Joy Reid Laments Voters Rejected ‘Carter’s Decency and Goodness’ for ‘Bluster’ of ‘Cowboy’ Reagan -

During a segment on Thursday’s The Last Word about Jimmy Carter’s cancer diagnosis, MSNBC national correspondent Joy Reid complained that voters rejected “Carter’s decency and goodness” in the 1980 presidential election in favor of the “bluster” possessed by “cowboy” Ronald Reagan.  

Reid’s pronouncement was prompted by comments from host Lawrence O’Donnell about how Americans have “bought into [a] Trumpian concept of winners and losers” where you’re “utterly worthless as soon as you lose an election in this country” with Carter having “certainly suffered that imagery since losing the presidential election.” 

Nodding in agreement, Reid declared that: 

I think it says profoundly about who we are as a people that Carter's decency and goodness was taken for weakness and had to be remedied with the sort of bluster of a Ronald Reagan and that the idea we needed a cowboy to replace what people viewed as a man who wasn't cowboy enough to be president, that he was too nice.

Reid added a brief anecdote about how her mother had said that perhaps Carter “was too good of a man to be the President of the United States and he was just too nice” which she then used to scold the U.S. electorate for not seeing what Democrats saw in Carter: “I think it’s a bit sad that we, as a country, take a cerebral, gentle, a kind man for a weak man because that's not necessarily the case.”

Earlier in the segment, contrasting clips of Donald Trump and Carter (from his 1977 inaugural address) were played that allowed O’Donnell to tie together the now cancer-stricken Carter and Trump: “It took 38 years to go from Jimmy Carter's inaugural address, marked by humility and decency, to a front runner for a presidential nomination who has no humility and virtually no decency.”

Those remarks teed up former Carter speechwriter and journalist Walter Shapiro to bash Trump as “promising the American people a government as good as the worst elements and a shallow as the worst with elements of the American people” compared to Carter since he “promised the American people a government as good as its people.”

The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on August 20 can be found below.

MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

August 20, 2015

10:32 p.m. Eastern

THEN-PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER [on 01/20/77]: Your strength can compensate for my weakness and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes. 

DONALD TRUMP: I went to the Wharton School of Finance. You know, like really smart people go to the Wharton School of Finance, I will tell you.

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: It took 38 years to go from Jimmy Carter's inaugural address, marked by humility and decency, to a front runner for a presidential nomination who has no humility and virtually no decency. Watching Jimmy Carter's press conference today in which the former President dignified and humane as ever described his planned cancer treatment, journalist Walter Shapiro tweeted: “This is a moment to contrast the moment the grace of Jimmy Carter with the grotesque egotism of real estate developer to who thinks he is up for the job.” Joining us now is Walter Shapiro, fellow at the Brennan Center of Justice and a former speech writer for President Carter. Walter, please expand on that point. You have the floor. 

WALTER SHAPIRO: Well, first of all, Jimmy Carter when he ran in '76 promised the American people a government as good as its people. The way Donald Trump is running, he is promising the American people a government as good as the worst elements and a shallow as the worst with elements of the American people. I mean, the thing that gets me – forget his positions on immigration. The thing that got me is with Chuck Todd on Sunday when Trump was asked who are your military advisers and what he said is, oh, I just watch the Sunday shows. That's all I need. That, more than anything, is such a profound disrespect for the office and the whole Trump circus is more than anything scarily – he either sees the White House as a branding opportunity or he is totally oblivious to a job that Harry Truman decided as the sun, the moon and the stars all falling on you and I can't figure out which is worse. 

(....)

NATIONAL URBAN RADIO NETWORK’s APRIL RYAN: I mean, here you had someone who served in the military – there's no similarity at all. They are total opposites. You have Donald Trump, a man who's talking very negatively and I'm saying it in the best terms I can, about a war hero, John McCain and someone who served and believed in peace. He received a Nobel Peace Prize because he was trying to work out peace throughout the world, but tne thing also, that is blaring for me with Trump versus Jimmy Carter, you had Jimmy Carter who was someone who came from the south, Georgia, with steep still and racial problems in the '70s and he took the high road and he tried to stay away from that. He tried to build on integration, not segregation and here you have Donald Trump, talking about minorities the way he does. Particularly Mexicans, but one thing that really is blaring to me. What happened in Boston and how this homeless person was beaten up, urinated on and they are blaming it on Donald Trump. I will tell you this, Amos Brown, Dr. Amos Brown a board member of the national board of the NAACP said, you know, rhetoric like this is what started the situation in Charleston where that man went in and shot up nine people, shot them dead that that church. So, we have to be careful and you have Jimmy Carter who's a man of peace and this man who's not lily correct. We need some help in this time right now. 

(....)

O’DONNELL: Joy, the Carter presidency is – in America, we are I think bought in to Trumpian concept of winners and losers and you are utterly worthless as soon as you lose an election in this country. Jimmy Carter has certainly suffered that imagery since losing the presidential election. 

JOY REID: Absolutely and I think it says profoundly about who we are as a people that Carter's decency and goodness was taken for weakness and had to be remedied with the sort of bluster of a Ronald Reagan and that the idea we needed a cowboy to replace what people viewed as a man who wasn't cowboy enough to be president, that he was too nice. I remember growing up one thing my mother said to me is maybe he was too good of a man to be the President of the United States and he was just too nice and I think it’s a bit sad that we, as a country, take a cerebral, gentle, a kind man for a weak man because that's not necessarily the case. 

O’DONNELL: Walter, How did it feel inside the administration as you were approaching that re-election. 

