It’s because they’re nuts, and I mean certifiable.

John Harris and Jim Vande Hei of Politico.com try to explain the anti-McCain media bias. They begin by saying that there really isn’t any. They tell us that the first reason is that the McCain campaign sucks while Barry’s soars. They tell us that journalists are professionals who ignore their personal biases and report the news. They tell us of “McCain backlash,” brought about because McCain is mean to the media and has been more conservative than fun-maverick of late. They blame in on “[j]ournalists’ hair-trigger racial sensitivity.” They blame it on a “bias in favor of momentum.”

Finally, they admit that they’ve been duped by Obama:

In addition, Obama has benefited from his ability to minimize internal drama and maximize secrecy — and thus to starve feed the press’ bias for palace intrigue.

All told, their conclusion is that the media is psychologically unfit to report the news, but they are not ideologically biased.

Whatever.

“PREFACE:

On FNS, Karl Rove shewed his new electoral map: 317 for Obama, 157 for McCain. He has Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, and Virginia turning blue on the 4th.

Next on FNS, Virginia Governor Time Kaine said that he does not think McCain can win the Presidency if he loses Virginia. Early on the evening of the 4th, if we note that McCain has lost Mountain State, we know the election is Obama’s.

On TW, Lindsey Graham attacked Obama and Rahm Emanuel offered that he does not want to be Obama’s chief of staff.

Next up, former GE boss Jack Welch said that there is an economic light at the end of the economic tunnel, and that things should begin to get better by the end of 2009.

Tom Brokaw’s interview of John McCain on MTP could not by any stretch be characterized as hostile, or even spirited, but the Tomster spent much of the interview trying to trick McCain into endorsing socialism and thus Obama.

On FTN, Bob Rubin declared that we will emerge from the current financial crisis because of the “power of public policy.” Government will save us. Douglas Holtz-Eakin talked of getting the bad “mortgages off of people’s backs” so they could themselves stimulate the economy.

Next on FTN, Tim Pawlenty, asked about Tom Ridge’s insistence that McCain should have selected him as veep, pointed out that Sarah Palin’s appeal transcends a single State. Ed Rendell said that he doesn’t believe that Obama has a ten point lead in Pennsylvania and he needs Obama to get to the Commonwealth quickly. Rendell jokingly threatened to begin charging Sarah Palin the State income tax, as she spends a lot of time here.

On LE, Jon Kyl pointed out hiking jacking taxes on corporations, like Obama seeks to do, will drive them out of the country. Evan Bayh complained about the deficit, claiming that if we had a surplus, Obama would cut taxes for everyone.

Next on LE, pushing his plan to have the government purchased “bad mortgages,” John McCain compared homeowners to “innocent bystanders” in a “drive-by shooting.”

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The MSNBC noisemaker Chris Matthews recently blasted Sarah Palin for remarks she had made to children regarding the role of the Vice President in the Senate, suggesting that the veep could have a policy role. Matthews screamed at McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer that Sarah didn’t understand the Constitution, that all the veep could do was to break ties in the Senate.

That is the only specifically enumerated duty of the veep in the Senate, besides presiding over it, but the role is not Constitutionally limited to only that. But still, Matthews is a dull blade.

Here it is, from Article I, section 3 of our Constitution:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

It says that the veep shall not have a vote unless the Senate is otherwise tied, but it does not say that the veep will otherwise sit there and drool.

The McCain camp shot back:

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[UPDATE: The same media which refuses to look into a d*mn thing regarding Obama's shady character and associates or report a single Biden lie or slur as more than a harmless gaffe now gives us this: AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids. Read it. There's nothing to the story. This. is. pathetic.]

ABC.com’s “Silicon Insider,” Michael S. Malone, wrote on Friday that he is “deeply ashamed right now to be called a ‘journalist.’”

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer”, because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.

He is having a difficult time, struggling with standing outside the tank and seeing his colleagues in it.

Why, for example to quote McCain’s lawyer, haven’t we seen an interview with Sen. Obama’s grad school drug dealer - when we know all about Mrs. McCain’s addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Senator Biden’s endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

No, they’ll take Obamas word for it. None of it matters in the face of hopechangehope.

The media have betrayed the public trust. It is that simple.

And this pathetic.

