Barack Obama - Yes, you can.
Bill Clinton - Villifying the other side with a smile doesn't work when the other side is also a Democrat.
Hillary Clinton - Nothing's inevitable.
John McCain - Vet first.
Sarah Palin - Insist your own people help handle you.
Mitt Romney - Play to your strengths (economy) instead of where you perceive there to be a niche (social conservative).
Rudy Giuliani - Never put all your eggs in one basket when that basket is eighth in line for counting.
John Edwards - If you're cheating on your cancer-stricken wife, don't freakin' run for president!
George W. Bush - Don't spend more than you bring in.
Mike Huckabee - Maybe if you announced Chuck Norris would be your VP in February...
Bill Richardson - Endorsing a front-runner can get you a Cabinet seat.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Caroline Kennedy, royal senator
New York sure doesn't think much of itself. First they get Hillary Clinton as their senator, a woman who never lived there, but she's a celebrity. Now Caroline Kennedy wants her seat. Beyond her name, why should it be her? I think New York's missing an opportunity. Maria Shriver should buy a pad in New York and get the seat. It fits the profile of the best of both worlds.
1. She's a Kennedy.
2. She's the First Lady of California.
Now, granted, Clinton turned out to be a decent senator for the state. I guess. New York is still one of the highest taxed states with one of the biggest budget deficits, but that's more of a governor thing. (What hath Patterson and Spitzer wrought?)
It's an example of how America has its own form of aristocracy. Name recognition is king in politics.
1. She's a Kennedy.
2. She's the First Lady of California.
Now, granted, Clinton turned out to be a decent senator for the state. I guess. New York is still one of the highest taxed states with one of the biggest budget deficits, but that's more of a governor thing. (What hath Patterson and Spitzer wrought?)
It's an example of how America has its own form of aristocracy. Name recognition is king in politics.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Bernie Madoff - Anti-American
$50 billion gone.
One could argue he has done more to damage the economy than the September 11 attacks.
It's certainly bigger than the Enron implosion.
I also think of it this way: that's a lot of tax revenue to vanish in a time when the US government is bailing out this company and that company for $200 billion here, $300 billion there.
One could argue he has done more to damage the economy than the September 11 attacks.
It's certainly bigger than the Enron implosion.
I also think of it this way: that's a lot of tax revenue to vanish in a time when the US government is bailing out this company and that company for $200 billion here, $300 billion there.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Rachel Maddow Show recap
Rachel points out that every day Obama announces another appointment the stock market goes up. Rachel asks if he could space these appointments out more. She segues into the $20 billion given to Citigroup without hearings or anything, and contrasts that with the week-long hand-wringing over bailing out the auto industry, which ultimately didn't happen. I then realized she's reading a teleprompter for what sounds like improvised riffing. Her show's young; she'll get better at hiding that.
She interviews Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, and member of Obama's economic advisory board. So why did Citi get a no-questions-asked bailout (a white-collar company) but the auto industry (a blue-collar industry) didn't? Schmidt said Citi's proposal was correct and the auto industry's was not. Rachel asks if he sees a double standard; Eric says no. They conclude amiably.
Rachel then asks how the government can focus on infrastructure if Obama's economic team is comprised of Robert Rubin people; Rubin who neglected infrastructure in favor of reducing the deficit.
Rachel points out Mike Huckabee said in an interview he likes Sarah Palin and says the only difference is she looks better in stilettos and has better hair. I join Rachel in shuddering at the image of a long-haired Huckabee in stilettos. Meanwhile Rachel's upset Obama is doing anything to appease or reach out to the Republicans, saying there's too much Koom-bay-ya going on. Rachel interview Dahlia Lithwick of Slate.com, who wants War Crime Tribunals to be brought up against Bush and Cheney and them. She wants Guantanamo closed on Day 1, and wants Obama's A.G. to probe over torture, and it looks like those won't be priorities for Obama, much to their mutual chagrin.
Back from the break, Rachel revels over the Georgia election between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin. Elections-news geeks still have something to celebrate! Eventually she gets to her next guest, Ed Rendell, and they discuss the infrastructure needs of America, but how it can't be done if we follow Rubinomics (Rachel's made-up noun for the day). They both argue we need to invest in infrastructure now and deal with the deficit later. Rachel asks him about the Citigroup bailout as well, and he agrees the auto industry needs to have a better proposal in order to be bailed out. But he says banks getting bailouts should be forced to lend 60-70% of it out immediately.
Back from the break, Rachel interviews Robert Redford about Bush's lifting the drilling ban on many of the US's pristine lands, in a segment she calls Lame Duck Watch. She points out 360,000 acres in eastern Utah have been opened up for drilling. Redford, Utah's most famous liberal, points out Bush's "devious" ploy to free it up by bypassing the National Park Service, and says he's been trying to undo many environmental laws, and in his opinion it's criminal. Why rip up the environment for short-term retrieval of non-renewable energy when we now have viable renewable-energy alternatives?
Back from the break, Rachel has Kent Jones to a pop watch, where he mocks Guns N' Roses, Twlight, and Sarah Palin. Lewis Black, you have nothing to fear.
Maddow and KeithO may agree on 95% of things, but Rachel does it in a happy, sociable way where I feel like she could actually abide someone in her presence who doesn't necessariyl agree with her.
She interviews Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, and member of Obama's economic advisory board. So why did Citi get a no-questions-asked bailout (a white-collar company) but the auto industry (a blue-collar industry) didn't? Schmidt said Citi's proposal was correct and the auto industry's was not. Rachel asks if he sees a double standard; Eric says no. They conclude amiably.
Rachel then asks how the government can focus on infrastructure if Obama's economic team is comprised of Robert Rubin people; Rubin who neglected infrastructure in favor of reducing the deficit.
Rachel points out Mike Huckabee said in an interview he likes Sarah Palin and says the only difference is she looks better in stilettos and has better hair. I join Rachel in shuddering at the image of a long-haired Huckabee in stilettos. Meanwhile Rachel's upset Obama is doing anything to appease or reach out to the Republicans, saying there's too much Koom-bay-ya going on. Rachel interview Dahlia Lithwick of Slate.com, who wants War Crime Tribunals to be brought up against Bush and Cheney and them. She wants Guantanamo closed on Day 1, and wants Obama's A.G. to probe over torture, and it looks like those won't be priorities for Obama, much to their mutual chagrin.
Back from the break, Rachel revels over the Georgia election between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin. Elections-news geeks still have something to celebrate! Eventually she gets to her next guest, Ed Rendell, and they discuss the infrastructure needs of America, but how it can't be done if we follow Rubinomics (Rachel's made-up noun for the day). They both argue we need to invest in infrastructure now and deal with the deficit later. Rachel asks him about the Citigroup bailout as well, and he agrees the auto industry needs to have a better proposal in order to be bailed out. But he says banks getting bailouts should be forced to lend 60-70% of it out immediately.
Back from the break, Rachel interviews Robert Redford about Bush's lifting the drilling ban on many of the US's pristine lands, in a segment she calls Lame Duck Watch. She points out 360,000 acres in eastern Utah have been opened up for drilling. Redford, Utah's most famous liberal, points out Bush's "devious" ploy to free it up by bypassing the National Park Service, and says he's been trying to undo many environmental laws, and in his opinion it's criminal. Why rip up the environment for short-term retrieval of non-renewable energy when we now have viable renewable-energy alternatives?
Back from the break, Rachel has Kent Jones to a pop watch, where he mocks Guns N' Roses, Twlight, and Sarah Palin. Lewis Black, you have nothing to fear.
Maddow and KeithO may agree on 95% of things, but Rachel does it in a happy, sociable way where I feel like she could actually abide someone in her presence who doesn't necessariyl agree with her.
Hannity & Colmes recap
Hannity & Colmes and The Rachel Maddow Show
A few months ago I decided to watch O'Reilly Factor and Countdown in full to compare the two. My conclusion is I probably agree with O'Reilly two-thirds of the time, Olbermann one-third of the time, they'd rather swallow broken glass than admit they agree on anything, and while neither is a guy I could see having over for dinner, I could converse with O'Reilly about anything for a few minutes. Keith, I'd have to stick to sports, or I'd be afraid his psychopathic side would emerge.
Now I'm going to try doing H&C and RM.
First up: Hannity & Colmes. Hannity reviews Pres.-Elect Obama's new cabinet announcements, then interview Karl Rove about it. They include a quote from David Axelrod saying he's no Karl Rove. Hannity says he wants the new president to succeed. When guys like Glenn Beck or Michael Medved say that, I can believe them. I have a hard time believing Hannity on this one. Hannity & Rove go around on all the problems with the economic stimulus package. Six minutes into the show, I didn't know he was there, but Alan Colmes interrupts when Rove says he wants more specificity, saying the game could change day to day, i.e., Hank Paulson gave us specifics, then changed his mind as circumstances changed, which Rove concedes.
Back from the break, Colmes asks about Axelrod saying he's no Rove, to which Rove says Axelrod's being humble. Rove then talks about how the Bush White House always went with policy over politics, and I'm tempted to tune him out, but I keep going. Hannity gets back into questioning about how many Clinton people Obama's bringing in. Rove says "Well, Democrats can choose from the Clinton administration or the Carter adiministration, and the Carter people are getting long in the tooth."
Back from the break, they now interview Rep. Eric Cantor, new GOP minority whip about Obama's proposed stimulus package he wants on his desk on January 20. Cantor says Obama's not reaching across the aisle, blah blah blah, and Hannity says "Hey, if Obama puts off raising taxes on the wealthy, I'm for that. If he's going to cut taxes, I'm for that." And Cantor agrees. Colmes comes in when Cantor mentions meeting with Rahm Emmanuel. Colmes asks "Wouldn't it be reasonable to hold your fire on an administration that hasn't even taken office yet?" Cantor starts rattling off the problems with the bloated way of doing business in the auto industry, and Colmes said you just had a Republican administration bail out all these financial institutions. Cantor wraps it up.
Back from the break, to discuss the possible appointments of Hillary Clinton (State) and Bill RIchardson (Commerce), Colmes intrroduces Dick Morris. Wow. We're going to have conservative guests all hour, aren't we. Morris says it's ridiculous to fill up his administration with Clinton loyalists, and then putting Hillary in the Cabinet. Colmes asks if it's too much to think the administration wants best for the United States. Morris says yeah. Colmes asks if Morris can say anything nice about the Clintons. Hannity says "No." Colmes says he asked Morris; Hannity said he's answering for Morris, and that he himself can say something nice about the Clintons. Morris never answers the question. Hannity takes over questioning, rattling off the foreign policy differences between Obama and Hillary. Morris says Obama won't rasie taxes because he can make the deficit as large as he wants and everyone will understand.
Back from the break, still with Morris. Morris says Obama's going to load every liberal pet project he wants into the stimulus package. Hannity & Morris then move to the Senate race where Hannity says if Franken steals Minnesota, and if Saxby Chambliss loses the runoff in Georgia, it's over. Morris says the GOP is dead at that point. Morris plugs a website to give money to Chambliss, saying the whole country is at stake on this election. Colmes says you like to say Bush inherited a recession from Clinton, well, look at what Obama's inheriting from Bush. He asks Morris, "Aren't you just scaring people?" Morris says it's both parties' fault. Obama didn't cause it and can't cure it.
Back from the break, their guest is Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC). Holmes asks about his trip to Iowa. Sanford demures. They discuss Ted Stevens, who Sanford says faked conservatism and is a poster child for their party gone bad. Colmes asks about some Bush policies and if they're fake conservatism. Sanford says "compassionate conservatism" wasn't real conservatism and points to himself and Bobby Jindal and others who are trying to return conservatism to the GOP. Colmes says "Who else? Sarah Palin?" Sanford chuckles and says certainly, and others, plugs Jindal and a "broad swath of folks."
Hannity chimes in to agree. He say the Republicans, when they ran Congress, were not the party of fiscal responsibility. Sanford says they also failed in protecting the free market and were late on energy independence.
Back from the break, Alan Colmes announces he's leaving the show. Hannity says we have a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress and you're leaving me? Colmes says "Four words. My work is done." Colmes says he'll continue on the network as a contributor and his radio show, his website, and he's shooting a pilot or two, maybe he'll call it "Alan's America."
The only change to that show without Alan will be there'll be no one to ask devil's advocate questions.
A few months ago I decided to watch O'Reilly Factor and Countdown in full to compare the two. My conclusion is I probably agree with O'Reilly two-thirds of the time, Olbermann one-third of the time, they'd rather swallow broken glass than admit they agree on anything, and while neither is a guy I could see having over for dinner, I could converse with O'Reilly about anything for a few minutes. Keith, I'd have to stick to sports, or I'd be afraid his psychopathic side would emerge.
Now I'm going to try doing H&C and RM.
First up: Hannity & Colmes. Hannity reviews Pres.-Elect Obama's new cabinet announcements, then interview Karl Rove about it. They include a quote from David Axelrod saying he's no Karl Rove. Hannity says he wants the new president to succeed. When guys like Glenn Beck or Michael Medved say that, I can believe them. I have a hard time believing Hannity on this one. Hannity & Rove go around on all the problems with the economic stimulus package. Six minutes into the show, I didn't know he was there, but Alan Colmes interrupts when Rove says he wants more specificity, saying the game could change day to day, i.e., Hank Paulson gave us specifics, then changed his mind as circumstances changed, which Rove concedes.
Back from the break, Colmes asks about Axelrod saying he's no Rove, to which Rove says Axelrod's being humble. Rove then talks about how the Bush White House always went with policy over politics, and I'm tempted to tune him out, but I keep going. Hannity gets back into questioning about how many Clinton people Obama's bringing in. Rove says "Well, Democrats can choose from the Clinton administration or the Carter adiministration, and the Carter people are getting long in the tooth."
Back from the break, they now interview Rep. Eric Cantor, new GOP minority whip about Obama's proposed stimulus package he wants on his desk on January 20. Cantor says Obama's not reaching across the aisle, blah blah blah, and Hannity says "Hey, if Obama puts off raising taxes on the wealthy, I'm for that. If he's going to cut taxes, I'm for that." And Cantor agrees. Colmes comes in when Cantor mentions meeting with Rahm Emmanuel. Colmes asks "Wouldn't it be reasonable to hold your fire on an administration that hasn't even taken office yet?" Cantor starts rattling off the problems with the bloated way of doing business in the auto industry, and Colmes said you just had a Republican administration bail out all these financial institutions. Cantor wraps it up.
Back from the break, to discuss the possible appointments of Hillary Clinton (State) and Bill RIchardson (Commerce), Colmes intrroduces Dick Morris. Wow. We're going to have conservative guests all hour, aren't we. Morris says it's ridiculous to fill up his administration with Clinton loyalists, and then putting Hillary in the Cabinet. Colmes asks if it's too much to think the administration wants best for the United States. Morris says yeah. Colmes asks if Morris can say anything nice about the Clintons. Hannity says "No." Colmes says he asked Morris; Hannity said he's answering for Morris, and that he himself can say something nice about the Clintons. Morris never answers the question. Hannity takes over questioning, rattling off the foreign policy differences between Obama and Hillary. Morris says Obama won't rasie taxes because he can make the deficit as large as he wants and everyone will understand.
Back from the break, still with Morris. Morris says Obama's going to load every liberal pet project he wants into the stimulus package. Hannity & Morris then move to the Senate race where Hannity says if Franken steals Minnesota, and if Saxby Chambliss loses the runoff in Georgia, it's over. Morris says the GOP is dead at that point. Morris plugs a website to give money to Chambliss, saying the whole country is at stake on this election. Colmes says you like to say Bush inherited a recession from Clinton, well, look at what Obama's inheriting from Bush. He asks Morris, "Aren't you just scaring people?" Morris says it's both parties' fault. Obama didn't cause it and can't cure it.
Back from the break, their guest is Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC). Holmes asks about his trip to Iowa. Sanford demures. They discuss Ted Stevens, who Sanford says faked conservatism and is a poster child for their party gone bad. Colmes asks about some Bush policies and if they're fake conservatism. Sanford says "compassionate conservatism" wasn't real conservatism and points to himself and Bobby Jindal and others who are trying to return conservatism to the GOP. Colmes says "Who else? Sarah Palin?" Sanford chuckles and says certainly, and others, plugs Jindal and a "broad swath of folks."
Hannity chimes in to agree. He say the Republicans, when they ran Congress, were not the party of fiscal responsibility. Sanford says they also failed in protecting the free market and were late on energy independence.
Back from the break, Alan Colmes announces he's leaving the show. Hannity says we have a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress and you're leaving me? Colmes says "Four words. My work is done." Colmes says he'll continue on the network as a contributor and his radio show, his website, and he's shooting a pilot or two, maybe he'll call it "Alan's America."
The only change to that show without Alan will be there'll be no one to ask devil's advocate questions.
Friday, November 14, 2008
McCain-Feingold legality challenged
From Politico.com...
Now that John McCain is not the GOP leader, Republican lawyers are challenging the legality of this campaign-finance reform bill, which seems like a pretty pointless bill since the 527s can do whatever they want, and Obama's effectively killed the idea that public financing of campaigns will ever happen.
Now that John McCain is not the GOP leader, Republican lawyers are challenging the legality of this campaign-finance reform bill, which seems like a pretty pointless bill since the 527s can do whatever they want, and Obama's effectively killed the idea that public financing of campaigns will ever happen.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Palin Africa hoax revealed
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The guy who was revealed to be the source from the McCain campaign who said Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country and not a continent... is one big web hoax.
The guy who was revealed to be the source from the McCain campaign who said Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country and not a continent... is one big web hoax.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
No bailou for AmEx!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081112/american_express_ahead_of_the_bell.html?.v=1
Every big corporation or state government or bank is going to the Feds for taxpayer money, but I absolutely draw the line at credit card companies. No. No way. credit card companies feed off consumers and rive up debt everywhere more than any other institution, chargin up to 24.99% interest. Are we going to bail out paycheck-loan companies next? American Express can stop sending out millions of credit card offers then. Dogs can get credit cards.
Every big corporation or state government or bank is going to the Feds for taxpayer money, but I absolutely draw the line at credit card companies. No. No way. credit card companies feed off consumers and rive up debt everywhere more than any other institution, chargin up to 24.99% interest. Are we going to bail out paycheck-loan companies next? American Express can stop sending out millions of credit card offers then. Dogs can get credit cards.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Election Winners & Losers
Winners & Losers of the Election:
WINNER: The Democratic Party - It shored up its base and expanded to places where Republicans were once gaining ground. Latinos broke for Obama, and younger people. It had the reverse Bradley effect. Despite presiding over the least popular Congress in history, the Dems made big gains in the House and Senate.
LOSER: The Republican Party - John McCain's never been the darling of the base, but his failed campaign left the party in shambles. Sometimes you need to be reduced to ashes to rise like a phoenix, but now is the time for the GOP to look for its heart and soul. They'll barely be able to filibuster, so they'll need to choose their battles wisely. They also lost ground on two of their normally strongest issues - the economy and national security. How can they argue Democrats will make us more socialist when they helped pass the $700 billion bailout?
