Red State

What's amazing to me is the amount of information readily available about the presidential candidates' plans and the complete lack of attention to that information by mainstream media and taxpayers. There's a must-read article at The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that's been praised by both major political parties for more than 70 years. Mark Robyn's article 'Obama's income tax cliff for senior citizens' is a perfect example of branding trumping reality. Obama fans see an engaging speaker who easily could have carved out a career in show business. Realists see a politician reminiscent of Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson whose ambitious plans edged the country ever closer to socialism.

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By circumstance, we ran into our favorite tipster whose official cloak is ‘Deep Tote’ and our informant has delivered some amazing news—Sen. Barack Obama has already won the Oct. 15 Presidential Debate to be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Considering we learned this immediately after the 2nd Presidential Debate in Nashville, well before the final debate occurs, and in light of conservative accusations of media bias, we coerced Deep Tote into answering a few questions. Promising to ply our source with almond biscotti and authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, we got together at a tony coffee shop in Miami. I promised to reveal nothing about Deep Tote's age, race, sex, gender or alternative religious beliefs and I also agreed to withhold the name of the coffee shop. Just in case we were seen.

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Sen. Barack Obama delivered his customary rousing speech in Abington, Pennsylvania on Friday, pitching talking points directly to the constituency he calls the "middle class." The Ambler Gazette reported, "Obama said he wants to end the economic crisis by creating jobs through investing in renewable sources of energy, discouraging companies from outsourcing jobs to foreign countries ..." Considering the fundraisers his supporters hosted overseas, the senator may want to read up on what the term 'outsourcing' means. He probably should take a look at how economists define the term 'middle class' as well.

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Sarah Palin hooked me the first time I saw her speak. Until that moment, I was dedicated to my party’s nominee, but there was little passion. I hadn’t anticipated Sen. John McCain winning the GOP nomination for president. I had foreseen Sen. Barack Obama winning his party’s nomination because I know Democratic Party strategy—a brand based on rhetoric and physical appearance coupled with policy that veers so sharply left it is guaranteed to end up in the Pacific. Al Gore and John Kerry are exhibits A and B in support of my claims.

Shortly after McCain’s announcement about Palin, I went to get a haircut and ended up stumping for her, though not intentionally. A customer overheard me telling my stylist about Palin, and the next thing I knew, the 25 or so other customers and employees—all females—were all ears. The excitement was palpable. The GOP had placed, for the first time ever, a woman on the presidential ticket. And what happened next was entirely predictable for those of us who know media.

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Courtesy of Drudge, covers for two different issues of US Weekly illustrate the great divide between the RNC brand and the DNC brand when it comes to mainstream media. One cover shows a glowing Sen. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle—“Why Barack Loves Her.” The other shows Gov. Sarah Palin holding her newborn—“Babies, Lies and Scandal.” Fellow women who aren’t enamored of the DNC brand, it’s time for a boycott. I suspect women are the primary purchasers of magazines like US Weekly. It’s one thing to debate politics of each party’s nominees. It’s low down and dirty to assail someone’s character.

I haven’t read Rolling Stone in years, a magazine that has fallen into a state of confusion in my opinion. But let’s add it to our don’t-buy list as well. Also Men’s Journal. Talk to our teens—probably the age group that might buy that magazine. According to The New York Times (8-11-08), “The magazine [Rolling Stone] had 486 ad pages in the first half of 2008, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, down 33 percent from the same period in 2005.”

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Top prize for today's media hysteria race goes to The Philadelphia Daily News where one columnist wrote: “If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!” That column comprises a complete fiction—for instance, poverty is up. It’s not. It’s actually about the same, according to the latest US Census Report. Well, it is and it isn’t. Had newspapers and wire services read the fine print (and had the Philly writer done the same), they’d have noticed some questions were phrased differently by the Census Bureau this time and the answers shed a little light on "poverty."

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On the Bill O'Reilly Show tonight, there was a segment on Rep. Robert Wexler (D-[allegedly] 19). Wexler's Republican opponent Edward Lynch did some research and discovered the Democrat is fulfilling his residency requirement by residing at his mother-in-law's home, one in what The Palm Beach Post describes as a "55-and-older-community." His wife and children live in Rockville, MD. where the kids attend a Jewish Day School.

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Evision this: 20,000 college kids set up a camp—‘Tent State’—in a city park for four nights, strategizing on war protests and educational matters while the Democratic National Convention crowns the party’s presidential monarch in the city of Denver. Envision this: bathrooms, food wrappers and a big fat environmental question mark. The Rocky Mountain News says about 50 neighbors from the community near the park where the Tent Staters want to camp attended a Q&A meeting last week, some with understandable concerns. Many of the newspaper’s readers posted concerns at the discussion forum where the Tent City story was posted. One resident told the paper, “I think people in the neighborhood are freaked about this being Woodstock, but this is the anti-Woodstock." Another woman complained, "I just think it's overwhelming.” To say the least, this convention promises more twists and turns than a Harry Potter novel.

