Same old story watch: Trump reads foreign policy speech!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

Like Candidate Bush before him:
Understandably, Kevin Drum is rolling his eyes about the foreign policy speech delivered by Candidate Trump.

Drum's post starts like this. We include Drum's italics:
DRUM (4/27/16): I kinda sorta listened to Donald Trump's foreign policy speech this morning. You know, the one we were all looking forward to because it was written by an actual speechwriter and would be delivered via teleprompter. That's Trump being presidential, I guess.

So how did Trump do? That depends on your expectations. For a guy who never uses a teleprompter, not bad. By normal standards, though, he sounded about like a sixth grader reciting a speech from note cards. On content, it was the same deal.
As noted, Trump was merely reading a speech. Your neighbor could have read the same speech. The fact that Trump has read a speech doesn't tell us what he actually knows about foreign policy. It remains to be seen if the national press will note this obvious point.

In November 1999, the national press avoided this obvious point when Candidate George W. Bush delivered his first foreign policy address. Candidate's Trump's daring performance today recalls this earlier affair.

Candidate Bush had read a speech concerning foreign affairs. Your neighbor could have read it too. But at that time, the national press was displaying a very friendly feeling toward the affable Texan.

At our companion site, How He Got There, we've offered a brief account of the way Candidate Bush was hailed for having successfully read a foreign policy speech. Recently, Bush had flunked an embarrassing "pop quiz" about the names of foreign leaders.

With very few exceptions, mainstream pundits took Bush's side in the matter of the pop quiz attack. All was completely forgiven now—now that he had successfully read a foreign policy speech:
From Chapter 5, How He Got There:
Was the press corps “conducting an inquisition?” Were Bush's mistakes being “broadcast in tongues?” By November 1999, this early boast was barely a memory, and Bush would soon be absolved of all taint from the awkward “pop quiz” incident.

On November 19, the Texan delivered his first major foreign policy address, taking no questions from reporters. Two days later, on CNN’s Late Edition, USA Today’s Susan Page reacted to Bush’s address by declaring the pop quiz episode closed. “I think that with the foreign policy speech he gave this week, he's gotten over that damage from that pop quiz,” Page, a major press figure, opined. She then advanced an odd assessment. “I don't think Americans want to necessarily like the president who is the most qualified on foreign policy,” she said. “They want to choose one who is sufficient on foreign policy. And I think that's a standard he probably met in that speech.”

No inquisition was underway here! According to Page, voters only wanted a president who was sufficient on foreign affairs–and Page said Bush had met that standard by giving his address. But in fact, Bush had merely read a speech, a task any adult could have accomplished. How strong was his personal grasp of foreign affairs? Plainly, there was no way to know from watching him read his address. But the limitations of this event were also glossed in the New York Times, which had assigned its fabled veteran, Johnny Apple, to cover Bush again. Once again, Apple gushed over a skillful reading performance by the Texan (see chapter 4). “Mr. Bush delivered his 35-minute speech with considerable aplomb,” Apple declared on the Times front page, “turning in a well-versed, well-drilled performance that on several occasions rose to a presidential level.”

Back in August, Apple had openly fawned over Bush in a lengthy profile. Now, he applied the same low standard Page would advance one day later. A few days later, Morton Kondracke lowered the bar even more, in an unintentionally comical assessment of the Texan’s address. “Critics can say it doesn't take a genius to read a speech written by others,” Kondracke wrote, in Roll Call and the Washington Times. “But Mr. Bush deserves credit for picking as advisers the best thinkers and operatives from the Reagan and Bush administrations and excluding all the kooks, dimwits and connivers of the era.”

Bush had hired no dimwits or kooks! He deserved credit for this good judgment! In this way, major stars of the mainstream press defined an extremely low standard for Bush. But a vastly different set of standards still obtained for Candidate Gore, the Democratic front-runner...
Bush was hailed for having read a speech about foreign affairs. In these ways, a clownish press corps was building a road to Iraq.

Today, Candidate Trump took a great leap forward. He showed he can read a speech too.

16 comments:

  1. The fact that Trump has read a speech doesn't tell us what he actually knows about foreign policy. It remains to be seen if the national press will note this obvious point.

    Well, the national press never did note this obvious point as regards our current President.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, our current President had dealt closely with foreign policy issues in the Senate because he served on the Foreign Relations Committee and the subcommittee on European Affairs, so the press naturally figured he had SOME KNOWLEDGE of the world and foreign policy.

      Do you not even know that about Senator Obama? All you have to do is go to Wikipedia to read that. Are you lazy, or are you trolling?

      Delete
    2. No matter what anyone may say, or suggest for reading, David will continue to believe what he prefers to believe. Confirmation bias is strong in him. He, like Bush II officials, create their own reality.