WINNER: David Axelrod & Robert Gibbs - They showed that positive campaigning works. The Obama Team stayed positive when Hillary was beating them, and they could stay above the fray when the surrogates did the attacking. Look at the pleasant smile on Gibbs's face when he says he wouldn't accuse Sean Hannity of anti-Semitism for having an anti-Semite on his show. Now Axelrod is a White House Advisor and Gibbs is the press secretary.
LOSER: Steve Schmidt & Rick Davis - They looked smart the day after the GOP convention wrapped, but then it all fell apart. They had a different message every few days, and they never seemed to realize when certain mud didn't stick. They used Palin as an attack dog, which drove up her negatives, and they didn't let any of her Alaska people help with the campaign. Now they have a bunch of anonymous workers joining in the circular firing squad. (Until the worker is man enough to name himself, I find it impossible to believe Palin didn't know Africa was a continent and not one big country.)
WINNER: Old-school conservatives - This battle hasn't been fought yet, but writers like Chris Buckley, Peggy Noonan, George Will, David Brooks, etc., seemed to realize the only way to save the Republican party from itself was to reject its current trajectory. This means more goodwill built up for governors like Bobby Jindal and Charlie Crist, and it means Newt Gingrich will bend a few more ears with his think-tank.
LOSER: Populist conservatives - Sarah Palin needs to decide which camp she wants to belong to. She went the populist route and it cost her. She needs to finish her term as governor and do some studying. Meanwhile I don't think the Mike Huckabee/Gary Bauer type is going to fly in 2012. I'd put the hawkish neocons in this camp too.
WINNER: CNN. The Pew Research group found CNN to be the most balanced of all the news in this election cycle.
LOSER: MSNBC. The Pew Research Group found them to be the least balanced, and they're still last in cable ratings, though Rachel Maddow gets a shout-out for sometimes beating Larry King now. NBC itself showed to be pretty fair, and guys like Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams have expressed displeasure at their cable wing aiming to just be a liberal Fox News.
WINNER: Franklin D. Roosevelt. If Obama implements half of what he promised, America is going to get a New New Deal.
LOSER: George W. Bush. He got us into two wars, and intelligence eventually revealed one was unjustified. Even if it had been, his administration blew the post-war occupation. Meanwhile he presided over major increases in spending, a ballooning deficit, a further out-of-balance budget, the nationalization of banks, and an annihilation of the Republican majority in both houses. And Osama bin Laden is still free.
WINNER: Howard Dean. His plan in 2005 to go to all 50 states is paying fruit. GOP mainstays like Virginia and Indiana went blue, and the NY Times election map shows that 90% of the counties in the US were bluer now than they were in 2004. And he's quitting while he's ahead.
LOSER: Karl Rove. His plan of keeping the base energized and ignoring everybody else collapsed when Bush gave them nothing to be energized about from the 2005 State of the Union address onward.
WINNER: Harry Reid. He has the power now. Will he use it wisely?
LOSER: Joe Lieberman. When the Senate was 51-49 they needed him. Now that it's more like 57-43, sayonara, Joe, from any important position.
WINNER: The Democratic Party - It shored up its base and expanded to places where Republicans were once gaining ground. Latinos broke for Obama, and younger people. It had the reverse Bradley effect. Despite presiding over the least popular Congress in history, the Dems made big gains in the House and Senate.
LOSER: The Republican Party - John McCain's never been the darling of the base, but his failed campaign left the party in shambles. Sometimes you need to be reduced to ashes to rise like a phoenix, but now is the time for the GOP to look for its heart and soul. They'll barely be able to filibuster, so they'll need to choose their battles wisely. They also lost ground on two of their normally strongest issues - the economy and national security. How can they argue Democrats will make us more socialist when they helped pass the $700 billion bailout?
WINNER: David Axelrod & Robert Gibbs - They showed that positive campaigning works. The Obama Team stayed positive when Hillary was beating them, and they could stay above the fray when the surrogates did the attacking. Look at the pleasant smile on Gibbs's face when he says he wouldn't accuse Sean Hannity of anti-Semitism for having an anti-Semite on his show. Now Axelrod is a White House Advisor and Gibbs is the press secretary.
LOSER: Steve Schmidt & Rick Davis - They looked smart the day after the GOP convention wrapped, but then it all fell apart. They had a different message every few days, and they never seemed to realize when certain mud didn't stick. They used Palin as an attack dog, which drove up her negatives, and they didn't let any of her Alaska people help with the campaign. Now they have a bunch of anonymous workers joining in the circular firing squad. (Until the worker is man enough to name himself, I find it impossible to believe Palin didn't know Africa was a continent and not one big country.)
WINNER: Old-school conservatives - This battle hasn't been fought yet, but writers like Chris Buckley, Peggy Noonan, George Will, David Brooks, etc., seemed to realize the only way to save the Republican party from itself was to reject its current trajectory. This means more goodwill built up for governors like Bobby Jindal and Charlie Crist, and it means Newt Gingrich will bend a few more ears with his think-tank.
LOSER: Populist conservatives - Sarah Palin needs to decide which camp she wants to belong to. She went the populist route and it cost her. She needs to finish her term as governor and do some studying. Meanwhile I don't think the Mike Huckabee/Gary Bauer type is going to fly in 2012. I'd put the hawkish neocons in this camp too.
WINNER: CNN. The Pew Research group found CNN to be the most balanced of all the news in this election cycle.
LOSER: MSNBC. The Pew Research Group found them to be the least balanced, and they're still last in cable ratings, though Rachel Maddow gets a shout-out for sometimes beating Larry King now. NBC itself showed to be pretty fair, and guys like Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams have expressed displeasure at their cable wing aiming to just be a liberal Fox News.
WINNER: Franklin D. Roosevelt. If Obama implements half of what he promised, America is going to get a New New Deal.
LOSER: George W. Bush. He got us into two wars, and intelligence eventually revealed one was unjustified. Even if it had been, his administration blew the post-war occupation. Meanwhile he presided over major increases in spending, a ballooning deficit, a further out-of-balance budget, the nationalization of banks, and an annihilation of the Republican majority in both houses. And Osama bin Laden is still free.
WINNER: Howard Dean. His plan in 2005 to go to all 50 states is paying fruit. GOP mainstays like Virginia and Indiana went blue, and the NY Times election map shows that 90% of the counties in the US were bluer now than they were in 2004. And he's quitting while he's ahead.
LOSER: Karl Rove. His plan of keeping the base energized and ignoring everybody else collapsed when Bush gave them nothing to be energized about from the 2005 State of the Union address onward.
WINNER: Harry Reid. He has the power now. Will he use it wisely?
LOSER: Joe Lieberman. When the Senate was 51-49 they needed him. Now that it's more like 57-43, sayonara, Joe, from any important position.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Savaging Sarah Palin
It's very strange what's going on with John McCain's campaign aftermath. All kinds of anonymous campaign folk are accusing Sarah Palin of all sorts of things, among them that she didn't know that Africa was a continent, not a country. Rush Limbaugh made the point that McCain aides are doing more to trash Palin than they ever did Jeremiah Wright or William Ayers. I don't think many of the McCain team will find themselves on the staff of whoever the 2012 GOP nominee will be.
I still think the front-runners for 2012 are Palin and Bobby Jindal.
I still think the front-runners for 2012 are Palin and Bobby Jindal.
NY Times Interactive Map
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html
Here's a cool tool that shows exactly how every county voted, and how big the shifts were between 2004 and 2008. A quick glance shows about 85% of the counties went bluer this time than they did in 2004.
Here's a cool tool that shows exactly how every county voted, and how big the shifts were between 2004 and 2008. A quick glance shows about 85% of the counties went bluer this time than they did in 2004.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Landslide win
Barack Obama is about to get more votes than any US presidential candidate in history. He's also the first Democrat to get more than 50% of the vote since Jimmy Carter.
Even here in Utah, where John McCain won, Obama cut the amount Kerry lost by in half. I'd be interest to see if there is a single state where Obama failed to get the votes Kerry did in 2004.
The four main races here were no surprise. Republicans won the governor, and House Districts 1 & 3 by wide margins, and Democrat incumbant Jim Matheson won House 2 by an equally wide margin. It's up to Republicans in Congress now to learn from the successes and failures of Pres. Bush and look more like the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and whoever that new leader may be.
And my bet is that Barack Obama will learn the lesson of the first two years of Bill Clinton, not overreach, and thus not blow the big gains made by the Dems in the House and Senate.
Even here in Utah, where John McCain won, Obama cut the amount Kerry lost by in half. I'd be interest to see if there is a single state where Obama failed to get the votes Kerry did in 2004.
The four main races here were no surprise. Republicans won the governor, and House Districts 1 & 3 by wide margins, and Democrat incumbant Jim Matheson won House 2 by an equally wide margin. It's up to Republicans in Congress now to learn from the successes and failures of Pres. Bush and look more like the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and whoever that new leader may be.
And my bet is that Barack Obama will learn the lesson of the first two years of Bill Clinton, not overreach, and thus not blow the big gains made by the Dems in the House and Senate.
Obama's road past 300
My original guess of 291 was assuming McCain would squeak out Florida, but he's behind by 12 points with 15% of the votes in. McCain needed to thread the needle, but without Florida, it's impossible.
At least it looks like the Democrats won't get their 60-seat Senate majority, so the country is completely ready to go socialist. Even though Pres. Bush already helped nudge us further down the socialist path.
At least it looks like the Democrats won't get their 60-seat Senate majority, so the country is completely ready to go socialist. Even though Pres. Bush already helped nudge us further down the socialist path.
Polling starts to close
The way I see it, Obama will win with 291 electoral votes. If enough states are called for him early enough that could help tip it to over 300.
I just watched Jessica Yellin beam in like Princess Leia to talk to Wolf Blitzer. What a surreal world we are.
I just watched Jessica Yellin beam in like Princess Leia to talk to Wolf Blitzer. What a surreal world we are.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Obama Supporter Shocked by McCain Sign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj1ENW0K_OE
A man was tired of people stealing his McCain signs from his yard so he hooked one up with an electrical charge and pointed a camera at it. A 9-year-old boy entered his yard and tried to grab the sign but received a shock.
A man was tired of people stealing his McCain signs from his yard so he hooked one up with an electrical charge and pointed a camera at it. A 9-year-old boy entered his yard and tried to grab the sign but received a shock.
Monday, October 27, 2008
McCain losing ground
A month ago I thought Colorado and Nevada were crucial for McCain. But now it looks like if he loses Ohio and Pennsylvania, it's over, and he's down in Pennsylvania by 10 points. Only if he wins both of them and keeps North Carolina and Florida does McCain then rest his hopes on keeping at least one of Colorado and Nevada.
Looking at electoral map history, the nation used to be a lot more prone to giant swings in going red or going blue. FDR won big all four times, as did Truman the first time, even though the popular vote was close. Then the country overwhelmingly went for Eisenhower. Kennedy squeaked out 1960, but the nation threw its electoral weight behind Lyndon Johnson, only to throw it the other way behind Nixon in '68 and '72. Things got close, but Ronald Reagan had record landslides for two elections. Bill Clinton only got 43% of the vote in 1992 but electoral-college-wise it was a landslide. And we've been close ever since.
It wouldn't surprise me to see this race remain close on Nov. 4, but I think more likely, Obama will see a couple of those swing states go his way early, be it Ohio or New Hampshire or North Carolina or Florida, and it will have a domino effect that spreads West, winding up getting him over 300 electoral votes.
Looking at electoral map history, the nation used to be a lot more prone to giant swings in going red or going blue. FDR won big all four times, as did Truman the first time, even though the popular vote was close. Then the country overwhelmingly went for Eisenhower. Kennedy squeaked out 1960, but the nation threw its electoral weight behind Lyndon Johnson, only to throw it the other way behind Nixon in '68 and '72. Things got close, but Ronald Reagan had record landslides for two elections. Bill Clinton only got 43% of the vote in 1992 but electoral-college-wise it was a landslide. And we've been close ever since.
It wouldn't surprise me to see this race remain close on Nov. 4, but I think more likely, Obama will see a couple of those swing states go his way early, be it Ohio or New Hampshire or North Carolina or Florida, and it will have a domino effect that spreads West, winding up getting him over 300 electoral votes.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Ashley Todd = Morton Downey Jr.
I remember watching Morton Downey Jr., precursor to Jerry Springer. He was loud, he was crude, he'd get in people's faces and scream and blow smoke in their face. His career ended when he claimed he'd been attack by neo-Nazis who shaved half his head and painted a swastika on his forehead. Trouble is, the swastika was backward. His story fell apart.
When I first heard her story, it sounded funny. The mugger had the money, but then followed her to her car, then saw the McCain bumper sticker, then jumped her and carved a B into her face? Backward? Maybe 20-year-old Ashley Todd wanted to underline some of the left-wing anger (Norm Coleman's house vandalized) since the right-wing anger ("He's an Arab!") is all that's getting reported right now. But her 48-hour news cycle stint hurts McCain more than it helps. Now every couple of years, some news station or paper will do a "Where are they now?" blurb, and Ashley Todd will be one.
When I first heard her story, it sounded funny. The mugger had the money, but then followed her to her car, then saw the McCain bumper sticker, then jumped her and carved a B into her face? Backward? Maybe 20-year-old Ashley Todd wanted to underline some of the left-wing anger (Norm Coleman's house vandalized) since the right-wing anger ("He's an Arab!") is all that's getting reported right now. But her 48-hour news cycle stint hurts McCain more than it helps. Now every couple of years, some news station or paper will do a "Where are they now?" blurb, and Ashley Todd will be one.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
No One Will Win
If Barack Obama wins, it will be said it's because he broke his word about public financing and spent more money than any presidential candidate in history. He bought the election. It will be because the media is vastly Democratic or liberal-leaning, and they did more to vet Joe the Plumber than Barack Obama, an inexperienced first-time Senator who has spent more time running for president than serving as senator. It will be said the hate machine on the Left, from DailyKos to Huffington Post to Keith Olbermann engaged in Machiavellian tactics to make sure the Messiah won, and they ignored the illegal and dishonest tactics by ACORN to submit thousands of fraudulant votes throughout several battleground states. Unless it's a blow-out, it will be said he not only bought it, but stole it with voter fraud.
If John McCain wins, it will be said it's because America's still full of racists. It will be said it's because of the Bradley effect. It will be said that there must have been voter fraud on the Right, and hundreds of lawsuits will be filed. It will be said that it was the hate stirred up by Sarah Palin that got just enough conservatives angry enough to vote. Wouldn't surprise me to see riots if McCain wins.
Now neither of these scenarios may not generate, and if they do, it will only be noticed or thought about by a small percentage of this nation. The political system is set up to hate thy neighbor, and cable news channels should be called cable poll channels or cable pundit channels. CNN Headline News or C-Span are the only ones where the majority is actually news. I watch pieces of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, but I can usually only stand a few minutes at a time at what I'm seeing.
Meanwhile there probably won't be any significant investigations as to what led to these meltdowns, because of how intertwined government already is with business, and how much more power the government can give itself due to the crises we have. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Charlie Rangel won't even lose their chairs.
BUUUT politics has always been this way. When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson ran against each other, Adams said the election of Jefferson would lead to increased rape and murder in America.
The real reason if Obama wins: people want to vote for something, not against.
If John McCain wins, it will be said it's because America's still full of racists. It will be said it's because of the Bradley effect. It will be said that there must have been voter fraud on the Right, and hundreds of lawsuits will be filed. It will be said that it was the hate stirred up by Sarah Palin that got just enough conservatives angry enough to vote. Wouldn't surprise me to see riots if McCain wins.
Now neither of these scenarios may not generate, and if they do, it will only be noticed or thought about by a small percentage of this nation. The political system is set up to hate thy neighbor, and cable news channels should be called cable poll channels or cable pundit channels. CNN Headline News or C-Span are the only ones where the majority is actually news. I watch pieces of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, but I can usually only stand a few minutes at a time at what I'm seeing.
Meanwhile there probably won't be any significant investigations as to what led to these meltdowns, because of how intertwined government already is with business, and how much more power the government can give itself due to the crises we have. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Charlie Rangel won't even lose their chairs.
BUUUT politics has always been this way. When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson ran against each other, Adams said the election of Jefferson would lead to increased rape and murder in America.
The real reason if Obama wins: people want to vote for something, not against.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Sarah Palin in 2012?
Pretty bloody likely, unless her family decides otherwise.
It looks like McCain will lose the election, and the next four years will be Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Sarah Palin can go back to Alaska, finish her term, run for a second in 2010, and then think about if she wants to try the national circuit thing again. I believe she can do it.
For starts, she would have a different team. I think she and McCain see what a disservice Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis have done to them. They ran a campaign like Bush 2004. McCain is not Bush, but it was eaiser for Obama to keep hammering that point when Rove acolytes were running his campaign. When Palin joined the ticket, she didn't bring her own people, people who knew her, people who knew her strengths and weaknesses and have learned what has worked for her in the past and what hasn't. 80% approval rating from any state is no accident.
Barring a Gingrichian figure to rise to leadership in Congress that will be heavily Democratic next year, the void will try to be filled by the next presidential election.
Now who on the stage now could run in 2012? Mitt Romney could give it another go. If the economy is still messy in Fall 2011, he would have some appeal. He's also said some things this year that will bite him then. ("I want to double the size of Guantanamo.") I don't see Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson or John McCain as viable in 2012.
The other main pursuer to the 2012 crown I see is Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. He's even younger than Palin, but he showed vastly superior leadership during Hurricane Gustav than whoever ran that place when Katrina hit. And hey, he's an ethnic minority. Democrats will always label Republicans as racists until they get an ethnic minority on the ticket. (Never mind that poll that said 30% of white Democrats are racist and former KKK member Robert Byrd is the senior Democrat in the Senate.)
On the flip side, I can see many Republicans who aspire to the presidency sitting 2012 out. If Obama is remotely effective, they might not want to be the Bob Dole of 2012. I would argue the main reason Hillary sat out 2004 was she knew half of one term as senator wasn't going to beat Bush, adding to the irony of what Obama was able to do.
Where do I sit today? I sit contented knowing Obama will be our next president. I sit hoping he'll be able to control the leadership in Congress from treating the next four years as revenge time. Obama's been going more and more to the middle since he sealed the nomination, and maybe he can effectively govern from there. My general feeling is that 30% of the country is die-hard leftie Democrat, 30% is die-hard rightie Republican, and then there's the middle 40% who get screwed by gerrymandering. The next two to four years is the time for the GOP to reform itself, get back to basics, quit asking 'What Would Reagan Do?' (I loved him too, but it's a different time now) and see what big issues Obama will actually reach across the aisle on.
I also hope this is the time the Democrats learn from the mistakes of the Republicans during their control years. I hope they reform themselves too. But if in January 2009, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd still hold their Chair positions, I'll just have to brace for two more years of the Same Old Same Old.