HT, Noel Sheppard)

[Cross-posted at Rathergate.com.]

For Sunday, October 26, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace chats with surrogates: Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for Obama and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge for McCain.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos chats with former GE boss Jack Welch; Lindsey Graham; and former Clinton (Bill) aide Rahm Emanuel of Chicago.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw will grill Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer will talk to economic surrogates Doug Holtz-Eakin for McCain and Robert Rubin for Obama; and Ed Rendell and Tim Pawlenty, two gubernatorial surrogates.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer will have surrogates galor: Evan Bayh, Jon Kyle, that Wasserman-Schultz and her incantations, and Heather Wilson.

~~~~~

NBC’s Meet the Press, even with the erratic Brokaw, was back on top of the stack last week, and this is another opportunity for McCain to be heard.

We get to hear Tom Ridge assert the gravity of the mistake he believes McCain made by not selecting him as his running mate.

And Rahm Emanuel might gleefully trumpet that he doesn’t even have to run conservatives as Dems to win this season.

The media’s polling and editorializing/reporting is starting to get to people.

I’ll review the shows here tomorrow.

I think I am supposed to be skeptical, react to this like I did when Donato Dalrymple said he might seek higher office. But no, listening to the man speak, Joe Wurzelbacher is for real.

He told radio talker and fellow cancer survivor Laura Ingraham today that he might run for Congress in 2010. Against Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur.

Ingraham herself said she would immediately volunteer for his campaign and help him with campaign advertising and PR. Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee said they would welcome Wurzelbacher’s candidacy with “open arms.”

“We support Joe the Plumber and people like him everyday with our support for lower taxes and energy independence,” NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said.

Kaptur’s office responded by blaming Joe the plumber for recent layoffs at the local Jeep plant.

It looks like conservative populism is here to stay, and it is definitely something the party wants to encourage in the future. Grassroots activism. (There is a community blog designed for this sort of thing, but I, oh I forget its name offhand.)

I’d give you the URL at which to donate to Wuzelbacher’s campaign, but it does not exist yet. I’ll be back with you on this in a year or so.

Finding a Politico.com story via Google News, we learn of John McCain’s “amazement” at the way Sarah Palin is being treated by some conservatives.

Several leading conservatives, including columnists Kathleen Parker of National Review and David Brooks of the New York Times, have questioned McCain’s judgment in selecting Palin. [emphasis my own]

Leading conservatives: Kathleen Parker and David Brooks? That’s a bit o’ hyperbole, as I’m still not 100% certain who is Kathleen Parker, and I was not aware David Brooks could be considered a conservative by a conservative.

McCain dismissed their criticisms and credited Palin for energizing the conservative base in a year in which the GOP faces “a stiff headwind.”

“She has ignited our crowds,” McCain said. “She has a wonderful family, a great husband, great values and she shares my worldview.”

“I’m entertained at the elitist attitude towards a person who is proven leader.”

I am with our candidate: entertained. It is amusing that certain people with a misplaced sense of elitism can verbally attack a conservative Vice Presidential candidate in the middle of what could be a very close election, essentially because they do not like the cut of her jib.

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Not that it was considered possible. Not this year. However, we could be close to removing Okinawa Jack Murtha’s arrogant, corrupt mug from the United States Congress. This one is happening mostly under the radar, but, though considered unthinkable by bitter, partisan Dems, it is happening.

Jack Murtha has represented Pennsylvania’s 12th CD for sixteen undistinguished terms in which he has seemingly done nothing but engage in corruption, slander our troops, and bring home tons ‘o pork. This year, he faces a tough election bit against very recently retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Bill Russell, and the latest Susquehanna Polling surveyas reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Salena Zito, has Murtha leading Col. Russell by only 4 points with a 4.9 point MOE.

About 54 percent of voters among those polled say it’s time for someone else to represent them in Congress. About 35 percent say Murtha deserves to be re-elected.

“The most important variable here is that a decisive majority say it’s time for a new person,” said Jim Lee, president of Susquehanna Polling and Research. He attributed some of the unhappiness with Murtha to the congressman’s recent comments.

It’s tough to know how big a factor that is, though, because little attention had been paid to the race, Lee said. Political analysts didn’t expect Murtha to be vulnerable.

