Thank you Walter, for clueing me in..DUH

[Stephanie]

Cronkite: Americans too Dumb to Vote

Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," said Americans are too dumb to vote for the right candidates.

"We're an ignorant nation right now," Cronkite said. "I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger."

Cronkite proposed that, in the future, all ballots be considered "provisional" until screened and approved by the Federal Elections Commission. To aid the process, future ballots would also require additional information on the voter's gender, ethnic background and income.

"Only ballots by rich, white men would be counted for Republicans," said Cronkite. "It doesn't make any sense for women, minorities or lower-income people to vote this way. Those who do are obviously too dumb to vote and their ballots shouldn't be counted.

This is from the arizona conserative..

 

[Avatar4321]

Cronkite: Americans too Dumb to Vote

Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," said Americans are too dumb to vote for the right candidates.

"We're an ignorant nation right now," Cronkite said. "I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger."

Cronkite proposed that, in the future, all ballots be considered "provisional" until screened and approved by the Federal Elections Commission. To aid the process, future ballots would also require additional information on the voter's gender, ethnic background and income.

"Only ballots by rich, white men would be counted for Republicans," said Cronkite. "It doesn't make any sense for women, minorities or lower-income people to vote this way. Those who do are obviously too dumb to vote and their ballots shouldn't be counted.

This is from the arizona conserative..

I get it. Women, minorities, or poor families can only vote if they vote Democrat. If they disagree with the party line, well, screw them. They are too stupid to understand the issues anyway. The only reason they are allowed to vote in the first place is cause they blindly follow what the party says.

And Democrats wonder why they are losing?

 

[insein]

was this a spoof or did he actually say that? If he did say that, the man is more senial then i thought.

 

[Avatar4321]

was this a spoof or did he actually say that? If he did say that, the man is more senial then i thought.

He actually said it. atleast part of it.

 

[Nuc]

Walter thinks he lives in a Dumbocracy.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

How about a link to a transcript?

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I found it hard to believe myself.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20051005-121416-6326r_page2.htm

A Google search will bring up plenty of other examples.

It's a rather arrogent opinion. A couple of elections don't go the way he wants them to, and suddenly people are too dumb to vote. Not to mention if Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly spouted off with something like this, they would be marked a racist, and probably a few other things.

Of course, it's not really surprising. Cronkite was the most notable figure pushing the theory that Karl Rove was behind the Osama Bin Laden tape beofre the election last year.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

I was referring more to this part:

Cronkite proposed that, in the future, all ballots be considered "provisional" until screened and approved by the Federal Elections Commission. To aid the process, future ballots would also require additional information on the voter's gender, ethnic background and income.

"Only ballots by rich, white men would be counted for Republicans," said Cronkite. "It doesn't make any sense for women, minorities or lower-income people to vote this way. Those who do are obviously too dumb to vote and their ballots shouldn't be counted.

Which, when I googled, I only found one hit: The Arizona Conservative. It seems odd that there's only one hit.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I was referring more to this part:



Which, when I googled, I only found one hit: The Arizona Conservative. It seems odd that there's only one hit.

I finally managed to dig up the transcript. It was from the September 20 Larryy King Live show, I thought it was from last Friday.

According to the transript, he never said anything about race or education requirements, so maybe he hasn't completely lost his mind. Odd thing is, when he starts, he is saying something I totally agree with. It eventually drifts to subtle partisanship.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/30/lkl.01.html

CRONKITE: You can take off if you want to. No, I am so appalled at the amount we pay our teachers. Now here are the people that we turn our children over to at the age of five or so to -- to -- they're the most important people in their lives, probably more so than their parents in many cases unfortunately.

But we pay them so little that in nearly every school district of the country the janitors in the buildings in which they work make more than they do as teachers for heaven's sakes. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

If we expect this country to work, it depends on an informed, an intelligent electorate. You know, Thomas Jefferson said very early on in our republic that the nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects it never can and never will be.

We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable I do not think the majority of our people of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

Nice work. Repage for you. Can we but the up for that Arizona conservative story then? There certainly was no need to make up that kind of dialogue that never happened...

