more applause, about how “it’s very insensitive to build it there and I think they should go someplace else,” a befuddled Letterman wondered: “Describe for me what insensitivity is manifested if it’s built there?” And Letterman fretted: “Does this suggest that we are in fact officially at war with Muslims?”

To which, Trump observed: “Well, somebody knocked down the World Trade Center.”

Letterman also sputtered: “I don’t believe, not having read the Koran, I don’t believe that part of that belief, that pursuit is here in your face, take a look at this, what do you think? What are you going to do?” Trump, on to promote a new season of The Apprentice on NBC, retorted: “Well, somebody’s blowing us up. Somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff.”

The Late Show Web site has a video of a portion of the Ground Zero mosque discussion.

Audio: MP3 clip

From the Wednesday, September 1 Late Show with David Letterman:

DAVID LETTERMAN: Now, tell me everything I need to know — everything a reasonable person should understand about the rebuilding that’s taking place at the former site of the twin towers, and the construction of, possible construction of a mosque down there. What do you know about it? What do you understand about it? And what are smart people, what should we be thinking of.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, the rebuilding is going very slowly. It should have gone faster. I’ve always said what we should do is rebuild the World Trade Center exactly as it was. You know, it was never a very popular building architecturally until it went down and when it went down we all felt so terrible and all of a sudden people started loving it. I came out and said we should rebuild it in exactly the same form, but a little bit taller and a lot stronger and a lot of people loved that idea, but that’s not what they’re doing.

As far as the mosque is concerned, I think it’s very insensitive to build it there. I think it’s not appropriate, a I think it’s insensitive and it shouldn’t be built there. (Applause) [pause as Letterman frowns] I don’t know if he agrees

LETTERMAN: Well, I don’t know — I’m so ignorant about stuff. What about the notion — I can remember, I can’t remember but, remember when the pilgrims came over? Folks, remember when the pilgrims were here? And the puritans, and they came seeking religious freedom, and freedom from religious persecution, looking for religious expression. And as far as I’ve always known, that’s a fundamental building block of what makes this country great.

TRUMP: I agree. And, you know, it’s called very simply freedom of religion. And I would agree with that 100 percent. In this case, it’s caused such a storm that the people doing it would make so much good will if they said, “hey, listen, we want to make everybody happy, including ourselves. We’re going to pick a site that’s a little further away.” Everybody would be happy and I think it would be such incredible good will. I would say if they wanted to do it from a PR standpoint it would be the greatest thing they could do. But I don’t see it happening. I see the developer, he’s pretty tough, and he wants to build it there. He’s get no money. He’s got a lot of problems. But I think the mosque is a real big issue in this city and in this country and I think it’s very insensitive to build it there and I think they should go someplace else. (Applause)

LETTERMAN: Insensitive, and describe for me what insensitivity is manifested if it’s built there.

TRUMP: Well, I just think there’s such ire. There’s such — I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I mean, I goy that site because I have a big building down there, 40 Wall Street, and the level of animosity and hatred and all of the things that this mosque is engendering, it’s very inappropriate. And I’m like you, I believe freedom of religion, but at the same time, sometimes you have to make a turn. It shouldn’t be forced upon them. If they did it of their own volition it would be such a popular thing for them.

LETTERMAN: If they did what?

TRUMP: If they moved it to a different site.

LETTERMAN: The notion — does this suggest that we are in fact officially at war with Muslims? Is that what this suggests?

TRUMP: Well, somebody knocked down the World Trade Center.

LETTERMAN: Yes. No denying that, and they were Muslims, but they weren’t, it’s not, how do I want to express this? We’re not at — we’re at war with those people and they happen to be Muslims. We’re not at war with Muslims. (Applause)

TRUMP: Well, I would say that’s right, David, I would say that’s right. And whether you like it or not, there’s a lot of people in this country that are just absolutely — you see the people who died in the World Trade Center, when you see their mothers and their fathers and their wives standing there just weeping and crying because of the mosque, I just think it would be a great thing if they would move it, if they would voluntarily say, “you know, we’re going to move this.” I think they would engender, I mean, it would be so good for them.

LETTERMAN: Yes, but I don’t believe, not having read the Koran, I don’t believe that part of that belief, that pursuit is here in your face, take a look at this, what do you think? What are you going to do?

TRUMP: Well, somebody’s blowing us up. I mean, somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff, David. And, you know, we’re at war, which as you know because you and I had this discussion two times ago when I was on the show. We should have never been in Iraq in the first place….

