We are in the process of selecting the next President of the United States, the "Leader of the Free World", a man who will guide this country through some very difficult times, not a drinking buddy. So stop asking who we'd rather have a beer with. That's an insultingly stupid question. It cheapens the discourse.
But that's not the stupid polling question that's been bothering me this election cycle. No. The stupid question that I wish the pollsters would stop asking is any version of the following:
Is America ready for a (fill in the blank) president?
I cant find a youtube clip of it but yesterday on Hardball, Willie Brown was saying that alot of democrats are worried with Obama as of late.
he went on to explain that in the primaries, Obama was dynamic and showing us what he was bringing to the game. Brown stated that Obama has been less exciting and needed to keep the excitment coming..
The results of the new Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon) suggest that viewers of the "fake news" programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are more knowledgeable about current events (as judged by three test questions) than watchers of "real" cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King, among others -- as well as average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers.
The national average for answering the three questions was only 18%. But 34% of The Colbert Report fans got them right, with 30% of The Daily Show viewers doing so -- even though the two Comedy Central shows draw younger audiences which generally scored less well on the "test" than older viewers/readers.
Wow. I just watch two Cliton supporters whom HIllary doesn't even support embarrass themselves on TV. Tonight's "HardBall" hosted by David Shuster had 2 guests, one man from a "Just Say No Deal" and a woman, member of PUMA PAC. I have never seen anything like this before as the guests were totally off in their thinking process.
I have to say that I think David Shuster is taking the Hardball concept seriously. He just took apart the representatives of PUMA PAC and the Say No To Deal folks - supposed Hillary supporting Democrats who say no to Obama.
Just a short diary as I have to run for about an hour... but hopefully when the link to the video goes up someone can post it below.
On Hardball today, Mike Barnicle just made a fairly explosive statement. They were talking about Ron Suskind's new book The Way of the World, in which Suskind alleges via interviews with multiple colleagues and subordinates of George Tenet the explosive charge that the Bush Administration gave the CIA an actual paper ordering them to forge a document drawing connections between Al Qaeda and Iraq.
Suskind was on the show, and faced fierce questioning from Barnicle--specifically about why Suskind didn't interview Tenet himself. Suskind responded that Tenet was confused and "did not remember" a large number of incidents from the time, including the famous "slam dunk" remarks--but that numerous colleagues and subordinates keep detailed records.
I just watched the Hardball Team (Mike Barnacle, Andrea Mitchell and Roger Simon) all give McCain a pass on the recent negatives attacks. Their reason for excusing him was what was very unusual to say the least. Follow me over the bump.
And I wish I was stupid so maybe I could understand this.
Everything I have read or had been told for the past 50 years tells me this should not be happening. Two hundred and thirty three years after the birth of a country promising equal treatment for all, it must be clear to Molinari and Watkins that blacks and women are still second class citizens.
They surely most know that white men have deliberately kept it this way for all those years. Of course there are hundreds of female and black shills like this all over television but can these people really believe what they are spouting? Please help me if you can as I want to smash my TV to smithereens.
I'm not an authority on the Iraq war or the Surge, but I know a great argument when I hear it. VoteVets.org founder and chairman, Jon Soltz was on Hardball yesterday, and he unequivocally stated the Surge failed..
Finally someone on Hardball says the surge is not working! These d-bags who continue to say The Surge worked piss me off. I'm so glad someone is speaking the truth. And he actually let them speak. John Saltz (how it sounds)owned the nutjob Pete Hegseth. McSame and Bush keep getting a free pass from the media when they say the Surge worked. It's a complete farce. This is a great step for politics and real reporting and debate. It's a short post I know but I had to. It's such a relief to to have someone on air actually using evidence to back up what they say.
Chris Matthews on Hardball has promised to interpret some recent polls in the worst way possible (for us Obama supporters). What he has done is cherry picked the worst possible polls (from our perspective), ready to pound them!
So, here at the clinic, we're giving free vaccinations for the Hardball show coming on tomorrow!
Please tip your health care professional as I am working hard for you (and packing away for my move)!
Found interesting fun discussion of Veepstakes MSNBC !
So I'm watching Hardball and Mike Barnicle is subbing for Chris Matthews. The last segment of the program, The Politics Fix, always has three political commentators. Tonight, the three pundits were three African-Americans with diverse backgrounds. The three panelists were the following:
Michelle Bernard from the conservative Independent Women's Forum
Jonathon Capehart, an openly gay reporter from the traditional media outlet, the Washington Post
Jeff Johnson, who is described in his Wiki profile as "a political motivator and a social commentator," from BET, Black Entertainment Television - an media outlet that is more narrowly focused on a African-American audience.
And perhaps the most promising part of the panel was the fact that the subjects Barnicle touched on were not the narrow subject matters usually relegated to African-Americans: no discussion of Jesse Jackson Sr. and his fixation on Obama's genitalia, no discussion of supposed white working class resistance to Obama, nothing at all about race.
In recent weeks, the GOP has started the talking point that the surge is working, just because violence is down, without addressing the actual objective of the surge, political accomodation. This has been reiterated by the MSM, and I have been upset at their lack of attention to the real issue.
Finally, Chris Matthews is speaking for me. And as an added bonus, rips Pat Buchanan a new one. See an excerpt from the transcript below.
"The greatest thing about this man is he's steady," Colbert continued, in a nod to George W. Bush. "You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."
in deference to a candidate who has not resorted to talking down to us, can we at least stop using baby talk like, "flip flop" & "flip flopper?"
i know we cannot expect the cool sophisticates of the media to stop, it's a guilty pleasure for them, like fart jokes - anderson cooper for one, can't wait to report the first charges of obama having "cooties." still, we should be able to discipline ourselves to the point of not using the language of preschoolers in a sandbox.
On tonight's Countdown, Tweety Matthews was leading a discussion with about the Charlie Black comment that a terrorist attack before the November election would benefit John McCain. This is when lightning struck - again
Good evening, Friends of Olbermann! I gotta warn you; I was feeling a little "saucy" prepping for the diary. Hubby must have spiked the hamburgers and green beans we had for dinner because a lot of what was covered on Countdown tonight really got the proverbial juices flowin'!
Please vote in the poll about what color our potential F.O.O. shirts should be. Remember, we need at least 6 people interested to be able to order shirts.
Now then, on to tonight's "saucy" Countdown diary!
Don't get me wrong. I've loved MSNBC's occasional turn to the liberal side with commentators like Keith Olberman. But for the most part, it's still pretty main stream. Still pretty corporate.
But every once in awhile a serious voice breaks through into the bobble-headed sound-bite world of talk television. Tonight it was wonderful to see Amy Goodman of Democracy Now forcefully declare her views on the woman vote in the Presidential election.
It's incredible to watch an alternative voice on corporate media. I thought she did well in hitting the issues she wanted to hit and more than held her own in a forum that demands such concision that usually only conventional platitudes are heard. But what do you think? Did Amy best her opponents?
More on Amy after the break, including a run-in with Michael Sipes of REM.
