However Conservatives play the blame game with equal vigor. Former New Hampsire Governor and current Romney surrogate John Sununu appeared on CNN with Soledad O'Brien to rant on Medicare. Armed with a single talking point of a $717 billion reduction in the expected rate of growth, or, according to Sununu, a "gut" of the 47 year old institution.
Sununu bit off more than he could chew in tangling with the CNN reporter.
O'Brien, armed with facts and figures corroborated by Factcheck.org and CNN's independent analysis, was able to calmy articulate the truth.“But it’s very different,” Sununu insisted. “For example, when Obama gutted Medicare by taking $717 billion out of it, the Romney plan does not do that. The Ryan plan mimicked part of the Obama package there, the Romney plan does not. That’s a big difference.”
"I understand that this is a Republican talking point because I've heard it repeated over and over again. These numbers have been debunked, as you know, by the Congressional Budget Office. ... I can tell you what it says. It (Obama's Medicare plan) cuts a reduction in the expected rate of growth, which you know, not cutting budgets to the elderly. Benefits will be improved."
At this point the former George W. Bush Chief of Staff grew aggitated and relied on bully tactics to make his sole point:
"Soledad, stop this!" Sununu replied, raising his voice. "All you're doing is mimicking the stuff that comes out of the White House and gets repeated on the Democratic blog boards out there."
As O'Brien continued to read from the Obama and Romney plans, effectively refuting Sununu's diatribe, the Romney surrogate grew nasty and indignant:
"Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead when you do this!" Sununu barked.
And here's where O'Brien, following a heated exchange where she demanded "Let me finish...let me finish!," demonstrated that she has more balls than anyone in television news right now:
"You know, let me tell you something. There is independent analysis that details what this is about. ... And name calling to me and somehow acting as if by you repeating a number of $716 billion, that you can make that stick with that figure as being 'stolen' from Medicare, that's not true. You can't just repeat it and make it true, sir."
O'Brien's final exclamation point on a spectacular interview was to remind Sununu that Mitt Romney referred to Paul Ryan's plan as "brilliant."
Here is hoping we see more prepared journalists step up and set the tone and shape of political discourse and hold our politicians to a higher standard rather than deceptive and dubious surrogates armed with single talking points and too much caffeine.
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