By Roldo Bartimole
The column began with this sentence:
“The lead story on the front page Wednesday dealt with Mitt Romney’s assertion – secretly taped – that many Americans have a sense of entitlement,” he writes.
“Amen Brother Mitt.”
Then he went on to talk about entitlement, as you’ll see.
It was a column from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Bill McClellan, saved for me by my 98-year old mother-in-law. She said she’d thought I’d be interested.
Not only did I like it but it made me wonder (once again) why I never read a Plain Dealer columnist take on big shots as McClellan does. Why are PD columnists so feeble, so unwilling to take on obvious big targets? They ignore the obvious with regularity. As if they’re told, “Leave those guys alone.”
McClellan takes on the present owner of the St. Louis Rams. Another billionaire, of course. NFL owner Stan Kroenke seeks the same public welfare Browns’ owner Jimmy Haslam wants here. Kroenke is on Forbes magazine’s richest at $4 billion and married to a Wal-Mart kin. Haslam made the list, too.
Here’s how McClellan puts it succinctly:
“Then there’s Stan Kroenke. Our current situation with him is so ludicrous it’s hard to take seriously. Does one of the richest men in the world really think that taxpayers out to fork over $700 million to improve a stadium we’re still paying for?”
In Cleveland’s Plain Dealerland, it isn’t questioned.
He goes on: “I understand that our public officials signed a lease that puts Kroenke in that position, but come on Stan. If you want to stay, stay. If you want to move, move. But don’t expect any more public money. We’re tapped out.”
McClellan ends with this:
“Romney is speaking truth to power with his talk about a sense of entitlement. He just might have his sight set on the wrong people.”
No doubt about that.
McClellan also spanks Bill DeWitt, St. Louis Cards owner, for his sense of entitlement to public funds.
It’s the nature of these wealthy men. What is it they drink that makes them feel so entitled?
That brings me to the mealy-mouth, pathetic Plain Dealer endorsement of President Barack Obama for re-election. They knew they had to do it. It apparently gave them indigestion.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch endorsed Obama as did the PD.
But check the difference.
“For years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that that word implies.
“In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.”
More than half way through the editorial it gets to Mitt Romney:
“As to Mr. Romney, we are puzzled. Which Mitt Romney are we talking about? The one who said of himself, in 2002, “I’m not a partisan Republican. I’m someone who is moderate and … my views are progressive.”
‘Or is it the Mitt Romney who posed as a ‘severely conservative’ primary candidate? Is it the Mitt Romney who said in May that 47 percent of Americans are moochers or the one who said last week that’s not what he believes?”
“Romney apparently will say anything that will help him win an election” the Post-Dispatch said.
It went on to conclude that if more Americans were paying attention, “This election would not be close. Barack Obama would win going away, at least 53 to 47, perhaps even 99 to 1.”
Even Ted Diadiun, the Plain Dealer’s chief official apologist, labeled the PD editorial endorsing Obama as “lukewarm.” Warm as spit I’d say.
“… Our endorsement this year comes with less enthusiasm or optimism,” said the editorial. It goes on to say that Obama’s actions “left us sorely tempted to endorse Gov. Romney this fall. Like President Obama, he is a man of public achievement and private honor.”
I find those qualities in Romney difficult to recognize. The PD has better insight or eyesight I imagine.
Vote for the many, not the privileged, the entitled. Vote Obama.
Roldo Bartimole has been reporting since 1959. He came to Cleveland in 1965 to report for the Plain Dealer where he worked twice in the 1960s, left for the Wall Street Journal in 1967. He started publishing his newsletter Point of View in 1968 and ended it in 2000.In 1991 he was awarded the Second Annual Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in Washington, D.C. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland chapter, in 2002, and was named to the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, 2004. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]
5 Responses to “ROLDO: Why Can’t I Read This in the Plain Dealer?”
Robyn
Amen Brother Roldo!
IndyCA35
How can you endorse someone who is ashamed to run ads touting his record at running the economy or in foreign policy?
Obama is a coward. We will never forget how he dithered for nine hours while our consulate was under attack in Libya, despite the Americans on the ground calling for help at least three times. We will never forget the heroes of 9-11-2012, despite pathetic Obama’s attempt to blame everything on some non-existent video.
Obama is a liar. Remember Watergate? Obama stonewalled “Fast and Furious,” an operation where his own Justice Department illegally gave hundreds of illegal guns to Mexican drug lords. 300 have died so far, including two Americans.
Yep. Obama lied while Americans died.
If you’re dumb enough to vote for Obama, you might get $3000 per year in extra payments for gasoline, a reduction in income (average for the middle class) of $4500, and all the other misery he has bequeathed to us in his first term. And jobs? The outsourcer-in-chief allows GM, which the government controls, to spend 70% of its investment dollars in Asia.
I never understood why a requirement to be a journalist was to be an ultraleftist. Apparently independent thought does not come with the profession.
Roldo Bartimole
Indy: We always knew you were writing from Republican Plutocrat headquarters.
Roldo
snarky
Roldo,
Thank you for stating the obvious , and in my case I would edit your banner to read ” why I can’t read the plain dealer “.
At four A>M. this morning there are fifty fellow Cleveland citizens lined up in the front of the HEAP offices at 18th and Prospect.
These are serious cases of needy residents who could use a leg up with their utilites as the cold weather ramps up.
The drive by journalists and self important columnists in the plain dealer employ , are as docile as lambs and carry the mark of the bought and sold on their foreheads.
Seasoning up Philip Morris by sending him to Detroit has resulted in a Cleveland up , Detroit down theme to his feeble drivel.
Columnist Naymick spends a few momenst with the under the bridge indigants and manages to say nothing about their lives or plight in his column earlier this week.
And you resonate in solid fashion when you bang away at the real welfare recipients , the local millionaires who own sports franchises or the usual crowd of insiders such as the cheerleaders who hope to turn Cleveland into a tourism mecca.
Bang away old timer.
Bang away!
When the plain dealer turns to rpinting a physical paper a few times a week sometime soon it will be interesting to see how the lacky Morris will attempt to spin the Detroit angle , seeing as the two Detroit papers have embraced the model of less physical editions some years ago.
As for the plain dealer picking Obama versus Romney it comes as a surprise to me , seeing that the majority of the remainder of their rapidly falling leadership live far from the city proper , and have little in common with us Clevelanders.
Roldo Bartimole
Snarky: You know from past history that Pee Dee reporters who stuck their necks out got
a whack in the neck. Remember Bob Holden. Bob Dolgan, Tom Andrzejewski, Steve Luttner, names off the top of my head, who felt the whip for trying to tell the public some truth. It’s the old pain and pleasure treatment. Be good, pleasure. Be bad – meaning telling unvarnished truths – get the pain.
It’s tough being a PD reporter. You always are looking behind you.