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Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, without Katie Couric, uniquely amongst the broadcast network evening newscasts tied Discovery Channel hostage-taker/bomber James Lee to Al Gore and, even more miraculously, highlighted how Tony Blair, in his new book, describes George W. Bush as “intelligent.” Reporter Wyatt Andrews relayed in his story on the incident in suburban DC:

In an anti-corporate protest two years ago, Lee was arrested while throwing cash outside of Discovery’s offices. He said in court he had been moved to save the planet, partly by Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Neither ABC nor NBC mentioned Gore’s inspiration. (ABC’s Pierre Thomas on World News: Lee “has protested at the Discovery Channel repeatedly, raising concerns about the environment and over-population.” NBC’s Tom Costello on Nightly News referred to Lee “handing out a rambling leaflet that called on Discovery to devote more programming to global warming and animal extinction.”)

Later in the newscast, fill-in anchor Harry Smith squeezed in a short note about A Journey: My Political Life: “Tony Blair’s long-awaited memoir is out tonight and it includes the former British Prime Minister’s take on some of the famous and powerful. President Bush: ‘Intelligent,’ ‘knew exactly what he wanted’…”

Washington, DC area viewers, however, didn’t learn who Gore inspired or Blair admired since WUSA-TV channel 9, CBS’s Gannett-owned DC affiliate, didn’t carry Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, electing to stay with local coverage of the Silver Spring, Maryland events.

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President Barack Obama’s decision to include, in his Tuesday night address from the Oval Office on the end to the “combat mission” in Iraq, a sentence respectful toward former President George W. Bush, appalled MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.

Anchor Keith Olbermann recited Obama graciousness toward Bush (“It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset, yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops or his love of country and commitment to our security”) and then, obviously speaking for himself and the entire MSNBC team, proposed: “There are people who would support President Obama who would howl at hearing that said aloud more than once.” Maddow indeed howled, launching into an indignant rant:

To have in this speech, as combat operations are ending, to have…the President not only not addressing the circumstances in which we went to war, but these kind words for President Bush, describing his “commitment to our security” despite the recklessness with which President Bush discarded that national security in favor of this war of choice, which only diminished our security, and is responsible, probably, for the Afghanistan war still going on today, for the deaths of people who have died in Afghanistan after the time after which that war would have ended had we not gone to Iraq — not to mention all of the people who died in Iraq.

After finally taking a breath, she continued:

To talk about him having a demonstrated “commitment to our security,” having started this war on the terms on which he started it, I mean, it’s beyond restraint from President Obama and anybody in the pro-Iraq war, pro-Bush camp who doesn’t feel like they’ve been given the greatest political present they never deserved, was not listening to this speech.

From MSNBC’s Countdown at about 8:24 PM EDT, just after President Obama completed is speech carried by all the networks:

KEITH OLBERMANN: That one sentence in there, “It’s well known,” referring to President Bush, “that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset, yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops or his love of country and commitment to our security.” There are people who would support President Obama who would howl at hearing that said aloud more than once. Once again, contextualize this in terms of the entire administration.

RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah, I’m, I think we shouldn’t get past how remarkable it is, how much the proponents of the Iraq war are getting off easy here. I mean, we’ve got Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolten and these guys, like out now offering their suggestions on what ought to happen in Iraq next. Paul Wolfowitz, who said that the war would pay for itself, that we wouldn’t have to spend any money there.

And to have in this speech, as combat operations are ending, to have – as you point out Keith – the President not only not addressing the circumstances in which we went to war, but these kind words for President Bush, describing his “commitment to our security” despite the recklessness with which President Bush discarded that national security in favor of this war of choice, which only diminished our security, and is responsible, probably, for the Afghanistan war still going on today, for the deaths of people who have died in Afghanistan after the time after which that war would have ended had we not gone to Iraq — not to mention all of the people who died in Iraq.

To talk about him having a demonstrated “commitment to our security,” having started this war on the terms on which he started it, I mean, it’s beyond restraint from President Obama and anybody in the pro-Iraq war, pro-Bush camp who doesn’t feel like they’ve been given the greatest political present they never deserved, was not listening to this speech.

OLBERMANN: They won’t.

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Monday’s NBC Nightly News re-ran the very same exchange between Brian Williams and President Barack Obama as had aired on Sunday’s Nightly News (as well as Monday’s Today show) in which Williams despaired over how “you’re an American-born Christian. And yet, increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents are claiming you are neither….This has to be troubling to you.” Obama responded: “I can’t spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”

Picking up on that line, Williams teased his Monday newscast: “Keeping the faith. In his interview with us, President Obama makes a comment about his own background that has already ricocheted around the world.”

