ABC, 9-11, and portrayals of the Democrats... fightin' words

Democrats threaten action against ABC over 9-11 movie

Plenty of headlines (if you hunt around just a little bit) on Democrat unhappiness with the pending 9-11 movie that ABC has slated to run. ABC is being *heavily* pressured by Democrats to make edits to the piece, with further demands by some that the piece be scrapped entirely.

Apparently the piece is not flattering to Democrats at all, placing a lot of the potential blame for the events of 9-11 on the Clinton administration.

Gee, imagine that. Placing blame for the failures to capture Bin Laden on the Clinton administration. Placing blame for lapses in homeland security that led to later events on the Democrats would not be a good thing at all to have happen in an election year now, would it?!

Draginol wrote an excellent piece here: The Republicans are doomed in November that I don't necessarily disagree with, but at the same time, in my reply there, I also stated that I'm not necessarily conceding anything.

While the election is near, there's still a lot of time for the mud to really start flinging. This election especially would seem to be one where we will see LOTS, and I mean LOTS of mud slinging. The GOP clearly has been trying to claim the high ground in saying that they've kept up safe. Democrats on the other hand are working hard to convince people that we aren't safer. They want poll results that agree with those statements and if they pay enough to the right pollsters, they just might get somewhat believable results that say just that (see this article for some related information on Polls and the validity of same: So much for the value of political polls).

We are going to be completely bombarded with statements claiming that Bush's war is wrong, wrong, wrong. We're going to have doubt among many in the right, or at least those that tilt to the right, including my friend and co-worker (who I don't believe ever actually posted here, though he did sign up for an account a long time back) and including Draginol. There are plenty of people -- myself included -- on the supposed right that aren't happy with Bush or the GOP in general. There has been a leadership vacuum. There have been unjustifiable increases in spending and a total lack of fiscal restraint really. There has also been an almost complete lack of attention to border and port security -- most especially border security since it seems that no one really wants to stop the tide of illegal immigrants coming into this country from our southern borders.

But.... what happens when people go into the voting booth and vote for real. Will they really, really, really send the message and punish the GOP for these things, or will the messages that are sure to flow over the next several weeks -- especially the message about personal security and homeland security, where things have been good, where we haven't been attacked, and where the policies of the Bush administration seemingly have served to protect us no matter how badly some on the more liberal side attack the policies and decry the so called trampling of civil and human rights that supposedly has happened -- {will those messages.....} have an impact and remind us to vote for the GOP to keep ourselves safe? Will we be reminded that taxes are almost sure to increase if the GOP loses control of either chamber of Congress? Are we likely to have more -- not less -- gridlock and more inter-party sniping going on if the Democrats gain control?

All of this remains to be seen.

One thing I'll close with though is this -- for a party that continues to scare monger over civil rights and human rights and says that we must protect the freedoms of everyone to demand changes in a film/tv show about 9-11, and for that party to threaten punitive action against the network that would be airing that piece, well, I fear far more from that party than I do from terrorists. I fear having that party take control of this country and having them try to make friends with the terrorists, or at least try to make peace with them. Instead of containing Iran, we'll wind up with another Korea -- oh, you forgot that Korea's nuclear capability basically came about because of the Clinton administration's efforts at appeasement? Ooops, I'm sure you'll be reminded about it as the campaign season really heats up.
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Reply #1 Top
Oh, if anyone wonders when I'd concede that the Democrats are gonna clobber the GOP in the election (for either chamber of Congress), I'd say that will happen around late night on election eve.


I will say that I think a piece I saw earlier today from Newt Gingrich made some excellent points and offered a pretty darned good road map to the GOP on just what they really need to do and accomplish to get the public behind the GOP in the fall.

Sadly though, if the GOP really did all of the things on Gingrich's list, it would probably put us right back to where we were in the mid 90's when the GOP accomplished their "contract with America" and then couldn't figure out what to do, or where to go, next. The GOP does need to develop an actual long term plan. One that offers multiple points, and multiple issues, and one that shows continued and continuous progress, not just quick fixes or one time attempts at fixes for what ails us.
Reply #2 Top
Remember the uproar over the Reagan miniseries that got pulled? Not much difference here, if you ask me. Goose, gander, all that.

CBS(?) should have run the Reagan series & ABC should run this one.
Reply #3 Top

Remember the uproar over the Reagan miniseries that got pulled?

It was not pulled.  It was moved to another network.  Owned by the same company.

But to the point of the film, if the Clintonistas had not raised a ruckus, this mini-series probably would have had a small audience.  As it is, they have brought a lot of attention to it, and made ABC and Disny very happy.  It almost guarantees it to be a hit.

Reply #4 Top
But to the point of the film, if the Clintonistas had not raised a ruckus, this mini-series probably would have had a small audience. As it is, they have brought a lot of attention to it, and made ABC and Disny very happy. It almost guarantees it to be a hit.


Spot on. The old "all publicity is good publicity" axiom.

You're technically correct about the Reagan series, but it did get "pulled" from its original network & time slot because of the PC heat that was generated. Chickenshit move if you ask me.