Okinawa Jack was unopposed in 2004. He defeated Washington County commissioner Diane Irey (remember her?) by twenty points last election. This time, he seems to have been unprepared. Or Lazy.

Russell has raised a lot of money for a first-time candidate — $2.5 million, compared to $2.1 million raised by Murtha, according to Federal Election Commission reports through Sept. 30. On Oct. 1, the Murtha campaign had $590,995, and Russell showed $333,413 in the bank.

Mutha must go. Donate to Col. Russell as his web site, the Russell Brigade.

John McCain and Sarah Palin have spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania of late, and team Obama might have an internal poll showing the race in the commonwealth tightening fast.

[M]uch buzz today surrounds the apparently inadvertent leak of an internal poll by Barack Obama’s campaign in Pennsylvania that supposedly showed the Democrat leading there by only 2 percentage points — a much-slimmer margin than independent surveys have recorded for him and one that would make the race for the state a tossup.

An e-mail from a local Obama aide expressing concern about the internal poll’s findings ended up in the queue of a radio talk show host in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Meanwhile, PA Governor Ed Rendell, an erstwhile Hillary booster, has sent Team Barry two e-mails suggested that Obama get his tail back to the Keystone State before he loses its 21 Electoral votes.

Given McCain-Palin’s ongoing activity in the commonwealth, I’ve wondered if their internals also showed a race within the margin. If that’s what Obama’s seeing, John McCain has a bit of a wider path, taking a State which had not gone Republican since GHWB in 1988.

Rendell, Obama, and Jack Murtha have already excused a possible loss in Pennsylvania, citing racism. It’s is an insulting excuse.

What did House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) tell CNBC yesterday that he would advise a President Barack Obama?

“Yes, I believe later on there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money.”

VID:

Obama and friends have yet to learn the lesson of Fritz Mondale.

Joe Biden is not campaigning today.

We need not wonder why, but for how long will the veep nominee remain under that Obama bus?

Congressman Okinawa Jack Murtha (D-PA-12) said that Obama would win his district despite the innate racism of his constituents. That did not sit very well with those constituents, and Murtha has finally decided to clarify his bad self to Pittsburgh’s WTAE Channel 4 Action News on Monday. According to Jack, naught buy five to ten years ago, the people of Western Pennsylvania were “rednecks.”

“What I said, that indicted everybody, that’s not what I meant at all. What I mean is there’s still folks that have a problem voting for someone because they are black,” Murtha said.

Murtha said the history of southwestern Pennsylvania is rife with racism.

VID

:

And there’s more.

Read More →

PREFACE:

On MTP, John McCain spoke of his campaign. He would not say that Obama is a socialist, classifying him instead as a “liberal,” even though he pointed out that the redistribution of wealth is one of the tenets of socialism.

On TW, George Stephanopoulos hosted another tedious roundtable with people like Donna Brazile, George Will, David Gergen, and Newt Gingrich. Gergen argued that the Bradley Effect applied also to Democrats, not just to Republicans.

On MTP, General Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama, disclosing that it’s the whole Hopechanghope thing that has him excited.

On FTN, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz argued that Florida’s Jews hate Sarah Palin. Missouri Governor Matt Blunt suggested that Obama’s tremendous celebrity might not translate into votes. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said that Colin Powell’s endorsement secures Obama’s national security bona fides. Rob Portman said that John McCain’s message was the Obama is risky on economic matters.

On LE, Rudy Giuliani stipulated that Obama was a “very traditional liberal Democrat,” a “throwback” to the time before the Clintons. He endorsed Mike Bloomberg for a third term as mayor of New York City, arguing that Bloomberg had strengthened what Rudy had one as mayor.

Read More →

For Sunday, October 19, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace will talk to John McCain.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos will host “all-star panel analyzes final weeks of election ‘08.” I’ll let you know if he finds any guests.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw talks to Colin Powell.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer talks to Dem Rep Deb Wasserman-Schultz and Dem Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, as well as Republicans Rob Portman and Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer will talk to House Republican whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Dem Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri. And Wolf then talks to his usual cast of thousands.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This buzz, if it matters, is whether or not General Powell will use his MTP appearance to finally endorse Democrat Barack Obama. I wonder also if he might endorse former Navy pilot and P.O.W. John McCain. Either way, if he goes either way, it will be interesting to hear what went through his mind as he decided. If he does not endorse, then… why is a guest on MTP in this valuable time leading up to the election?

John McCain gets FNS to himself, which ought to give us a hint of the tone for the last two weeks. Interesting, more people watch this show on its re-air on FOX News Channel in the afternoon than catch its morning air on the FOX broadcast network.

Missouri gets a spotlight, with father Roy Blunt on LE and son (Governor) Matt on FTN. Portman (FTN) has been a brilliant spokesman for McCain on financial/economic matters, and I’d hope we’d see more of him these final two weeks.

McCaskill and that Wasserman lady (FTN) are almost unwatchable, but… yeah, I know the drill.

That wild, wacky Barack Obama is at it again! Tune in folks, ‘cos you never know what zany, off-the-wall things he will say next!

In an interview to be published in next Sunday’s New York Times magazine, Barack Obama lays into the FOX News Channel:

I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?

Barry, you’ve just described yourself better than FNC ever could. And it’s curious that you would proclaim to the New York Times that voters would reject a politician who reads that newspaper.

FNC shot back:

Senator Obama’s comments about Fox News are misdirected. If he is uncomfortable with tough questions, it may be because he has faced so few from the news media. The McCain campaign also complains when we make them squirm. We will continue to do hard, honest reporting and let American viewers decide if we’re being fair.

The FOX News Channel is far-and-away the most watched cable news network.

By the way, in that same interview, at about the same point, Obama steps in even more of the stuff from which is campaign is formed:

Read More →

Columnist Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune might have finally found the ultimate rebuttal for our “Barry -hearts- terrorists” line of attack:

Neither Ayers nor his wife was espousing or practicing terrorist acts in the 1990s when Obama met them. They haven’t committed or advocated violent protest since the early 1970s.

Then again, I have not heard the claim that Ayers is a practicing terrorist; rather, the assertion is that he is an “unrepentant” one.

And, Mr. Zorn, Ayers has advocated violence as recently as 2001:

“I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”

And:

So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? ”I don’t want to discount the possibility,” he said.

In a story today, the ChiTrib paints Ayers as a nice man reluctant to discuss his murderous past. Has he repented?

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Joe McCain, the candidate’s brother, wants to fire the campaign’s management because they have kept McCain, and those around him, under wraps, isolated from the media:

Joe is particularly critical of top campaign officials (unnamed) who “so tightly ‘control the message’” that they have cut the press off from those who know the candidate best (presumably including his brother). Joe McCain, who notes that he once was a reporter and has worked in campaign press shops, calls these news-management efforts “counter-intuitive, counter-experiential, and counter-productive.”

Joe goes on to say that the decision to clamp down on press contact with intimates of the Arizona senator is “causing gangrene. It has gradually bled away all the good will that this great man had from the press, for he alone among politicians would talk to them openly, without finesse, without guile.”

Reporters, he notes, once returned the affection “regardless of their political lean . . . they loved him nonetheless.”

Joe–who did not respond immediately to a request for further comment–urges the campaign to allow him and others to talk to reporters about “the John McCain we know. Some reporters will get it wrong, most will not get it perfectly, but almost all will appreciate the reopening of the gates of information and reward us for it.”

Joe says he and others “were muzzled by those (running the campaign) without the understanding that you cannot control the media by keeping them from information, but you can lose all their good will.”

Not this year, Joe. John McCain never had a chance with this version of the press.

Read More →

Alaskans evidently revile Sarah Palin. Yeah, surprised me as well, but those Alaskans are taking to the streets of Juneau. From Sunday’s Juneau Empire:

Juneau residents staged a protest in front of the state Capitol on Saturday, urging the rest of the country to say “thanks but no thanks” to Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign to be vice president.

“We are the constituents who know what her actions have been, what her behavior has been … and we cannot tolerate that for the vice president of the United States,” said the event’s organizer Jeannette Lacey.

How many Juneau residents, or people bused in, took part in this mass demonstration? Let’s try: 200. And the paper quotes just about all of them, it seems.

But at least it was a retrograde protest, the kind at which Bill Ayers might have nodded and smiled as he continued rigging explosives.

Near the end of the protest, the crowd sang a song called “Oh Lord won’t you make me the vice president,” model on Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” tune.

“Forgive me my blind ambition and lies that I’ve tossed, I must get to DC no matter the cost,” the crowd sang.

Turn on, tune in, drop out, maan. So 1960s, maan.

All we need are the counterculture university professors. But look who I found! Is this one?

“They’ve been … touting her as the most popular governor,” said University of Alaska Southeast professor Britteny Cioni, who had a sign that said “beware the trickster.”

“Well, maybe, but not with everyone, and there are people in Alaska that oppose her and oppose her policies,” she said.

Well, she’s a lecturer, not a professor. The media had the same trouble with Obama’s title.

And “beware the trickster” is so – like – Timothy Leary. Yeah, I know: things are tougher in Alaska. I’m grateful that the vast majority of people in that beautiful and prosperous State walk through life with their common sense intact.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

PREFACE:

On FOX News Sunday, host Chris Wallace first talked to Rick Davis and David Axelrod, who spoke mostly at the same time. Davis posited that the media would not discuss Bill Ayers, and Axelrod countered that Bill Ayers the most discussed “unknown public figure” in the history, I suppose, of unknown public figures. In the next segment, Governor Tim Pawlenty stressed Obama’s inexperience while Governor Ed Rendell said that, despite his ravings about how Pennsylvanians hate blacks, this time the economy will trump race in his State. Rendell said also that divided government is a bad thing and the entire system should be run by one party.

On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos talked first to former Larry Summers and James Baker. Summers said that it is time to stop talking and to start acting. Former Treasury Secretary James Baker said that “this will be with us for a while,” but “we will come out of it.” In the next segment, Congressman Barney Franks said that it is “very important to get this done today.” Congressman Roy Blunt argued that there were going to be losses, but it should not be the taxpayers who lose.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, it was Rob Portman and John Corzine. It was a civil exchange between adults, despite Tom Brokaw attempts to stir things up. For instance, Portman spoke of McCain’s proposed spending freeze while Corzine spoke of Obama’s plan to start spending $50-billion dollars to create jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, converting to alternative energy, etc.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Lindsey Graham took offense at the Obama campaign comparing John McCain and Sarah Palin to George Wallace. Congressman Adam Putnam sees McCain as strong in Florida. Douglas Wilder sees the Bradley Effect being nullified because of Obama’s gifts and because “America is ready.” Colorado Governor Bill Ritter declared that “the gloss has come off Governor Palin.” NEXT SEGMENT, Fred Bergsten, a former official in the Administration of Jimmy Carter, declared that there is now a “crisis of confidence.” (Where have we heard that one before?) However, he thinks the “authorities” are doing the right things this time and we should come out of it alright.

On CNN’s Late Edition, Senators Chuckie Schumer and Arlen Specter had a major dustup over Schumer’s political attacks on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on an issue over which everyone agreed that there would be no partisan attacks.

Read More →

For Sunday, October 5, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks to McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and chief Obama strategist David Axelrod; then he moves to surrogates Tim Pawlenty and Ed Rendell.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks about the financial mess with House Republican whip Roy Blunt and with one of the fiasco’s architects, Barney Frank.

Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator Tom Brokaw hosts two New Mexico Congressmen: Tom Udall (D) and Steve Pearce (R). They’re running for the U.S.Senate seat currently held by Republican Pete Domenici.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer talks politics with Lindsey Graham; Dem Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado, Richmond’s Dem Mayor Doug Wilder, and Republican Representative Adam Putnam of Florida. The he chats about the Wall Street meltdown with Dr. C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the former assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs under… President… Jimmy… Carter.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer chats with Steve Forbes, Robert Reich, Specter and Schumer, and the always-irate Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And his usual cast of thousands.

Why Davis & Axelrod (FNS)? Better would be Schmidt & Axelrod or Davis & Plouffe (rhymes with “puff”). I’m just sayin’.

Word is that McCain is now calling Chris Dodd and Barney Frank (TW) for paving our road to this financial mess. I approve of that message, as it is easy-to-grasp and true. Congressman Blunt, who can play hardball with the best of them, can make short work of Barney if he wants.

Can we hold Domenici’s seat (MTP)?

I don’t know what to make of Schieffer’s half hour (FTN) this week, but it’s currently the top rated Sunday Show.

When Arlen Specter, God love him, is to speak (LE), I become nervous. We know Chuckie’s going to bring the acid.