The subsequent interview excerpt began with a discussion of Obama’s comments about the mosque near Ground Zero, an exchange which had not aired Sunday night or Monday morning, followed by a re-run of the Muslim/citizen misconceptions. For details, check my Sunday night NB post: “Brian Williams Treats Obama as Oracle of Wisdom…”

NBC has yet to air a particularly sycophantic “question” Williams posed in the interview, conducted Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, which can be seen in the full 22-minute session posted on MSNBC.com:

And finally, I’m hoping to find you in a reflective mood on a cloudy day. We’re the first to speak to you coming off your summer vacation. How does it re-charge you, what do you think about, what do you see, what do you read about, how are you thinking about your job these days?

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Interviewing President Barack Obama in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon, Brian Williams treated Obama with a level of deference he didn’t afford to President George W. Bush as he treated Obama as a great oracle of wisdom to pluck. “Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and the environment,” Williams told Obama in the except aired on the NBC Nightly News, yearning for guidance: “Whatever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?”

Williams raised how “it’s getting baked in a little bit in the media that BP was President Obama’s Katrina. And it’s also getting baked in that the administration was slow off the mark,” but only to cue up Obama: “Is that unfair?” As the economy continues in dire straights and Obama’s economic policy of “stimulus” spending has obviously failed, all Williams could ask was: “Do you have anything new on the economy?”

Williams fretted that though “you’re an American-born Christian…significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents are claiming you are neither.” The “question” from Williams: “This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all-new territory for an American President.”

In the full 22-minute session posted on MSNBC.com, instead of asking Obama whether his low approval ratings and the widespread rejection of his direction, as illustrated by the big turnout for Glenn Beck’s rally, suggests he needs to change course, Williams prompted Obama to denounce Beck’s use of MLK and “re-injection of God” into politics:

What does it say to you that Glenn Beck was able to draw a crowd of, perhaps north of 300,000 people, on the anniversary of Doctor King’s speech, on the site of Doctor King’s speech? The message appeared to be, at times, anti-government, anti-spread of government, anti-Obama administration and in favor of, I guess, re-injecting God into both politics and the American discourse.

Williams ended on a particularly sycophantic note:

And finally, I’m hoping to find you in a reflective mood on a cloudy day. We’re the first to speak to you coming off your summer vacation. How does it re-charge you, what do you think about, what do you see, what do you read about, how are you thinking about your job these days?

Compare all of that to how Williams approached Bush on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, Katrina’s one-year anniversary:

> You have apologized for the damage, but what about the damage to your presidency? And, Mr. President, here’s what I mean. Most of the analysts call it your low point. A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your patrician upbringing, that it’s a class issue.

> When you take a tour of the world, a lot of Americans e-mail me with their fears that, you know, some days they wake up and it just feels to them like the end of the world is near, and you go from North Korea to Iran to Iraq to Afghanistan, and you look at how things have changed, how Americans are viewed overseas, if that is important to you, do you have any moments of doubt that we fought the wrong war, that there’s something wrong with the perception of America overseas?

>  The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case, looking back on it?

>  Is there a palpable tension when you get together with the former President who happens to be your father? A lot of the guys who worked for him are not happy with the direction.

The questions from Williams to Obama aired on the Sunday, August 29 NBC Nightly News:

> Just a block from here, you may not have known it, you drove by houses with holes still in the roof where there’d been live rescues, there’s still FEMA markings in spray paint. And yet, New Orleans is like this, this is a symbol of recovery. Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and the environment. Whatever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?

> This was of course New Orleans’ Katrina and Mississippi’s Katrina and you’re familiar now that it’s getting baked in a little bit in the media that BP was President Obama’s Katrina. And it’s also getting baked in that the administration was slow off the mark. Is that unfair?

> Let’s talk about another topic that’s part of the firmament here and everywhere. And that’s the economy. The New York Times said this weekend, “President Obama has another new plan on the economy, now would be a good time to find out about it.” Do you have anything new on the economy? While you’ve been away, we’ve had a horrible GDP number last week.

> Mr. President, you’re an American-born Christian. And yet, increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents are claiming you are neither. A fifth of the people, just about, believe you’re a Muslim.
[OBAMA: Keep in mind, those two things, American-born and Muslim are not the same. But I understand your point.]
Either or the latter. And the most recent number is the latter. This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all-new territory for an American President.