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The headline at The Drudge Report website,"Group Repping 50,000 Physicists Opens Global Warming Debate..." [linked to dailytech.com] says it all. That headline stems from an article posted in the July, 2008, newsletter of the American Physical Society unit known as Physics and Society. Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley wrote the explosive article, 'Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered,'and the abstract alone is guaranteed to make Al Gore’s blood boil.

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A Quinnipiac University Poll released this week showed Sen. Barack Obama ahead of Sen. John McCain, with Obama's rank heavily influenced by responses from women and blacks. But the poll also revealed some interesting figures related to the economy. Media outlets are focused on negatives related to the economy, but the poll shows voters may not be too concerned about their personal economies, even if 53 percent of them say the US economy is the single most important issue in their vote. I was startled when I read the responses.

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Sen. Barack Obama’s healthcare plan cuts a wide path through the current road most Americans take. Besides hoping to expand Medicaid, in a series of recent speeches to Hispanic groups, he moved towards Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plan, hoping to provide a refundable credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees. ABC News says, “The Obama campaign estimates that this tax credit would cost $6 billion.” Obama chose to speak about this most recently to the National Council of La Raza, said ABC, telling the audience, “…small businesses are the engines of economic prosperity—especially in Latino communities.” But the senator hasn’t come up with a way to define a small business to determine eligibility for the tax credit. ABC said an Obama spokesman explained those details will be “…worked out with Congress.”

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TV One plans to cover the Democratic National Convention and even the Wrap Parties, but CEO Johnathan Rodgers has no plans to bring the Republican National Convention to his audience. According to the Associated Press, TV One reaches 43.7 million households—almost one half of homes in the US with TVs. The network targets African-American adults. Rodgers told the AP and other news media, “We are not a news organization.” He said if Sen. Hillary Clinton were the nominee, TV One wouldn’t cover it. Rodgers based his reasoning on the fact Sen. Barack Obama’s nomination is a “historic event.”

A reporter covering the Television Critics Association press tour asked questions about TV One’s decision to only present one political party convention.

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It’s a touchy point with me, the matter of Sen. John McCain’s age. Media just can’t talk about it enough—the latest is an Associated Press story that (again) explores how voters feel about the matter. Seems like only yesterday the Democratic Party as well as media maintained an obsession with equal rights for all including those who don’t belong to Gen X. The AP story says Democrats have “broached the age issue indirectly…”

Democrats don’t have to broach the issue. Progressive mainstream media does it for them.

I’ve written about this before, but every time I see this (and I have seen it a lot), I get really angry. Here’s why—media’s preoccupation with age only began with John McCain. If we’re going to explore age, let’s be fair and take a look at select Democratic seniors, older than McCain, who exert serious control over our government. Some might call the situation a "chokehold."

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California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) may be suffering from ‘Wikipedia Syndrome’ as evidenced by his comments during an interview with progressive pundit George Stephanopoulos. Schwarzenegger’s criticism of the Bush administration’s position on global warming drew a number of lively comments at the ABC News blog Political Radar. Some commenters opted to use heated terms in somewhat inflammatory responses, such as street terminology for a female dog and another word representing the act of copulation. A great deal of possibly suspect information is posted about global warming. Unfortunately ABC News and many alarmists are apparently unaware they are politically incorrect at the moment. The Environmental Protection Agency is suggesting global warming be retooled as climate change. The EPA website notes, "The phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are changes in addition to rising temperatures."

Schwarzenegger said of Bush, “This administration did not believe in global warming.” He also touted the state of California, noting the state’s position as the “forefront” in addressing the environmental conflagration (both figurative and literal.)

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Popular opinion holds that mainstream media and Web content lean Democratic, and a cursory look at campaign donations by professionals lends weight to that opinion. Even without figures, it’s easy to compare story lines for the candidates. Sen. Barack Obama spends 20 years in a church led by a pastor who damns America from the pulpit and media accepts the senator’s explanation he didn’t hear words of hate during the whole time he attended the church. But former senator Phil Gramm mentions whining, and the media not only takes his comments out of context, they make it sound like he stomped on a puppy. Media overwhelmingly want sunshine in government, even on classified military situations. But media is not so accommodating when it comes to in-house sunshine.

I spent part of this morning using an interactive tool at The Orlando Sentinel. The tool allows you to look up campaign donations by profession, by name, by employer and by just about any other search term applicable. I admit this isn't a scientific study, but I used identical search terms for each candidate.

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