VIDEO- Cokie Roberts on Polanski: ‘Take him out and shoot him’

By GottaLaff

Cokie sounded awfully sincere... until she heard the others gasp, abruptly switched gears, and started laughing. "Take him out and shoot him" is no better than many of the hostile words we've read on Tea Party signs.

This video is from ABCNews.com, broadcast Oct. 4, 2009:

Video- Cokie Roberts Attributes Town Hall Disruptions to Shortage of Nuns

Sorry, no argument here. Via FDL.

Readers pick Cokie Roberts' "foreign, exotic" Hawaii comments as Most Inane Punditry

Yeah!!! It got my vote.

In the end, it wasn't close. By an overwhelming margin, criticism by Cokie Roberts, NPR contributing senior news analyst and ABC political commentator, of then-Sen. Barack Obama for choosing Hawaii, the state of his birth, to take his August family vacation was the most popular entry in Media Matters for America's poll for Most Inane Punditry of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Readers chose Roberts' comments -- which included her characterizing Hawaii, where Obama vacations regularly, as "foreign, exotic" -- in greater numbers than her two closest competitors combined. Roberts stated: "I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place," adding, "He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

Akaka defends Obama's Hawaii vacation from ABC commentator

Cokie Roberts is an elitist tool. I like the mocking tone from Wolfrum.

A group called Asian Americans for Obama sent out a media alert yesterday with the headline, "BREAKING: Hawai'i is a State," as U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and others defended U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's decision to spend a weeklong vacation in the Islands.

Obama had another casual day yesterday: Visit his grandmother at her Makiki apartment again, watch a movie at the Ward Complex theaters and go to dinner. But his choice of vacation destinations — his hometown of Honolulu — prompted ABC News' Cokie Roberts to twice call Hawai'i a "foreign" and "exotic" vacation destination for the man who wants to be president.

"I know his grandmother lives in Hawai'i," Roberts said on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. "And I know Hawai'i is a state. But it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

(snip)

"Yes, Obama can't help but look like a high-flying elitist by spending his vacation in Hawai'i, regardless of the fact that he was born there and that his grandmother lives there. And the fact that, you know, Hawai'i is one of the 50 states," wrote Myrtle BeachGolf.com blogger William K. Wolfrum. " ... And while they are making arrangements to send Sen. Obama to Myrtle Beach, they need to get him to switch sports. Basketball is for elites, after all. Real Americans, and real American Presidents play golf. In Myrtle Beach."

But Akaka didn't see any humor in Roberts' comments.

"Saying our 50th state is somehow 'foreign,' does a great disservice to the hardworking, patriotic Americans who call Hawai'i home," Akaka said. "For months, people have been asking me, 'When is Sen. Obama going to come home?' I'm so glad he found time to visit his sister and his grandmother, and for him and his family to bond and recharge in his home state. Hawai'i is a great U.S. destination; just ask the 5.5 million Americans who visited last year for business and pleasure."