I’ve had local Democrats come here and take quotes out of context so as to “prove” some point about my blog and me personally – usually to claim that I am a racist and a religious bigot – by cherry-picking a sentence (or merely a part of a sentence) that confirms their pre-determined position.

IÂ’m therefore sympathetic to the President in light of a similar action by John Stewart.

This is the problem we're gonna have with the growing number of Americans getting their news from this guy:

Thanks to Jon Stewart and a quick edit on last night's Daily Show, the sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome will surely jump on a comment President Bush made yesterday that "Mandela is dead."

Only, Bush didn't say that. He was actually making a point that he and Ambassador Crocker have made several times since the Petraeus/Crocker testimony:

There could be no "instant democracy in Iraq" because "people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule," Bush told reporters.

Referring to former South African president Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid to become a symbol of reconciliation and hope, Bush said of Iraq: "I heard somebody say, 'Now where's Mandela?'"

"Well, Mandela is dead. Because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

Of course, Stewart and the writers at the Daily Show knew this. There's no way they saw the "Mandela is dead" clip without seeing the context. But the facts got in the way of an easy political joke. And, Stewart has the nerve to get all self-righteous on "Crossfire?" Ha.

Clearly he said something entirely different than that cherry-picked quote implied – something that does make a difference to the message. But then again, we’ve long expected such intellectual dishonesty from too many Democrats.

Posted by: Greg at 11:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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