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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.)

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.”

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.