10% approval, Nancy. 10% approval, Harry. Clean thine houses, for the good of the country.
It looks like McCain will lose the election, and the next four years will be Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Sarah Palin can go back to Alaska, finish her term, run for a second in 2010, and then think about if she wants to try the national circuit thing again. I believe she can do it.
For starts, she would have a different team. I think she and McCain see what a disservice Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis have done to them. They ran a campaign like Bush 2004. McCain is not Bush, but it was eaiser for Obama to keep hammering that point when Rove acolytes were running his campaign. When Palin joined the ticket, she didn't bring her own people, people who knew her, people who knew her strengths and weaknesses and have learned what has worked for her in the past and what hasn't. 80% approval rating from any state is no accident.
Barring a Gingrichian figure to rise to leadership in Congress that will be heavily Democratic next year, the void will try to be filled by the next presidential election.
Now who on the stage now could run in 2012? Mitt Romney could give it another go. If the economy is still messy in Fall 2011, he would have some appeal. He's also said some things this year that will bite him then. ("I want to double the size of Guantanamo.") I don't see Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson or John McCain as viable in 2012.
The other main pursuer to the 2012 crown I see is Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. He's even younger than Palin, but he showed vastly superior leadership during Hurricane Gustav than whoever ran that place when Katrina hit. And hey, he's an ethnic minority. Democrats will always label Republicans as racists until they get an ethnic minority on the ticket. (Never mind that poll that said 30% of white Democrats are racist and former KKK member Robert Byrd is the senior Democrat in the Senate.)
On the flip side, I can see many Republicans who aspire to the presidency sitting 2012 out. If Obama is remotely effective, they might not want to be the Bob Dole of 2012. I would argue the main reason Hillary sat out 2004 was she knew half of one term as senator wasn't going to beat Bush, adding to the irony of what Obama was able to do.
Where do I sit today? I sit contented knowing Obama will be our next president. I sit hoping he'll be able to control the leadership in Congress from treating the next four years as revenge time. Obama's been going more and more to the middle since he sealed the nomination, and maybe he can effectively govern from there. My general feeling is that 30% of the country is die-hard leftie Democrat, 30% is die-hard rightie Republican, and then there's the middle 40% who get screwed by gerrymandering. The next two to four years is the time for the GOP to reform itself, get back to basics, quit asking 'What Would Reagan Do?' (I loved him too, but it's a different time now) and see what big issues Obama will actually reach across the aisle on.
I also hope this is the time the Democrats learn from the mistakes of the Republicans during their control years. I hope they reform themselves too. But if in January 2009, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd still hold their Chair positions, I'll just have to brace for two more years of the Same Old Same Old.
10% approval, Nancy. 10% approval, Harry. Clean thine houses, for the good of the country.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Al E. Smith Dinner
McCain pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goaj5V4tZoc
pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrqoSyKsAPw
Obama pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXKaAQ-6BiU
pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBQf4FJi-o
McCain was hilarious. Obama had some good lines too, but he didn’t seem as comfortable doing comedy.
Nice to see them in an environment like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goaj5V4tZoc
pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrqoSyKsAPw
Obama pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXKaAQ-6BiU
pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBQf4FJi-o
McCain was hilarious. Obama had some good lines too, but he didn’t seem as comfortable doing comedy.
Nice to see them in an environment like this.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
And they're done
McCain had the line of the night with "If you wanted to vote against Pres. Bush, you should have done it four years ago." But Rachel Maddow pointed out that the left is going to go after McCain's stance on abortion, where he made light of what exactly Obama means by the "health" of the mother.
Obama agrees with McCain
Despite lefties slamming Obama agreeing with McCain too much in the first debate, I think it served him well. He's aunafraid to say he agrees with McCain on charter schools. He makes sure he then leads into where they disagree.
Last question: education
Really? We have fifteen more minutes. Why is this the last question?
Obama gives an eloquant answer, and I feel weird saying that now since McCain has repeated that Obama's "eloquence" tends to hide what he really means. McCain points out he & Cindy and the Obamas "chose" where to send their kids to schools.
Obama gives an eloquant answer, and I feel weird saying that now since McCain has repeated that Obama's "eloquence" tends to hide what he really means. McCain points out he & Cindy and the Obamas "chose" where to send their kids to schools.
"My friend"
John McCain just said to Joe the Plumber "my friend." He said "my friends" 22 times in the last debate. He must have made a conscious effort to not do it tonight, but I just noticed he hadn't said it until now, an hour into the debate.
Nuclear power
Obama's getting in more and more laughs. Little one-syllable laughs to dismiss whatever McCain is talking about. Much more effective than Sighmaster Gore.
Strong dial reads on both of their energy answers.
Strong dial reads on both of their energy answers.
Running mate question
This should be a home-run for Obama, where it lets him sit back and talk about Biden's good qualities.
McCain's talking about Palin and the Ohio undecided men like what he's saying more than women. The women finally moved up in the dial when McCain said she'd be a "breath of fresh air."
Now Bob Schieffer asks Obama what he thinks of Palin. He dances around some compliments, which is the smart way to go, and he is able to turn Palin's support of special-needs children into an illustration on why McCain's spending freeze proposal might hurt them. McCain on Biden gets out quick praise before rattling off where he thinks Biden is wrong. I score it even.
McCain's talking about Palin and the Ohio undecided men like what he's saying more than women. The women finally moved up in the dial when McCain said she'd be a "breath of fresh air."
Now Bob Schieffer asks Obama what he thinks of Palin. He dances around some compliments, which is the smart way to go, and he is able to turn Palin's support of special-needs children into an illustration on why McCain's spending freeze proposal might hurt them. McCain on Biden gets out quick praise before rattling off where he thinks Biden is wrong. I score it even.
Ayers and ACORN
McCain brings up William Ayers and Obama addresses them. Obama details his relationship with Ayers and dismisses it, and it's effective. His explanation of ACORN didn't ring true, so it will be interesting to see if that gains traction.
Obama's now smartly interrupting McCain when he continues to hammer at Ayers.
Obama's now smartly interrupting McCain when he continues to hammer at Ayers.
Negative Campaigning
McCain's repudiation of John Lewis was powerful, and Obama ignored the challenge to repudiate Lewis comparing McCain to segregationist George Wallace. Obama smoothly transitioned to his talking points. When McCain brought Lewis back up, Obama basically said it's Sarah Palin's fault, but then he finally spit out they'd put out a statement that it was inappropriate.
So far this is McCain's best and Obama's worst debate.
McCain brought up the T-shirts, but that's all the details he got out. I wonder how many of the 50 millionish watching know about the "Palin is a c**t" T-shirts.
So far this is McCain's best and Obama's worst debate.
McCain brought up the T-shirts, but that's all the details he got out. I wonder how many of the 50 millionish watching know about the "Palin is a c**t" T-shirts.
Third and Final Presidential Debate
First question on the economy - both brought up their usual points. McCain repeated Obama's line "spread the wealth" five or six times.
Second question on the budget - what would you cut? Obama's only specific is a $15 million subsidy through Medicare to insurance companies. McCain mentions energy and defense spending, and he gets a jump on Obama's usual line of "you don't need a hatchet, you need a scalpel." Obama still finds a way to get the line out.
Hey, McCain looked right at Obama. "Sen. Obama, I am not Pres. Bush. If you wanted to run against Pres. Bush, you should have run four years ago."
Second question on the budget - what would you cut? Obama's only specific is a $15 million subsidy through Medicare to insurance companies. McCain mentions energy and defense spending, and he gets a jump on Obama's usual line of "you don't need a hatchet, you need a scalpel." Obama still finds a way to get the line out.
Hey, McCain looked right at Obama. "Sen. Obama, I am not Pres. Bush. If you wanted to run against Pres. Bush, you should have run four years ago."
Friday, October 3, 2008
Cable reactions
MSNBC seemed disgusted by Sarah Palin. Fox News loved her. CNN had people who saw it both ways.
I think both did well where they needed to. Biden made it clear he's ready to be president. Palin made it clear she's not an idiot.
I think both did well where they needed to. Biden made it clear he's ready to be president. Palin made it clear she's not an idiot.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Biden nearly chokes up
He almost choked when thinking about his child who died and others who might not live. As a dad of one who died and another with a terminal condition, that might be the moment I remember from this debate the longest.
That's going to get a lot of replay.
That's going to get a lot of replay.
Back & Forth
BIDEN: He challenges her on small-town values by plugging Scranton.
PALIN: Extra credit to a group of third-graders for watching the debate.
There's the Alaskan charm that the McCain camp has muzzled.
After the first debate, I got the feeling McCain dislikes Obama. This debate's almost over and I think Biden and Palin will have no such ill feelings.
PALIN: Extra credit to a group of third-graders for watching the debate.
There's the Alaskan charm that the McCain camp has muzzled.
After the first debate, I got the feeling McCain dislikes Obama. This debate's almost over and I think Biden and Palin will have no such ill feelings.
Lost in numbers
Joe Biden got in a "bridge to nowhere" zinger, then Ifill let him respond first to the next question. He's tossing out all sorts of numbers of McCain offering tax breaks to this industry at that industry, which women are eating up much more than men.
Hey, Palin looked at Biden. Something McCain wouldn't do. Palin points out Obama voted for tax breaks to Big Oil in 2005.
Hey, Palin looked at Biden. Something McCain wouldn't do. Palin points out Obama voted for tax breaks to Big Oil in 2005.
More Tax Stuff
Biden's saying anyone making under $250,000 will see no tax raises with Obama, including captial gains. That's a specific I hadn't heard.
Palin: I take issue with that principle of the redistribution of wealth principle.
When Palin said usually government's the problem, the men's approval bar on CNN shot up.
now she's giving some details on health care. In just a few minutes, Biden and Palin are giving mroe details than McCain and Obama did in their ninety minutes.
Palin: I take issue with that principle of the redistribution of wealth principle.
When Palin said usually government's the problem, the men's approval bar on CNN shot up.
now she's giving some details on health care. In just a few minutes, Biden and Palin are giving mroe details than McCain and Obama did in their ninety minutes.
Biden bites back
Biden says McCain voted for tax increases 477 times.
Palin slaps back to plug her own record, but when she starts to defend McCain, Gwen Ifill says we're out of time.
Palin slaps back to plug her own record, but when she starts to defend McCain, Gwen Ifill says we're out of time.
Sub-Prime Mortgages
PALIN: "Darn right" there was corruption with predatory lending. I think "John McCain & I" will get old if she says it every four sentences.
BIDEN: Obama warned us about sub-prime mortages. Really? I'm sure it's in a transcript somewhere, but no one trumpeted on this. So far it's been clear Joe's tack is going to be to attack McCain on every answer.
PALIN: Barack voted against tax cuts 94 times. I wonder if that's true.
BIDEN: Obama warned us about sub-prime mortages. Really? I'm sure it's in a transcript somewhere, but no one trumpeted on this. So far it's been clear Joe's tack is going to be to attack McCain on every answer.
PALIN: Barack voted against tax cuts 94 times. I wonder if that's true.
VP Debate beginning
Joe biden has a gracious and detailed opening statement, and Sarah Palin responds with a competant answer, both hitting a few talking points. And we're off.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
First Debate dust-settling
Well, I guess it was a wash. I asked some people over the weekend and most people I talked to were disappointed, like it was a waste of time. The candidates stuck to their talking points, and looking at Factcheck.org, they both lied a few times. I caught part of Meet the Press this morning, and Steve Schmidt and David Axelrod kept repeating the lies while accusing the other of lying.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Clintonian Tactic?
One thing Bill Clinton was willing to do in his debates is mention whenever he agreed with his opponents. Barack Obama has said "I agree with John" about six times now.
McCain / Obama debate
Live-blogging here.
This, so far, has been an even, substantive debate. This is the kind of debate I was hoping for a year ago, before campaigns devolved into their usual muck-and-mire silliness.
I'm watching CNN's feed, and my eyes keep going to their live-streaming lines of how their focus-grouped Republicans, Democrats and Independents feel about about what's being said at that moment.
This, so far, has been an even, substantive debate. This is the kind of debate I was hoping for a year ago, before campaigns devolved into their usual muck-and-mire silliness.
I'm watching CNN's feed, and my eyes keep going to their live-streaming lines of how their focus-grouped Republicans, Democrats and Independents feel about about what's being said at that moment.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The $700 billion bailout
Maybe I'm naive, but wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to review every customer of Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae and whichever other bank or company the Feds plan to bail out, simply get a list of all the customers who still owe, pay 20% of the mortgages still owed by people, and 10% of the mortgages still owed by businesses, and of those in ARMs or with fixed-rates above 7%, they refinance them for free? I think that would take less than half of the proposed $700 billion bailout, and it would be the people, the bottom-line people helped most, rather than letting Congress skate out of its own neglect and corruption and increasing their power. It would drastically reduce foreclosures and bankruptcies, and meanwhile they can still get rid of some of their laws that were forcing institutions like Freddie & Fannie to take on high-risk sub-prime loans.
I have a hard time seeing why, if they're going to dramatically increase the national debt again, why they're not giving it back to the people that are hurting. Call it trickle-up economics.
While we're at it, make it illegal to charge anyone any interest above 15% for anything. Credit card companies and payday loan companies are immoral in this regard, and if you did that, there'd be a lot less mass mailings offering million of dollars in credit to Current Resident.
I have a hard time seeing why, if they're going to dramatically increase the national debt again, why they're not giving it back to the people that are hurting. Call it trickle-up economics.
While we're at it, make it illegal to charge anyone any interest above 15% for anything. Credit card companies and payday loan companies are immoral in this regard, and if you did that, there'd be a lot less mass mailings offering million of dollars in credit to Current Resident.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More 269-269 electoral fun
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/23/an-electoral-college-doomsday/
If it comes to a 269-269 electoral college tie, the House would pick the President, which would be Obama, but the Senate picks the Vice-President. If Joe Lieberman decides to vote with the Democrats, it would be a 50-50 tie, and Dick Cheney would have the tie-breaking vote. So it's plausible we could have President Barack Obama and Vice-President Sarah Palin.
If it comes to a 269-269 electoral college tie, the House would pick the President, which would be Obama, but the Senate picks the Vice-President. If Joe Lieberman decides to vote with the Democrats, it would be a 50-50 tie, and Dick Cheney would have the tie-breaking vote. So it's plausible we could have President Barack Obama and Vice-President Sarah Palin.
Friday, September 19, 2008
What Obama Should Do
In a recent softball interview on MSNBC's Countdown, Keitho didn't so much ask Barack questions as he did solicit campaign advice. He asked when Barack was going to get angry and say, "Enough!"
Barack Obama is getting angrier. He's getting more pointed, more snarky, and veering away from what appeals about him. Obama conveys that he's above the usual political fray. The new dishonest Barack is killing the "hope" and "change" ideals for which he stood.
Political ads are historically distortive and inaccurate. Henry Clay was brutal against Andrew Jackson, portraying him as a simian fool. Abraham Lincoln's opponents compared him to Satan.
John McCain rode the Straight Talk Express in 2000, and the press loved him. And he lost. McCain saw himself in fourth place early in the Republican primaries, and he got a little more Machiavellian with his tactics. Mitt Romney tried to engage McCain on his dishonest tactics, and he lost. He looked like a whiner.
Obama didn't engage in anything Hillary Clinton threw at him. Plagairism? He laughed it off. Lack of experience? Let's focus on judgment.
McCain's ads against Obama have been playfully misleading. But Obama saw the Palin bounce and overreacted, leading to a bigger Palin bounce. Now he's telling his followers to get in people's faces, and putting out race-baiting ads. I don't see how he's going to sway independents by appealing to the desires of the left-wingers who are angry all the time.
What is McCain doing for the righties? He gave them Sarah Palin. That's all he has to do. Republicans know Bush has not been a good president, they know their six years of controlling Congress yielded a higher deficit. Everyone knows McCain will be different than Bush, just not as different as Obama would be.
It all comes down to the debates, and Obama can hammer McCain with specifics, what he will specifically do versus what McCain has not specifically said he would do. But Obama, master speaker, needs to keep the sunny optimism about him. He's complemented Reagan a few times, and he can follow Reagan's lead. Talk about what's good about America, what's good about the American people. Then he can address what he will do to make people's lives better, stregthen the economy, and restore our standing in the world.
And quit taking campaign advice from the DailyKos crowd.
Barack Obama is getting angrier. He's getting more pointed, more snarky, and veering away from what appeals about him. Obama conveys that he's above the usual political fray. The new dishonest Barack is killing the "hope" and "change" ideals for which he stood.
Political ads are historically distortive and inaccurate. Henry Clay was brutal against Andrew Jackson, portraying him as a simian fool. Abraham Lincoln's opponents compared him to Satan.
John McCain rode the Straight Talk Express in 2000, and the press loved him. And he lost. McCain saw himself in fourth place early in the Republican primaries, and he got a little more Machiavellian with his tactics. Mitt Romney tried to engage McCain on his dishonest tactics, and he lost. He looked like a whiner.
Obama didn't engage in anything Hillary Clinton threw at him. Plagairism? He laughed it off. Lack of experience? Let's focus on judgment.
McCain's ads against Obama have been playfully misleading. But Obama saw the Palin bounce and overreacted, leading to a bigger Palin bounce. Now he's telling his followers to get in people's faces, and putting out race-baiting ads. I don't see how he's going to sway independents by appealing to the desires of the left-wingers who are angry all the time.
What is McCain doing for the righties? He gave them Sarah Palin. That's all he has to do. Republicans know Bush has not been a good president, they know their six years of controlling Congress yielded a higher deficit. Everyone knows McCain will be different than Bush, just not as different as Obama would be.
It all comes down to the debates, and Obama can hammer McCain with specifics, what he will specifically do versus what McCain has not specifically said he would do. But Obama, master speaker, needs to keep the sunny optimism about him. He's complemented Reagan a few times, and he can follow Reagan's lead. Talk about what's good about America, what's good about the American people. Then he can address what he will do to make people's lives better, stregthen the economy, and restore our standing in the world.
And quit taking campaign advice from the DailyKos crowd.
Monday, September 15, 2008
My Case for McCain/Palin
I've always said John McCain was my guy in 2000. I think most could look at the country and the Republican party now and say both would have been better off if he had beaten George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries. I voted for Bush in 2000 because I was against Gore.
George W. Bush ran as a compassionate conservative. It turns out that meant was he was socially conservative, fiscally liberal, and diplomatically tone-deaf. No wonder the deficit grew so much.
I voted Libertarian in 2004.
I believe McCain would have implemented some if not all of Bush's tax cuts. I also believe he would have fought back against spending. I believe after 9/11, McCain would have gone to Afghanistan, would not have tried to come up with an excuse to go to Iraq, and McCain would not have announced to the world, "You're with us or against us. Iraq, Iran and North Korea are the axis of evil." We'll never know for sure unless the afterlife has a "What If" Holodeck machine we can play with for eternity. I believe under McCain, Osama bin Laden would be dead by now.