> Even a number as sizeable as this. What does it say to you, does it say anything about your communications or the effectiveness of your opponents to-

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Republicans are “exotic” and “extreme,” and against science too, CBS’s Bob Schieffer contended on Sunday’s Face the Nation. “You have also taken some fairly controversial, some would say very extreme, positions,” Schieffer lectured Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller, citing “you want to phase out Medicare, you want to privatize Social Security.” Miller countered: “I would suggest to you that if one thinks that the Constitution is extreme then you’d also think that the founders are extreme.”

Next, picking up on Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s claim Democrats are “are centrist” while Republicans “are really off on the right wing fringe,” Schieffer pressed Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour “about that,” highlighting Miller’s “controversial stands” before asserting: 

Isn’t that going to make it harder for some of these Republican candidates to get elected because down in Kentucky you have Rand Paul, who’s got the nomination for the Senate there, talking about, well, maybe we ought to rethink the Civil Rights Acts of ‘64 and ‘65. You’ve got Joe Buck, who won the nomination up in Colorado, who’s talking about bicycle paths being a, might lead to UN control or something other. It seems to me that you do have kind of an exotic crew out there this time.

Barbour shot back: “Well Bob, the administration and the Democratic Congress have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history.”

As for bicycles and the UN, Schieffer was apparently referring to an early August comment by Dan Maes, Colorado’s Republican gubernatorial candidate who is running against Denver’s Mayor, not Ken Buck the Senate candidate. According to an August 4 Denver Post article, “Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns,” he was making an argument about “Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.”

The CBSNews.com summary post, on this edition of Face the Nation, also pivoted from Wasserman Schultz’s perspective: “Tea Party Making It Harder for GOP: Fla. Dem.”

Schieffer ended the show with a commentary decrying a federal judge for issuing an “injunction placing limits on stem cell research, an area that holds the greatest possibilities for medical breakthroughs since penicillin.” Without regard for the moral issues or how the latest breakthroughs have come from unimpeded research using adult stem cells (the ruling blocked only federal funding of embryonic stem cell research), Schieffer insisted “putting restraints on stem cell research is not far from those who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope because they believed their doctrines and tradition had already told them what they would see.”

He painted opponents as being against gaining knowledge: “As we again try to untangle the arguments over stem cells, let us also consider this: No civilization, no society, has survived if its people came to believe they knew enough and needed to know nothing more.”

After Schieffer repeatedly marveled about Miller’s pledge to work to cut federal payments to Alaska, in return for the federal government turning land over to the state, this exchange took place:

BOB SCHIEFFER: You have also taken some fairly controversial, some would say very extreme, positions. First you say you want to phase out Medicare. You want to privatize Social Security. I have to say there are a lot of people in Alaska who are on Medicare and are getting Social Security. Isn’t that position going to be a problem for you in the election, in this general election?

JOE MILLER: I would suggest to you that if one thinks that the Constitution is extreme then you’d also think that the founders are extreme…

Later:

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: …Americans really are going to have a very clear choice set up in November between moderate Democrats who are centrist, where the country is, and Republicans who are really off on the right wing fringe. And there’s countless examples of that across the country.

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me ask Governor Barbour about that. What about that, Governor Barbour? Because you just heard Joe Miller, who may wind up as the nominee for the Republicans up in Alaska, saying he’s go out and campaign on less money for Alaska, less federal dollars coming in. He has taken several controversial stands like that and, I must say, to his credit he didn’t back off of them when I asked him about it this morning.

But isn’t that going to make it harder for some of these Republican candidates to get elected because down in Kentucky you have Rand Paul, who’s got the nomination for the Senate there, talking about, well, maybe we ought to rethink the Civil Rights Acts of ‘64 and ‘65. You’ve got Joe Buck, who won the nomination up in Colorado, who’s talking about bicycle paths being a, might lead to UN control or something other. It seems to me that you do have kind of an exotic crew out there this time.

HALEY BARBOUR: Well Bob, the administration and the Democratic Congress have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history…

Schieffer’s commentary at the end of the August 29 program:

Finally today, last week two people I know were diagnosed with colon cancer, one of the deadliest of all cancers. Because my wife and I are cancer survivors, because my mother died of cancer because she was afraid to go to the doctor, I’ve come to know a little about the disease.

My friends have a serious illness, but there is a path to recovery that was not there not so long ago. As I talked to them last week, I was again struck by the remarkable progress science is making to give them that path. Being told we have cancer no longer means we’ve been given the death penalty.

Like all scientific breakthroughs, advances in cancer research began and depend on basic research — science’s ability to go not where doctrine or tradition dictates, but where research takes it.

