American Morning
David Gergen: Obama's overexposure is dramatic
President Obama is fresh off his weekend media blitz and is steadily continuing his push for health care reform. To add to the president's busy agenda, General McChrystal says he thinks more troops will be needed in Afghanistan but the president doesn't appear to be in a hurry to send in reinforcements.
CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN's "American Morning" Monday.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/gergen.obama.art.jpg caption="David Gergen says he doesn't think Obama's media blitz broke much new ground."]
Kiran Chetry:As we know, the president blanketed the television airwaves yesterday in defense of his health care reform effort. Did he break anymore new ground in your opinion?
David Gergen: I don't think he broke much new ground. He reached some people who might not otherwise have seen his big speech to the joint session. The audience numbers for that joint session speech were down, from 52 million from his first joint session to about 32 million then. So he needed to pick up some audience.
I think he gave himself a little insulation. He's going into a foreign policy period here over the next 10 days or so and I think they wanted to keep the momentum going in the White House.
But he did it at great risk to, you know, his viewability, if you would like, to his ratings, or whatever you would call them, because he's been out so often. The overexposure is dramatic.
US general: Deliver troops or lose Afghanistan
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan says we have twelve months to get more boots on the ground or the U.S. risks “failure” in the war-torn nation. President Obama told CNN’s John King, any decision on Afghanistan won't be driven by "the politics of the moment" and that the goal remains getting al Qaeda.
Bob Woodward is a veteran journalist for the Washington Post, the first to get General Stanley McChrystal’s report, and he broke the story. Woodward spoke to John Roberts in an exclusive interview on CNN's "American Morning" Monday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/am.intv.woodward.art.jpg caption="Bob Woodward says it will take years to put more troops in Afghanistan."]
John Roberts: I want to pull a quote from the report that you have posted on "The Washington Post" Web site, in which General McChrystal said, "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months), while Afghan security capacity matures, risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." That's a pretty dire and striking statement.
Bob Woodward: It really says: 12 months, I need more troops, I need to have really have a full counterinsurgency strategy, which is protect the people, go out into the villages, set up the kinds of security stations in contact with the population that was done in Iraq by General Petraeus. If I don't get that, likely failure, defeating them is impossible.
This is a striking thing for a general to say to the secretary of defense and the commander-in-chief. It really takes his finger and puts it in their eye. Deliver or this won't work. And he says, "If they don't endorse this full counterinsurgency strategy, don't even give me the troops, because it won't work."
'Mad Men,' '30 Rock' top Emmy Awards
CNN
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) - After starting with 16 nominations, "Mad Men" won just three Emmy Awards at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night - but one of them was the big one, best drama series.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/emmys.art.fey.baldwin.art.jpg caption="Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin hold their Emmys for "30 Rock," which won best comedy series."]
The AMC show about ad agency executives in early 1960s Manhattan often competed against itself, particularly in the category of episode writing, where it had four of the five possible nominations.
"Mad Men" also won best drama last year.
"30 Rock" won best comedy at Sunday's awards. The show won five Emmys overall. Gallery: Major Emmy winners
"We want to thank our friends at NBC ... for keeping us on the air, even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show," said star Tina Fey in accepting the honor.
Glenn Close won best actress in a drama for her performance in "Damages," but she turned her speech into praise for her colleagues.
"I want to salute what I call my 'category sisters,' " she said. "I respect you, and I'm inspired by your talent." She also paid tribute to the show's writers.
Mad as Hell: Why the national anger?
If the American mood these days were a movie line, it just might be the one shouted out by the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film, “Network”:
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
We went to western Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County, to talk to voters about the anger that has spread from town halls to radio talk shows and to the floor of Congress. Last November the county went for John McCain over Barack Obama
It was in Westmoreland county that Obama campaigned just days before the April 2008 Democratic primary, saying that small-town Pennsylvania voters are “bitter” over their economic situation, and that they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter: Health care fact vs. fiction
Editor's Note: PolitiFact.com is a project of the St. Petersburg Times that aims to help you find the truth in politics. Every day, reporters and researchers from the Times examine statements by members of Congress, the president, etc. They research their statements and then rate the accuracy on their Truth-O-Meter.
Cost-shifting of uninsured is debated by the experts
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/obama.stephanoupolous.art.jpg caption="President Obama in an interview on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos."]
President Barack Obama went on the Sunday news shows to make the case for health reform.
This Week host George Stephanopolous questioned Obama on his support for an individual mandate, which requires everyone who can find affordable coverage to purchase health insurance.
Obama defended the matter as a fairness issue to people who now have coverage.
"Here's what's happening," Obama said. "You and I are both paying 900 bucks on average - our families - in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now, what I've said is that, if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. That's just piling on.
