# Who looks worse? Breitbart or Obama WH? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448 "2010-07-21T11:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/221 "2010-07-23T15:48:19Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I suppose if Breitbart walked into your house soaking wet and told you it was raining, you’d believe him? I sure wouldn’t. The guy lies as naturally as he breathes. And when he’s not lying he can’t be bothered to check to make sure he’s not making himself look like an idiot. Or an ass. Or both. This is the guy who flipped off a protest march against the use of enslaved child soldiers in central Africa because he thought it was a march against the war in Iraq. He at least had the good grace to apologize for that when a photographer at the march recognized him behind his middle finger and emailed him to ask for an explanation of the seemingly irrational anger at child-soldier protestors, which was apparently the first time Breitbart was made aware of what the protest was actually against. I give him credit for that, but being a public figure, and making such a drastic gesture in public, you’d think he’d at least try to figure out what he was flipping off first. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/222 "2010-07-23T16:27:25Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > And when he’s not lying he can’t be bothered to check to make sure he’s not making himself look like an idiot. Or an ass. Or both. > > This is the guy who flipped off a protest march against the use of enslaved child soldiers in central Africa because he thought it was a march against the war in Iraq. He at least had the good grace to apologize for that when a photographer at the march recognized him behind his middle finger and emailed him to ask for an explanation of the seemingly irrational anger at child-soldier protestors, which was apparently the first time Breitbart was made aware of what the protest was actually against. I give him credit for that, but being a public figure, and making such a drastic gesture in public, you’d think he’d at least try to figure out what he was flipping off first. He has had ample opportunity to apologize for this and has not done so. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/223 "2010-07-23T16:30:04Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > And the Breitbart Award winner for the Best Partisan Attempt to Backhandedly Weasel the Misleading Fox News Narrative into a “Supportive” Comment goes to **Sam Stone** for his “Obama Ratings Collapse” post. Congratulations, **Sam**! Was this really necessary? Seemed sincere to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/224 "2010-07-23T16:40:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Was this really necessary? Seemed sincere to me. He’s cutting Obama slack because Obama is panicking due to his collapsing job approval ratings? You don’t see anything backhanded in that supportive comment? Beyond that, it’s just patently false, as I took some pains to document. There’s just no way that Obama’s numbers could be honestly described as collapsing. Do you think that Obama’s numbers are collapsing? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/225 "2010-07-23T16:41:00Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > He has had ample opportunity to apologize for this and has not done so. Well, I’m not defending him, for anything. I only mentioned the apology to cover my butt when **magellan01** comes in and responds to that with “HE APOLOGIZED!” The point isn’t whether he apologized or not, but that he gave the march the public bird without finding out what it was actually a march against. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/226 "2010-07-23T16:41:26Z")
No, but it’s certainly true that the WH has gotten some bad PR lately (justified or not). ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/227 "2010-07-23T16:49:45Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Glad you asked. My point is that this is being treated as if Obama made the decision to fire her and that doesn’t appear to be the case. The head of a department briefed him about a decision he had already made. Don’t you suppose he presented the decision in a way to make it appear to be the right one. IOW he probably didn’t say that he hadn’t done a thorough investigation and wasn’t really sure. The worst thing Obama appears to have done is to trust what a department head was telling him in a meeting. Having worked in companies that have tiers of management that seems normal to me. The function of a person in a leadership role is to ask questions to determine if decisions are made properly. I’ve never submitted a proposal to a Director who didn’t question the numbers involved or methodology behind them. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would take Breitbart seriously enough to fire someone without researching it first. This was a rush to judgment of the worst kind and it made the President look foolish, not just to voters but to other world leaders. He got punked by a 2 bit media whore. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/228 "2010-07-23T16:53:26Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Do you have any proof of this? Any proof that he had, or had seen the longer video. He says he did not. So, you think somebody was out to fool him or it was just a careless judgement made in his earnest desire to eliminate racism? proof? No. What I have are decent reasoning skills that tell me based on the evidence and this guys history; It was intentional with a total disregard for facts with a total disregard of what harm it might cause innocent people. If I was on a jury I would say the evidence left me with no reasonable doubt. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/229 "2010-07-23T16:56:29Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > So, you think somebody was out to fool him or it was just a careless judgement made in his earnest desire to eliminate racism? > proof? No. What I have are decent reasoning skills that tell me based on the evidence and this guys history; > > It was intentional > with a total disregard for facts > with a total disregard of what harm it might cause innocent people. > > If I was on a jury I would say the evidence left me with no reasonable doubt. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that someone didn’t fact check a story because it already fit into their world view. I think there’s even a term for that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/230 "2010-07-23T16:56:30Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Do you have any proof of this? Any proof that he had, or had seen the longer video. He says he did not. Then it was pretty fucking stupid of him to broadcast video sent to him by some random guy, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/231 "2010-07-23T16:57:05Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > No, but it’s certainly true that the WH has gotten some bad PR lately (justified or not). If only there we’re some kind of metric we could use to estimate the impact of bad PR in order to conclude that Obama’s actions are a panicked response to it… Oh wait, I guess Sam never said anything about a spate of bad PR. He was merely suggesting that people have turned away from Obama in a dramatic fashion as shown by official polling numbers. Perhaps since that was the specific false claim I took issue with, we should limit our discussion to that, rather than try to construct a more defensible alternative claim on his behalf. Hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/232 "2010-07-23T17:07:50Z")
