"The trouble with life is the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt." --Bertrand Russell “Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.”--Christopher Hitchens
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Linda Wendt: The Trojan Horse
Now here's an attractive Midwestern lady, who owns a restaurant in Wisconsin, and she is interviewed on Morning Edition, sounding oh so reasonable and non confrontational, youbetcha.
She voted for Bill Clinton twice but will not vote for President Obama because he does not understand the burdens carried by small business owners like her the way Mitt Romney does. She won't say anything nasty about Mr. Obama, but she slips in the knife, with a smile, about how he just doesn't know what hardworking people like her go through, trying to meet a payroll, but of course, Mr. Romney does.
It's no knock on Mr. Obama, personally, she says; he just has never had the experience of working hard to build a business.
But, of course, it is a knock against Mr. Obama, personally.
It's the same knock every person who thinks she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps, without any help from any one, not from the parents who gave her the restaurant, not from the government which paved the roads to the restaurant. She did it all herself, just the way Mitt did and Obama did not.
And, of course, the NPR reporter doesn't ask a single revealing question to unmask the nasty beneath that smiling exterior.
She does mention she knows Obamacare will be an unreasonable expense for her, although she doesn't know what's in the law. She knows if she has more than 50 employees, she'll have to provide medical coverage for them, so she'll game the system and keep her employees down below 50--playing that Republican tune that job creators like here will pull back because of government regulation.
The last thing a job creator wants to do is to become the parent of her employees, to become responsible for their welfare. If you are a job creator, you want to get labor out of your employee, not an obligation, especially if all they are doing is poaching fish.
NPR gave her fifteen minutes to slip her knife in multiple times, without ever challenging where she gets the idea Obamacare will be bad for her. And they never asked her how she knew Mitt Romney had to meet a payroll. And they never asked how much Bain Capital was like her fish fry. Is there really anything at all in the experience of running a vulture capital firm which is like running a fish fry restaurant?
She did let slip she did not believe the government should pay for contraception, and in this she echoes Rush Limbaugh's rant about the Georgetown law student who he called a slut for asking for her insurance to cover contraception.
She comes across as very open minded, reasonable person. Of course, she is not open minded, or reasonable, but she is never revealed by any tough questions. She looks like a nice wooden horse you might want to wheel into your city.
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Unfortunately the media,NPR included, will often opt for vapid over appearing biased or God forbid left leaning. No,no,no they are not the "lame stream liberal media" and they'll prove it.I think if they're not up for asking follow-ups they may as well hand the interviewee the mike at the start and just exit the room.
ReplyDeleteI certainly understand your frustration as a listener, but Mad Dog I don't know why you're questioning what poor,sweet little Miss Wendt small restaurant owner from Wisconsin has in common with Megamillions Mitt. Don't you get it--they're both humans.
Maud,
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I am instructed. Hand the lady the mike. I can go out for a beer.
Just read Jane Mayer's "Schmooze or Lose" piece in this week's New Yorker about the fix Mr. Obama is in because the billionaires who supported him last time are not this time. Also reading Drift and Mastery (Walter Lippmann) about, among other things, how we consider politicians corrupt when they do exactly the things we expect business moguls do--reward loyalty and support, court favor, cow tow to those who can help them.
Democracy is, I suppose, never what we've had. We have, as the wags say, the best government money can buy.
--Mad Dog