SHAPIRO: Well, I didn’t get all the way through the reelection because I did the smartest thing in the entire world. I believe the Gallup polls and I got out in '79 and went to a place called The Washington Post, but the truth is, I have been thinking a lot about the Carter years as – and part of it is the things he doesn't get credit for. Number one, bringing human rights into the entire vocabulary of foreign policy. Number two, basically being pressing it beyond belief about energy. You could read Carter energy speeches, including the misnamed malaise speech from '79 and it reads like a Thomas Friedman column today and thirdly of all, 36 years we have had enduring peace in the Middle East and Israel's continued existence is the bedrock there as it’s negotiated by Jimmy Carter, peace with Egypt.

Via: Newsbusters

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Immigration Showdown: Coulter Dominates Maher Panel vs. Amnesty Champion Gutierrez!

Columnist and author of “Adios, America” Ann Coulter debated immigration with former MSNBC host Joy Reid and Congressman Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time.”

The discussion began with Maher and Coulter debating the number of illegal immigrants in the US, and the prior immigration system in the US. Coulter said that, “We used to have an immigration policy where we would choose the best in the world, and that was changed,” Maher rebutted, “Well, we would choose the whitest in the world.”

Coulter continued, “Look, the pre-1970 immigrants were more educated, made more money, were more likely to buy houses, and 30% of them went home. Now, no one goes home, they go on welfare, and they are far more likely to be on welfare than the native population, I think a nation’s policies should be concerned with the people already here, and that includes the immigrants who came last year and the year before. It should be people who live here benefit, not to become the battered woman’s shelter of the world, where we’re bringing in the hardest cases, and the wife beaters, and single mother with eight kids.” Maher responded that he didn’t think those assertions were born out by statistics, because Coulter said there were 30 million illegal immigrants, while government stats say there are 12 million. Coulter argued that her number from Bear Stearns is more accurate than the Census figure that the 12 million came from because “people who have trekked thousands of miles, left their families behind, broken laws, stolen Social Security cards, are not going to be filling out government surveys.”

Maher answered that he still thinks that number is high, given lower birthrates among Mexican women, and “I’ve read everywhere that actually the net immigration from Mexico in the last seven years has been zero.” The two then agreed to suppose 30 million is correct, Coulter stated, “the point at issue is, should America’s immigration policy be used to benefit the people already here, or should it be benefiting Pakistani pushcart operators, illiterate in their own language, never mind ours, who come here, go on welfare, commit terrorism, engage in crimes. Why wouldn’t you look out across the world, like a sports team does, and try to get the crème de la crème?”

Gutierrez was then offered a rebuttal that Coulter was “revving up, you know, it’s a like a Latino registration machine,” and warned “you’re never going to take the White House with this kind of politics ever again–.” Maher then told Gutierrez “that didn’t exactly answer her question.”

Reid then responded, “We were earlier talking, and touched on the issue of slavery. Ever since the forcible removal of millions of African-Americans from chattel slavery, this country has been importing new slave labor because this country wants, and runs, and is fueled by cheap labor,” a point Coulter agreed with. Reid added, that cheap labor was and continues to be drawn from Mexico by “people who are on your side, big agriculture…the big corporate interests who want people to come here.” Coulter reacted that she is not on the side of big agriculture or large corporations, and Maher pointed out that Coulter agreed with Reid’s point in her book.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] MSNBC's Howard Fineman Gushes Over Poor Obama: 'From Superman to Sisyphus'

After he conducted a fawning interview with Barack Obama on Thursday, Chris Matthews turned to his liberal journalist friends for adulation. Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman fawned over Obama and, at the same time, sympathized with the President: "Now, he's gone from Superman to Sisyphus. He's talking about rolling a boulder up the hill."[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

What kind of metaphor is the journalist trying to make? Sisyphus had to roll a bolder up a hill as punishment for deception. Surely, that's not the liberal reporter's point? Speaking of the President, Fineman, who now is the editorial director for Huffington Post, lectured, "[Obama] has a much more mature view, but he has a moral view. I thought he made the moral case for ObamaCare."

Matthews clearly wanted praise for his Obama interview, querying, "What did we see in president the man, Barack Obama, who is a bit distant usually, what did we learn from him tonight about being president?"

Grio journalist Joy Reid enthused over the President's performance, touting the man as "somebody who really is, you know, in lead or in line with the way the Pope feels about social justice."

Via: Newsbusters

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MSNBC's Joy Reid: GOP 'Shot a Hostage' by Shutting Down the Government

Appearing on the Tuesday, October 8, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC political analyst Joy Reid asserted that Republicans are "taking hostages" and have "shot a hostage" as they "went ahead and shut the government down." She began her over the top metaphor:

The Republican party, to Ari (Melber)'s point, they understand they have unpopular positions. They cannot enact their dream sort of Ayn Randian world through a legislative process. They can't win elections to enact the conservative policies. They think, you know, they might think better of the country, whatever, they believe this is the way it should be. But they cannot do it.

She added:

So they are now essentially taking hostages. But this is beyond a hostage situation. They have shot a hostage. They went ahead and shut the government down. Having done that, you cannot then go to the hostage negotiator and say, "Why won't you talk to me? Why won't you sit down and have a conversation with me?"

Reid concluded:

You shot one of the hostages already. What in anyone's rational thinking makes you believe they wouldn't go ahead and breach the debt ceiling at this point? Several of them are saying it's fine to do that. So we understand these are not people who can be negotiated with because they want fundamentally unpopular policies forced onto the majority in this country and forced even onto the majority of their own party.

Via: Newsbusters

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