"If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool. We've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can, and you actually can afford health insurance. But you've just decided, 'You know what? I want to take my chances,' and then you get hit by a bus, (then) you and I have to pay for the emergency room care."
The Truth-O-Meter says: HALF TRUE
Read more: Another study contests that figure
Health care advocacy group blasts insurers for CEO pay packages
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/hcan.ceo.art.jpg caption="The ad from Health Care for America Now says insurance CEOs make $24 million a year and that insurers deny 1 in 5 treatments prescribed by doctors."]
Supporters of health care reform have portrayed insurance company CEOs as overpaid villains. In a recent television ad, Health Care for America Now, a group supporting the Democrats' health care reform bill, takes direct aim at the CEOs.
The group's ad mockingly explains "how to get rich" by showing a "book" written "by America's health insurance companies." Chapter 2 reads, "Pay your CEO $24,000,000 a year." A news release issued by HCAN attributed the assertion to the entry for Ronald A. Williams, CEO of insurance giant Aetna, in the 2008 Forbes magazine executive compensation survey.
The Truth-O-Meter says: BARELY TRUE
Read more: Cherry-picking highest number
TV ad overstates health insurance denials
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/hcan.ad.denied.art.jpg caption="The ad from Health Care for America Now says insurance CEOs make $24 million a year and that insurers deny 1 in 5 treatments prescribed by doctors."]
Supporters of health care reform have portrayed insurance companies as insensitive and too quick to deny claims. In a recent television ad, Health Care for America Now, a group supporting the Democrats' health care reform bill, says insurance companies get wealthy by denying those claims.
The group's ad mockingly explains "how to get rich" by showing a "book" written "by America's health insurance companies." Chapter 3 reads, "Deny 1 out of 5 treatments prescribed by doctors." A news release issued by HCAN attributed this statistic to a study released Sept. 2, 2009, by the California Nurses Association titled, "California's Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims."
The Truth-O-Meter says: FALSE
We Listen – Your comments 9/18/2009
Editor's Note: Health care reform remained the topic of focus for Friday’s American Morning audience. Senator Baucus’ health care proposal, unveiled earlier this week, was criticized for claiming to be “bi-partisan” when neither Republicans nor Democrats had supported the plan. Many remarked that Senator Baucus had lost all “credibility” because of his push for inappropriate homeland security funding for his state.
- Dan: Why do you keep referring to the Baucus bill as bi-partisan? NOT ONE Republican supports it. Hopefully, no Democrats will support it either, since it is nothing but a giveaway to the insurance industry. I guess it's too much to expect that you corporate tools at CNN would want to explain these facts to your viewers.
Jerry: Sen. Baucus lost all creditability when he supported giving 15 million to built/upgrade border crossing stations in his home state. A public option is the only way the American people will come out ahead in the health care bill, anything else we lose.
Many viewers perceived the "Wingnuts" segment as too “right-leaning,” and asked the President Obama be given a “fair shake.”
- Armando: Horrified by the "Wingnuts" of the week segment. I work across the street from you folks here in DC. There is literally a mob mentality in the right wing right now....open racism towards our President and you folks try to make it funny? And act like there is an equal amount of lunacy on the right and left? Come on. This type of belittling of racism and extremism will lead toward violence toward our President and the left. Pelosi's speech the other day should set off alarm bells...The real nuts out there with guns here the Republicans yell at the President, talk about going toward Socialism…there are many who would commit violent acts to stop that. Wake up CNN and stand for something!. Stand for a civil discourse, and not yield to the mob. You can start by giving Lou Dobbs a pink slip. This Mexican American will never watch CNN when that nut is on.
- Joe: Just when I'm starting to think that CNN is reporting more factually and less right-leaning (which you began during the Bush W reign), you do it again. The Wingnut segment was totally right leaning. There is NO excuse for Joe Wilson lashing out at the President, I don't care which party you are, but all you said was that he collected a ton of money over it and became a hero, etc., with no mention even of his opponent raising a ton of money, as well, or that MANY Americans are outraged over what Joe did. Then the host said several times that he attended the 9/12 rally and talked very positively about that along with your never ending clips of those Obama-bashing rallies attended only by the radical right, always showing that disturbing banner of Obama made up to look like the Joker. For years, I counted on CNN to simply give me the news in a factual, non-biased way and you need to get back to that. We Americans MUST, AT MINIMUM, give Obama and the Dems a FAIR SHAKE after 8 years of almost losing everything due to Bush & Cheney!
President Obama has been in office for less than a year. Is he being judged too harshly by conservative critics? How do you feel about the strong opposition to many of his policies? Should he be given a “fair shake,” as the viewer above requests?
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