Ironically, my friends were diagnosed about the time a federal judge issued the injunction placing limits on stem cell research, an area that holds the greatest possibilities for medical breakthroughs since penicillin.

I have the greatest respect for those who disagree, but to me putting restraints on stem cell research is not far from those who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope because they believed their doctrines and tradition had already told them what they would see. Their beliefs, too, were deeply held, but where would the store of knowledge be had their view prevailed?

As we again try to untangle the arguments over stem cells, let us also consider this: No civilization, no society, has survived if its people came to believe they knew enough and needed to know nothing more.

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CBS and the rest of the MSM have decided the Tea Party movement is racist and hostile to non-whites, and it’s a mantra they’re going to illustrate whenever they see an opportunity. Reporter Nancy Cordes saw a “nearly all-white crowd” at Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, DC, as she (at least an off-camera female voice) demanded of two black women who weren’t afraid to attend: “I’m noticing that there aren’t a lot of minorities here today. Why do you think that is?” One of the women shot back: “They’re probably over there with Al Sharpton.”

In her story for Saturday’s CBS Evening News, Cordes had a very specific attendee number: “According to a tally commissioned by CBS News, roughly 87,000 people gathered here at this event today, thronging both sides of the reflecting pool, stretching all the way to the World War II memorial. That’s the largest gathering here on the mall since President Obama was inaugurated.”

NBC anchor Lester Holt was more generous with his crowd guesstimate (“tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands”) before he described the Beck rally as “steeped in patriotism, rooted in the nation’s cultural divide and greeted by suspicion.”

Holt opened the August 28 NBC Nightly News:

Good evening. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people from all over the country gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington today for a rally steeped in patriotism, rooted in the nation’s cultural divide and greeted by suspicion. It was organized by provocative conservative talk show host Glenn Beck who was joined on stage by Sarah Palin. And if that wasn’t enough to trigger reaction from activists on the left, the timing and place of the rally certainly was – the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered from those same steps 47 years ago today.

Flashback to April: “White NBC Reporter Confronts Black Man at Tea Party Rally: ‘Have You Ever Felt Uncomfortable?‘”

Back to the CBS Evening News and Cordes, a little of what led into the exchange quoted above:

NANCY CORDES: Beck, who is a converted Mormon, likes to call himself a clown, but today he played the role of ring-master, preaching racial tolerance to the nearly all-white crowd. A change in tone from the Fox News host who notoriously called President Obama [Beck: “a racist.”]

CORDES (or at least a female voice) TO TWO BLACK WOMEN: I’m noticing that there aren’t a lot of minorities here today. Why do you think that is?

WOMAN: They’re probably over there with Al Sharpton.

(There was no World News on ABC on Saturday night, at least in the EDT and CDT zones, because of the Little League World Series Texas v Hawaii playoff game. Hawaii won.)

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It will be “very difficult for Democrats to demonize” George W. Bush “again” during this campaign season, liberal nationally syndicated columnist Mark Shields despaired on Friday’s Inside Washington, because he’s “a circumspect and discreet former President.” Quite unlike, he didn’t say, the often boorish Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Reacting to Vice President Joe Biden’s indictment of the supposed disastrous results from the Bush administration’s economic policies, Shields fretted:

The problem for the Democrats is this, that the energizer bunny for the 2006, 2008 campaigns has disappeared because of George W. Bush’s being a circumspect and discreet former President it makes it very difficult for Democrats to demonize him again. He’s become a non-person. He shows up at a ball game once in a while, he greets soldiers coming back. He hasn’t said anything controversial and that makes it a tougher fight for Joe Biden to make.

Charles Krauthammer is a regular on the weekly program, so I’ll use that as a hook to highlight his latest column, “The last refuge of a liberal,” which includes this well-framed observation:

Promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.

Krauthammer elaborated:

– Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.

– Disgust and alarm with the federal government’s unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.

– Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.

– Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.

Another great formulation, about how those tricky Tea Party activists weren’t clever enough to fool the liberal media:

When the Tea Party arose, a spontaneous, leaderless and perfectly natural (and traditionally American) reaction to the vast expansion of government intrinsic to the president’s proudly proclaimed transformational agenda, the liberal commentariat cast it as a mob of angry white yahoos disguising their antipathy to a black president by cleverly speaking in economic terms.  

(Inside Washington is a weekly show produced by ABC’s Washington, DC affiliate, which airs it Sunday morning after it runs Friday night on DC’s PBS affiliate, WETA-TV channel 26, and Saturday on local cable’s TBD TV.)

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