 

[Annie]

I finally managed to dig up the transcript. It was from the September 20 Larryy King Live show, I thought it was from last Friday.

According to the transript, he never said anything about race or education requirements, so maybe he hasn't completely lost his mind. Odd thing is, when he starts, he is saying something I totally agree with. It eventually drifts to subtle partisanship.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/30/lkl.01.html

CRONKITE: You can take off if you want to. No, I am so appalled at the amount we pay our teachers. Now here are the people that we turn our children over to at the age of five or so to -- to -- they're the most important people in their lives, probably more so than their parents in many cases unfortunately.

But we pay them so little that in nearly every school district of the country the janitors in the buildings in which they work make more than they do as teachers for heaven's sakes. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

If we expect this country to work, it depends on an informed, an intelligent electorate. You know, Thomas Jefferson said very early on in our republic that the nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects it never can and never will be.

We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable I do not think the majority of our people of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.

From what I can tell, the info was from last Friday-a subsequent visit it seems. Can't get too much of Uncle Walter!

 

[Stephanie]

Sorry guy's for posting that off of the arizona conservative..It does seem they've added some stuff that wasn't in the original story.. I can't get my old computer to do google, so I'm not sure what they do... You could also find this at newmax.com I think it was dated,Oct 3rd.... My Bad

 

[Annie]

Sorry guy's for posting that off of the arizona conservative..It does seem they've added some stuff that wasn't in the original story.. I can't get my old computer to do google, so I'm not sure what they do... You could also find this at newmax.com I think it was dated,Oct 3rd.... My Bad

Stephanie, I can't find the transcript, but I am sure it's from 10/7, not Sept. That was a previous visit.

 

[Stephanie]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 6:56 a.m. EDT
Walter Cronkite: U.S. Too Ignorant to Vote


The man once known as the most trusted journalist in America no longer trusts Americans to vote for their own leaders, saying average citizens are just too ignorant to cast their ballots wisely.

"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week.

In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."

"If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."

The CBS legend also said that he fears that the blogosphere could threaten the standing of the mainstream media, adding that news consumers are already confused by cable TV's "opinion journalism."

 

[Annie]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 6:56 a.m. EDT
Walter Cronkite: U.S. Too Ignorant to Vote


The man once known as the most trusted journalist in America no longer trusts Americans to vote for their own leaders, saying average citizens are just too ignorant to cast their ballots wisely.

"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week.

In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."

"If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."

The CBS legend also said that he fears that the blogosphere could threaten the standing of the mainstream media, adding that news consumers are already confused by cable TV's "opinion journalism."

You and Jimmy are correct, I went too quickly. I hope the problem is that it is from a 'rush transcript.' Maybe not and then the Times should definately correct their error.

I found this exerpt from the same transcript interesting:

KING: Let's touch some bases in the world, Iraq, where is it going to go?

CRONKITE: I'll tell you what I think about Iraq right now. I think it is a great chance for us to get out of there right now. We've got the excuse to do so. We are so seriously in the hole monetarily, financially right now because of not -- not only that war, which has cost us so much in gold as well as in blood, of course, but we now have these terrible natural disasters that are way up in the millions of dollars and trying to take care of the damage and the damaged people and their homes.

We don't -- we can't afford both and, you know, the president said at one point about the war that we're not going to cut and run. That was a phony. We never -- nobody talked about cutting and running. He was building a defense against his having to go in there and stay in there. We -- nobody wanted to cut and run. We might have wanted to get out but not cut and run in a working system to get us out safely and not -- not run.

KING: But still involved in the country?

CRONKITE: But somewhat involved in the country and promising, as we still are promising, to help rebuild the country. However, we got -- we can now say we cannot afford to stay there with all the cost of the natural disasters we've got and the fact that our budget already was in serious trouble with too much relaxation of taxes for those who didn't need that help.

So, I think -- I think we could say -- say to the world and to Iraq we're desperately sorry but as you see Mother Nature somehow or other turned against us all and we simply cannot do both and pay for it. We can't put the generations into debt that we're going to have to do now if we continue to spend these billions of dollars in Iraq and lose more of our young people's lives.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

Thanks for the honesty, all. Cheers!