In 2008, there are many reasons for me to vote for Obama. First, I'm in Utah. McCain will win this state by over 20% no matter what. So, more votes for Obama narrows that gap. As long as Republicans control so much, they will continue to take this state for granted, and the Democrats will continue to ignore it.
Second, I do think Obama would send a positive message throughout the world, a world that didn't hate us as much in 2001 as it does now, and most of those in the world who hate America don't really hate the American people; they hate the American government. They hate Bush.
Third, it'd be cool. Two of my kids are from Zambia. How cool would it be to have them grow up knowing a black president?
Every once in a while, a party needs something to remind them who they are and what they stand for. For the GOP, Reagan came along and rescued them. Then they lost it. Then they got it back in 1994. Then they lost it. They lost it by following George W. Bush on everything. There needed to be more questions on Iraq, on the program of pre-emptive strike. Why was the post-strike occupation of Iraq so poorly managed? Why increase the entitlements in Medicare when the deficit is already huge? They did push back occasionally, like the nomination of Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court, but there should have been more.
I think fear of losing power led to their loss of power. They trusted Bush in 2004, and Bush didn't lead. They deserved to lose control of the House and Senate in 2006. In the past year and a half, Bush has wised up on diplomacy and troop levels. He underplays so he doesn't have to admit to many mistakes. Google-search Fareed Zakaria's recent Newsweek article on what Bush is getting right; he did a great concise job of laying it out.
Fifty years from now, I don't think Bush will be considered the worst president in history, which is what many lefties right now believe. I think James Buchanan will always hold that dubious honor, with Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding down around there too. Many felt that way about Truman when he left office but decades later, he's viewed as pretty good. History's been kinder to LBJ as well. I'm not saying he'll ever be in the top half. Time will tell.
But with Democratic control sure to remain over the House and Senate, this country would be better off with McCain in charge than Obama.
Watching the GOP convention, this party is ready to reform against itself, ready to throw the bums out (except their own). Gone are Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, Rick Santorum, George Allen. Soon to be gone are Larry Craig and Ted Stevens. With the religious right, Jerry Falwell's dead, Pat Robertson's irrelevant and religious guys like Rick Warren seem more tolerant. (Firm in their beliefs, but tolerant.) I participated in aiding a primary election of throwing out an Republican incumbant to bring in a new guy (Jason Chaffetz) running on fiscal discipline.
Despite how petty the campaigns have become the past few weeks, McCain's demonstrated time and again his ability to compromise and work with the other side of the aisle. This is important. Joe Lieberman got Republicans to cheer Bill Clinton at their convention by point out that hey, Bill worked with you on welfare reform and balancing the budget.
Right now the Dems are running against Sarah Palin, trying to terrify the public that John McCain will die in office and this woman will then have the nuclear codes. But running against a Vice-Preisdential candidate never works. The Dems annihilated Dan Quayle in 1988, but to what end? Besides, Palin was the perfect pick for McCain if he wants to get elected. I can't think of another person who would have energized the base more, with all due respect to Kay Bailey Hutchison. As for McCain dying in office, I keep looking at his 96-year-old mother. And if he did die in office, say at the three-year mark, that's three years of valuable experience Palin would have by then. But the whole experience question is kinda of a joke. Americans like governors as president (Bush 43, Clinton 42, Reagan 40, Carter 39, etc.) and she did more to tackle problems in her two years as governor than Obama did voting the party line in four years in the Senate.
George W. Bush ran as a compassionate conservative. It turns out that meant was he was socially conservative, fiscally liberal, and diplomatically tone-deaf. No wonder the deficit grew so much.
I voted Libertarian in 2004.
I believe McCain would have implemented some if not all of Bush's tax cuts. I also believe he would have fought back against spending. I believe after 9/11, McCain would have gone to Afghanistan, would not have tried to come up with an excuse to go to Iraq, and McCain would not have announced to the world, "You're with us or against us. Iraq, Iran and North Korea are the axis of evil." We'll never know for sure unless the afterlife has a "What If" Holodeck machine we can play with for eternity. I believe under McCain, Osama bin Laden would be dead by now.
In 2008, there are many reasons for me to vote for Obama. First, I'm in Utah. McCain will win this state by over 20% no matter what. So, more votes for Obama narrows that gap. As long as Republicans control so much, they will continue to take this state for granted, and the Democrats will continue to ignore it.
Second, I do think Obama would send a positive message throughout the world, a world that didn't hate us as much in 2001 as it does now, and most of those in the world who hate America don't really hate the American people; they hate the American government. They hate Bush.
Third, it'd be cool. Two of my kids are from Zambia. How cool would it be to have them grow up knowing a black president?
Every once in a while, a party needs something to remind them who they are and what they stand for. For the GOP, Reagan came along and rescued them. Then they lost it. Then they got it back in 1994. Then they lost it. They lost it by following George W. Bush on everything. There needed to be more questions on Iraq, on the program of pre-emptive strike. Why was the post-strike occupation of Iraq so poorly managed? Why increase the entitlements in Medicare when the deficit is already huge? They did push back occasionally, like the nomination of Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court, but there should have been more.
I think fear of losing power led to their loss of power. They trusted Bush in 2004, and Bush didn't lead. They deserved to lose control of the House and Senate in 2006. In the past year and a half, Bush has wised up on diplomacy and troop levels. He underplays so he doesn't have to admit to many mistakes. Google-search Fareed Zakaria's recent Newsweek article on what Bush is getting right; he did a great concise job of laying it out.
Fifty years from now, I don't think Bush will be considered the worst president in history, which is what many lefties right now believe. I think James Buchanan will always hold that dubious honor, with Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding down around there too. Many felt that way about Truman when he left office but decades later, he's viewed as pretty good. History's been kinder to LBJ as well. I'm not saying he'll ever be in the top half. Time will tell.
But with Democratic control sure to remain over the House and Senate, this country would be better off with McCain in charge than Obama.
Watching the GOP convention, this party is ready to reform against itself, ready to throw the bums out (except their own). Gone are Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, Rick Santorum, George Allen. Soon to be gone are Larry Craig and Ted Stevens. With the religious right, Jerry Falwell's dead, Pat Robertson's irrelevant and religious guys like Rick Warren seem more tolerant. (Firm in their beliefs, but tolerant.) I participated in aiding a primary election of throwing out an Republican incumbant to bring in a new guy (Jason Chaffetz) running on fiscal discipline.
Despite how petty the campaigns have become the past few weeks, McCain's demonstrated time and again his ability to compromise and work with the other side of the aisle. This is important. Joe Lieberman got Republicans to cheer Bill Clinton at their convention by point out that hey, Bill worked with you on welfare reform and balancing the budget.
Right now the Dems are running against Sarah Palin, trying to terrify the public that John McCain will die in office and this woman will then have the nuclear codes. But running against a Vice-Preisdential candidate never works. The Dems annihilated Dan Quayle in 1988, but to what end? Besides, Palin was the perfect pick for McCain if he wants to get elected. I can't think of another person who would have energized the base more, with all due respect to Kay Bailey Hutchison. As for McCain dying in office, I keep looking at his 96-year-old mother. And if he did die in office, say at the three-year mark, that's three years of valuable experience Palin would have by then. But the whole experience question is kinda of a joke. Americans like governors as president (Bush 43, Clinton 42, Reagan 40, Carter 39, etc.) and she did more to tackle problems in her two years as governor than Obama did voting the party line in four years in the Senate.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Silly season
Lipstick on a pig.
Biden says Hillary might have been a better choice.
Rev. Wright slept with a married woman in his flock.
But this morning I turned on the TV and saw the footage from 2001. Everyone remembers what they were doing that day.
One thing that hasn't come up much this election cycle is terrorism. I think because people believe that both candidates have pretty much the same plan. They're different on taxes, energy, health care, Iraq, but I think "The War on Terror", a moniker that now means as much as Johnson's War on Poverty, Nixon's War on Cancer or Reagan's War on Drugs, will subside into a more rational form. I don't think the world is so much anti-American as they are anti-Bush, and after the election, the world will breathe a sigh of relief.
Biden says Hillary might have been a better choice.
Rev. Wright slept with a married woman in his flock.
But this morning I turned on the TV and saw the footage from 2001. Everyone remembers what they were doing that day.
One thing that hasn't come up much this election cycle is terrorism. I think because people believe that both candidates have pretty much the same plan. They're different on taxes, energy, health care, Iraq, but I think "The War on Terror", a moniker that now means as much as Johnson's War on Poverty, Nixon's War on Cancer or Reagan's War on Drugs, will subside into a more rational form. I don't think the world is so much anti-American as they are anti-Bush, and after the election, the world will breathe a sigh of relief.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
MSNBC comes to senses
The New York Times is reporting that for upcoming debates and the November presidential election, David Gregory will assume MSNBC anchoring duties, taking over for Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. This comes after the network received much criticism for the biased reporting and on-air bickering during the convention weeks, and while it saw improvement in ratings, it was still in last place of the seven channels doing coverage.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
GOP Speeches so far
These are the ones I saw.
Fred Thompson - He did a vivid narrative of John McCain's service, and if he'd shown that type of passion when he ran for president, he might've done better.
Joe Lieberman - It was weird seeing him there. And the crowd seemed unsure how to react at times. He was Genial Joe, incapable of pulling a fire-and-brimstone Zell Miller speech, but with his smile, he conveyed quite nicely that party differences aside, Barack's just not ready to be president. He also got the crowd to cheer for Bill Clinton, when he pointed out Clinton was able to cross party lines to pass things like welfare reform and a balanced budget, and Barack has no examples of doing anything similar.
Mitt Romney - His speech played to the hall, and in a way, it also illustrated why he lost the nomination. His rhetoric was over the top and in ways, fear-mongering. I think he's better in a job than campaigning for one. He really turned the Olympics around. Maybe he can move to Michigan and run for governor there, or fill a cabinet post.
Mike Huckabee - Huck has an easy time speaking to a crowd and he hit some good populist points. It's difficult to gage his sincerity. He reminds me of the old saying, "Once you can fake sincerity, you've got it made." I think even if McCain loses, neither Mitt nor Huck will not be the nominee in 2012. Huck's going to be a Fox News talking-head.
Rudy Giuliani - His strong points were on McCain the man. I thought he got a little lost in the weeds with the Islamic terrorism thing. He also got out some good points about Sarah Palin; pointing out her 80% approval rating makes her "most popular governor in America."
Sarah Palin - Speech of the week so far. For example, for the Democrats, I thought Bill & Hillary's speeches dwarfed Joe Biden's. Not the case here. The hall was rooting for her. After seeing how the press brutalized her and her family the past five days, it was nice to see her respond, and she did it with a smile, with grace and dignity, and she also served well the usual role of a VP nominee: attack dog. She wasn't mean about it; she just got in her jabs, illustrating how she has more experience than "our opponent", let alone John McCain. The line that leapt out to my wife was "For you parents of children with special needs, you will have a friend and an advocate in the White House."
Even if they lose, she can go back to being governor, and she'd be the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2012.
Fred Thompson - He did a vivid narrative of John McCain's service, and if he'd shown that type of passion when he ran for president, he might've done better.
Joe Lieberman - It was weird seeing him there. And the crowd seemed unsure how to react at times. He was Genial Joe, incapable of pulling a fire-and-brimstone Zell Miller speech, but with his smile, he conveyed quite nicely that party differences aside, Barack's just not ready to be president. He also got the crowd to cheer for Bill Clinton, when he pointed out Clinton was able to cross party lines to pass things like welfare reform and a balanced budget, and Barack has no examples of doing anything similar.
Mitt Romney - His speech played to the hall, and in a way, it also illustrated why he lost the nomination. His rhetoric was over the top and in ways, fear-mongering. I think he's better in a job than campaigning for one. He really turned the Olympics around. Maybe he can move to Michigan and run for governor there, or fill a cabinet post.
Mike Huckabee - Huck has an easy time speaking to a crowd and he hit some good populist points. It's difficult to gage his sincerity. He reminds me of the old saying, "Once you can fake sincerity, you've got it made." I think even if McCain loses, neither Mitt nor Huck will not be the nominee in 2012. Huck's going to be a Fox News talking-head.
Rudy Giuliani - His strong points were on McCain the man. I thought he got a little lost in the weeds with the Islamic terrorism thing. He also got out some good points about Sarah Palin; pointing out her 80% approval rating makes her "most popular governor in America."
Sarah Palin - Speech of the week so far. For example, for the Democrats, I thought Bill & Hillary's speeches dwarfed Joe Biden's. Not the case here. The hall was rooting for her. After seeing how the press brutalized her and her family the past five days, it was nice to see her respond, and she did it with a smile, with grace and dignity, and she also served well the usual role of a VP nominee: attack dog. She wasn't mean about it; she just got in her jabs, illustrating how she has more experience than "our opponent", let alone John McCain. The line that leapt out to my wife was "For you parents of children with special needs, you will have a friend and an advocate in the White House."
Even if they lose, she can go back to being governor, and she'd be the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2012.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Electoral Map
I've been looking at the latest polls and where certain states are leaning. It's close in a few areas, and it will be for months. But in going through some scenarios, this could easily turn into a 269-269 tie with electoral votes.
If McCain keeps the South, and Obama keeps the West Coast, Northeast, and Great Lakes states, and if McCain get Ohio and Colorado, but Obama gets Nevada and Iowa, it will end at 269-269.
If that happened it goes to the popular vote.
Or logically, you'd think that might be the case, but no, it would go to the House of Representatives. Realistically for the first time since John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson, the House of Representatives could be responsible for picking the next president. Each state would caucus its members, and each state would get one vote. States who have an even numbers of Republicans and Democrats would tie and not get a vote.
Currently the amount of states where Democrats exceed Republicans outnumber the states where Republicans exceed Democrats. So if it comes to a tie, Obama wins.
So I'll predict now. If McCain doesn't get Colorado and Nevada, he'll lose the election.
If McCain keeps the South, and Obama keeps the West Coast, Northeast, and Great Lakes states, and if McCain get Ohio and Colorado, but Obama gets Nevada and Iowa, it will end at 269-269.
If that happened it goes to the popular vote.
Or logically, you'd think that might be the case, but no, it would go to the House of Representatives. Realistically for the first time since John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson, the House of Representatives could be responsible for picking the next president. Each state would caucus its members, and each state would get one vote. States who have an even numbers of Republicans and Democrats would tie and not get a vote.
Currently the amount of states where Democrats exceed Republicans outnumber the states where Republicans exceed Democrats. So if it comes to a tie, Obama wins.
So I'll predict now. If McCain doesn't get Colorado and Nevada, he'll lose the election.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sarah Palin as Vice-President
My first reaction, now that I've been reading up on her, is that this is a genius pick. I don't know how she'll be in a debate, but McCain-Palin is the mirror-image of Obama-Biden. Obama's strengths are Palin's strengths. Biden's strengths are McCain's strengths.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
MSNBC - Soul Officially Sold
“Look, when Keith anchors, he plays it straight down the line,” Griffin said.
I read that on Politico, where MSNBC president Phil Griffin addressed tensions between MSNBC anchors. Either Griffin is consciously lying, or he's blindly liberal. I've been flipping between all the networks for the Democratic convention this week, and Keith Olbermann has been up to his usual antics. If Griffin thinks what Keith's doing is straight down the line, then Sean Hannity's fair and balanced.
I read that on Politico, where MSNBC president Phil Griffin addressed tensions between MSNBC anchors. Either Griffin is consciously lying, or he's blindly liberal. I've been flipping between all the networks for the Democratic convention this week, and Keith Olbermann has been up to his usual antics. If Griffin thinks what Keith's doing is straight down the line, then Sean Hannity's fair and balanced.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough - alive!
Morning Joe is the best morning show of the three cable news networks, and now that MSNBC has decided to be a left-wing outlet to counter Fox News's right-wing tilt, Joe is finding himself a one-man island. Keith Olbermann got Dan Abrams fired, and now he's fighting back. When Olbermann interrupted Joe to tell him to get a shovel when joe was reporting positive McCain news, Joe took umbridge and fought back. Then this morning when David Shuster referred to "your party" Joe had none of it. He said he was more down the middle than any host on any show and mocked MSNBC for all their reporters claiming they're independent.
There's hype around behind-the-scenes fireworks between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but the more edge-of-your-seat viewing is now coming from Joe Scarborough. Can't wait to see if anything happens when he and keith are on at the same time again. And if Joe gets fired, my guess is CNN and Fox News will get into a bidding war.
There's hype around behind-the-scenes fireworks between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but the more edge-of-your-seat viewing is now coming from Joe Scarborough. Can't wait to see if anything happens when he and keith are on at the same time again. And if Joe gets fired, my guess is CNN and Fox News will get into a bidding war.
Talk Radio Ratings
I've been trying to find more recent rankings, but this was all I could find. From talkers.com, it's from Fall 2007 numbers, average audience numbers.
1. Rush Limbaugh - 14+ million
2. Sean Hannity - 13+ million
3. Michael Savage
Dr. Laura Schlessinger - 8.25+ million
5. Glenn Beck - 6.25+ million
6. Laura Ingraham
Mark Levin - 5.25+ million
8. Neil Boortz
Dave Ramsay - 4.25+ million
10. Mike Gallagher
Michael Medved - 4+ million
Bill O'Reilly just misses the top ten. Jim Rome is the highest sports-based talk show. I imagine when they publish some 2008 numbers we'll see a change in the order.
Rush Limbaugh - He's entertaining to listen to. If I find myself disgreeing with a position he's taken, his braggadociousness can get annoying. He's willing to debate liberals who call him up and gives them equal time if they stick to the issues. He's disliked McCain for eight years so now his support for him is "Obama would be much worse." I'll catch a segment if I go out to lunch during his time.
Sean Hannity - The heir apparent, former guest host for Rush, popular Fox News show, but I don't find him as informative. He tends to cling to one or two statements and pounds them into the ground, and callers call in who disagree with him he doesn't let them get a word in edgewise and then hangs up on him. I'd rather listen to Alan Colmes Show, which used to be on in Utah, and if it still is, I don't know where it's moved to. Hannity is all about the debate and pounding the positions through. Colmes, when not being interupted by Hannity, can do well at articulating his positions. He just doesn't do it on the TV show.
Michael Savage - Yesss. What to say about him. He considers himself so conservative that all the other radio hosts are buffoons. Her refers to Rush as "the golfer" and Bill O'Reilly as "the Leprechaun." He hates gays and Muslims and illegal immigrants, refers to liberalism as a mental disorder, and he goes into rants that I think are intended as self-parody of a Peter Finch type. He boasts of his PhD's and how intelligent he is, but he's grumpy and likes dogs more than people. Sometimes he's entertaining; more often than not, he's on one of his mean streaks and just a hater. I'll flip to him to see what he's talking about if I'm not interested in what Glenn Beck or the local sports-talk stations are discussing.
