David Broder's history of "wildly off target" claims and faulty predictions

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http://mediamatters.org/items/200704260005

On April 26, The Washington Post published a baseless attack on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) by columnist David Broder --- with the headline "The Democrats' Gonzales" -- in which Broder characterized Reid as an "embarrassment" for recently stating that the war in Iraq "is lost." The column inspired Media Matters for America to review Broder's recent columns and offer examples of Broder's unfounded attacks on Democrats, glaring misstatements of fact, unwarranted praise of President Bush and congressional Republicans, off-the-mark political predictions, and in at least one case, what was, by his own admission, a cringe-worthy embarrassment:

Bush "comeback." In his February 16 column, Broder argued that President Bush could be "poised for a political comeback" and falsely claimed that Bush, during a February 14 press conference, "endors{ed} the good motives of" the critics of his Iraq troop increase by "rejecting the notion that their actions would damage U.S. troops' morale or embolden the enemy." In fact, when asked at the press conference if he "believe that a vote of disapproval of your {Iraq} policy emboldens the enemy," Bush specifically refused to "reject{} the notion that their actions would damage U.S. troops' morale or embolden the enemy," as Broder put it. At the press conference, Bush said: "As to whether or not this particular resolution is going to impact enemy thought, I can't tell you that." Also, despite Broder's prognostications, Bush's job approval ratings since February 16 have been stalled in the mid- to low 30s, and even went as low as 29 percent in a February 23-27 CBS News/New York Times poll, and 28 percent in an April 20-23 Harris poll. As the weblog Think Progress noted, Broder claimed in a March 30 online discussion on washingtonpost.com that he would "revisit and revise" his prediction, but has yet to do so.

Democrats and the military. In his February 6 column, Broder wrote that retired Gen. Wesley Clark was "{o}ne of the losers" among the potential Democratic presidential candidates who spoke before the Democratic National Committee on February 2 because he forgot "that few in this particular audience have much experience with, or sympathy for, the military." Broder offered no support for this claim, which reflected the assumption -- expressed frequently among the media and documented by Media Matters for America -- that Iraq war supporters are "pro-military," and conversely that those opposed to the Iraq war must be anti-military.

Detainee legislation. In his September 21, 2006, column, Broder heaped praise on Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), and John Warner (R-VA) for their "revolt ... against President Bush's insistence on a free hand in treating terrorist detainees." According to Broder: "These are not ordinary men. McCain, from Arizona, is probably the leading candidate for the 2008 presidential nomination. Graham, from South Carolina, is the star among the younger Republican senators. Warner, from Virginia, embodies the essence of traditional Reagan conservatism: patriotism, support for the military, civility." That same day, however, these senators and the White House reached a "compromise" on terror-detainee legislation characterized by Border's Post colleague Dan Froomkin as a situation in which "{t}he Republican senators essentially agreed to look the other way." Froomkin explained: "On the central issue of whether the CIA should continue using interrogation methods on suspected terrorists that many say constitute torture, the White House got its way, winning agreement from the 'maverick' Republican senators who had refused to go along with an overt undoing of the Geneva Conventions." As Media Matters noted, the Post reported on September 29, 2006, that the compromise was reached largely on administration terms: "Written largely, but not completely, on the administration's terms, with passages that give executive branch officials discretion to set details or divert from its protections, the bill is meant to provide what Bush said yesterday are 'the tools' needed to handle terrorism suspects U.S. officials hope to capture." Broder has yet to address this "compromise" on terror detainee treatment.