President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

50%

50%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

70%

30%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
June 21, 2012 09:21 PM UTC

On KOA, Coffman says he thinks birther comments were made too big a deal of

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Mike Coffman’s been dodging reporters since his birther moment last month, when he said he didn’t know if Obama “was born in the United States of America,” but he did know that “in his heart, he’s not an American.”

Coffman’s media avoidance tactics have turned his apology into a dramatic multi-part series.

So you’d hope any media figure interviewing Coffman on any topic would bring up the birther subject to help clarify things for the public, not to mention us media watchers.  You’d hope so, but you also know some media types would proudly and arrogantly ignore it.

But KOA radio’s Steffan Tubbs didn’t shy away from the topic this morning, even though Coffman was on his show to talk about Eric Holder.

Tubbs: Ah, I hate to bring it up, but I have to because we haven’t talked to you about it.  I mean, are you over this whole Obama controversy?  Has that gone by the way-side?  Was it made too big of a deal?  Were you taken out of context with the un-American comment with the President?

Coffman: [nervous chuckling] I’d say all of the above.  What I found out, certainly, is that when you make a mistake like that and you’re off message, it certainly hurts.  And obviously, be more careful going forward, much more measured in my comments so I can’t be misinterpreted, and also to, I think, clearly be more professional in my demeanor, because the American people have to make a decision in this election coming up – on president, on my race, on other races.  This is such a critical time for the country. I think we’re at a tipping point.    And we need to stick with the issues.

I would have preferred if Tubbs hadn’t told Coffman that he hated to bring up Coffman’s birther moment, as if there were something wrong with questioning Coffman about it, but, still, Tubbs’ questioning of Coffman, however short, shows, again, that KOA radio’s newsroom is a serious spot news operation and is worth listening to.

Tubbs’ questioning of Coffman sheds new light on Coffman’s thinking on the matter, illuminating that Coffman thinks:

  1. He’s over the controversy.
  2. It’s gone by the way-side, he thinks.
  3. It was made too big a deal of.
  4. And Coffman thinks he was taken out of context.

How many follow up questions for Coffman flow from this? Many, to put it mildly. So there’s plenty of material for journalists to work with when Coffman comes out of hiding again and wants too talk about something that’s on his agenda, like he did on KOA today.

Tweet
Share

Comments

25 thoughts on “On KOA, Coffman says he thinks birther comments were made too big a deal of”

  1. I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

    I already made a statement, and I stand by my statement.

  2. I”m not going to go so far as Jason and suggest we know what Coffman really thinks, vs. what his latest PR strategy seems to be.

    That said, since Coffman seems to believe that a brief but inflammatory gaffe like that should be given full context, not blown out of proportion and moved beyond quickly. OK. So does he think that Republicans should stop playing Obama’s “the private sector is doing fine” clip over and over and over, without providing the clear context, and just move on? Or are the rules different for Coffman than they are for every other politician?

    1. the rightie media tell it, they all think the rules should be different for of them, not just Coffman.  For Obama, for instance, to use executive privilege for the first time towards the end of his first term is a hair on fire constitutional crisis but it was fine for all previous GOP presidents to use it at will.

      Possible Obama administration leaks are pretty much treason but the Cheney/Bush administration outing of Plame wasn’t worthy of so much as a tsk tsk.

      Reagan, under whom taxes were raised numerous times, was a great leader of economic recovery.  if Dems want to let a huge tax break for the wealthiest expire, that would make any economic recovery impossible and if Rs even suggest compromise, they’re no good RINOs.  Reagan, however was Godlike when he did those things.

      Then there’s the mandate for health care coverage. It was fine throughout all those years it was a GOP proposal incubated in rightie think tanks. Once Dems took it up, it became the end of freedom as we know it.

      But all the Obama isn’t a real American stuff?  Simply blatant pandering to the lowest common denominator.  I don’t believe Coffman, granted no genius, is dumb enough to actually buy that stuff. He just wants to be one of the guys on rightie wacko night out. Then he wants it to go away. Like what happens Vegas.

    1. It may rally the nuts and help turnout, but “winning issues” are the ones that get the middle in your corner. And THIS is not one of those issues.

      1. deflect, deny, defame.

        Republicans must have polling showing this to be a winner or they wouldn’t be saying these things.