Dr. Laura - The StopDrLaura.com campaign against her when she got a TV show was vicious and dishonest. But it wasn't a good TV show. I haven't listened to her for a long time because after a few months, I know what she's going to say to every problem presented to her.
Glenn Beck - Unlike most conservatives, he's self-deprecating. He has fun on his show, and whenever I catch his TV show, it has the same vibe. I tend to listen to a segment or two when I drive home from work. He strikes me as one who can have a breezy conversation with anyone from any background.
Laura Ingraham - She's on when I drive to work in the morning, and during NFL/NBA season the local sports-talk stations tend to win, but sometimes I'll listen to her. She's under contract with Fox News, and that's affecting her freeness with her opinion. She can get snarky when she wants to.
Mark Levin - I know who he is, but I've never heard his show. he was the conservative pundit-o'-choice during the Clinton impeachment.
Neil Boortz - I know who he is; I've never heard his show. I've read he can get as inflammatory as Savage or Don Imus.
Dave Ramsay - Financial guru. Very entertaining. I'm taking his Total Money Makeover class right now. He preaches credit cards and payday loan companies are evil. I don't catch his show often, as it's on 7-10pm here.
Mike Gallagher - Never heard him.
Michael Medved - He occasionally does film reviews, but 90% of the time he's talking conservative family values. He was one of the only ones to hop on McCain's bandwagon during the primaries. He's on the same time as Hannity here, and if I'm in the car from 1-4pm, I'll see what he's talking about before flipping to Hannity.
Bill O'Reilly - He's better on TV than on the radio.
Jim Rome - When it comes to national sports, his sctick was entertaining to me when I was in my 20's. Now I'd rather hear Mike & Mike or Colin Cowherd.
1. Rush Limbaugh - 14+ million
2. Sean Hannity - 13+ million
3. Michael Savage
Dr. Laura Schlessinger - 8.25+ million
5. Glenn Beck - 6.25+ million
6. Laura Ingraham
Mark Levin - 5.25+ million
8. Neil Boortz
Dave Ramsay - 4.25+ million
10. Mike Gallagher
Michael Medved - 4+ million
Bill O'Reilly just misses the top ten. Jim Rome is the highest sports-based talk show. I imagine when they publish some 2008 numbers we'll see a change in the order.
Rush Limbaugh - He's entertaining to listen to. If I find myself disgreeing with a position he's taken, his braggadociousness can get annoying. He's willing to debate liberals who call him up and gives them equal time if they stick to the issues. He's disliked McCain for eight years so now his support for him is "Obama would be much worse." I'll catch a segment if I go out to lunch during his time.
Sean Hannity - The heir apparent, former guest host for Rush, popular Fox News show, but I don't find him as informative. He tends to cling to one or two statements and pounds them into the ground, and callers call in who disagree with him he doesn't let them get a word in edgewise and then hangs up on him. I'd rather listen to Alan Colmes Show, which used to be on in Utah, and if it still is, I don't know where it's moved to. Hannity is all about the debate and pounding the positions through. Colmes, when not being interupted by Hannity, can do well at articulating his positions. He just doesn't do it on the TV show.
Michael Savage - Yesss. What to say about him. He considers himself so conservative that all the other radio hosts are buffoons. Her refers to Rush as "the golfer" and Bill O'Reilly as "the Leprechaun." He hates gays and Muslims and illegal immigrants, refers to liberalism as a mental disorder, and he goes into rants that I think are intended as self-parody of a Peter Finch type. He boasts of his PhD's and how intelligent he is, but he's grumpy and likes dogs more than people. Sometimes he's entertaining; more often than not, he's on one of his mean streaks and just a hater. I'll flip to him to see what he's talking about if I'm not interested in what Glenn Beck or the local sports-talk stations are discussing.
Dr. Laura - The StopDrLaura.com campaign against her when she got a TV show was vicious and dishonest. But it wasn't a good TV show. I haven't listened to her for a long time because after a few months, I know what she's going to say to every problem presented to her.
Glenn Beck - Unlike most conservatives, he's self-deprecating. He has fun on his show, and whenever I catch his TV show, it has the same vibe. I tend to listen to a segment or two when I drive home from work. He strikes me as one who can have a breezy conversation with anyone from any background.
Laura Ingraham - She's on when I drive to work in the morning, and during NFL/NBA season the local sports-talk stations tend to win, but sometimes I'll listen to her. She's under contract with Fox News, and that's affecting her freeness with her opinion. She can get snarky when she wants to.
Mark Levin - I know who he is, but I've never heard his show. he was the conservative pundit-o'-choice during the Clinton impeachment.
Neil Boortz - I know who he is; I've never heard his show. I've read he can get as inflammatory as Savage or Don Imus.
Dave Ramsay - Financial guru. Very entertaining. I'm taking his Total Money Makeover class right now. He preaches credit cards and payday loan companies are evil. I don't catch his show often, as it's on 7-10pm here.
Mike Gallagher - Never heard him.
Michael Medved - He occasionally does film reviews, but 90% of the time he's talking conservative family values. He was one of the only ones to hop on McCain's bandwagon during the primaries. He's on the same time as Hannity here, and if I'm in the car from 1-4pm, I'll see what he's talking about before flipping to Hannity.
Bill O'Reilly - He's better on TV than on the radio.
Jim Rome - When it comes to national sports, his sctick was entertaining to me when I was in my 20's. Now I'd rather hear Mike & Mike or Colin Cowherd.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Barack Obama picks Joe Biden
I think it's a shrewd move for Barack Obama to pick Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. Obama is unknown; Biden is known. Obama is young; Biden is old. Obama has limited foreign-policy experience; Biden has a ton. Biden will be easier to dig dirt on, parse words on, etc. This is the guy who said Obama is clean and articulate, who said you can't go into a 7-11 without hearing an Indian accent, who dropped out of the 1988 presidential running after plagiarism charges, who made Samuel Alito's wife cry because he wouldn't let up, but he's the kind of attack-dog 2nd that's good for a presidential candidate to have. Gore was the jerk when Clinton was the smoothie. Cheney was the old-schooler who told the base could relax while Bush ran his "uniter not a divider" campaign. Good move.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fox News vs. MSNBC = CNN
In the 1990's it seemed like CNN was the Clinton News Network, Fox News was the Newt Gingrich Channel, and MSNBC was this little fledgling in between. With Brian Williams moved from MSNBC to NBC, with Tim Russert dead, and with Keith Olbermann now its highest rated show, MSNBC is now the liberal news network, Fox is still the conservative network, and CNN "No Bias No Bull" has emerged as the actual balanced channel.
Fox News I have a hard time watching more than a few minutes of any show on there. I like Fox News Sunday, and I can watch The Beltway Boys on the weekend, and that's about it. I don't think I've seen more than five minutes of Hannity & Colmes in years. It's hard to respect a network that hires Mike Huckabee to develop his own show. What will it be called? The "I Want to Run for President in 2012" Show? He could always go to ABC Family and take over Pat Robertson's 700 Club.
They hired Washington Times man Bill Sammon to be Deputy Washington Manager, so he's second in command to Brit Hume and just as conservative. I read his book "At Any Cost", about the 2000 recount and how the Al Gore team was willing to do anything and everything to "steal" the presidency. Basically it was the other side to HBO's Recount.
CNN has some good staff. I can't say I watch Larry King or Anderson Cooper, but I like Campbell Brown (formerly of NBC), and they have good field reporters.
MSNBC has Chris Matthews, and he's still my favorite one on that channel. He's a lefty but I still get the sense he wants to be fair. I like Morning Joe. Mornings are much better for Joe Scarborough than evenings. In the evenings he was a pale Bill O'Reilly. Then there's Keith Olbermann. Blecch. Now Dan Abrams low-rated show is getting dumped for a new show from Rachel Maddow, Air America cast-off and frequent Keith-O guest host. So if one hour a night of hating McCain isn't enough, now you'll get two. Not that O'Reilly and Hannity provide two hours of Obama Love Nation.
So there you have it. Fox panders right, MSNBC panders left, and that leaves CNN.
I never watch CBS News, although I like Bob Schiffer.
I like ABC's This Week. George Will & George Stephanopoulos keep the round table lively each week.
I record The Chris Matthews Show, Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday and This Week every week. I listen to the round tables, and I'll watch interviews if it looks like it'll be revealing. If it's with the spokesman for someone, I know everything they're going to say and fast-forward those.
Fox News I have a hard time watching more than a few minutes of any show on there. I like Fox News Sunday, and I can watch The Beltway Boys on the weekend, and that's about it. I don't think I've seen more than five minutes of Hannity & Colmes in years. It's hard to respect a network that hires Mike Huckabee to develop his own show. What will it be called? The "I Want to Run for President in 2012" Show? He could always go to ABC Family and take over Pat Robertson's 700 Club.
They hired Washington Times man Bill Sammon to be Deputy Washington Manager, so he's second in command to Brit Hume and just as conservative. I read his book "At Any Cost", about the 2000 recount and how the Al Gore team was willing to do anything and everything to "steal" the presidency. Basically it was the other side to HBO's Recount.
CNN has some good staff. I can't say I watch Larry King or Anderson Cooper, but I like Campbell Brown (formerly of NBC), and they have good field reporters.
MSNBC has Chris Matthews, and he's still my favorite one on that channel. He's a lefty but I still get the sense he wants to be fair. I like Morning Joe. Mornings are much better for Joe Scarborough than evenings. In the evenings he was a pale Bill O'Reilly. Then there's Keith Olbermann. Blecch. Now Dan Abrams low-rated show is getting dumped for a new show from Rachel Maddow, Air America cast-off and frequent Keith-O guest host. So if one hour a night of hating McCain isn't enough, now you'll get two. Not that O'Reilly and Hannity provide two hours of Obama Love Nation.
So there you have it. Fox panders right, MSNBC panders left, and that leaves CNN.
I never watch CBS News, although I like Bob Schiffer.
I like ABC's This Week. George Will & George Stephanopoulos keep the round table lively each week.
I record The Chris Matthews Show, Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday and This Week every week. I listen to the round tables, and I'll watch interviews if it looks like it'll be revealing. If it's with the spokesman for someone, I know everything they're going to say and fast-forward those.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Latest Vice-Presidential rankings
Here's where the latest VP Rankings are on InTrade.com.
DEMOCRAT VP NOMINEE
1. (4) Evan Bayh - 30%
2. (3) Tim Kaine - 18%
3. (1) Kathleen Sebilius - 15%
4. (5) Joseph Biden - 12%
5. (--) Wesley Clark - 10.9%
6. (6) Chuck Hagel - 7%
7. (2) Hillary Clinton - 5.3%
8. (8) Bill Richardson - 4%
9. (10) Dick Gephardt - 4%
10. (9) Jack Reed - 3.9%
Fallen off: Claire McCaskill
Wow, where did James Webb go? That star burned out prematurely. But if Obama loses and he wants to run in 2012, he'd probably do well. Joe Biden is the conventional-wisdom choice to shore up foreign policy on the ticket, but to be about change and not to look too young next to his VP, I can see why Bayh and Kaine are the top two. Plus if they have a chance of swinging their normally red states Obama's way, well, they did their job.
John Edwards is still at 2%. Heh heh.
----
REPUBLICAN VP NOMINEE
1. (1) Mitt Romney - 33.1%
2. (2) Tim Pawlenty - 22.7%
3. (-) Tom Ridge - 10.4%
4. (8) Sarah Palin - 10.1%
5. (-) Joe Lieberman - 9.4%
6. (6) Eric Cantor - 7.3%
7. (4) Charlie Crist - 6.3%
8. (10) Bobby Jindal - 5.3%
9. (7) Rob Portman - 4.6%
10. (3) Mike Huckabee - 4.1%
Fallen off: Carly Fiorina, John Thune
McCain's solid on foreign policy, but he's not that good with domestic issues or a TelePrompter, hence Romney being there. I just don't see it. I see McCain picking a buddy. "They" say Pawlenty and Ridge aren't conservative enough, but McCain knows that wing of the party isn't going anywhere. I'd say Joe Lieberman has a legit shot at being on the ticket. Bobby Jindal has categorically said he will not be VP, so he should really drop back down. Still haven't seen Palin speak. Maybe I should YouTube her...
DEMOCRAT VP NOMINEE
1. (4) Evan Bayh - 30%
2. (3) Tim Kaine - 18%
3. (1) Kathleen Sebilius - 15%
4. (5) Joseph Biden - 12%
5. (--) Wesley Clark - 10.9%
6. (6) Chuck Hagel - 7%
7. (2) Hillary Clinton - 5.3%
8. (8) Bill Richardson - 4%
9. (10) Dick Gephardt - 4%
10. (9) Jack Reed - 3.9%
Fallen off: Claire McCaskill
Wow, where did James Webb go? That star burned out prematurely. But if Obama loses and he wants to run in 2012, he'd probably do well. Joe Biden is the conventional-wisdom choice to shore up foreign policy on the ticket, but to be about change and not to look too young next to his VP, I can see why Bayh and Kaine are the top two. Plus if they have a chance of swinging their normally red states Obama's way, well, they did their job.
John Edwards is still at 2%. Heh heh.
----
REPUBLICAN VP NOMINEE
1. (1) Mitt Romney - 33.1%
2. (2) Tim Pawlenty - 22.7%
3. (-) Tom Ridge - 10.4%
4. (8) Sarah Palin - 10.1%
5. (-) Joe Lieberman - 9.4%
6. (6) Eric Cantor - 7.3%
7. (4) Charlie Crist - 6.3%
8. (10) Bobby Jindal - 5.3%
9. (7) Rob Portman - 4.6%
10. (3) Mike Huckabee - 4.1%
Fallen off: Carly Fiorina, John Thune
McCain's solid on foreign policy, but he's not that good with domestic issues or a TelePrompter, hence Romney being there. I just don't see it. I see McCain picking a buddy. "They" say Pawlenty and Ridge aren't conservative enough, but McCain knows that wing of the party isn't going anywhere. I'd say Joe Lieberman has a legit shot at being on the ticket. Bobby Jindal has categorically said he will not be VP, so he should really drop back down. Still haven't seen Palin speak. Maybe I should YouTube her...
John Edwards - scumbag
I finally made myself watch most of the ABC Nightline interview with John Edwards where he admitted he's been lying for months about this affair. It was blood-curdlingly distasteful. It felt like he's upset he got caught. The non-segueway-way he brought up John McCain's old affair was much more serpentine than the way he kept bringing up Dick Cheney's gay daughter in 2004.
When I told my wife, "Guess who had an affair?" and it was him, she didn't even blink. There was something already slimy about Edwards, something untrustworthy, and this just highlighted it. But man, I feel for his wife.
Now some may ask, how is this different than the affairs of other politicians? Well, in many ways it isn't. It's not the adultery; it's the lying and cover-up. When Bill and Hillary appeared in 1992 and Bill admitted he'd "caused pain" in their marriage, a lot of people figured out what that meant, and Democrats still felt good about having him be their nominee. Edwards knew if he admitted in 2007, the year he announced he was running for president, that he'd had an affair the year before, he knew he wouldn't become president.
McCain's affair about 27 years ago is known. If it came out he'd had an affair two years ago, you'd see an open convention. If Newt Gingrich had run for president, he would not have secured the nomination. There's way too much footage of Gingrich denouncing Clinton's sex scandal when he was having an affair of his own.
The question is asked is if the Edwards will hurt Democrats in general. Not really. It will hurt politicians in general. We've set up our system so that many good people would stay away from the process, and of those who dare join, it seems to attract egomaniacs who think they're infallible (Elliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley, Bob Livingston, etc.)
When I told my wife, "Guess who had an affair?" and it was him, she didn't even blink. There was something already slimy about Edwards, something untrustworthy, and this just highlighted it. But man, I feel for his wife.
Now some may ask, how is this different than the affairs of other politicians? Well, in many ways it isn't. It's not the adultery; it's the lying and cover-up. When Bill and Hillary appeared in 1992 and Bill admitted he'd "caused pain" in their marriage, a lot of people figured out what that meant, and Democrats still felt good about having him be their nominee. Edwards knew if he admitted in 2007, the year he announced he was running for president, that he'd had an affair the year before, he knew he wouldn't become president.
McCain's affair about 27 years ago is known. If it came out he'd had an affair two years ago, you'd see an open convention. If Newt Gingrich had run for president, he would not have secured the nomination. There's way too much footage of Gingrich denouncing Clinton's sex scandal when he was having an affair of his own.
The question is asked is if the Edwards will hurt Democrats in general. Not really. It will hurt politicians in general. We've set up our system so that many good people would stay away from the process, and of those who dare join, it seems to attract egomaniacs who think they're infallible (Elliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley, Bob Livingston, etc.)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Paris Hilton & John McCain
John McCain's camp put out an ad comparing Obama to vacuous celebrities, using pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. There's been much serious hang-wringing in Washington over the ad, but along comes Will Ferrell to help Paris repsond, which she did, and it's very funny.
http://www.funnyordie.com
Also funny: the response from McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds as emailed to Politico's Ben Smith --
“It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”
http://www.funnyordie.com
Also funny: the response from McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds as emailed to Politico's Ben Smith --
“It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”
Monday, August 4, 2008
Who played the race card?
This weekend I saw clips of both Obama and McCain saying this will be a positive, issue-oriented campaign. These were presented ironically, as McCain's camp put out an ad comparing Obama's celebrity status to Paris Hilton, and then there's Obama insinuating McCain's camp was going to be race-baiting.
This is how I saw the Obama timeline go:
1. Hillary's team plays race card, loses.
2. Obama says McCain's side will say "He has a funny name,a nd he doesn't look like the presidents on the dollar bill." What could that mean besides race? His ears?
3. McCain's team overstates the race-card play.
4. The New York Times slams McCain for daring to insinuate that Obama is insinuating that McCain is insinuating the race card.
I caught part of an interview with Orson Scott Card, sci-fi author, LDS, Democrat. He said it would be a mistake for McCain to pick Mitt Romney as his VP, and it's solely due to his religion. Romney might help out in states like Nevada and Michigan, but as Mike Huckabee exposed, there's still some serious anti-LDS sentiments out there amongst evangelicals, and Southern evangicals who are on the fence about sitting on their hands this election just might hop off the fence for hand-sitting with the choice of Romney. Now with polls showing we're going to have record turn-out for African-Americans, and many who've stayed home in the South plan to come up now, McCain just might lose a Southern state or two, and all polls show that for McCain to win, he'll need every Southern state.
Now the vast majority of voters don't care (how many even know that McCain's Baptist?), but it's a game of numbers. If you win this state but lose that state, with a net loss of three electoral votes, it's something they need to consider.
This is how I saw the Obama timeline go:
1. Hillary's team plays race card, loses.
2. Obama says McCain's side will say "He has a funny name,a nd he doesn't look like the presidents on the dollar bill." What could that mean besides race? His ears?
3. McCain's team overstates the race-card play.
4. The New York Times slams McCain for daring to insinuate that Obama is insinuating that McCain is insinuating the race card.
