So I Just Heard "Tweety" Give a Talk at my School

liberalpragmatist

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Sat Oct-02-04 05:44 PM
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So I Just Heard "Tweety" Give a Talk at my School

Edited on Sat Oct-02-04 06:29 PM by liberalpragmatist

He was at Wash U. in St. Louis today, and he gave an exclusive hour-long talk to a group of about 300 WUSTL students. I was in the audience.

I actually really enjoyed the talk, despite the rap he gets on DU. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I found myself agreeing with him a lot.

First, he rattled off the latest Newsweek polls - first time any of us heard them, I guess they were released while we were in there. Also emphasized the 61-19 Kerry win in the debates, according to the same Newsweek poll.

He acknowledged voting for Bush in 2000, saying he liked the idea of a "humble" foreign policy, among other things. And while he didn't explicitly endorse Kerry, he did basically say you had to be an idiot to vote Bush again, rightly pointing out that if ANY Democrat had run the Iraq War, conservatives, who are supposed to believe in the limits of power would have been rightly calling for that Democrat's head. Thus, he said, Conservatives were being dishonest and hypocritical in supporting Bush and supporting the war.

He said he personally thinks that Bush will win in a squeaker because of that - Conservatives and Republicans refusing to acknowledge that Bush has done a bad job.

About the debate, I don't know how he was Thursday night, b/c I didn't watch Hardball that night, but today at least he said Kerry had clearly won and that Bush looked like "the young king being confronted by his disgruntled countrymen for the first time." He said Bush relied on a friendly audience. Kerry, in contrast, looked
"like Jack Kennedy" with his tie, his tall, dark, dignified look, his thoughtfulness and his overall demeanor.

He rattled off results of a poll on a prospective Bush 2nd term. According to the survey only NINE percent wanted another 4 years to stay the same. Well over 50% wanted major changes in any 2nd Bush term and something like 35% wanted some changes. So combined, 89% wanted change, and only 9% wanted to stay the same.

This was new to me - but he said that John Zogby was the one pollster who is extremely confident of a Kerry win. He also stressed that Zogby has the reputation of being the most accurate pollster in the country. According to John Zogby, Kerry will win by 9 - yes, NINE percent.

Later Matthews fielded questions. He attacked the Catholic bishops who wanted to deny communion to anybody who votes Kerry, saying it was a huge violation of church and state and that American catholics are Americans who can make up their own minds and don't like being told what to do.

I especially liked at the end where he chewed out someone who complained that the last 3 elections all came down to a "lesser of two evils." He berated her (actually, overly harshly, but what's new?) demanding her to say who did she want to run for president - these are the choices and there are clear differences between them, nobody's ever going to have a perfect choice.

He also vigorously defended abortion rights, asking if anybody had actually contemplated making abortion illegal? He said it'd be like prohibition - poor women getting killed in botched underground operations, wealthier women going to Canada or the Caribbean. He said that Sandra Day O'Conner had saved the Republican party, because if Roe v. Wade ever was overturned, the Republicans would be wiped out because they'd actually have to try and illegalize abortion. No Republican or Conservative he knows, he said, actually wants to criminalize abortion - they just use it as a wedge issue.

Just a heads-up

UPDATE: Also, thought I should add that this crowd of 300 students was EXTREMELY Pro-Kerry. Almost EVERYONE was registered to vote in Missouri. Trust me, youth is going to be huge this year. If the race is close don't be surprised at all if the winning margin is among youth. Even if Kerry wins narrowly, expect some padding to come from youth.

UPDATE II: Forgot to add what he said about the media. HE didn't acknowledge a conservative bias, but he did say something that I found quite honest: the days of the liberal, egg-headed reporter in the mold of Cronkite are over - most journalists (who he respects) and especially news anchors and TV news personalities are careerists who want to get ahead and get cash - implying that they trumpet whatever line will make their producers happy.

UPDATE III: Should add something about Zell Miller. Someone asked about him, which got the whole audience roaring with laughter. Of course, nearly the whole audience was aware of the incident, many through that EXCELLENT Daily Show (which Matthews called "the best news show on TV", although I am paraphrasing). Mocking Zell, Matthews said it was great because Zell was yelling "get out of my face! I'm going to walk out right now!" and Matthews said that in his ear, his producers were telling him, "calm him down! calm him down!" and Matthews kept trying to act gentle and conciliatory, which kept making Zell even more mad.

He concluded this Zell-fest by saying "Zell Miller was worth 1 million in advertising. Thank you Zell Miller."