PBS: NewsHour- 'Shields & Brooks- On Chris Christie & Robert Gates'

Source:PBS NewsHour- left-wing syndicated columnist Mark Shields.

"Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's top news, including the possible fallout of the "cheap political trick" that shut down traffic in New Jersey, a new memoir by former Defense Secretary Gates and lessons from the nation's 50 year war on poverty."  

From the PBS NewsHour 

"The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America's Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government."  

From Wikipedia

As far as the Chris Christie let’s say stuck in traffic in New Jersey scandal. It just feeds into what we already know about Governor Christie that he is a big tough guy not afraid to throw his weight around (pun intended) and that in some ways he isn’t as strong of a leader as he likes to come off as. Instead of saying the buck stops here to quote an actual strong leader, he tried to put the blame on others. And not to say he deserves all the blame, but this traffic story happened on his watch.

The Bob Gates story the book he wrote about being President Obama’s Secretary of Defense. Of course the partisan Right just focusing on the negative things he had to say about the President, like the defense cuts. But Secretary Gates also called President Obama a strong leader who made strong and good decisions. Who took risks and wasn’t afraid to take risks. And the Osama Bin Laden capture and shooting in 2011 is a perfect example of that.

The War on Poverty, well fifty-years later and we are still fighting this so-called War on Poverty. That has been covered several times on this blog this week. And if you are really interested in that and what has been said about it on this blog, then I suggest you check out the War on Poverty section. But again mixed results at best and as Mark Shields and David Brooks said in the video, the Great Society has benefited seniors very well. But as far as children in poverty they are still growing up in rough high poverty neighborhoods with their parents. And generally one parent not having the skills to raise them in a positive way and move them to the middle class. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Times, on Blogger.