I caught part of an interview with Orson Scott Card, sci-fi author, LDS, Democrat. He said it would be a mistake for McCain to pick Mitt Romney as his VP, and it's solely due to his religion. Romney might help out in states like Nevada and Michigan, but as Mike Huckabee exposed, there's still some serious anti-LDS sentiments out there amongst evangelicals, and Southern evangicals who are on the fence about sitting on their hands this election just might hop off the fence for hand-sitting with the choice of Romney. Now with polls showing we're going to have record turn-out for African-Americans, and many who've stayed home in the South plan to come up now, McCain just might lose a Southern state or two, and all polls show that for McCain to win, he'll need every Southern state.
Now the vast majority of voters don't care (how many even know that McCain's Baptist?), but it's a game of numbers. If you win this state but lose that state, with a net loss of three electoral votes, it's something they need to consider.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Countdown & O'Reilly Factor
I catch a few minutes here and there of cable news. I watched, for instance, Keith return from vacation on Countdown to address Tony Snow's death, where he shared that they'd had an email relationship ever since Keith named him the Worst Person one day. Tony emailed him to say he might want to laminate his picture because he's sure he'd earn the dubious honor a few more times before all was said and done, and from there they emailed back and forth regularly. Keith then berates Tony's colleagues for not learning from Tony's ability to separate message from messenger (not that Keith does that) and blasted the New York Post for stuff it printed about Keith.
I flipped to O'Reilly where he was interviewing friends and colleagues of Tony Snow to share fond memories of him.
I decided as an experiment to watch in full, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, as these two guys transparently dislike each other. Keith hates all things Fox because he was fired by Fox Sports in 2001, and he watched his ratings climb on MSNBC when he made his attacks more and more personal against O'Reilly. Bill hates GE, owner of NBC, for letting Keith get more and more nakedly partisan and personal in his attacks.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
He starts off with spin. "The GOP falsely accused Barack Obama of renegging on his word about public financing..." Uh, no, I've seen the tape of Obama what he said and how he went back on it. This could be a long hour.
He calls in Newsweek's Howard Fineman, friendly to Keith's worldview, though Fineman is pretty good at trying to stay objective. They go over the funding race, which has some good details. I just noticed how much make-up Keith has on.
The battleground states map is eyebrow-raising. Flyover country's looking awful checkered. When he goes into it further, it looks like Bob Barr, Libertarian, is getting 6-9% of the vote here and there, all taking away from McCain's votes. Barr could be the Nader of 2000. I said it; he didn't.
Now we bring in Chris Kofinis, former John Edwards campaign spokesman, and the two of them playfully bat the Obama-will-win ball back and forth, talking about how much damage Bush has done to the Republican brand and how Obama is exciting and energizing voters, both points I agree with.
- commercial -
Keith goes into how Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson will accompany Obama on his Mid-East trip, with the take that even though McCain's been over there several times, one of his trips was a photo-op trip so McCain's hypocritical for calling Obama's trip a photo-op. Wow, he really dislikes McCain.
Joining him now is Dana Milbank, Washington post reporter who shares Keith's worldview and reaffirms Keith's conclusions. But we learn McCain's camp didn't invite the Big Three on his trip(s) but Obama invited the Big Three. Keith actually allows the McCain claim on unfair network coverage, where the Big Three spent 114 minutes on Obama last week and 48 minutes on McCain, and asks if that is the only metric for measuring media coverage.
Bushed! Segment
3. SMU Librarygate - Sounds like a scandal where the school is demanding donations to the future Dubya "liberry" to get access to senior officials.
2. Justicegate - In 2003, Ashcroft recommended five names to head the Justice Dept., but Andy Card wanted John Yu (sp?) who drafted the "torture memo" instead.
1. Appeasementgate - Bush says the State Dept. is appeasing Iran like Europe appeased the Nazis. Isn't Bush over the State Dept.? I missed what Bush said exactly but I wans't rewinding anything at this point.
- commercial -
Oddball segment
- A monk fronting a heavy-metal band.
- A shark has PVC pipe stuck in his mouth. He makes a Rush Limbaugh joke but I missed it.
- A drunk ref during a Belarus soccer game.
- Ryan Seacrest nominated for Emmy for hosting "reality" series. Keith apparently has no problem with Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel or Jeff Probst, but man, Seacrest getting nominated is outrageous. Outrageous!
World's Best Persons
(I missed the logic of why these are the Best Persons; it seems like an excuse to slam three more "Worst" persons)
3. NASA - asking for urine donations
2. Tamien Bain - won a contest for coming up with a McDonald's jingle. He once went to jail for robbing a McDonald's.
1. Phil Gramm - the "nation of whiners" senator once financed some soft-core porn movies. Great. Keith goes to commercial with Matthew Broderick singing "I want to be a producerrrr." Funny.
- commercial -
Next Keith decided to demonstrate his contempt for McCain further, repeating a rape joke from 1986 that John McCain said he didn't recall saying, a bad joke about killing Iranians, a bad joke about Chelsea Clinton being ugly cuz her dad is Janet Reno, etc. McCain's spokesman said of the 1986 ape-rape joke, it's an example of McCain being McCain. Ouch. Keith became indignant over McCain's treatment of women, ironic considering Keith's history of misogyny, but we won't go there, will we? Let's face it. The jokes are bad and Keith has a good point.
But Keith is never one to just make a good point. Nooo, let's bring in another talking-head to reaffirm Keith's worldview. It's Air America's Rachel Maddow, who guest-hosted while Keith was on vacation, and the two of them go back and forth with smug grins on how inauthentic McCain is. If you hate McCain, this segment must have been milk and honey. "McCain being McCain" means being sadistic and mean, which Keith says appeals to the base. They review what positions McCain has flip-flopped on. I love how he says "what would the media do if this had been Obama who made a rape joke in 1986?" My guess is he'd downplay it.
Next Keith reveals that Michael Moore is fair and honest in his documentaries and the day will come when all Republicans will peel back their skin to reveal they've been the lizards from V all along. Just kidding. Or am I? (Mike Myers eyebrow-raise).
- commercial -
Worst Persons in the World
Worse - John Ashcroft - Keith take a statement from John, twists it around, and tries to make him look like a liar and buffoon.
Worser - The TSA terrorist watchlist - A reporter critical of the watchlist was added to the list.
Worst - Bill O'Reilly - He calls him Billo the Clown. First he "violates all precepts of journalism" by playing the tape of Jesse Jackson saying Barack Obama was talking down to black people, which makes me throw the bullcrap flag right away. You telling me if Rush Limbaugh whispered near a mike he didn't think was still on he'd like to cut McCain's gonads off, he wouldn't play that gleefully? Does O'Reilly consider himself a journalist? Does Keith? I can't keep track of what standards e feels like O'Reilly should have, and what his own standards are. by Bill's refusal to play the part of the tape where Jackson uses the N-word, Keith says it's "self-righteous, self-contradictory nonsense." Keith concludes with that crap-eating grin that Billo is the Worst Person in the World!
If Bill O'Reilly died, I think Keith'd graffiti his grave and prank-call Bill's kids to say "Your stupid father's dead! HAHAHAHAHA!" Yes, Keith has brought up Bill's kids on his show before.
- commercial -
Keith then concludes with a slam on American Idol, which Keith hates because it's on Fox. He gets in a few slams on Ryan Seacrest. Wow, did Ryan tell a reporter somewhere once he doesn't watch Countdown? Did Seacrest vote for Bush? Keith practically challenges Ryan to meet him behind the playground at 3:00.
Then he gets in the story of Andy Dick groping a teen girl, skips by that one pretty quickly, then he mentions Verne Troyer sex tape. Next, he shares the birth of Angelina Jolie's twins as a way of slamming the town's mayor for caring more about Idol than solving the town's murder. Nice, France? I don't know; the mayor must be Republican. Do they have Republicans in France? He gets through all of these much quicker than his cackling contempt for American Idol, because it's on Fox.
He brings in Maria Malito, radio DJ, to go over what he's just said. She says American Idol has not jumped the shark, but thinks the eighth season might not be as good since they said they're going to show less of the train-wreck auditions. Keith blasts again the mere thought of Seacrest being nominated, and they agree Howie Mandel, NBC employee, will win.
Keith then makes a joke about Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer better not own a dog because he might get eaten by it. I guarantee - guarantee! - if Sean Hannity had made that joke, he would be declared the Worst Person in the World by Keitho the next night. About four different times, Keith used the rationalization, "If someone on the left did this, they'd be all over this." Like you're all over it because someone on the right did it? Do you see no disconnect there?
I think Keith would do well to get a wife and kids, something to keep him grounded and in touch with his humanity. Ann Coulter has no husband and kids and her right-wing rhetoric spun into the Embarrassment Zone years ago. I also think Keith is motivated by headlines. No one really noticed him news-wise until he started blasting away at O'Reilly daily, and if you're in third place, scream like mad about the guy in first to bring him to your level.
And just once it would be interesting to see Keith have a guest or talking-head or viewer email that disagrees with him.
----
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The O'Reilly Factor
We open the show on Tony Snow's funeral. Respectful recap of the funeral. He said he's passing on people's thoughts and prayers to Tony's wife.
Top Story - Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson to accompany Barack Obama on his photo-op trip to Iraq.
His first guests are Jane Hall and Bernard Goldberg, both of whom tend to agree with Bill O'Reilly. They all discuss how "The Media" is showing their bias, how they're all on board for Obama, because it's not like the Big Three anchors would accompany John McCain to Iraq.
Jane Hall says she'll take the other side. She said a few months ago, you guys were saying the media was McCain's base. O'Reilly says if they, the Big Three, come back with information they didn't know, he says he won't have a problem with it. Goldberg says we already know the media's in the tank for Obama. O'Reilly mentions he know the Big Three and likes two of them. I'm guessing Couric is the one he doesn't like. He tongue-in-cheek says he's offended that he wasn't invited on the trip.
Next they go over how Bill won't show the footage of Jackson saying the N-word. Goldberg says they couldn't disgree more. He said if Obama had used the N-word, it's news. He said Jackson's the most important civil-rights leader of the past 40 years who's publicly campaigned against the word. Hall disagrees, says you have editorial discretion. Bill goes on too long about how Goldberg is making an excellent point, but he still thinks he did the right thing. He refrains from patting himself on the back.
- commercial -
Next we address Michelle Obama, saying she's going to step back from the spotlight, and to discuss, he has conservative radio host Monica Crowley and Obama supporter Lauren Lake (hey, someone who disagrees with his worldview!)
Crowley talks about how Michelle made those statements that are "incendiary" and Lake disagrees, says Michelle doesn't have to be in every play to impact the game. It doesn't really go anywhere. Bill can see it both ways.
- commercial -
He interviews Megyn Kelly, who's now uncomfortable with her interview with the husband of the Central Park jogger, who was found dead. The husband is now a prime suspect, so Kelly got her oogies out with Bill.
- commercial -
Bill interviews ABC's John Stossel about his upcoming special "Sex in America." Stossel's arguing that increased sexual information has not led to increases in abortions, teen pregnancy, teen sex in general, etc.
Bill argues that if you legalize gay marriage, you have to legalize polygamy, which Stossel agrees with and is fine. They talk about Warren Jeffs. Stossel argues that polygamy isn't that bad, that about 100,000 Americans are involved in polygamous relationships. They disagree on a few things in a friendly manner. I'll wager Keith will find something in this conversation to mock Bill about on tomorrow's show.
- commercial -
Bill comes back with Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson to discuss the media coverage of John McCain. He says news and cable news only cover about 20% of the people, so why is media bias important? Wolfson says the less informed you are, the less likely you will vote, and now I get why Wolfson's here. Wolfson's still mad at the bias against Hillary during the Democratic primary.
They go back to Obama promising he'd go on The O'Reilly Factor, but he hasn't shown up yet. Dismissed his appearance on Larry King Live, saying nobody watched. Wolfson said Hillary going on the Factor helped her (I agree; I saw it and it was a good interview for both). He said Obama will keep his promise and appear. Bill got a dig in there somewhere that only far-left loons watch NBC news. I know Bill has stepped up his criticism of GE and NBC due to Keith's daily insults, but Bill won't say Keith's name on his show.
- commercial -
Bill comes back with Reality Check segment. Praises Americans for conserving and using less gas, which he credits to the drop in oil prices this past week. Next, he shows the clip of The View, where Whoopi and Sherrie say it's okay for black people to use the N-word but not white people. Bill says the word should just never be used. He then shows John McLaughlin describing Obama as an Oreo, to which Bill says "Good grief." He then shows a PETA commercial, where two parents are encouraging their daughter to be promiscuous, likening it to the irresponsibility of not spaying or nuetering your pets. Bill says PETA should stop equating humans to animals, but supports the spay-nueter thing.
Next, we see footage of a woman asking McCain why Viagra is covered by insurance but not birth control. McCain had no answer. Bill said it's simple. Viagra is for a medical condition; birth control is a choice. Next, he slams a Canadian reporter for saying Bill relentlessly slams Michelle Obama. Bill says it's a lie.
- commercial -
Pinhead & Patriot segment
Patriot - The kid hit with a baseball at a Cubs game said when he gets out, he wants to play baseball.
Pinhead - NYTimes writer Josh Steinberg distorts ratings picture, propping up NBC News.
Emails - Bill goes over some emails he's received, some who agree with him, some who don't.
He ends showing some clips of the lighter side of Tony Snow rocking out.
Bill's got this braggadocious side to him. He almost takes credit for lower oil prices because he told Americans to conserve gas and they listened. Uh, yeah, I'm driving less cuz Bill said so, not because gas is the most expensive it's ever been in history. He's #1 in ratings, so he must be torn down, but there was nothing there to make me want to watch more than a few minutes here and there.
For the right, I like Glenn Beck more. For the left, I like Chris Matthews more.
Who am I voting for? Don't know yet.
If you need more negativity in your life:
http://www.oreilly-sucks.com
http://www.olbermannwatch.com
I flipped to O'Reilly where he was interviewing friends and colleagues of Tony Snow to share fond memories of him.
I decided as an experiment to watch in full, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, as these two guys transparently dislike each other. Keith hates all things Fox because he was fired by Fox Sports in 2001, and he watched his ratings climb on MSNBC when he made his attacks more and more personal against O'Reilly. Bill hates GE, owner of NBC, for letting Keith get more and more nakedly partisan and personal in his attacks.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
He starts off with spin. "The GOP falsely accused Barack Obama of renegging on his word about public financing..." Uh, no, I've seen the tape of Obama what he said and how he went back on it. This could be a long hour.
He calls in Newsweek's Howard Fineman, friendly to Keith's worldview, though Fineman is pretty good at trying to stay objective. They go over the funding race, which has some good details. I just noticed how much make-up Keith has on.
The battleground states map is eyebrow-raising. Flyover country's looking awful checkered. When he goes into it further, it looks like Bob Barr, Libertarian, is getting 6-9% of the vote here and there, all taking away from McCain's votes. Barr could be the Nader of 2000. I said it; he didn't.
Now we bring in Chris Kofinis, former John Edwards campaign spokesman, and the two of them playfully bat the Obama-will-win ball back and forth, talking about how much damage Bush has done to the Republican brand and how Obama is exciting and energizing voters, both points I agree with.
- commercial -
Keith goes into how Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson will accompany Obama on his Mid-East trip, with the take that even though McCain's been over there several times, one of his trips was a photo-op trip so McCain's hypocritical for calling Obama's trip a photo-op. Wow, he really dislikes McCain.
Joining him now is Dana Milbank, Washington post reporter who shares Keith's worldview and reaffirms Keith's conclusions. But we learn McCain's camp didn't invite the Big Three on his trip(s) but Obama invited the Big Three. Keith actually allows the McCain claim on unfair network coverage, where the Big Three spent 114 minutes on Obama last week and 48 minutes on McCain, and asks if that is the only metric for measuring media coverage.
Bushed! Segment
3. SMU Librarygate - Sounds like a scandal where the school is demanding donations to the future Dubya "liberry" to get access to senior officials.
2. Justicegate - In 2003, Ashcroft recommended five names to head the Justice Dept., but Andy Card wanted John Yu (sp?) who drafted the "torture memo" instead.
1. Appeasementgate - Bush says the State Dept. is appeasing Iran like Europe appeased the Nazis. Isn't Bush over the State Dept.? I missed what Bush said exactly but I wans't rewinding anything at this point.
- commercial -
Oddball segment
- A monk fronting a heavy-metal band.
- A shark has PVC pipe stuck in his mouth. He makes a Rush Limbaugh joke but I missed it.
- A drunk ref during a Belarus soccer game.
- Ryan Seacrest nominated for Emmy for hosting "reality" series. Keith apparently has no problem with Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel or Jeff Probst, but man, Seacrest getting nominated is outrageous. Outrageous!
World's Best Persons
(I missed the logic of why these are the Best Persons; it seems like an excuse to slam three more "Worst" persons)
3. NASA - asking for urine donations
2. Tamien Bain - won a contest for coming up with a McDonald's jingle. He once went to jail for robbing a McDonald's.
1. Phil Gramm - the "nation of whiners" senator once financed some soft-core porn movies. Great. Keith goes to commercial with Matthew Broderick singing "I want to be a producerrrr." Funny.
- commercial -
Next Keith decided to demonstrate his contempt for McCain further, repeating a rape joke from 1986 that John McCain said he didn't recall saying, a bad joke about killing Iranians, a bad joke about Chelsea Clinton being ugly cuz her dad is Janet Reno, etc. McCain's spokesman said of the 1986 ape-rape joke, it's an example of McCain being McCain. Ouch. Keith became indignant over McCain's treatment of women, ironic considering Keith's history of misogyny, but we won't go there, will we? Let's face it. The jokes are bad and Keith has a good point.
But Keith is never one to just make a good point. Nooo, let's bring in another talking-head to reaffirm Keith's worldview. It's Air America's Rachel Maddow, who guest-hosted while Keith was on vacation, and the two of them go back and forth with smug grins on how inauthentic McCain is. If you hate McCain, this segment must have been milk and honey. "McCain being McCain" means being sadistic and mean, which Keith says appeals to the base. They review what positions McCain has flip-flopped on. I love how he says "what would the media do if this had been Obama who made a rape joke in 1986?" My guess is he'd downplay it.
Next Keith reveals that Michael Moore is fair and honest in his documentaries and the day will come when all Republicans will peel back their skin to reveal they've been the lizards from V all along. Just kidding. Or am I? (Mike Myers eyebrow-raise).
- commercial -
Worst Persons in the World
Worse - John Ashcroft - Keith take a statement from John, twists it around, and tries to make him look like a liar and buffoon.
Worser - The TSA terrorist watchlist - A reporter critical of the watchlist was added to the list.
