Talk Talk: LONG SHOTS

Sunday, June 28, 2009

To Our Readers: Talk/Talk will take a summer break for the month of July. Back in August. Happy Independence Day and have a great month! Jackie Salit *************************************************** Every week CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist/philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, June 28, 2009 after watching selections from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "The Chris Matthews Show," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" and several Charlie Rose interviews. Salit: And how do you feel about the characterizations that some people are giving that the Iranian regime is fragile? Newman: Regimes have been called fragile and then lasted for centuries. I don't know what that's supposed to mean. I don't know if it's fragile or not. Salit: Meaning that the fact there are hundreds of thousands of people in the streets doesn't necessarily equal fragility. Newman: In a more democratic society, having that many people out in the street protesting, would be an indicator of fragility. But Iran is not that kind of democratic society. Salit: Millions protested the Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson was forced to withdraw from a re-election bid and the Democratic Party lost the White House in 1968. Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.