      Delete
  2. Yeah, Bob isn't making much sense here. Trump delivered a speech via teleprompter that advisers had written? True, of course - but so has virtually every president ever.
    The Bob I remember would care less about the performance and more about the substance of the ideas Trump expressed. And Trump set forth a refreshing America-first foreign policy that disdained "globalism" and even advocated rapprochement with Russia. Such substantive ideas are much more worthy of Bob's attention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe that Hillary Clinton can talk about foreign policy off the top of her head, as could Bill Clinton. Many previous presidential candidates worked with their speechwriters and exercised editorial control over the content of their speeches. No one thinks that is true with Trump. So, no, I don't believe Trump is equivalent to "virtually every president ever" by virtue of having read a speech his advisers wrote and then taking no questions about it.

      Trump's substantive ideas are incoherent in the sense that they do not reflect a cohesive policy but rather the scattered opinions of an ignorant man. He likes Putin because Putin likes him, not because rapprochement with Russia is possible or important to America's strategic interests and goals. America-first that disdains globalism may be inimical to American business interests which increasingly depend on world trade. If you get into Trump's ideas in any depth or complexity, they make no sense. Since no one can ask him questions, there is little chance to explore what he really means by anything he says -- how it might apply to specific situations.

      How exactly can anyone know what Trump thinks substantively when he reads a speech written by advisers and then doesn't take any questions? You can't. How then can any of us discuss his substantive ideas? We can't. That problem is certainly worthy of Somerby's attention.

      Delete
    2. "The Bob I remember would care less about the performance and more about the substance of the ideas Trump expressed."

      This blog critiques the media, not candidates themselves or their ideas.

      Delete
    3. Maj: "Trump delivered a speech via teleprompter that advisers had written? True, of course - but so has virtually every president ever."

      From Bob's archives:

      "Talk about repetitive: In Howard Kurtz's instructive June 25 article about Gore coverage...:

      KURTZ: [Bob] Schieffer said he was struck by how Gore's response to the Lewinsky question on three network shows "was almost to the comma the very same answer."

      Every candidate gives word-for-word answers. Please don't make us go back and type them up. This complaint against Gore was highly selective..."

      http://www.dailyhowler.com/h111799_1.shtml

      Our Own Former Philosophy Undergrad. Willing to chatise the press for stating, or not stating, the obvious depending on how close he is to the target.

      Delete
    4. Well, let's talk again about repetitive and same old story deja vu all over again.

      Describing Bush in Chapter 5 as quoted here today:

      "But in fact, Bush had merely read a speech, a task any adult could have accomplished. How strong was his personal grasp of foreign affairs? Plainly, there was no way to know from watching him read his address."

      Describing Trump today earlier same post:

      "As noted, Trump was merely reading a speech. Your neighbor could have read the same speech. The fact that Trump has read a speech doesn't tell us what he actually knows about foreign policy. It remains to be seen if the national press will note this obvious point."

      Delete
  3. Well, it is certainly more credible that a Trump foreign polci speech would cause Bob Somerby to recall Bush than the arrest of fortune tellers made him think of Eingstein made easy books. And certainly his performace is consistent with his devolving habit of mimicking those he deplores.

    "Once again, Apple gushed over a skillful reading performance by the Texan (see chapter 4)." says Bob Somerby, who then quotes exactly one sentence from a very long article Apple wrote.

    Then, proving he is quite capable of playing the role of propagandist, like Rachel Maddow, for example, he leaves out what followed that sentence in Apple's article:

    "Foreign policy seldom plays a central part in American presidential campaigns. But it can prove decisive if a candidate gives the impression that the management of the nation's affairs overseas is beyond his reach.

    That happened to Gov. George W. Romney of Michigan in 1968, when he said he had been ''brainwashed'' by American officials in Saigon, and some Bush backers had feared that he faced similar risks. He had called the Greeks ''Grecians'' and had failed to identify important foreign leaders when given a pop quiz by a Boston television reporter.

    His confident performance today put such fears to rest for the moment. But Mr. Bush will face a much tougher challenge in a series of three debates with his Republican rivals, starting in New Hampshire on Dec. 2."

    Much of Apple's article was about the issues raised by Bush in the speech.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/20/us/bush-questions-aid-to-moscow-in-a-policy-talk.html?pagewanted=all

    ReplyDelete
  4. One of Drum's commenters wrote:

    "holy crap this man still sounds like an angry drunk guy spewing off while rocking in his chair on the front porch.'

    I think he meant Trump. At this point, though, I'll make an admission:

    When I read the comment I thought of the many posts this month Bob has written about Maddow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maddow shouldn't be criticized. She's on our team.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maddow should replace Howler in the blog title.