Worst - Bill O'Reilly - He calls him Billo the Clown. First he "violates all precepts of journalism" by playing the tape of Jesse Jackson saying Barack Obama was talking down to black people, which makes me throw the bullcrap flag right away. You telling me if Rush Limbaugh whispered near a mike he didn't think was still on he'd like to cut McCain's gonads off, he wouldn't play that gleefully? Does O'Reilly consider himself a journalist? Does Keith? I can't keep track of what standards e feels like O'Reilly should have, and what his own standards are. by Bill's refusal to play the part of the tape where Jackson uses the N-word, Keith says it's "self-righteous, self-contradictory nonsense." Keith concludes with that crap-eating grin that Billo is the Worst Person in the World!
If Bill O'Reilly died, I think Keith'd graffiti his grave and prank-call Bill's kids to say "Your stupid father's dead! HAHAHAHAHA!" Yes, Keith has brought up Bill's kids on his show before.
- commercial -
Keith then concludes with a slam on American Idol, which Keith hates because it's on Fox. He gets in a few slams on Ryan Seacrest. Wow, did Ryan tell a reporter somewhere once he doesn't watch Countdown? Did Seacrest vote for Bush? Keith practically challenges Ryan to meet him behind the playground at 3:00.
Then he gets in the story of Andy Dick groping a teen girl, skips by that one pretty quickly, then he mentions Verne Troyer sex tape. Next, he shares the birth of Angelina Jolie's twins as a way of slamming the town's mayor for caring more about Idol than solving the town's murder. Nice, France? I don't know; the mayor must be Republican. Do they have Republicans in France? He gets through all of these much quicker than his cackling contempt for American Idol, because it's on Fox.
He brings in Maria Malito, radio DJ, to go over what he's just said. She says American Idol has not jumped the shark, but thinks the eighth season might not be as good since they said they're going to show less of the train-wreck auditions. Keith blasts again the mere thought of Seacrest being nominated, and they agree Howie Mandel, NBC employee, will win.
Keith then makes a joke about Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer better not own a dog because he might get eaten by it. I guarantee - guarantee! - if Sean Hannity had made that joke, he would be declared the Worst Person in the World by Keitho the next night. About four different times, Keith used the rationalization, "If someone on the left did this, they'd be all over this." Like you're all over it because someone on the right did it? Do you see no disconnect there?
I think Keith would do well to get a wife and kids, something to keep him grounded and in touch with his humanity. Ann Coulter has no husband and kids and her right-wing rhetoric spun into the Embarrassment Zone years ago. I also think Keith is motivated by headlines. No one really noticed him news-wise until he started blasting away at O'Reilly daily, and if you're in third place, scream like mad about the guy in first to bring him to your level.
And just once it would be interesting to see Keith have a guest or talking-head or viewer email that disagrees with him.
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The O'Reilly Factor
We open the show on Tony Snow's funeral. Respectful recap of the funeral. He said he's passing on people's thoughts and prayers to Tony's wife.
Top Story - Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson to accompany Barack Obama on his photo-op trip to Iraq.
His first guests are Jane Hall and Bernard Goldberg, both of whom tend to agree with Bill O'Reilly. They all discuss how "The Media" is showing their bias, how they're all on board for Obama, because it's not like the Big Three anchors would accompany John McCain to Iraq.
Jane Hall says she'll take the other side. She said a few months ago, you guys were saying the media was McCain's base. O'Reilly says if they, the Big Three, come back with information they didn't know, he says he won't have a problem with it. Goldberg says we already know the media's in the tank for Obama. O'Reilly mentions he know the Big Three and likes two of them. I'm guessing Couric is the one he doesn't like. He tongue-in-cheek says he's offended that he wasn't invited on the trip.
Next they go over how Bill won't show the footage of Jackson saying the N-word. Goldberg says they couldn't disgree more. He said if Obama had used the N-word, it's news. He said Jackson's the most important civil-rights leader of the past 40 years who's publicly campaigned against the word. Hall disagrees, says you have editorial discretion. Bill goes on too long about how Goldberg is making an excellent point, but he still thinks he did the right thing. He refrains from patting himself on the back.
- commercial -
Next we address Michelle Obama, saying she's going to step back from the spotlight, and to discuss, he has conservative radio host Monica Crowley and Obama supporter Lauren Lake (hey, someone who disagrees with his worldview!)
Crowley talks about how Michelle made those statements that are "incendiary" and Lake disagrees, says Michelle doesn't have to be in every play to impact the game. It doesn't really go anywhere. Bill can see it both ways.
- commercial -
He interviews Megyn Kelly, who's now uncomfortable with her interview with the husband of the Central Park jogger, who was found dead. The husband is now a prime suspect, so Kelly got her oogies out with Bill.
- commercial -
Bill interviews ABC's John Stossel about his upcoming special "Sex in America." Stossel's arguing that increased sexual information has not led to increases in abortions, teen pregnancy, teen sex in general, etc.
Bill argues that if you legalize gay marriage, you have to legalize polygamy, which Stossel agrees with and is fine. They talk about Warren Jeffs. Stossel argues that polygamy isn't that bad, that about 100,000 Americans are involved in polygamous relationships. They disagree on a few things in a friendly manner. I'll wager Keith will find something in this conversation to mock Bill about on tomorrow's show.
- commercial -
Bill comes back with Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson to discuss the media coverage of John McCain. He says news and cable news only cover about 20% of the people, so why is media bias important? Wolfson says the less informed you are, the less likely you will vote, and now I get why Wolfson's here. Wolfson's still mad at the bias against Hillary during the Democratic primary.
They go back to Obama promising he'd go on The O'Reilly Factor, but he hasn't shown up yet. Dismissed his appearance on Larry King Live, saying nobody watched. Wolfson said Hillary going on the Factor helped her (I agree; I saw it and it was a good interview for both). He said Obama will keep his promise and appear. Bill got a dig in there somewhere that only far-left loons watch NBC news. I know Bill has stepped up his criticism of GE and NBC due to Keith's daily insults, but Bill won't say Keith's name on his show.
- commercial -
Bill comes back with Reality Check segment. Praises Americans for conserving and using less gas, which he credits to the drop in oil prices this past week. Next, he shows the clip of The View, where Whoopi and Sherrie say it's okay for black people to use the N-word but not white people. Bill says the word should just never be used. He then shows John McLaughlin describing Obama as an Oreo, to which Bill says "Good grief." He then shows a PETA commercial, where two parents are encouraging their daughter to be promiscuous, likening it to the irresponsibility of not spaying or nuetering your pets. Bill says PETA should stop equating humans to animals, but supports the spay-nueter thing.
Next, we see footage of a woman asking McCain why Viagra is covered by insurance but not birth control. McCain had no answer. Bill said it's simple. Viagra is for a medical condition; birth control is a choice. Next, he slams a Canadian reporter for saying Bill relentlessly slams Michelle Obama. Bill says it's a lie.
- commercial -
Pinhead & Patriot segment
Patriot - The kid hit with a baseball at a Cubs game said when he gets out, he wants to play baseball.
Pinhead - NYTimes writer Josh Steinberg distorts ratings picture, propping up NBC News.
Emails - Bill goes over some emails he's received, some who agree with him, some who don't.
He ends showing some clips of the lighter side of Tony Snow rocking out.
Bill's got this braggadocious side to him. He almost takes credit for lower oil prices because he told Americans to conserve gas and they listened. Uh, yeah, I'm driving less cuz Bill said so, not because gas is the most expensive it's ever been in history. He's #1 in ratings, so he must be torn down, but there was nothing there to make me want to watch more than a few minutes here and there.
For the right, I like Glenn Beck more. For the left, I like Chris Matthews more.
Who am I voting for? Don't know yet.
If you need more negativity in your life:
http://www.oreilly-sucks.com
http://www.olbermannwatch.com
Thursday, July 17, 2008
5 States That Will Determine Election
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/the_big_5_picking_the_states_t.html
If this guy is right, it screams for John McCain to pick Mitt Romney as his Vice-President, as he would help in three of those five states.
If this guy is right, it screams for John McCain to pick Mitt Romney as his Vice-President, as he would help in three of those five states.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
VP Race Update
Intrade.com has updated their betting to include more candidate options for Vice-President.
DEMOCRAT VP NOMINEE
1. (2) Kathleen Sebilius - 15%
2. (3) Hillary Clinton - 14.7%
3. (5) Tim Kaine - 13%
4. (-) Evan Bayh - 11%
5. (8) Joseph Biden - 9.5%
6. (7) Chuck Hagel - 7.5%
7. (4) Claire McCaskill - 6.5%
8. (-) Bill Richardson - 6.5%
9. (-) Jack Reed - 5.3%
10. (-) Dick Gephardt - 5%
Fallen off: James Webb, Ed Rendell, Al Gore, Wesley Clark
I caught McCaskill on Meet the Press, and she was okay, but I think Sebilius would be the stronger female candidate, should Obama choose to go that way. I don't know why Webb has gone from #1 to out of the top ten in a month. Peaked too early? It just shows you that a month is a year in politics.
I'm not sure why Hillary is still so high. Didn't Obama himself say three co-presidents is two too many? The VP needs to be someone prepared to get an onslaught of jokes at their expense, as most comedians are afraid of touching Obama. Basically whoever it is will be caricatured like Dan Quayle.
REPUBLICAN VP NOMINEE
1. (1) Mitt Romney - 23.1%
2. (3) Tim Pawlenty - 12.4%
3. (4) Mike Huckabee - 11%
4. (2) Charlie Crist - 8.1%
5. (10) Carly Fiorina - 7%
6. (9) Eric Cantor - 7%
7. (7) Rob Portman - 6.8%
8. (5) Sarah Palin - 6%
9. (-) John Thune - 6%
10. (6) Bobby Jindal - 5%
Fallen off: Joe Lieberman
The worse the economy gets, the more it looks like McCain needs to pick Romney, although if Obama picks a man, Carly Fiorina is doing well in her surrogate work and could offset the gender vote. I think as Huck makes more appearances on Fox News, it'll become more clear he's not the VP and he'll drop. Still haven't seen anything from Cantor or Palin. I'm assuming Bobby Jindal's dropping because he's too young.
DEMOCRAT VP NOMINEE
1. (2) Kathleen Sebilius - 15%
2. (3) Hillary Clinton - 14.7%
3. (5) Tim Kaine - 13%
4. (-) Evan Bayh - 11%
5. (8) Joseph Biden - 9.5%
6. (7) Chuck Hagel - 7.5%
7. (4) Claire McCaskill - 6.5%
8. (-) Bill Richardson - 6.5%
9. (-) Jack Reed - 5.3%
10. (-) Dick Gephardt - 5%
Fallen off: James Webb, Ed Rendell, Al Gore, Wesley Clark
I caught McCaskill on Meet the Press, and she was okay, but I think Sebilius would be the stronger female candidate, should Obama choose to go that way. I don't know why Webb has gone from #1 to out of the top ten in a month. Peaked too early? It just shows you that a month is a year in politics.
I'm not sure why Hillary is still so high. Didn't Obama himself say three co-presidents is two too many? The VP needs to be someone prepared to get an onslaught of jokes at their expense, as most comedians are afraid of touching Obama. Basically whoever it is will be caricatured like Dan Quayle.
REPUBLICAN VP NOMINEE
1. (1) Mitt Romney - 23.1%
2. (3) Tim Pawlenty - 12.4%
3. (4) Mike Huckabee - 11%
4. (2) Charlie Crist - 8.1%
5. (10) Carly Fiorina - 7%
6. (9) Eric Cantor - 7%
7. (7) Rob Portman - 6.8%
8. (5) Sarah Palin - 6%
9. (-) John Thune - 6%
10. (6) Bobby Jindal - 5%
Fallen off: Joe Lieberman
The worse the economy gets, the more it looks like McCain needs to pick Romney, although if Obama picks a man, Carly Fiorina is doing well in her surrogate work and could offset the gender vote. I think as Huck makes more appearances on Fox News, it'll become more clear he's not the VP and he'll drop. Still haven't seen anything from Cantor or Palin. I'm assuming Bobby Jindal's dropping because he's too young.
Ford balks, Gramm whines about whiners
Some funny stuff going on:
Harold Ford on the negative treatment of Barack Obama in the media: "I've never seen a candidate treated like this." Uh, dude? Obama's had it pretty easy so far. The worst he's gotten is from the Clinton camp. Never seen a candidate treated like this? Did you miss the swiftboating of John Kerry, or that ad that tried to make it look like George W. Bush was responsible for the dragging death of James Byrd? How about how John McCain in South Carolina in 2000? Are you saying Bob Dole, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, Michael Dukakis, Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale, etc., all got a free pass compared to Obama?
Phil Gramm calling America a "nation of whiners." 1.) He must have forgotten how Jimmy Carter's "malaise" statement helped sink his re-election. 2.) Millionaires should avoid giving general statements about average folk during difficult economic times.
Harold Ford on the negative treatment of Barack Obama in the media: "I've never seen a candidate treated like this." Uh, dude? Obama's had it pretty easy so far. The worst he's gotten is from the Clinton camp. Never seen a candidate treated like this? Did you miss the swiftboating of John Kerry, or that ad that tried to make it look like George W. Bush was responsible for the dragging death of James Byrd? How about how John McCain in South Carolina in 2000? Are you saying Bob Dole, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, Michael Dukakis, Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale, etc., all got a free pass compared to Obama?
Phil Gramm calling America a "nation of whiners." 1.) He must have forgotten how Jimmy Carter's "malaise" statement helped sink his re-election. 2.) Millionaires should avoid giving general statements about average folk during difficult economic times.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Rush gets $400 million
Rush Limbaugh has signed a $400 million deal to stay on the radio waves until 2016. According to Talkers magazine, he averages more than 14 million listeners, more than any other radio show in America. Second to seventh place are occupied by Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin.
I read a NY Times interview with him that was pretty revealing. Among the interesting tidbits, he doesn't care for many of his competitors, like Michael Savage. He compared Bill O'Reilly to Ted Baxter, the blowhard anchorman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He even seems to resent some people calling Hannity his "heir apparent." His hearing implant allows him to hear some things, but other things, like music, he can't really hear, and sometimes people will talk to him and he has no idea what they're saying. He resents McCain calling himself a "Reaganite," as Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley are two of his biggest heroes.
Thrice divorced and no children, he lives alone in his 24,000 sq. ft. mansion with his cat.
I read a NY Times interview with him that was pretty revealing. Among the interesting tidbits, he doesn't care for many of his competitors, like Michael Savage. He compared Bill O'Reilly to Ted Baxter, the blowhard anchorman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He even seems to resent some people calling Hannity his "heir apparent." His hearing implant allows him to hear some things, but other things, like music, he can't really hear, and sometimes people will talk to him and he has no idea what they're saying. He resents McCain calling himself a "Reaganite," as Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley are two of his biggest heroes.
Thrice divorced and no children, he lives alone in his 24,000 sq. ft. mansion with his cat.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Subtle Swiftboating of John McCain
First Wesley Clark, now James Webb, downplaying or dismissing McCain's military service. McCain doesn't play his military service nearly as often as he could, or as often as John Kerry did in 2004, nor does he play up his kids in military service.
I liked McCain and Obama a year ago. They were the two I hoped got the nominations. I thought they could run elevating campaigns. I still like them both, except for some things they do and say, and most of the people around them or supporting them. It's as though reporters and pundits and talking-heads WANT to kill interest in elections with the constant insults, feigning offense to their opponents' gaffes, never-ending spin, etc. Heck, when my dad let someone know he had reservations about Obama, that person turned around and called him a racist. If you don't support Obama, you're a racist. Which I guess means if you don't support McCain, you hate veterans or old people, one of those two.
If HBO's John Adams reminds us of anything, it's that politics has always been dirty. George Washington was called a traitor by some who didn't like his policies. I expect the McCain-Obama race is going to remain unelevated until we get to see them debate. It'll be interesting to see how they play off each other.
I liked McCain and Obama a year ago. They were the two I hoped got the nominations. I thought they could run elevating campaigns. I still like them both, except for some things they do and say, and most of the people around them or supporting them. It's as though reporters and pundits and talking-heads WANT to kill interest in elections with the constant insults, feigning offense to their opponents' gaffes, never-ending spin, etc. Heck, when my dad let someone know he had reservations about Obama, that person turned around and called him a racist. If you don't support Obama, you're a racist. Which I guess means if you don't support McCain, you hate veterans or old people, one of those two.
If HBO's John Adams reminds us of anything, it's that politics has always been dirty. George Washington was called a traitor by some who didn't like his policies. I expect the McCain-Obama race is going to remain unelevated until we get to see them debate. It'll be interesting to see how they play off each other.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Aaron Eckhart as Sean Hannity
I was driving my brother to the airport and we got to talkin' politics. He's an independent, which is what I was until Utah closed their primaries. I asked him about his views on some things and he got around to Sean Hannity. Said he: "When I first started listening to Sean Hannity, I liked him, but then I saw Thank You for Smoking and it made me not like him anymore."
"Why not?"
"The guy in Thank You for Smoking is really good at spinning the facts around and making the other person look stupid and like they don't know what they're talking about, and whatever he's selling he can make it sound good and reasonable."
"Great movie, by the way."
"And the next time I listened to Hannity, I could hear him using all the same tactics the guy from Thank You for Smoking was using. So I don't know what to believe when I hear him."
A little later he asked if there were any liberal radio talk-shows in Utah.
"Well," said I, "my good friend Jeff Bell has a show on Saturdays from 4-5pm. And that's about it." Talk radio here tends to be one of three things: moderate, conservative, or ultra-right-wing nutty.
"Why not?"
"The guy in Thank You for Smoking is really good at spinning the facts around and making the other person look stupid and like they don't know what they're talking about, and whatever he's selling he can make it sound good and reasonable."
"Great movie, by the way."
"And the next time I listened to Hannity, I could hear him using all the same tactics the guy from Thank You for Smoking was using. So I don't know what to believe when I hear him."
A little later he asked if there were any liberal radio talk-shows in Utah.
"Well," said I, "my good friend Jeff Bell has a show on Saturdays from 4-5pm. And that's about it." Talk radio here tends to be one of three things: moderate, conservative, or ultra-right-wing nutty.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Chaffetz wins / Cannon concedes
I wound up operating the computer that projected the results so I didn't enter as much as I intended. Cannon didn't concede until right after the local news broadcasts were over, nevertheless the crowd was ecstatic when Jason finally came in (after 93% of the precincts were in) and said he got the call from Cannon and "it was a sweet call to take." He thanked everyone for their support and said party at his house Saturday night. I went to shake his hand but some lady kept talking to him so I didn't get to say anything beyond "Congratulations." Now that we have him this far, let's hope he keeps remembering us.
Chaffetz/Cannon election results live
With 2 of 621 precincts reporting, Jason Chaffetz leads Chris Cannon 55.1% to 44.9%.
We're meeting at a clubhouse in Springville. Jason came out and gave a warm speech o' gratitude. He and his family are going to their own room to watch results while his supporters are here. The Utah network cameras are here. There are a lot of enthused, excited people hobnobbing right now.
Incumbants win 98-99% of the elections, but if Congressional approval is 20%, shouldn't 80% of them be losing their jobs this year?
