Tuesday, March 25, 2008

McCain's Press Monkees

In one of the best blog posts I've read all year, Kevin Drum of The Washington Monthly gives us a nice rundown of just how much the mainstream media is in the tank for John McCain:

McCAIN'S CRED....Via Steve Benen, MSNBC analyst Chuck Todd tells us why John McCain can get away with routine demonstrations of abject ignorance, like his recent proclamation that Iran is supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq:


Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, "Oh, he says he's Mr. Experience. Doesn't he know the difference between this stuff?" He's got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it'd have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.
Italics mine. Let's recap.

Hit the clicky thing to see how awful it really is.

Meanwhile, Atrios adds some insight and points us to this new book from David Brock and Paul Waldman from Media Matters: Free Ride: JohnMcCain and the Media. Check it out right here.

There's no doubt that McCain will be able to ride this wave to great effect. As for the coverage in the general election, the extent to which the mainstream media will deflect McCain's fuck ups and foibles, while providing just the right kind of puffery when he needs it, will be glaring to anyone interested in looking at this thing objectively.

And, of course, after all the destruction that's taking place on the Dem side, and the hagiographic articles being written for a shifty dummy like Crashy McStupid, the Rubes will go ahead and pull the lever for at least four more years of slaughter and mayhem in Iraq.

God makes me Love the American People. Beer makes me stupid.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Obama's Speech and The Press

Jay Rosen over at Pressthink notes that parts of Obama's speech were directed right at the mainstream media:

I was watching CNN for Obama’s speech. Moments after it concluded Wolf Blitzer was asked to tell us what he heard in it. Wolf’s ear is the big ear for the Best Political Team on Television, according to CNN. So he went first. And according to Blitzer, Obama’s speech boils down to a “pre-emptive strike” against various attacks that are still to come, in the form of videos, ads, and news controversies that are sure to keep Reverend Jeremiah Wright and “race” in play as issues in the campaign. (I don’t have his exact words; if someone out there does, ping me.)

Wasn’t the speech about that very pattern?

This is a style of analysis—and a level of thought—we have become utterly used to, especially from Blitzer but also many others on TV: everything is a move in the game of getting elected, and it’s our job in political television to explain to you, the slightly clueless viewer at home, what today’s tactics are, then to estimate whether they will work.

That Blitzer, offered the first word on that speech, did the savvier-than-thous, horse race thing tells you about his priorities (mistakenly “static,” as Obama said about Wright) and his imaginative range as an interpreter of politics (pretty close to zero.)

I point this out because this is exactly the kind of vapid horse shit we say every weekend on all of the policitcal chat shows. It's all about the "process", and rarely if ever is there any substantive discussion of a candidate's policies and how they might effect the public.

Jay has more, here.

Obama's Minister

Here's John Cole on how the Right is reacting to this flap:

But for some reason, I thought religion would be different, but we now see that it is not. According to modern Republican orthodoxy, it matters not that you are a Christian, church-going, tax-paying adult who believes in God and believes in helping his fellow man and engages in widespread charity for those who are not well off. No, according to the new rules, you have to be the right kind of Christian, and all you have to do is have a minister who wears a flag lapel pin and shares your hatred for the gay and has a fetish for the fetus. Watch out, Christians. You need to believe in God, act in a Christian manner, AND have the right kind of counter-tops. You have been warned.

Here's the rest...

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Teacups and Scabbards

This guy will serve you tea, and then fucking Nazi Stab you. And, you probably deserve it...

The New Stupid

As Bill Maher helpfully reminds us, undecided and independant voters, along with those shifty dullards known as Reagan Democrats, are just a bunch of ignorant idiots. That they might actually know who's running for president is a source of amazement. So, when I read something like this, call me duely unfazed:

Can someone get Huckabee off the stage and end the most painfully embarrassing concession I think I've ever heard? I mean, put him out of my misery. Huckabee seems to have forgotten that this isn't the end of a grand, hard-fought race. It was a farce that everyone indulged because Huckabee's sort of a feel-good wingnut and had a good sense of humor. When he started on to 'Victory or Death' riff at the end I thought he might be about to end with a stunning crescendo of a ritual suicide. But apparently it was Victory or Death (or windy concession speech), the lesser known original version of the line.

And you thought snake oil sales had diminshed after the end of the 19th century? This joker actually vied for the Republican nomination this year. Here's the funny part: the American media treated this freak show like he was sane, and even weirder, important. Apparently he represented the views of a wide swath of Americans who had no voice in this race, so he was presented as their standard barer. The only problem is he's fucking insane. I find it nearly incredible that this country would elect someone as president that is more ignorant than George W. Bush, but the GOP came remarkably close to making this fraud the GOP nominee. I can't wait to see which kind of Dummy they produce for the 2012 contest.