This morning, Kerry was on the Today Show to speak about his book on the environment.



Of course, Meredith Viera did not want to speak about the book, but was focused on the Edwards, and spent about half of the interview on the issue.

Here is what Kerry had to say, and I could not agree more on that:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17795811/


And an excerpt of the book, for those who are interested.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17790892/

I wonder how Katie would have interviewed Kerry on the Today Show.

Others say....

Meredith Vierra was incredibly rude and obnoxious. She strangely succeeded in one question in diminishing Edwards' admirable strength in continuing the race and insulting Teresa as a distraction to her husband's campaign.

She called Democrats efforts to do anything on Iraq - political theater. (Kerry's response on this was wonderful - speaking of going to a wake (I think last weekend) of a soldier, that they had 48 Senators from 13 and that you have to act against a war that was a mistake etc)

She quoted a statistic showing very few people thought the environment was an important issue for voters. (So, I guess that means Kerry (and presumably Gore too) should just that the air, water and our food contains toxins and global warming is serious.

I do remember when Couic interviewed Kerry after the Bush 2006 SOTU where she disengenuously asked if Kerry and the Democrats would help Bush in his stated goals on alternative energy. He answered "If they're real" then spoke of the proposals he had on this in 2004.

So I think it would have been as bad. Where to this people get off, thinking they are so big and important that what we really want to see is them "cleverly" asking some impudent or off-the-wall question? Do I want an entertainer? No, I want a good journalist who has done their homework and thought up some good questions! Keith Olberman does. Charlie Rose does. Most of the people on Newshour do. Yes even Steve Colbert and Jon Stewart have been known to. It's not that hard!

They are entertainers, so you pretty much get what you can expect and I do not think that Kerry was surprised by the low quality of the interviewer (neither were the Edwards, I imagine).

Of course, Couric being on 60 Minutes defies comprehension.

On Glenn Greenwald's blog today: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/26/matthews/index.html

He talks about yesterday's Chris Matthews Show and why these so-called journalists have absolutely no motivation to get at the real truth about anything.

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That's why we're here.

. . Stewart should be way better (not to mention more entertaining) than Vieira was. Shocking to think that mediocre folks like Vieira get paid big bucks for such drivel. .

to answer these snark infested shit-for-brain pundits. I had higher hopes for viera but I should have known once you get in the bowels of ge you are theirs.

Great answers from Kerry but what was the one question that "diminished"?

Cause I don't think all of ge, disney, or any corporatebullshit can take away from the grace that the Edwards displayed last night against cruelladecouric.

I didn't get to see Kerry and Teresa but I bet they were amazing, too.

I think in the future years down the road that the archives of all these so-called interviews by corporateassholes will be an hysterical part of history. Un-fucking-believeable!

Elizabeth Edwards' having to deal with this awful cancer with Teresa being opinionated which she said hurt her husband's campaign. I 'm not sure what word I should have used but it just seemed beyond insensitive to speak this way of Elizabeth's illness. It also assumed that Teresa was a liability - where she very likely was one of the keys to his Iowa and NH wins - until she was smeared. Teresa is a brilliant, thoughtful, soft spoken woman who has made amazing contributions as an environmentalist and philanthopist. So, ahe trashed both in one question.

instead, Kerry gave the best answer - it's no one else's right to say what the Edwards should do, it's PERSONAL.

she asked a loaded question.. for God sake.

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GOP smear machine who uses every opportunity- with full press support and partial sucker responses from the well intending- to knock down a Democrat. The personal problems of each and every GOP contender are so legion that no herd of swine could contain them, but NOTHING emerges like a dark firestorm or cloud with the worst spiteful and arrogant controversy.

Who started this "controversy"? Who keeps it going? The party faithful, the man on the street? The NORMAL reaction would have a smidgen of this concern over "politics" but mostly admiration and sympathy for the humanity and dedication. The base political manipulation of the GOP, pre-empting the discussion to spin it negatively right in the "leak" period, is vile effective and dominating once more the debate of sane and decent people.

When will it blowback with an anger to match the evil despicable intent of this twisted GOP? While we admire the "response" of the Edwards to the gamesmanship of despicable controllers of national forums I feel a great deal of shame we have been duped that far and have not faced down the bottom feeders who turn everything they touch into filth. First Coulter and now Limbaugh. Are we in Hell that chattering demons stabbing victims with pitchforks are the masters of ceremonies? Is that where our faith lies, in the darkest cynicism our public Iagos can dream up for us, dissing all conspiracy theories(concerning proved criminals) except those that involve Democrats we can trust?

The cancer that is determined to destroy America has no ally in whatever burden Elizabeth nobly bears. Not to erase hope and life and this free nation. We are all the stronger for it and in each other and maybe someday we can ignore the taunts, the whispers and the Beelzebub sowed doubts that come from the decadent damned.

Journalists are no more.

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mailto:JCWarren@tribune.com

Here's a real journalist making the same claim. Write him and ask, in big bold letters,

WHO

I truly respect John Kerry; always have, and always will. He's a true American Hero.:thumbsup: :loveya:

Just my opinion, the book is actually about environmentalists, right? I dont know, but maybe focusing on the regular people angle will make people more interested.

Also, WHO are the "critics" concerned about whether Edwards should run.

I want names.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3182718

The book is about people who saw a problem that affected them, looked for solutions, often involved others to find solutions. They make a point that some never considered them environmentalists - they just wanted something like cleaner water.

Not environmentalists exactly, that was the wrong word. It's a people book though, about people affecting change. That's what I meant. Mine isn't here yet, I can't wait!

I usually like Vierra (due to her soccer mom demeanor), but this is just another case of Kerry being way too nice and not immediately putting people in their place when they step out of line.

I'm sure he was just following their lead. They were nice to Katie so he was nice to Meredith.

He showed Vierra up as an ungraceful twit. She seemed a little surprised (and miffed) when Kerry easily tossed the ball back to Teresa. If he had responded angrily to the woman's ignorance, she would have looked victimized.

As was, she made herself look like an idiot. She obviously hasn't acquired enough experience to be able to distinguish the difference between giving a tough interview and being openly rude. You don't invite people on the show to talk about their book and then switch the subject, expecially when the promo was that they senator and his wife were coming up on the show to talk about the book. It was a rather ungainly bait-and-switch.

Vierra would immediately slip back into her soccer mom demeanor and Kerry would look like the nasty bully. He did redirect the conversation several times - notably mentioning the work Teresa had done.

He gave a great answer on Iraq - she looked the fool - he had the moral high ground, it is serious and the policy is wrong. He even mentioned, which he rarely does, going to a wake for a soldier. Both their answers on the Edwards were great.

The only time he could have hit back at her was when in one question Vierra attacked Teresa in a question addressed to Teresa. Teresa did handle it, though it looked like it rather stunned her. It would have been pretty heavy handed if he jumped in.

gorgeous picture on the book of their book. And, I like very much what Senator Kerry had to say about the Edwards.

said the cover was of the Glacier National Park. I don't remember the exact numbers - but it had something like 300 glaciers when first surveyed, it now has about 30. (Kerry started to expalin it on Imus - but Imus got distracted - so they put the information in one of the blog posts.

"distracted" when they're interviewing Kerry about his book!

Kerry has led and is knowlegable on a huge range of issues. They do move to whatever is in the news. Imus, for the most part did an excellent job. Jon Steward, in a very short amount of time, let Kerry get across what the book is - with benign jokes on "no pictures" and Gore's book jacket endorsement.