We're meeting at a clubhouse in Springville. Jason came out and gave a warm speech o' gratitude. He and his family are going to their own room to watch results while his supporters are here. The Utah network cameras are here. There are a lot of enthused, excited people hobnobbing right now.
Incumbants win 98-99% of the elections, but if Congressional approval is 20%, shouldn't 80% of them be losing their jobs this year?
Monday, June 23, 2008
VP Dog-n-Pony show
Is it not a bit silly to go through this ritual of having every politician and his dog "deny" he is up for the role of vice-president? Tim Pawlenty and Tim Kaine go on a Sunday show together and debate - Pawlenty for McCain and Kaine for Obama - and then they each have to get the question if they're up for the role of VP. They chortle, they deny, they say they're not interested, but we all know it's an audition.
I've directed plays before, and one thing you do in casting is see how certain actors pare up off each other. Pawlenty/Kaine. M-hm. Let's see Joseph Biden and Lindsay Graham on Meet the Press. Thank you. Tom Daschle and Tom Ridge on Fox News Sunday. We'll give you a call. I expect a late July Sunday showing for Mitt Romney and James Webb. Somehow I think if Hillary deems to do a Sunday show this summer, she'll be going on by herself.
I've directed plays before, and one thing you do in casting is see how certain actors pare up off each other. Pawlenty/Kaine. M-hm. Let's see Joseph Biden and Lindsay Graham on Meet the Press. Thank you. Tom Daschle and Tom Ridge on Fox News Sunday. We'll give you a call. I expect a late July Sunday showing for Mitt Romney and James Webb. Somehow I think if Hillary deems to do a Sunday show this summer, she'll be going on by herself.
Dirty politics in Utah's 3rd district
What frustrates me most about this Chaffetz-Cannon election is how Cannon is playing to people's ignorance to get votes. It's one of the main points of his campaign that Chaffetz doesn't live in the district he wants to represent. When I first heard that, my first thought was he lives way far away and that counted against him in my mind.
But if voters knew that Chaffetz lives in Alpine (11,000 feet out of the district), that it was gerrymandered out of the 3rd district in 2002, that it'll be back in the 3rd district when Utah gets a 4th district in 2010, and that the Constitution only requires you live in the state and be age 25, it'd instantly be no big deal. But my guess is that campaign tactics is going to work on hundreds of voters who don't know that Chaffetz lives in Alpine.
But if voters knew that Chaffetz lives in Alpine (11,000 feet out of the district), that it was gerrymandered out of the 3rd district in 2002, that it'll be back in the 3rd district when Utah gets a 4th district in 2010, and that the Constitution only requires you live in the state and be age 25, it'd instantly be no big deal. But my guess is that campaign tactics is going to work on hundreds of voters who don't know that Chaffetz lives in Alpine.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
McCain, Obama go negative
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/06/21/2008-06-21_new_politicians_barack_obama_and_john_mc.html
I thought these two would do a different campaign, but nope, nope, nope, it's the same old mudslingling politics as usual.
And I am disappointed by Obama's opting out of public financing. If he's breaking his word already for the sake of getting more money, how different is he really going to be in Washington?
I thought these two would do a different campaign, but nope, nope, nope, it's the same old mudslingling politics as usual.
And I am disappointed by Obama's opting out of public financing. If he's breaking his word already for the sake of getting more money, how different is he really going to be in Washington?
Friday, June 20, 2008
Chris Cannon on "flip-flopper" Jason Chaffetz
http://www.chriscannon.com/blog/
His latest post is on how he believes Jason flip-flops. They're having a debate Monday night which I intend to watch.
When I was laid off in 2004, Cannon's campaign manager Nathan Rathbun gave me a job, and it really helped me out, and I got to see behind the curtain a little in politics. After Cannon won the primary, they didn't need my services anymore, but a month later my daughter Taleah died, and Cannon sent me a flag that once flew over the Capitol building, which I will always appreciate.
His latest post is on how he believes Jason flip-flops. They're having a debate Monday night which I intend to watch.
When I was laid off in 2004, Cannon's campaign manager Nathan Rathbun gave me a job, and it really helped me out, and I got to see behind the curtain a little in politics. After Cannon won the primary, they didn't need my services anymore, but a month later my daughter Taleah died, and Cannon sent me a flag that once flew over the Capitol building, which I will always appreciate.
Jason Chaffetz "Ask Me Anything" Meeting
I went to the Ask Jason Anything forum at the Hampton Inn last night. There were maybe 20 people there, so those who wanted to ask questions could ask a lot. I’ll try to make sense of my notes here to summarize:
First question was WHAT WOULD YOU DO ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?
Jason: I don't believe in keeping a second class of citizens. It's immoral to allow it because "it's good for business."
Seven-Point Plan
1. Fix legal immigration - We have people trying to get in the right way who have to wait over 20 years.
2. I reject amnesty. If you cut in line, you go to the back of the line.
3. I want to build the border fence, get rid of rewards and incentives for people to be here illegally. Tom Tancredo proposed a bill that would require someone applying for Medicaid to prove they were legal. Cannon voted against it. I would get rid of birthright citizenship.
4. We do not enforce the current law. 600,000 fugitive aliens in US.
5. Give business tools they need to hire legally. E-Verify.
6. Insist on assimilation. Saying Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish "just wrong."
7. What do we do with the ones who are here? Fingerprint them, photograph them, target a date where they must leave the country. 12 months? 18 months? If they don't, we jail them then deport them. Enforce Visas.
Local officers made Immigration agents? I'm in favor of some training but it's a mixed bag.
If you get to Congress, most of the people in DC are the ones doing nothing. How will get your program through? I believe there will be more Congressional turnover. There are no Utah congressmen in Immigration Reform Committee (?). Not one Democrat lost in 2006 federally.
What's Cannon's view on immigration; how do you differ? Dec. 2005 - Cannon did not vote for Duncan Hunter border-fence amendment. Other groups donating money to Cannon that'd be pro-illegal immigration (Landscaping union). Cannon voted for bloated budget that raised deficit to 9.3 trillion.
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HEALTH CARE
A woman currently going through chemo for breast caner asked about health care. Jason's mother died from cancer at age 52. Joined Gov. Huntsman team after seeing Huntsman Cancer Institute. (Jason teared up in here somewhere and it felt sincere.)
Bush offered $30 billion to Africa to fight AIDS. We only have $6 billion for NIH, with 1500 a day dying from cancer in USA. Our priorities are screwed up. We only pay disabled vets $1400 a month. That's wrong.
We need private health-care solutions. It's very complex. He knows his end-goal but isn’t sure how to get there.
Same with taxes. Tax reform end-goal - tax consumption but not production.
----
GLOBAL WARMING
Jason: I disagree with Gov. Huntman on global warming. I believe it's a farce. I don't buy Al Gore's version. I'm a conservative and I want to conserve our resources, but I want to tap into them. Would never vote for cap-and-trade.
----
ENERGY
Estimated 2 billion barrels of oil shale in Utah & Colorado . The time to act was years ago. Should have revisited NEBA when we had a Republican president, Republican House and Republican Senate. Cannon was head of Western Caucus and nothing got done.
Jason is pro-nuclear.
Spent 20 minutes with Pres. of Shell Oil. He said we have no energy policy.
Built win-win coalition with Legacy Highway . Called up Sierra Club, found out they'd never been invited to Governor's office before. They worked out a deal. (One guy in crowd said Legacy Highway was a failure, that it wound up being nothing like they thought it was going to be.)
----
Q: How will you stick to your principles? You'll have to deal with Democrats. Seems like many Republicans change when they get there.
A: I will represent Utah to Washington, not Washington to Utah .
----
MY FIRST QUESTION. I asked him to address the evolution of his views from when he supported Michael Dukakis in 1988 to being a Republican now.
Dukakis story - Jason's dad's first wife was Kitty who became Kitty Dukakis. Became co-chair of Dukakis for Prez. Went to BYU in 1987 as agnostic Democrat. In 1990, went through spiritual conversion, joined LDS church, realized values were closer to Republican than Democrat. Told story of spending day with Pres. Reagan in 1991. Reagan gave him his autograph, cufflinks, tie clip when done.
MY SECOND QUESTION. You don’t live in the 3rd congressional district. Do you plan to move or gerrymander boundaries later to put your house in 3rd district?
Constitution requires a Rep live in state and be 25. Lives in Alpine, no intention to move. State legislature put us in 2nd district in 2002. Alpine will be in 3rd district in 2010 when Utah gets 4th district.
Somewhere in there I mentioned Chris Cannon’s blog that posted that morning that gave seven issues on which Jason’s “flip-flopped.” He wished I had it up but Hampton doesn’t have free wireless access until you have a room key code. He said he heard there’s a Truth About Jason website out there now that smears that is paid for by Cannon’s campaign.
----
IRAQ
We haven't sacrificed enough. On the other hand, why do we have 10,000s of troops in Germany , South Korea , etc? I challenge the notion we need that many around the world.
----
One questioner said they heard a Cannon supporter say Chaffetz has no heart.
Jason: I've done everything I said I was going to do. I am specific with voters.
Diedre (volunteer campaign manager): I tesify to Jason's heart. He means what he says, and he believes what he’s doing.
----
One old lady, state delegate, said: I've heard nothing new. He's doing things in DC. You're just making promises.
Where do we differ:
- Cannon says he's for balanced budget, but he voted for $2.9 trillion bloated budget that puts the deficit past $9 trillion. The budget has doubled since Cannon’s been in office.
- Go to earmarkpledge.com, he won't ask for earmark until earmark reform happens.
- Cannon voted for Omnibus bill that had 9500 earmarks. One was for golf-course renovation. He got $300,000 to restore Riverton historical building among other things, but that was wrong.
- Refuses to let people know what earmarks he's asking for.
- No Child Left Behind; shouldn't even be for federal Dept. of Education.
(Old lady defended Cannon here, saying NCLB has been twisted around in DC into something unrecognizable; they got into some banter here)
- Cannon was for stimulus package; now says he's against it. Jason said it just increases the deficit.
- Cannon voted for prescription drug bill. It’s another entitlement we can’t afford.
- Voted for Student Adjustment Act. I'm against.
- Natl Defense Authorization Act. Cannon for - Pres can bypass governors in calling up Natl Guard. That’s wrong. (He listed a couple other bills but I didn’t know what they were nor did he explain).
Go to Reagan21.org – “I want to lock arms with them.”
MY THIRD QUESTION
Republicans deserved to lose control in 2006 because they made so many wrong choices, going along with Bush on things when they should not have. Massive increases in spending, therefore increasing deficit, etc. So assuming you win and McCain wins, what are the issues you agree with him on, and what are the issues you disagree with him?
Jason: I support McCain, most importantly for the types of judges he would nominate to the Supreme Court. On the other hand we disagree on whether to drill in ANWR (Jason for, McCain against), Global Warming (McCain acknowledges it; Jason thinks it’s a farce), illegal immigration (Jason would be tougher than McCain.) McCain would better for US than Obama.
----
One Guy: I’m sick & tired we don't have energy independence. They’ve been talking about it for 25 years, and they’ve done nothing.
Jason: Loosen regulations. Shell prez said "I know where oil is; I can't get it. I need to set aside $10s of millions for 'the process'." Republicans in Congress should have acted years ago, especially when they had control in DC. Supports oil shale, coal, nuclear, solar, wind, biofuels, whatever. Thought Congress overreached and overreacted on corn ethanol, which only increased cost of food.
----
Jason’s question to Cannon supporters: What are the 2 most important he's done?
Old Lady: He wants to get oil shale drilling going.
Jason: No, not what he says he’s working on. What has he accomplished?
Old Lady: Moritorium on internet taxes….
Jason: And if that’s your most important issue, good for him.
Points out he would have voted more than half the time the same way Chris voted.
First question was WHAT WOULD YOU DO ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?
Jason: I don't believe in keeping a second class of citizens. It's immoral to allow it because "it's good for business."
Seven-Point Plan
1. Fix legal immigration - We have people trying to get in the right way who have to wait over 20 years.
2. I reject amnesty. If you cut in line, you go to the back of the line.
3. I want to build the border fence, get rid of rewards and incentives for people to be here illegally. Tom Tancredo proposed a bill that would require someone applying for Medicaid to prove they were legal. Cannon voted against it. I would get rid of birthright citizenship.
4. We do not enforce the current law. 600,000 fugitive aliens in US.
5. Give business tools they need to hire legally. E-Verify.
6. Insist on assimilation. Saying Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish "just wrong."
7. What do we do with the ones who are here? Fingerprint them, photograph them, target a date where they must leave the country. 12 months? 18 months? If they don't, we jail them then deport them. Enforce Visas.
Local officers made Immigration agents? I'm in favor of some training but it's a mixed bag.
If you get to Congress, most of the people in DC are the ones doing nothing. How will get your program through? I believe there will be more Congressional turnover. There are no Utah congressmen in Immigration Reform Committee (?). Not one Democrat lost in 2006 federally.
What's Cannon's view on immigration; how do you differ? Dec. 2005 - Cannon did not vote for Duncan Hunter border-fence amendment. Other groups donating money to Cannon that'd be pro-illegal immigration (Landscaping union). Cannon voted for bloated budget that raised deficit to 9.3 trillion.
<
----
HEALTH CARE
A woman currently going through chemo for breast caner asked about health care. Jason's mother died from cancer at age 52. Joined Gov. Huntsman team after seeing Huntsman Cancer Institute. (Jason teared up in here somewhere and it felt sincere.)
Bush offered $30 billion to Africa to fight AIDS. We only have $6 billion for NIH, with 1500 a day dying from cancer in USA. Our priorities are screwed up. We only pay disabled vets $1400 a month. That's wrong.
We need private health-care solutions. It's very complex. He knows his end-goal but isn’t sure how to get there.
Same with taxes. Tax reform end-goal - tax consumption but not production.
----
GLOBAL WARMING
Jason: I disagree with Gov. Huntman on global warming. I believe it's a farce. I don't buy Al Gore's version. I'm a conservative and I want to conserve our resources, but I want to tap into them. Would never vote for cap-and-trade.
----
ENERGY
Estimated 2 billion barrels of oil shale in Utah & Colorado . The time to act was years ago. Should have revisited NEBA when we had a Republican president, Republican House and Republican Senate. Cannon was head of Western Caucus and nothing got done.
Jason is pro-nuclear.
Spent 20 minutes with Pres. of Shell Oil. He said we have no energy policy.
Built win-win coalition with Legacy Highway . Called up Sierra Club, found out they'd never been invited to Governor's office before. They worked out a deal. (One guy in crowd said Legacy Highway was a failure, that it wound up being nothing like they thought it was going to be.)
----
Q: How will you stick to your principles? You'll have to deal with Democrats. Seems like many Republicans change when they get there.
A: I will represent Utah to Washington, not Washington to Utah .
----
MY FIRST QUESTION. I asked him to address the evolution of his views from when he supported Michael Dukakis in 1988 to being a Republican now.
Dukakis story - Jason's dad's first wife was Kitty who became Kitty Dukakis. Became co-chair of Dukakis for Prez. Went to BYU in 1987 as agnostic Democrat. In 1990, went through spiritual conversion, joined LDS church, realized values were closer to Republican than Democrat. Told story of spending day with Pres. Reagan in 1991. Reagan gave him his autograph, cufflinks, tie clip when done.
MY SECOND QUESTION. You don’t live in the 3rd congressional district. Do you plan to move or gerrymander boundaries later to put your house in 3rd district?
Constitution requires a Rep live in state and be 25. Lives in Alpine, no intention to move. State legislature put us in 2nd district in 2002. Alpine will be in 3rd district in 2010 when Utah gets 4th district.
Somewhere in there I mentioned Chris Cannon’s blog that posted that morning that gave seven issues on which Jason’s “flip-flopped.” He wished I had it up but Hampton doesn’t have free wireless access until you have a room key code. He said he heard there’s a Truth About Jason website out there now that smears that is paid for by Cannon’s campaign.
----
IRAQ
We haven't sacrificed enough. On the other hand, why do we have 10,000s of troops in Germany , South Korea , etc? I challenge the notion we need that many around the world.
----
One questioner said they heard a Cannon supporter say Chaffetz has no heart.
Jason: I've done everything I said I was going to do. I am specific with voters.
Diedre (volunteer campaign manager): I tesify to Jason's heart. He means what he says, and he believes what he’s doing.
----
One old lady, state delegate, said: I've heard nothing new. He's doing things in DC. You're just making promises.
Where do we differ:
- Cannon says he's for balanced budget, but he voted for $2.9 trillion bloated budget that puts the deficit past $9 trillion. The budget has doubled since Cannon’s been in office.
- Go to earmarkpledge.com, he won't ask for earmark until earmark reform happens.
- Cannon voted for Omnibus bill that had 9500 earmarks. One was for golf-course renovation. He got $300,000 to restore Riverton historical building among other things, but that was wrong.
- Refuses to let people know what earmarks he's asking for.
- No Child Left Behind; shouldn't even be for federal Dept. of Education.
(Old lady defended Cannon here, saying NCLB has been twisted around in DC into something unrecognizable; they got into some banter here)
- Cannon was for stimulus package; now says he's against it. Jason said it just increases the deficit.
- Cannon voted for prescription drug bill. It’s another entitlement we can’t afford.
- Voted for Student Adjustment Act. I'm against.
- Natl Defense Authorization Act. Cannon for - Pres can bypass governors in calling up Natl Guard. That’s wrong. (He listed a couple other bills but I didn’t know what they were nor did he explain).
Go to Reagan21.org – “I want to lock arms with them.”
MY THIRD QUESTION
Republicans deserved to lose control in 2006 because they made so many wrong choices, going along with Bush on things when they should not have. Massive increases in spending, therefore increasing deficit, etc. So assuming you win and McCain wins, what are the issues you agree with him on, and what are the issues you disagree with him?
Jason: I support McCain, most importantly for the types of judges he would nominate to the Supreme Court. On the other hand we disagree on whether to drill in ANWR (Jason for, McCain against), Global Warming (McCain acknowledges it; Jason thinks it’s a farce), illegal immigration (Jason would be tougher than McCain.) McCain would better for US than Obama.
----
One Guy: I’m sick & tired we don't have energy independence. They’ve been talking about it for 25 years, and they’ve done nothing.
Jason: Loosen regulations. Shell prez said "I know where oil is; I can't get it. I need to set aside $10s of millions for 'the process'." Republicans in Congress should have acted years ago, especially when they had control in DC. Supports oil shale, coal, nuclear, solar, wind, biofuels, whatever. Thought Congress overreached and overreacted on corn ethanol, which only increased cost of food.
----
Jason’s question to Cannon supporters: What are the 2 most important he's done?
Old Lady: He wants to get oil shale drilling going.
Jason: No, not what he says he’s working on. What has he accomplished?
Old Lady: Moritorium on internet taxes….
Jason: And if that’s your most important issue, good for him.
Points out he would have voted more than half the time the same way Chris voted.
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