        Democrats need to learn the lessons of Wisconsin and Milton Friedman.

        2. showing this to be a winner only in private among intensely conservative audiences, or they would be saying these things in the open and not avoiding the press and public like the plague after a secret recording gets out!

          Wait, is that deflecting, denial and defamation? Or do I have to add a gratuitous insult in order to fit your model?

        3. and I’ve said it often enough for you to know better. So, so many times have I said that. But you don’t know better because you wear the same kind of blinders you insist Dems all wear. Here, you ignore reason, instead insisting conspiratorily that “some polling” out there proves you right.

          Let me offer another piece of reason why that can’t be the case: Coffman would not have backpedaled so furiously if it were true. His lame “it’s not a big deal” defense now isn’t proof that maybe it wasn’t such a big pile of shit he stepped in; it’s that he has had time to digest things so that he can now attempt to recover the face he lost.

          You’re going to have to do better than cite polling that doesn’t exist if you’re going to refute these argument. There’s a reason why a lot of polsters feel you’re a bit of a pollyanna, and it’s not because they’re ignoring the warning signs you perceive.

          1. I mean for reasons that are absolutely beyond me ….someone is corrupting my good celtic name and using my arguments…why?  I don’t know.

            One would think that time and talent could be better spent.

            1. as I’m sure was intended by the troll.

              Let me offer you my most sincere apology, dwyer. Um… I want to write more but can’t think of what to say, so… again, I’m sorry.

              Have you emailed Pols about this? I’m sure they’ll delete the account if you do.

              1. a few days ago.  And if it’s OK to be Libertad 2.0 I don’t see what grounds there would be for deleting the dywer account.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if dywer and 2.0 turned out to be the same person. Whoever it is sure has our dwyer down though, doesn’t he/she?

                1. Libertad 2.0, like other “parody” accounts, has a readily recognizably different name. I recall a fake bjwilson83 account that used capital letters and repeated the numbers, which allowed you to see that it was not beej.

                  “dywer,” OTOH, was easy to mix up with “dwyer” because many of us don’t really “read” as much as we recognize words. You’ve probably received that oft-forwarded email where every word is misspelled but you can read it anyway? (The first and last letters are correct, while all in between are scrambled.) That’s the same principle here.

                  It may be that it’s just a parody, but it seems to me that someone is being more malicious, attempting to get polsters to believe that dywer’s posts are those of dwyer. If so, this is something that not only should be deleted and the account banned, but is something Pols has done in the past.

              1. They’re not the same name.

                I’ve seen this on other blogs, too. One I frequent is sometimes visited by one “Seattleblues,” and someone once registered “SeattlebIues” in a similar attempt to confuse. (This is one where you have to look very, very closely to see what’s different – a lot more closely than is necessary in this case.)

    2. The more extreme their views, the more people will donate. Sad but true. If you’re a moderate Republican, that means you’re iffy and can’t be trusted, and therefore should not be supported with $$.

      On another note, I can’t help but notice Nancy Cronk’s absence on recent CD6 threads. If the writing on the wall has deflated Nancy, Joe’s best (only?)cheerleader, then Joe might as well stick a fork in it.

      Maybe she’s just on vacation. Then again, maybe she’s decided to fight a winning battle instead. Weekend at Bernie’s required one person on each side of the dead guy – one person couldn’t do it alone.

      1. One clamoring for a driver’s license. Another (college age) eating us out of house and home. We’re also a revolving door for campaign interns and my kid’s friends. The third is an intern for Joe, and I only see him when I drop off food at the office. Last week, I had three young people who are not my own staying under my roof. I love having them around — tons of energy!

        On top of that, I’m working on a House District campaign for a friend — Jan Spooner, House District 37. She’s running against Spencer Swalm.

        Busy, busy, busy. Thanks for missing me GoBuffs!

    3. the more the GOP keeps up the birther bullshit the deeper the hole gets in keeping independents and wooing hispanics.  

      Birthers aren’t anything but a freak sideshow getting pushed to the edge of the circus.  You really think overt birtherism now is a ‘winning’ strategy, really?

  4. It is damn pathetic when Tubbs’ question, stumbling all over himself to apologize for asking it, giving Coffman all kinds of dodges, qualifies as “didn’t shy away from the topic.”

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

93 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!