He implied that Obama had had a spate of bad PR with the use of the phrase “…another bad PR story…”, and _my_ initial reaction to this story was that it was a kneejerk response predicated in part on the recently regurgitated Black Panther kerfuffle. However, I agree that the collapsing ratings comment was inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/233 "2010-07-23T17:16:16Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He implied that Obama had had a spate of bad PR with the use of the phrase “…another bad PR story…”, and _my_ initial reaction to this story was that it was a kneejerk response predicated in part on the recently regurgitated Black Panther kerfuffle. You’re right, he did in fact say something about bad PR. I apologize for the error. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/234 "2010-07-23T17:20:20Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Then it was pretty fucking stupid of him to broadcast video sent to him by some random guy, wasn’t it? Apparently, with helpful opening captions so that the viewer would not misunderstand the gravity of the situation. How very thoughtful of whomsoever! (Saw a video in passing on one of the news glorps with Breitbart in what appears to be a newsroom(?), talking about how he had the video in question for some time (six months?) before he brought it out. Anybody with mad Google skills?..) ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/235 "2010-07-23T17:47:05Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The function of a person in a leadership role is to ask questions to determine if decisions are made properly. I’ve never submitted a proposal to a Director who didn’t question the numbers involved or methodology behind them. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would take Breitbart seriously enough to fire someone without researching it first. This was a rush to judgment of the worst kind and it made the President look foolish, not just to voters but to other world leaders. He got punked by a 2 bit media whore. You’re still assuming this fireing was on Obama. I don’t assume that. I don’t assume he knew the source was a two bit media whore {thanks for noticing that}But even if that’s true, what does it mean? If the implication is to question his judgement I don’t buy it. I don’t approve or appreciate the knee jerk reaction to a news story without checking it out first but it’s pretty minor compared to my other concerns. A consistent pattern of dishonesty aimed at fanning the fires of racism in this country seesm a far worse offense. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/236 "2010-07-23T17:56:29Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > You’re right, he did in fact say something about bad PR. I apologize for the error. It actually was a sincere comment. What I meant to say is that the administration has been taking a number of hits lately, and they probably overreacted to try to get out in front of the story before it took on a life of its own. It’s a mistake that can happen to anyone. The important thing here is that he recognized it, apologized for it, and tried to make amends to the damaged party. That shows some intelligence and character, and that’s why his apology earned him a pass from me. As for his ratings, they are certainly going down by some measures. [Obama Approval Rating Drops in 49 States](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/07/map-of-the-day-obama-approval-rating-drops-in-49-states/60218/) Although to be fair, I just checked the RCP moving average of all the polls, and it looks fairly constant over the past few months: [RealClearPolitics Presidential Approval Rating](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cinebar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Cinebar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinebar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/237 "2010-07-23T18:21:12Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > What I meant to say is that the administration has been taking a number of hits lately, and they probably overreacted to try to get out in front of the story before it took on a life of its own. It’s a mistake that can happen to anyone. The important thing here is that he recognized it, apologized for it, and tried to make amends to the damaged party. That shows some intelligence and character, and that’s why his apology earned him a pass from me. I agree. Unfortunately, from what we’ve seen over the last 19-20 months, I’m beginning to think that maybe we, as a country, haven’t come as far as what most of us had hoped for. Race is just too big of an issue for some people and I’m afraid President Obama is never going to be able to stay focused on fixing the crap the previous administration left for him to clean up, as well as any new shit, because he’s always going to be fighting the racial undertone that is constantly dogging him. The Breitbarts, the Drudges, the Hannities, Becks, Limpdicks (ooops, I mean Limbaughs), the morons like Palin and Bachman, and the rest of the Teabaggers are never going to give him a chance. I wouldn’t be surprised if he _chooses_ to only be a one-term president. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/238 "2010-07-23T18:32:50Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You’ve done nothing but run your mouth. what don’t I understand? The fact that she had an epiphany that changed her attitude about race decades ago. Are you srue you read the transcript of the spech and not teh transcript of the breitbart segment? ---
**Author:** ![Cinebar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Cinebar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinebar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/239 "2010-07-23T18:39:38Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The fact that she had an epiphany that changed her attitude about race decades ago. Are you srue you read the transcript of the spech and not teh transcript of the breitbart segment? And if you look further into her history and see how her father was murdered by a white man (or men? I’m not sure) and no one was punished for it and that a cross was burned in their yard a few days after her father’s murder, the fact she had an epiphany at all is somewhat amazing. I’m not so sure I would be so forgiving. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448/240 "2010-07-23T18:39:47Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > His approval rating was high because the Bush administration was very unpopular and _he hadn’t done anything yet_. Once he started actually governing his approval rating was sure to fall. Having a high popularity rating and winning support from elected officials is not the same thing, although they are related. I think he could have pressed his advantage more than he did, but no, he definitely could not write his own ticket. Yeah but it wasn’t entirely out of his control either. the notion that congress makes the alws so Obama couln’t do anything about it is probably not accurate. If he wanted a humongous stimulus package instead of a half ass stimulus package, he could have had it. Its not like the right eased up on the criticism because it was only 800 billion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-looks-worse-breitbart-or-obama-wh/547448.md?page=13)