Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Better than David Gregory w/ NBC's Andrea Mitchell: Berkowitz w/ RCP's Tom Bevan on why Obama won and his first 100 days; Cable and Streaming

Jeff Berkowitz: …Why is Barack Obama the President of the United States?
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Tom Bevan [Executive Editor and Co-Founder of RealClearPolitics.com][Watch Bevan here]: I would say the economic crisis more than anything, we could go back and talk about the primary-- I think Obama was in the right place at the right time with the right message, certainly in the primary…But, in the general [election]…it was the economic crisis, it was September.
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Jeff Berkowitz: ... I don’t know that that [Real GDP 6% decline] number came out [in the last Presidential prime time press conference]. If Bush were there, do you think somebody would have hammered him and said, “Well, six percent decline in the first quarter, you’d been President for seventy days, when are you going to do something? I mean seriously. Do you think? Maybe?
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Tom Bevan: …I think if he starts next year, 2010, still with unemployment that is 9, 9.5, 10 %, [Obama] might be facing a very tough mid-term.
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This week’s Chicago metro suburban edition of Public Affairs features Tom Bevan, co-founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics.com [See below for the Chicago metro suburban, City of Chicago, Aurora and Rockford airing schedules for the show with Tom Bevan. Watch Bevan debate and discuss why Obama won the Presidency, how President Obama performed in his first one hundred days, the traits of the likely replacement for Justice Souter, mainstream media liberal bias and many other public policy issues relating to the Obama presidency with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.[A more detailed description of the show's topics is included, below]
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The "Public Affairs," show with Tom Bevan can now be watched on your computer.
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--Why is Obama President?

Jeff Berkowitz: …Why is Barack Obama the President of the United States?

Tom Bevan: Why is he President?

Jeff Berkowitz: As opposed to …Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain or Mitt Romney, why Barack Obama…

--It’s the Economy, stupid?

Tom Bevan: I would say the economic crisis more than anything, we could go back and talk about the primary-- I think Obama was in the right place at the right time with the right message, certainly in the primary…But, in the general [election]…it was the economic crisis, it was September.

Jeff Berkowitz: Why him? Why was he better than the others…people looked and said who’s best to deal with the economic crisis, is that what you mean?

Tom Bevan: Not necessarily, no.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, how does the economic crisis put Obama in the Presidency?

Tom Bevan: Because I think a lot of folks who were perhaps hesitant, a lot of Democrats who were…. they were hesitant toward Obama or flirting with McCain…the economic crisis just sort of moved everybody over into Obama’s column…Bush was back in the news, he was holding press conferences, it was a reminder of the worst that McCain was fighting, that headwind that McCain was fighting, it all came back, it was eight years of Bush, it was eight years of Republican economic policies, and McCain could never get out from underneath it.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, it fed into the theme of change-- change you could believe in.

Tom Bevan: Absolutely. One hundred percent.

Jeff Berkowitz: People didn’t like the economy. They didn’t like where it had been the last year. They didn’t like where it was going. So, somebody says change and that’s their choice.

Tom Bevan: And, I think the other thing is, that sort of coincided with the debates. You remember the whole thing about McCain coming….
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--Media bias about Iraq?

Jeff Berkowitz: Is it also because the United States in a sense won in Iraq

Tom Bevan: I think that is part of it, too—

Jeff Berkowitz: and the media…they do not want to report that Bush in a sense was right and they [the coalition forces] won, so they just don’t report it. Am I being too harsh on the media? You’re a part of it.

Tom Bevan: [Laughter]. A little bit. Well, no, look. I’ve talked a lot about this before, about Iraq and of course, Republicans and conservatives will always say …there is a liberal bias and I think there is something to that, but that’s not the whole story… there is a mentality in the DNA of the media in general—“if it bleeds, it leads,” and it’s easy to cover a car bomb and deaths; it’s a lot harder to cover reconstruction projects that are going right, schools that are opening and what not…
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Tom Bevan: …[Obama] is a very charismatic, inspiring candidate and he did drive the message that brought those folks out.
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Tom Bevan: The answer, I think, is undoubtedly that [Obama] is more of a progressive than a centrist, I think.
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Jeff Berkowitz: What happened to First Quarter GDP, down 6%, right?

