Fareed Zakaria

CNN Analysts Want Constitution Modernized ; Bash Second Amendment Wording, Electoral College
By Matt Hadro | June 27, 2011 | 6:40 PM EDT

Continuing his push to "modernize the Constitution for the 21st century" by talking about "a few revisions," CNN's Fareed Zakaria hosted legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin for a liberal gripe session on his Sunday show Fareed Zakaria GPS. Both criticized the current Electoral College and state representation in the Senate, and also slammed the "grammatical mess" that is the Second Amendment.

One of the "kinks" of the American Constitution, Zakaria complained, is that "the Second Amendment is a grammatical mess, whatever you may think of the right to bear arms." This is liberal code for the amendment needs to be "updated" to their standards.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria: Obama Made 'Right Call' On Afghanistan
By Noel Sheppard | June 26, 2011 | 5:09 PM EDT

On Wednesday, CNN's "Obama Adviser" aka Fareed Zakaria praised the current White House resident's Afghanistan address as a "remarkable speech for an American president."

On the CNN program bearing his name Sunday, Zakaria continued lavishing praise on our Commander-in-Chief saying, "Obama has basically made the right call" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN's Fareed Zakaria Insists: It's 'Strange' to Expect Him Not to Advise Obama and Then Praise Him on TV
By Tim Graham | June 26, 2011 | 8:57 AM EDT

Journalists in Washington don’t want just to write. They want the top government officials to take their advice, to use their wisdom to govern. Here’s what happens next: a dance between journalist and government official to build a mutually beneficial relationship. The official provides access, makes the journalist feel important and consulted, and then the journalist announces that the official is wise and is making all the right moves.

This is exactly what CNN host and Time columnist Fareed Zakaria has been doing with President Obama. He’s advising Obama (informally, of course) and then going on CNN and declaring the president’s speeches are quite good.  In an interview with Keach Hagey of Politico, Zakaria tried to deflect critics:

CNN's Zakaria: Obama's Afghan Speech 'Remarkable Speech for an American President'
By Matt Hadro | June 24, 2011 | 4:45 PM EDT

Fareed Zakaria, CNN's world affairs analyst, hailed President Obama's Afghanistan speech as a "remarkable speech for an American president" Wednesday and defended the president's decision to ignore the advice of his generals on the target dates for pulling troops out of Afghanistan.

"It was a remarkable speech for an American president in the caution, the strategic emphasis, rather than the idealistic emphasis," sounded Zakaria, no stranger to praising Obama's foreign policy speeches. He lauded the president's May 19 Mideast speech as "remarkably comprehensive" and "fair" and "balanced."

A Constitutional Convention Would Be a Dangerous Proposition
By David Limbaugh | June 21, 2011 | 2:31 PM EDT

The left's assault on liberty never rests, so don't ever be sucked into supporting the dangerous idea of a new constitutional convention, even if its stated purposes purport to be limited.

Recently, CNN's Fareed Zakaria spoke admiringly of how "Iceland is actually junking its own constitution and starting anew and ... soliciting ideas from all of Iceland's 320,000 citizens, with the help of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube."

Mark Levin Gives Fareed Zakaria a Much-Needed Lesson on the U.S. Constitution
By Noel Sheppard | June 20, 2011 | 9:50 PM EDT

Fareed Zakaria on the CNN show bearing his name Sunday actually recommended we use social media to create "a set of amendments to modernize the Constitution for the 21st Century."

On his radio program Monday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin gave Zakaria a much-needed lesson about this document the liberal commentator so badly wants to change (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

Fareed Zakaria: Today's Conservative Movement Like 'the Old Marxists,' Too Much Rooted In Abstract Ideas
By Matt Hadro | June 20, 2011 | 2:57 PM EDT

CNN's Fareed Zakaria regurgitated his conservative-bashing Time magazine piece on his Sunday show Fareed Zakaria GPS. He opened up his program with the same barrage against conservatives that he launched in Time on Thursday, namely that today's conservatism is woefully divorced from reality like the Marxists of the 19th century.

Zakaria writes that "conservatives now resemble the old Marxists who refuse to look at actual experience." Instead, he argues, they are hopelessly enamored with "policies that are simply recitations of some free market theory taken out of some book based on no actually-existing national economy."

Fareed Zakaria Rips Conservative Movement In Time Magazine Piece
By Matt Hadro | June 17, 2011 | 5:56 PM EDT

CNN host Fareed Zakaria, also the editor-at-large for Time magazine, derides today's conservative movement as out-of-touch and too abstract in a scathing Time article "How Today's Conservatism Lost Touch With Reality." He argues, "Conservatives now espouse ideas drawn from abstract principles with little regard to the realities of America's present or past."

Of course, if Zakaria is to paint with broad strokes and dismiss the modern conservative movement as entirely lost and ineffective, the reader would expect him to expound upon his point in detail and provide plenty of facts and evidence to support his thesis. His argument is largely devoid of substantial evidence and filled with debatable historical assumptions.

Ann Coulter Smacks Down Arrogant Eliot Spitzer: 'What Business Have You Ran? You're a Governor'
By Noel Sheppard | June 12, 2011 | 3:32 PM EDT

CNN's Eliot Spitzer arrogantly lectured about the benefits of Keynesian economics Sunday while accusing fellow panelists on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" of not knowing what they were talking about because they weren't business owners.

This led British historian Andrew Roberts to point out that President Obama's administration are mostly academics, and Ann Coulter to ask Spitzer, "What business have you ran? You’re a governor" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Obama's Other 'Part-Time Foreign Policy Consultant' – NYT's Thomas Friedman – Mocks Israel, Congress
By Matt Hadro | May 31, 2011 | 7:56 PM EDT

NewsBusters previously reported that CNN's Fareed Zakaria had met with President Obama face-to-face to discuss foreign policy. Obama's other reported "source" of information on foreign policy, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman, mocked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday on CNN, and added that he should have dutifully obeyed the demands Obama outlined in his recent Mideast speech.

According to a May 11 New York Times article, Friedman was one of two foreign policy journalists "sounded out" by President Obama for information on foreign affairs. The other, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, has previously criticized Israel's prime minister for not agreeing to the Israeli-Palestinian borders laid out by Obama in his Mideast speech.

[Click here for audio. Video below the break.]

MRC’s Notable Quotables: We Need the ‘Courage’ to Raise Taxes
By Rich Noyes | May 30, 2011 | 11:45 AM EDT

It’s Memorial Day, but the MRC is out with its latest edition of Notable Quotables, a re-cap of the most outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes from the liberal media over the past two weeks.

This edition: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell insists that Republicans just lack the “guts” to raise taxes; David Gregory suggests it’s “racially-tinged” for Newt Gingrich to try and spotlight President Obama’s poor economic record, and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria first admits to advising the President on foreign policy, then hails Obama’s speech on Middle East policy a few days later. Oh, and Ed Schultz.

The entire package is posted at www.MRC.org; here are some of the highlights.

Fareed Zakaria: Netanyahu Should Have Thanked Obama For His Middle East Proposal
By Noel Sheppard | May 29, 2011 | 7:11 PM EDT

Just how in bed with Barack Obama is Fareed Zakaria?

On the Sunday CNN program bearing his name, the host began the show by saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have thanked the President for his Middle East peace proposal given earlier this month (video follows with transcript and commentary):