Obama — seated by former President Bill Clinton front row and center at Avery Fisher Hall — scored the biggest applause — cheers, in fact — even before he said a word.Obama lauds Cronkite, news media at memorial By Verne Gray Newsday September 9, 2009
Will there any funeral of a prominent figure which Obama will not tastelessly gatecrash? Kennedy's was bad enough — maybe they were in a few meetings together in Obama’s 35 months in the Senate. But Cronkite — er, ”Walter”
President Barack Obama referred to "Walter" throughout his prepared remarksdid his last CBS Evening News on March 6, 1981, 5 months before Obama’s 20th birthday. During Cronkite’s heyday in the late 60s, Obama was in Indonesia, as Steve Sailer documents (and a small boy). And, unlike other Network Big Feet, Cronkite’s retirement was quite complete.
In a sense, of course, the President’s presence, if not his unctuous speech, was warranted, simply because this was a great tribal gathering, of the tribe which so carefully nurtured his candidacy. He desperately wants to assimilate with them — as, of course, his vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard showed.
And Cronkite was nothing if not a tribal loyalist. Former President Clinton in his speech
recalled the "tumultuous" summer of 1998, when he confessed to a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and Cronkite invited him, Hillary and Chelsea to go sailing off Martha's Vineyard. "Somebody might take a picture of that, but so what," a chuckling Clinton recalled Cronkite saying. "I'll never forget that."Cronkite, Icon of Truth and Trust, Hailed at Memorial By Howard Kurtz The Washington Post Thursday September 10 2009
This bears some thinking about. Why should Cronkite, long retired when Clinton arrived on the national scene, want to lend the scandal-ridden President, clearly guilty of perjury, the protection of his public esteem? Because Clinton was an accredited member of ”Our Crowd”— in contrast to the despised Middle Americans, whose affection had made Cronkite’s career.
This was unquestionably behind Cronkite’s supreme act of betrayal — the sabotaging of the American war effort during the Tet Offensive.
Rush Limbaugh has a good commentary:
Obama Mourns Death of Media Monopoly at Cronkite Memorial Rushlimbaugh.com September 9 2009
The golden days of journalism are over. The golden days of journalism where people in it determined and shaped public opinion without any competition whatsoever, are over. And Cronkite? Yeah, you don't like to speak ill of the dead, but Cronkite was just a raging lib through and through. The reason Walter Cronkite didn't like the news today is because he couldn't do what he did even if he went back to the air after he had retired.