Tom Bevan: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is anybody talking about that?

Tom Bevan: Worse than expected and on top of—

Jeff Berkowitz: …Didn’t [that datum] come out the day of the Obama press conference that was on national prime time TV?

Tom Bevan: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Was he asked about it? Nothing.

Tom Bevan: It did not get asked about.

Jeff Berkowitz: The question that maybe touched on it a little bit was when the guy from BET talked about minority unemployment and so forth, but not really. I don’t know that that [Real GDP] number came out [in the Presidential press conference]. If Bush were there, do you think somebody would have hammered him and said, “Well, six percent decline in the first quarter, you’d been President for seventy days, when are you going to do something? I mean seriously. Do you think? Maybe?

Tom Bevan: Maybe, maybe not. I mean even Bush got a honeymoon. And, Obama is able to get by with, by saying, look this was Q1 and he didn’t take office until the end of, basically…
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Tom Bevan: …I think if he starts next year, 2010, still with unemployment that is 9, 9.5, 10 %, [Obama] might be facing a very tough mid-term.
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Jeff Berkowitz, show host and producer, and executive legal recruiter, debates and discusses with Tom Bevan, Princeton alum, former opinion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-founder of www.RealClearPolitics.com the following topics and questions:

Why did Obama win the Presidency? Was and is the war in Iraq being covered impartially by the mainstream media? Was Obama’s early and vocal opposition to the War in Iraq the main reason why he won the Democratic Party nomination for President? How did the media and the polls grade Obama’s first 100 days? How does Tom Bevan grade Obama’s first 100 days?

Is Obama a centrist posing as a “Progressive,” or is he a “Progressive,” posing as a centrist? Should the media have questioned Obama more vigorously than they did about such items as the six percent decline in real GDP during the first quarter?

What are the traits of the likely replacement for Justice Souter? Will Obama overreach? Who are the likely nominees by Obama to replace Justice Souter? Will the Republicans be reluctant to question Souter’s replacement vigorously at the confirmation hearings?

Is there still an Obama-media love affair? Are the Congressional Democrats guilty of hypocracy when they oppose school vouchers-school choice for the children of low income blacks but happily send their own kids to elite suburban public schools, or to elite DC private schools?

Does RealClearPolitics lean right? Or, is it the "White line down the middle of the road."
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The "Public Affairs," show with Tom Bevan was taped on May 3, 2009.
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Public Affairs Chicago Metro suburban airing schedule:

The show featuring Tom Bevan is airing this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs in its regular slot:

Tuesday night (tonight) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

and Tuesday night(tonight) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Chicago and Aurora:

The "Public Affairs," show featuring Tom Bevan, co-founder and Executive Editor of www.RealClearPolitics.com, will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night i.e., May 18 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21(CANTV, aka Chicago Access Network TV) and that same night on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, ACTV-10, aka Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
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Rockford:

The "Public Affairs," show featuring Tom Bevan, co-founder of www.RealClearPolitics.com, , will also air throughout the City of Rockford (and in surrounding areas) a week from this coming Thursday night, May 21 at 8:00 pm on Cable Ch. 17. The surrounding areas reached by Ch. 17 include Byron, Cedarville, Cherry Valley, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Mount Morris, New Milford, Portions of Ogle County, Oregon, Polo, Stillman Valley, Winnebago, Portions of Boone County and Poplar Grove.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. *************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is a weekly political interview show airing in Chicago on CANTV, in the Chicago metro area, Aurora and Rockford on Comcast and also often on the Illinois Channel. You can watch the shows, including archived shows going back to 2005, here.
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Other recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page include the fastest five minutes on the web- a New York Times video about Obama-Berkowitz,a show with Tom Bevan, Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics, a show with State Senator and possible Republican candidate for Governor, Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), a show with Senator Steans about budget deficits and education reform, a show with conservative activist Joe Morris about SB600 as a litmus test for reformers, a show with Senator Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) about hot state legislative issues and politics, a show with Bill Brady, State Senator and 2010 Republican Primary candidate for Governor, a show with State Senator and likely 2010 10th CD candidate Susan Garrett(D-Lake Forest), the second fastest five minutes on the web- a segment of Bill O'Reilly with Berkowitz discussing a clip of Obama from 2002 on Blagojevich and many more shows.
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