Selective News

Last night the President was on the Tonight Show.  At any rate that is what I read; I don't watch the Tonight Show.  There were some clips on the news, and on some other shows, but I didn't hear or see any of them run the conversation I include below as it shows in a transcript of the interview.  The part I have highlighted was left out of the clip that I saw.  If it had been a Republican making these comments all we would be seeing is the portion highlighted and we would be seeing it over and over and over. Oh, just in case geography wasn't one of your favorite subjects, Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville are all on the Atlantic Ocean, not the Gulf.

LENO:    You mentioned infrastructure.  Why is that a partisan issue?  I live in a town, the bridge is falling apart, it’s not safe.  How does that become Republican or Democrat?  How do you not just fix the bridge?  (Laughter and applause.)      
THE PRESIDENT:  I don't know.  As you know, for the last three years, I’ve said, let’s work together.  Let’s find a financing mechanism and let’s go ahead and fix our bridges, fix our roads, sewer systems, our ports.  The Panama is being widened so that these big supertankers can come in.  Now, that will be finished in 2015.  If we don't deepen our ports all along the Gulf — places like Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia, or Jacksonville, Florida — if we don't do that, those ships are going to go someplace else.  And we’ll lose jobs.  Businesses won’t locate here.So this is something that traditionally has been bipartisan. I mean, it used to be Republicans and Democrats, they love cutting those ribbons.

LENO:   Yes.

THE PRESIDENT:  And we’ve got a bunch of construction workers who aren’t working right now.  They’ve got the skills.  They want to get on the job.  It would have a huge impact on the economy not just now, but well into the future.  So I’m just going to keep on pushing Republicans to join with us, and let’s try to do it.