Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Wednesday, March 5. 2008
Goodbye #4
We’ve had Super Tuesday, Potomac Tuesday, Chesapeake Tuesday and now we’re wrapping up Ohio-Texas Tuesday. Listening to the prognosticators on MSNBC you’d think John McCain had won already in November. His speech was typical “I’m the winner” pabulum, but the chatterers are talking about how a protracted battle between the two Democrats can only make McCain a stronger candidate. I disagree, although the news organizations can (and will) certainly help McCain in the general election.Clinton and Obama going on to the bitter end can and will make the winner a tougher, thicker-skinned candidate when it comes time to face the Republicans in the fall.
Another thing that just bothers the Hell out of me is this big deal the newsheads — led my Chris Matthews — are making out of Hillary Clinton’s remarks on 60 Minutes concerning Barack Obama’s religious affiliation. They make it sound as if she insinuated Obama is a Muslim when in fact she emphatically said he was Christian (but I’ll vote for him anyway). Her slight, according to the newsheads: “As far as I know.” Apparently, for Chris Matthews, that means she was slighting Obama’s religious beliefs. How effin’ useless is that! How nit-picky can they be!
When there’s no news to report, then make something up; make a mountain out of a molehill. In just the 26 hours since Matthews first brought it up yesterday, when the consensus of those who watched the clip was that it was definitely not a slight, Matthews and MSNBC have turned it into the insult of the campaign.
The truth is, the news organizations are flailing about trying to call the election either way and with Obama and Clinton so close in this race, the newsheads have nothing new to report.
I still think Obama wins Texas, but Clinton is way ahead in Ohio. Obama won Vermont, but the delegate count will still be so close after tonight that regardless of where she stands, Senator Clinton would be foolish to throw in the towel now. Of course she’s going to go on. I actually think Obama will win the nomination though; his campaign team has so out-performed Clinton’s, and continues to do so, there’s not really any comparison between the two.But, there are still three and a half months of primaries to go, so statistically, Hillary Clinton still has a decent shot at winning. To do so though requires major changes in her campaign and strategy. The rock that is sinking Clinton’s campaign was believing the hype of just four months ago that her candidacy was so far out ahead of the others they (her campaign) didn’t have to do much to win, especially considering the amount of money she had raised in 2006-07. Hubris will precede the fall every time.
And it was just six months ago the same newsheads were calling McCain’s a failed candidacy and he would never beat Giuliani or Romney. As someone who once worked in the news industry, I’m completely embarrassed by what these high-paid talkers have done in the name of reporting the news about this election. Quite frankly, their “knowledge,” such as it is, is less than useless, it’s counter-productive. They still look at these elections the same way they did 25 years ago when the Dems were stepping all over themselves setting themselves up to be beat by Reagan.
This is the 21st Century and the candidates, the successful ones, have harnessed the internet, used the popular media outlets to push their agendas and this new paradigm has left the newsheads flopping about trying to figure out what so many others already know.
Sure there are super delegates and the Electoral College; the two conventions look pretty much the way they did in 1968 ... and ’72, ’76, ’80 and so on, but no one, except the newsheads and some extremists, care how Hillary Clinton worded her two responses to Steve Croft’s twice asked question about Barack Obama’s religious leanings.
As for the fall campaign, the war, the war, the war. Remind the voters Senator McCain still thinks Bush’s war in Iraq was a good idea. As of today, he’s the only one of the three who believes that nonsense.
Recent polls have indicated the economy has overtaken the war as the most important issue with voters, but that’s only because the “surge” is being reported as a “victory” when in fact the reason for the surge — the escalation — was to give the Iraqis time to build their government and that hasn’t happened.
Bring Bush’s war back to the top of the news, remind people what we have is not a draw down, but a return to the troop levels we had before the escalation. And remind voters McCain likes to claim the escalation was his idea; remind voters the Iraqis have done nothing to solidify their government, the whole reason for the surge. The benchmarks that were so all important six months ago have, like so many other Bush talking points about the war, fallen by the wayside, forgotten by the news media as the news forgets our troops in Iraq and focuses on the elections.
As of today, of 18 all important “benchmarks,” the Iraqi’s have sort of met four of them, the president declared in July of last years the Iraqis have made significant progress on eight of them. Of the four they sort of met, no action has actually taken place, the Iraqis formed committees. The only benchmark that almost came to fruition was a new de-baathification law, which is still unsettled.
Benchmarks? What benchmarks?
It’s time to take it to Senator McCain and the Republicans. Challenge him and them on the “progress” of the war. Then challenge them on the economy; the deficit that has ballooned beyond anything even Ronald Reagan had created. Challenge McCain and Republicans on the policies that give tax breaks to companies that move their jobs to foreign countries. Challenge the Republicans on their HMO-friendly views on health care. Challenge the Republicans on their bill, written by the credit card and bank lobbyists, that made it nearly impossible for the common people to declare bankruptcy and allows the lenders to charge the highest legal interest rates in history.
The Democratic nominee will have a lot of ammunition for the fall and this tough primary campaign will make him or her a stronger, better candidate. I like the Democrats’ chances in the fall.
As of now, the news organizations have called both Texas and Ohio for Clinton. Huh ... well, good for the New York senator!
•••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• And the saddest news of al today: Brett Favre retired. I’m gonna cry. He wanted Randy Moss on the roster for 2008 and the Packer front office blinked. Statistically, Favre is the most accomplished quarterback in the history of the NFL. His important stats and records:
253 uninterrupted regular season starts at quarterback
5,377 passes
61,655 yards passed
442 passing touchdowns
Nine Pro Bowls
Three straight years as the league’s Most Valuable Player
Two Super Bowl appearances
One Super Bowl win
… and 288 interceptions.
Most importantly, he never stopped having fun playing football. Damn, I’m gonna miss number 4 — Brett Favre. I’m gonna go cry now.
Calendar
Quicksearch
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport