First: Thank you, Barack Obama. He lacked the confidence or the strength to ask Hillary Clinton to join him on the ticket … lacked the nerve to double down on the theme of change. Instead, he settled on an unimpressive vice presidential pick, a long-time, long-winded overrated senator from a safe state, who gave him no lift at all in the polls, and offers no prospect of doing so.
Second: Thank you, John McCain. He showed guts with his pick of Sarah Palin. He also demonstrated a shrewd strategic sense… He understood the implications of Obama’s passing over Hillary. [H]e had the sense that Palin’s anti-establishment conservatism, pro-family feminism, and tough-minded reformism would add something important to his campaign.
Third: A special thank you to our friends in the liberal media establishment… The ludicrous media feeding frenzy about the Palin family hyped interest in her speech, enabling her to win a huge audience for her smashing success Wednesday night at the convention. [I]t even renewed interest in McCain, who seems to have gotten still more viewers for his less smashing–but well-received–presentation the following evening.
The astounding smugness and mean-spiritedness of so many in the media engendered not just interest in but sympathy for Palin… It allowed the McCain-Palin ticket to become the populist standard-bearer against an Obama-Media ticket that has disdain for Middle America.
Hanna Rosin–who has covered religion and politics for the Washington Post, and has also written for the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the New York Times–lamented in a piece for Slate: “So cavalier are conservatives about Sarah Palin’s wreck of a home life that they make the rest of us look stuffy and slow-witted by comparison.”
In a year of political jiu-jitsu, the MCCain campaign’s ability to use the perceived strengths of Barack Obama (celebrity status, media complicity) against him has been nothing short of masterful.
Oprah Winfrey may have introduced Democrat Barack Obama to the women of America — but the talkshow queen is not rushing to embrace the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket!
Oprah’s staff is sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
“Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on,” an insider explains. “Oprah’s website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama.”
One executive close to Winfrey is warning any Palin ban could ignite a dramatic backlash!
It is not clear if Oprah has softened her position after watching Palin’s historic convention speech.
OPRAH’S STATEMENT: “The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.”(Emphasis added)
It’s your show, Oprah, and you get to choose who shall or shall not be on it - but someone like Palin who is both interesting and important, to block her because of a narrow-minded partisanship for your own personal preference? Really weak, Oprah, really weak.
Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.
While that story of confirmation from Hillary’s campaign may be surprising, the media continues unabashedly in it’s contempt for the strong, accomplished and popular Governor continues to rear its ugly head.
If Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi had been decked out like soccer mom Sarah last night the G.O.P. would have called them tramps. Why, a hem two inches below the knee! So risque! I giver her her due: she is pretty like a cosmetics saleswoman at Macy’s.
Let’s face the truth: If Bristol were Joe Biden’s daughter or, worse yet, Barack Obama’s, the epithet “slut” would be on everyone’s tongue in St. Paul. But since she is Palin’s daughter she has been treated as if she were a saint, maybe Mother Theresa incarnate.
Now you have Time magazine writer referring to her as a “half term Governor.” Les Jones is on the case:
A Time writer refers to Palin as a “half-term” governor. I love it - the contempt just drips from the page. Has any Time writer referred to Obama as a “one-third term Senator”? I’m guessing not.
And these are just three off the top of my head! She has them rattled and the media will continue to slander her through election day. It’s becoming more and more clear that Katie Couric was right. The media is sexist:
I love how the biased TV honchos get some operative who once was a Republican (Joe Scarborough) or worked for the GOP (Mike Murphy) and parade them in front of the cameras as if these are “real” Republicans views on the day’s political events. In 1992, it was David Gergen, supposedly representing George H. W. Bush’s view, who subsequently went to work for the Clinton White House after his successful slamming of the GOP during the ‘92 election.
Chuck Todd exits by saying to McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt “Here’s free advice, let’s see if he takes it”
Later, when she thinks the mics are off, Peggy Noonan chimes in “It’s over.” And then responded to a question of whether Palin is the most qualified Republican woman McCain could have chosen.
“The most qualified? No. I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullsh** about narratives,” she said. “Every time Republicans do that — because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at — they blow it.”
Murphy chimed in:
“The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.”
Well, I am sorry Peggy Noonan is getting bitter as the new wave of Republican women take the stage while Mike Murphy can’t get a GOP job so he’s auditioning for the Democrats. And I think we all know what the chances are of Steve Schmidt listening to these outed hacks. Be sure not to let the door to the party hit either of you on the way out.
UPDATE: Peggy Noonan addresses this video with an exculpatory explanation. I apologize for my harsh reaction to what appeared to be her intent from the audio.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: This counts as “What Media Bias? Part 123″
“The McCain campaign will launch a television ad directly comparing Gov. Palin’s executive experience as a governor who oversees 24,000 state employees, 14 statewide cabinet agencies and a $ 10 billion budget to Barack Obama’s experience as a one-term junior senator from Illinois.”
The ad is what the campaign calls “a forward-leaning effort to counter the shameless smears that have prevailed during Gov. Palin’s introduction to the American voter.”
…
“Gov. Sarah Palin is an exceptional governor with a record of accomplishment that exceeds, by far, the governing accomplishments of Sen. Obama. Her selection came after a six-month long rigorous vetting process where her extraordinary credentials and exceptionalism became clear. This vetting controversy is a faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for vice president of the United States who has never been a part of the old boys’ network that has come to dominate the news establishment in this country. Sen. McCain picked his governing partner after a long and thorough search. Gov. Palin looks forward to addressing the nation and laying out the fundamental choice this election represents for the American people.
Here is a new ad:
REPORTED FALSEHOODS AND SMEARS AGAINST GOV. PALIN’S FAMILY AND HISTORIC CANDIDACY:
* Liberal Bloggers Questioned Whether Gov. Palin’s Fifth Child Was Actually Bristol Palin’s Child.
* CNN’s John Roberts Questioned Whether Governor Palin Would Be Able To Care For A Child With Down Syndrome As Vice President.
* The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn Questioned Whether A Woman With Five Children And One Having Down Syndrome Would Be Able To Make Her Family A Priority If She Were Vice President.
* MSNBC, Headlines Beneath The Live Coverage Included “SOME WORKING MOTHERS WORRY THAT PALIN IS TAKING ON TOO MUCH” And “SOME VOTERS CONCERNED IF PALIN, A MOTHER OF FIVE, HAS TIME TO BE VP.”
* Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) Said That Gov. Palin Was A Supporter Of Pat Buchanan Who He Called A “Nazi Sympathizer.”
* The Obama Campaign Linked Gov. Palin As A Supporter Of Pat Buchanan Who They Called A “Nazi Sympathizer.”
* James Carville Claimed That Because Gov. Palin Was A Supporter Of Pat Buchanan She Would Not Be Attractive To Democrats.
* James Carville Said That Gov. Palin Would Appeal To “Pat Buchanan Kind Of Republicans.”
* In Toledo, Ohio, Sen. Joe Biden Said One Of The Differences Between Him And Gov. Palin Was “She’s Good-Looking.”
* CNN’s James Carville Said That Gov. Palin Is “Almost Absent Qualifications For The Job.”
* Liberal Radio Host Ed Schultz Said That Gov. Palin Was An “Empty Pantsuit” Who Had Started A “Bimbo Alert.”
* Sherrod Brown Criticized Gov. Palin For Being Mayor Of A Small Town.
* ABC’s Jake Tapper Reported That Gov. Palin Was Once A Member Of The Alaskan Independence Party, Which Wanted To Secede From The United States.
* The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen Said That Gov. Palin Was A “Sitcom” Candidate And Would Be A “Disaster Movie” If She Became President.
* Tom Daschle Attacked Palin As Having “Absolutely No Experience” And Being “Extreme Right Wing.”
[M]others across the country … have voiced the kind of doubts that few male pundits have dared raise on television. With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.
Of course, neither the MSM carrying water for the Obama campaign, nor this false “concerned criticism” were hard to predict.
I talked with top Obama’s strategists who was like we’ve got to be very careful about this because they’re expecting the press to go make Sarah Palin famous in a bad way and they’d be very happy with that.
Oh, that looks like a meme. Sarah Palin must stay home with her special needs baby. Sarah Palin must stay home with her about-to-be-married, pregnant daughter. Ladies: Put your career on hold until everything in you’re family stops happening… Would a man forgo his career to be there for a family member who is experiencing an important life transition?
Remember when John Edwards decided to go on with his campaign after his wife got a diagnosis of inoperable cancer? Now, I think Elizabeth Edwards was probably excited about the campaign and wanted to go on with it. In that light, why are you assuming that Bristol Palin isn’t excited about her mother’s campaign? Unlike Elizabeth Edwards, Bristol is not facing her last days. She’s just starting out — all caught up in life. Presumably, she’s intense and positive about her pro-life beliefs, her love for the baby’s father, her impending wedding, and the new baby on the way.
The attacks will continue, while a knowing Obama comfortably takes the high road, fully confident the NetRoots, Kos Kids and cheering MSM Obamabots will relentlessly beat down any strong capable woman that threatens The One. So predictable. And so pathetic.
Here in Denver, there were audible cheers in the press pavilion from multiple directions when Barack Obama walked on stage. It’s outside the convention center and no regular delegates are here — only press.
But they won’t let their personal views color their reporting, right?
The fact that the rumors of Edwards’ infidelity have been around for a long time and the MSM only started covering it when Edwards confessed.
If this has been a GOPer, it would have been ’round the clock coverage until the miscreant was forced to admit it…
UPDATE: Advice Goddess points out that the LA Times, Tribune of The People, Defender of All That is Good and Scourge of The Powerful put an intern on the case.
The L.A. Times And Rielle Hunter: Way Too Little, Way Too Late
Finally, finally, after suffering nationwide media blog ridicule, the L.A. Times squeeezes out a story about how they didn’t tell the story, plus a “timeline,” bylined Kate Linthicum, of l’affaire Edwards and Hunter…
…I hadn’t seen the byline Kate Linthicum before, so I looked her up. Yes, while they’re throwing all the experienced reporters out of the place, we’ve now got the apparently undersupervised intern (Barnard Class of 2008) writing the paper…
But then reality broke in and the large anti-US protests failed to materialise, and large pro-US demonstrations happened. So, what did al-Reuters do? Keep lying as best you can, of course:
The headline should have read, “Bush arrives in Seoul to warm welcome”, but that would be to defy the MSM’s meme about President Bush - supposedly the whole world hates us, now, and only Obamessiah can retrieve our national honor from the Bush gutter. The facts, once again, appear to be in defiance of what the MSM wants to report - and my bet is that the entire meme of “Bush hated” is overblown. Sure, there are plenty of anti-Americans out there (and, heck, in America, too) and you’ll not lack for people who can be quoted at length being disgusted with America under Bush and gushing hopeful about how wonderful America will be under Obama…but does this mean the world hates us and that we need to rebuild our reputation?
Well, we certainly don’t need to in Afghanistan, Iraq, Djibouti, Georgia, Israel, India, Phillipines, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Eithiopia, Tanzania….heck, even our relations with China are pretty good (all things considered) and getting on good with Japan and China should be next to impossible. Who really hates us? Well, the Islamists do…and so do those global leftists who will hate us even if Obama is President because they don’t really hate President Bush so much as hate the United States, period…and not for what we do, but for what we are (free, Judeo-Christian, that sort of thing).
As I’ve said before, we live in the Age of Lies, and the main thing which has caused President Bush trouble has been his inability to join in with the lies…a few lies here and there stroking the egos of the left and President Bush would be in a lot better shape as far as elite opinion is concerned, but President Bush couldn’t do it…and God bless him for it; for being, that is, one of those rare people in politics who really doesn’t give a darn what people think of him and who is thus able to do the right thing no matter what.
While the lamestream press and rock-concert goers were salivating and tripping over themselves to touch their messiah’s garments on Obama’s recent European tour, others were not so impressed
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”
In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.
And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.
He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.
And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.
Senator John McCain’s trip to Iraq last spring was a low-key affair: With his ordinary retinue of reporters following him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on his arrival in Baghdad from New York, with just two sentences tacked onto the “in other political news” portion of his newscast.
But when Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Obama on successive nights.
And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama’s first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.
The extraordinary coverage of Obama’s trip reflects how the candidate remains an object of (slavish deovotion) in the news media…(report edited for clarity)
This may backfire - its clear that we’re going to get an “all Obama, all the time” fest in the MSM while he globtrots to places he doesn’t know about to look into issues he’s ignorant of…and that opens up the prospect of both people noticing that Obama was resoundingly wrong about Iraq and, additionally, people getting turned off by fawning media coverage. On the other hand, these MSM heavyweights migth be going so that they can carefully edit Obama on-scene to prevent the gaffe machine from really blowing it overseas…
Not that our readers are the ones to trust Newsweek, but really, don’t worry about that new Newsweek poll that claim Obama has a 15-point lead over McCain… which Newsweek reports under the headline “Barack’s Bounce.”
You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it’s so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it’s very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false. So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country. But the American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama. They know I have a long record of bipartisan problem solving. They’ve seen me put our country before any President — before any party — before any special interest — before my own interest. They might think me an imperfect servant of our country, which I surely am. But I am her servant first, last and always.
I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I have not seen eye to eye on many issues. We’ve disagreed over the conduct of the war in Iraq and the treatment of detainees; over out of control government spending and budget gimmicks; over energy policy and climate change; over defense spending that favored defense contractors over the public good.
I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration’s mismanagement of the war in Iraq. I called for the change in strategy that is now, at last, succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably. I was criticized for doing so by Republicans. I was criticized by Democrats. I was criticized by the press. But I don’t answer to them. I answer to you. And I would be ashamed to admit I knew what had to be done in Iraq to spare us from a defeat that would endanger us for years, but I kept quiet because it was too politically hard for me to do. No ambition is more important to me than the security of the country I have defended all my adult life.
Senator Obama opposed the new strategy, and, after promising not to, voted to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job of carrying it out. Yet in the last year we have seen the success of that plan as violence has fallen to a four year low; Sunni insurgents have joined us in the fight against al Qaeda; the Iraqi Army has taken the lead in places once lost to Sunni and Shia extremists; and the Iraqi Government has begun to make progress toward political reconciliation.
None of this progress would have happened had we not changed course over a year ago. And all of this progress would be lost if Senator Obama had his way and began to withdraw our forces from Iraq without concern for conditions on the ground and the advice of commanders in the field. Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he’s ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn’t traveled to Iraq to meet with General Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to reverse.
I know Americans are tired of this war. I don’t oppose a reckless withdrawal from Iraq because I’m indifferent to the suffering war inflicts on too many American families. I hate war. And I know very personally how terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course Senator Obama advocates could draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices; put peace further out of reach, and Americans back in harm’s way.
The argument made here by Senator McCain is unanswerable - so, expect the Democrats to not answer it and seek, instead, to change the subject as swiftly as possible. But McCain - and we who support him - must not let the subject be changed. This is the vital issue of our times, and it is also the prime reason to oppose Obama: he’s not fit to be President because he has no understanding of war, military policy, foreign policy or America’s place in the world. Obama’s views seem straight out of sophomore’s notebook from a government class…the sort of pie-in-the-sky talk we get from ivory-tower academics who don’t allow reality to interfere with grand theory.
The world is a hard place, at times, and Obama is a babe in the woods - it might be that he’d be a quick study and swiftly learn to discard what he thinks he knows, but we can’t gamble America - and the lives of Americans - on a hope that Obama will change fast enough from fool to sage. McCain, on the other hand, knows from hard experience (some of it excruciatingly personal) just how rough the world can be, and how cruel our enemies are - especially when they think they have us down. In the choice this November, nothing is more stark than this difference between Obama and McCain.
As McCain points out, Obama and his Democrats will use the Big Lie to try and win - not by out arguing McCain, but by making people feel worse about McCain than they do about Obama and his Democrats. This is the tried and true Democratic tactic - they’ve used it with success in the past, and they hope to do so in 2008. Winning is the only thing Democrats care about - and Obama is a blindingly ambitious man who has proven himself capable of getting right down into the political swamp in order to win. Counter-acting this Big Lie campaign will be difficult - especially as the MSM will largely serve as Obama’s megaphone for the next 6 months, but counter it we must. America is too valuable to the whole world - not just to Americans - for it to be placed at risk to gratify the ambition and greed of leftwingers slavering at the prospect of having the levers of power in their hands.
An article on May 4 about black liberation theology and the debate surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr, Senator Barack Obama’s former minister, erroneously confirmed a statement by Mr. Wright that the United States has used biological weapons against other countries. There is no evidence that the United States ever did so.
First off - for the NY Times to even think that the US would have done such a thing reveals a strong bias against the United States. Secondly - for the NY Times to merely state there is no evidence, with the implication that there might be a credible accusation we did, reveals a vile hatred of all things American. In other words, just another day in the liberal media…
The AP has a story out that basically portrays oil execs as cowering under the thundering bloviations coming from the Senate yesterday:
“Where is the corporate conscience?” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.
It’s all about economics, came the reply. Supply and demand. The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists’ anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.
But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren’t having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car’s gas tank.
“People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives. He said there’s a “disconnect” between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing.
The executives, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the hearing room, said they understood people were hurting, but they tried to blunt the emotion with economic analysis.
Profits have been huge “in absolute terms,” conceded J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., but they “must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of our industry.” And high earnings “in the current up cycle” are needed for investments in the long term, including when profits will be down.
“‘Current up cycle,’ that’s a nice term when people can’t afford to go to work” because gasoline is costing so much, replied Leahy with sarcasm.
“The fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work,” said John Hofmeister, chairman of Shell Oil Co., acknowledging it is something the oil industry has been saying for some time and that the explanation may sound “repetitive and uninteresting.”
Hofmeister was joined by executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc. and ConocoPhilips Co. Together the five companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of this year.
As the executives sought to explain their profits and why prices are so high, the global oil markets were moving into new, uncharted highs, touching $133 a barrel for the first time. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $3.80, with $4 showing up in more places. Crude prices increased even more in late electronic trading Wednesday hitting $134 for the first time.
What writer Josef Hebert conveniently failed to add to the reporting was this reply by John Hofmeister, CEO of Shell Oil:
HOFMEISTER: In the United States, access to our own oil and gas resources has been limited for the last 30 years, prohibiting companies such as Shell from exploring and developing resources for the benefit of the American people. It is not a free market. According to the Department of the Interior, 62% of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92% of all federal lands. The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay, or restrict natural gas projects. The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chose to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exploration and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development.
That, my dear readers, is the problem in a nutshell. Big Government is in the midst of bloviating, beating their chests and pointing their bony fingers of indignation at “Big Oil,” when all the while the cause of and answer to the problem is waiting to be answered the next time they look in the mirror. And “Big Media” who is in cahoots with “Big Government” lacks the cajones to report that fact.
In a laudable effort to keep the debate to a high tone, Senator McCain and this staff have eschewed any attempts at negative campaigning against his presumptive opponent, Barack Obama. In fact, McCain has gone out of his way to condemn efforts by some in the GOP/conservative coalition to attack Obama. In return for this high minded good citizenship, McCain has received the customary treatment from the Democratic party and the larger political left - he’s been the brunt of a series of attack ads and slanderous whispering campaigns.