      I could have suggested Maddow replace Daily since the other often understates the coverage.

      Delete
  6. My life became devastated when my husband sent me packing, after 8 years that we have been together. I was lost and helpless after trying so many ways to make my husband take me back. One day at work, i was absent minded not knowing that my boss was calling me, so he sat and asked me what its was all about i told him and he smiled and said that it was not a problem. I never understand what he meant by it wasn't a problem getting my husband back, he said he used a spell to get his wife back when she left him for another man and now they are together till date and at first i was shocked hearing such thing from my boss. He gave me an email address of the great spell caster who helped him get his wife back, i never believed this would work but i had no choice that to get in contact with the spell caster which i did, and he requested for my information and that of my husband to enable him cast the spell and i sent him the details, but after two days, my mom called me that my husband came pleading that he wants me back, i never believed it because it was just like a dream and i had to rush down to my mothers place and to my greatest surprise, my husband was kneeling before me pleading for forgiveness that he wants me and the kid back home, then i gave Happy a call regarding sudden change of my husband and he made it clear to me that my husband will love me till the end of the world, that he will never leave my sight. Now me and my husband is back together again and has started doing pleasant things he hasn't done before, he makes me happy and do what he is suppose to do as a man without nagging. Please if you need help of any kind, kindly contact Happy for help and you can reach him via email: happylovespell2@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Are you having a hard time searching for a way to get your ex partner back, look no further, this was how i got mine back you can get yours today. My husband and I have been through every top reason for divorce; financial struggles, bankruptcy, stressful jobs, becoming parents when we weren’t ready (neither one of us would give our kids back just the amount of stress is overwhelming) we fought ALL the time over anything and everything. I threatened divorce all the time. One day after a fight I said I was done and filling. He told me he wasn’t in love with me anymore. After a day or two of cooling off I realized that divorce is not what I wanted. No, our marriage was not healthy but we had so much going against us an neither one of us were trying. I begged for him to forgive me and that I didn’t mean it. He told me he loved me but wasn’t in love with me anymore. Those words hurt and I believed him.One day i was online for tutor, as i was browsing i saw a review about a spell caster who could solve my problem, i have heard about spell casting, and magic, i said i should give it a try i contacted the spell caster his name is Dr Ewan of {covenantsolutiontemple@gmail.com}, i contacted him and he told me not to worry that all he had to do for me is a love spell, he did it and told me that i should give my husband 48 hours and that he would realize him self, i waited anxiously and one the second day of casting the spell, he came to me and told me he was sorry for the wrong he did to me, he has agreed to send me to school and we are happy. Thank you Dr Ewan you are the best. If you have any marital problem, winning of lottery and many other problems you can contact him on his email, {COVENANTSOLUTIONTEMPLE@GMAIL.COM} or call his mobile number +2347052958531, he is a good and kind man. Thanks. ELIZABETH STRONG LONDON UK

    ReplyDelete
  8. My name is Mrs Williams. Am here to testify to the general public about the magic of this great online spell caster. My husband abandoned me and the kids for almost a year because of another lady. I was so devastated and confused in his eight months of absence from the house. I tried several online spell casters, but they all disappointed me and ran away with my money. One day a friend of mine gave me the email address of this great spell caster, my friend told me to try her so I contacted this great woman on queenofmarinesolutiontemple@gmail.com and told her all i was going through. This great woman told me not to worry that shewill make my husband return home within 48 hours, i was not sure if he could do it because over five different spell casters have all failed me in the past. But i decided to give her a chance to prove herself , to my greatest surprise this great woman cast a return love spell on my husband and in less than 24 hours my husband returned home crying and begging me to forgive him and accept him back. It was so shocking and amazing. If you also want to witness the great magic of this mother then simply contact her now via email address, queenofmarinesolutiontemple@gmail.com

    You can also contact this great queen on the following kind of problems.

    (1) Spell to make girls/men to run after you.

    (2) Death spell.

    (3) 100% real money spell.

    (4) Protection from evil attack spell.

    (5) Office promotion spell.

    (6) Salary increment spell.

    (7) Do as I say spell.

    (8) Beauty spell.

    (9) Spell to cure all kinds of diseasea including HIV/AIDS.

    (10) Examination and interview success spell and many more.

    Contact her on,queenofmarinsolutiontemple@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello, I'm here to introduce someone to you all, his name is Dr.Ekpen Temple a spell caster that help me restored my broken relationship, I saw an article on the Internet someone talking about him how he help her in her relationship, today I'm a beneficial of that article, so that is why I'm also talking about how he has helped me so that someone out there that is facing the same challenge can also contact him for help. Here is DR EKPEN TEMPLE contact info: ekpentemple@gmail.com or on Whatsapp number +2347050270218.

    ReplyDelete