What was Chris Wallace's question, anyhow?

[michaeledward]

Last Friday, Chris Wallace had a sit down interview with President Clinton. It was broadcast on Fox News Sunday. It has recieved quite a bit of press.

But, what was the question that spurred the former President's response. I heard Mr. Wallace on the Imus in the Morning program today. His recollection did not quite jive with my memory of the (commonly available) video clip.

Here was the question ... as posed by Mr. Wallace ... with Mr. Clinton's interjections taken out.

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on "Fox News Sunday," I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I've got to say, I was surprised. Most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaeda out of business when you were president?
There's a new book out, I suspect you've already read, called "The Looming Tower."
And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said, "I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops."
Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole. And after the attack, the book says that bin Laden separated his leaders, spread them around, because he expected an attack, and there was no response.
I understand that hindsight is always 20/20. ... ... but the question is, why didn't you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?

That's an awfully big question.

I think one of the interesting commentaries on this interview, and the subsequent blow-up of publicity about this interview, comes from MediaMatters for American.

Media Matters reports that the majority of the discussions taking place in the media is ignoring the substance of President Clinton's response to this question. Most stories focused on the behavior of the former President; often characterizing it harshly.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200609270001

This, of course, does not surprise me. The 'Liberal Media' is, again, failing to be liberal.

Food for thought.

 

[michaeledward]

While the President's reply to Mr. Wallace has brought up a furor of claim and counter claim and counter counter claim, an objective analysis to the substance of his statements has been difficult to find. Most media outlets, as indicated in the Media Matters report, talk about the 'finger pointing'.

Keith Olbermann had a segment on recently that does take a look at the substance of Clinton's reply. It may be worth watching. Of course, O'Reilly will accuse MSNBC of being left wing propaganda. The video clips used in the segment are not Keith Olbermann.

Watch here ...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/...shs-first-months-in-office-leading-up-to-911/

I assume the C&L link will be hard to find later on ... but I can't find the Countdown link yet.

 

[michaeledward]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/15662785.htm

In recent days, Bob Woodward has been on a full court press bender with the release of his new book. Many of the claims in 'State of Denial' have been previously covered in 'Hubris' and other books.

One important point is that DCI Tenet drove to the White House on July 10, 2001 ... and held a surprise meeting with NSA Rice, to warn of impending al Qaeda attacks.

Now, Secretary of State Rice, first indicated that she did not recall having this meeting. She said that if she had the meeting she would have taken some action. Her assistant, a Mr. McCormick, has since said that the meeting did occur, and that then NSA Rice asked that DCI Tenet give the briefing to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Attorney General Ashcroft.

Mr. Ashcroft has publicly said, that he wished he had seen this briefing. He, too, was unable to recall any such briefing.

Except, he too was given this presentation, on July 17, 2001.

According to the person who put the presentation together ....

One official who helped to prepare the briefing, which included a PowerPoint presentation, described it as a "10 on a scale of 1 to 10" that "connected the dots" in earlier intelligence reports to present a stark warning that al-Qaida

.

What was Mr. Wallace's question again?

 

[HKphooey]

Well, books like "Losing Bin Laden" (about Clinton's alledged loss of Bid Laden) will sure come out after Bush leaves office too. Oh wait they are already coming out. Lets face it, politicians will always be politicians. And there will always be Monday morning QB's.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Hell, I got a kick out of seeing Clinton pin Wallace's ears back. It was scathing.

I can't half blame him. When the Bush administration runs out of cards to play, they and their cronies at Fox play the "blame Clinton" game.


Regards,


Steve

 

[michaeledward]

One of the items in that interview that I found interesting, is President Clinton answered the question. It is a fairly complex question, with several points brought up to reinforce the primary thrust of the inquiry.

The former President addressed each of the underlying points.

Mr. Wallace, apparently, did not realize that Mr. Clinton was answering his question. He kept interrupting the President.


The lesson from this interview ....

If you want a sound bite, repeated over and over again, regardless of your question, ask President Bush.

If you want an answer to your question, ask President Clinton.

 

[michaeledward]

Chris Wallace was at it again.

His interview with John Kerry today was another interesting job.

Got to love Fox News.