Carlson: Obama Campaign's Targeting Of Young Voters Has "Khmer Rouge Quality To It"

Media Matters For America:

On the October 10 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, while discussing the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and its targeting of young voters in Iowa, host Tucker Carlson told guests -- nationally syndicated radio host Bill Press and TownHall.com contributing writer Matt Lewis -- "[Y]oung people like [Obama] anyway. ... [P]oliticizing children -- there's a Khmer Rouge quality to it. I think it's scary," adding: "[I]f a right-wing candidate came and targeted my kids, I'd be mad about it. I don't want my kids near political candidates. ... They're creepy."

The Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot, was a brutal and repressive regime that ruled Cambodia in the mid- to late 1970s, leading "to the deaths of nearly a quarter of Cambodia's seven million people."

According to a Wall Street Journal report, a "quirk in Iowa election law" allows 17-year-old Iowa residents to caucus in January because they will be eligible to vote in the November 2008 presidential elections.

Read the whole story: Media Matters For America

Comments

[midtown]

Tucker Carlson is an idiot looking for issues to keep his pundit show alive.

He was trashed by his own guests who pointed out that 16- and 17-year-olds are recruited for war and at 18-years-old, go to war. So what is the problem with them participating in the political process before the age of 18?

A big deal is made of the prescient Bill Clinton wanting to be JFK at age 16.

[tombollocks]

Yes, kids are impressionable. Maybe we should keep them in deprivation tanks from birth until they're 18. Will that work for you Carlson?

[eaglecapri]

Hmmmm.....17 year-olds soon to be 18 are of legal age to vote. If they are uninformed about candidates, who in the hell are they supposed to vote for? Better yet, how are they supposed to decide who the best candidate is if none of the candidates present their platform to them? Are they supposed to vote the way their parents vote? Vote for the most popular candidate just because everyone else is? Even Hillary Clinton said she was once a Republican, but once she was in the world (outside of her suburban Illinois Republican upbringing) and had experiences, she went against her parents and became a Democrat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/us/politics/05clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Tucker's pissed because he is now realizing that Obama has strong appeal with the young voters (the hidden vote). Not only that, Obama's campaign has tapped into an unforseen voting stream - 17 year-olds who will be of voting age at the time of the election. It seems like he's suggesting that the practice is creepy in order to incite negativity, fear and suspicion to Obama's campaign.

[truthyguy]

Who is Tucker Carlson?
I mean what did he ever do to justify his having an hour show on MSNBC? Certainly not his education, or experience, or government service, or military service or contributions to society through non-profit work, or anything else. There is none.

From what I see he was and is just a Republican toadie with a smart-ass comment on anyone and anything non-GOP. He is the pudgy kid on the playground who was always chosen last and had his lunch money taken from him.

[midtown]

His father is a bigtime neocon and that's how he got the job. Sure, he had some journalistic and broadcast experience before that, but no more than some smart equally experienced black kids who would ache to have that pulpit.

[missette]

The ridiculous Khmer Rouge comparison notwithstanding, so once again a Repub mouthpiece refers to any relief for the middle class as an entitlement. This from the same crowd that doesn't want the heirs to multi-millions in fortunes to ever have to pay one cent in taxes on their unearned wealth, preferring they be "entitled" to live off the wealth created by those underthe employ of those who bequeathed the treasure to them. While the middle class gets up and works hard to keep this country strong, and contributes its children to the wars created by political leaders well-funded by the super wealthy, these spoiled offspring not only don't fight the wars, but are given handouts so large they will never have to contribute at all to the nation's well being in the form of hard work. Entitlements? Piffle!

[esgabel]

Working for a campaign at 17 is creepy??
Tucker, what alternate reality do you live in?--a 17 year old who is using their brain and creativity toward something or someone who can make a difference in the future of our country is creepy???
No one is forcing this teen to choose from only one party or one candidate--so the Khymer Rouge line was just plain silly.
I hope Tucker that at 17 your children will be less cynical and more aware than you are now.

[shodan2020]

As Jon Stewart said sarcastically: "I know you're a smart man, because bow ties aren't easy to tie."

Hey Tucker, why not bring the allusions to the Nazi party as well? Oh wait... they were far right leaning fascists...

[Blutus]

Another tuned-in moron!

Yeah, the Killing Fields. How accurate!!
Another genius level Republican!


Tucker is the guy we all beat up at recess!

Lets do it again!

Until he stops talking!

[PoliticalPolyanna]

Tucker Carlson is a twit. He's a loudmouth, arrogant, upper-class nerd with a rich daddy. The only person who enjoys the sound of his own voice MORE than Carlson is O'Reilly.

[ZingoBonMot]

"YO! TUCKER F**K MONKEY, hard to believe that nobody's strangled you with that damned dumbassed bowtie of yours!
Yet.

[steamboat]

Khymer Rouge----wow Tucker, thats cold...as they say. No candidate of either party is that bad.

Then again, the Jimmy Carter Administration recognized the fallen Khymer Rouge govt. of Pol Pot at the UN instead of the new government in Cambodia that took power after the vietnamese invasion into Cambodia.