A month ago, CBS News hired ex-Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaign operative Jamal Simmons, a self-described “strong supporter of Barack Obama's campaign,” as political analyst, and Tuesday night the CBS Evening News paired him with the more sober in-house analyst John Dickerson. As a result, viewers heard a rational look at the political landscape from Dickerson paired with Democratic talking points, in the guise of political analysis, from Simmons, but not balanced by any GOP veteran tearing down Democrats. Simmons turned polls showing impending big Democratic losses into a way to deliver anti-Republican demagoguery, as he charged “voters are starting to figure out that if Republicans win, they're going to cut, you know, 21 percent out of education and borrow $700 billion from the Chinese to give tax cuts to rich people, and most voters don't want to do that.” After Katie Couric raised, as controversial, Christine O’Donnell’s accurate contention “separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution, Simmons took the opportunity to deride Republican candidates: “If you look around the country, not just Christine O'Donnell but Sharron Angle out in
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In his Monday column, “ Tales of the Tea Party ,” Ross Douthat, the New York Times' s idea of a conservative, exploded four common Tea Party myths spread by the left. The text box read “The stories liberals tell themselves.” What Douthat couldn’t mention was that all four kinds of “stories” have been told by Times reporters as well. Douthat began by debunking the Tea Party racism myth, one spread by the paper's Tea Party beat reporter Kate Zernike on several occasions, to the point of considering opposition to the minimum wage racially suspect . A month ago, a U.C.L.A. graduate student named Emily Elkins spent hours roaming a Tea Party rally on the Washington Mall, photographing every sign she saw. Elkins, a former CATO Institute intern, was examining the liberal conceit that Tea Party marches are rife with racism and conspiracy theorizing. Last week, The Washington Post reported on her findings: just 5 percent of the 250 signs referenced Barack Obama’s race or religion, and 1 percent brought up his birth certificate. The majority focused on bailouts, deficits and spending — exactly the issues the Tea Partiers claim inspired their movement in the first place. The easy thing would be to take them at their word. But for liberals, that would be too simple. The Democrats are weeks away from a midterm thumping that wasn’t supposed to happen, and the liberal mind is desperate for a narrative, a storyline, something to ease the pain of losing to a ragtag band of right-wing populists. Something that explains the Tea Parties — and then explains them away. The “Tea Partiers are racists” theory is the most inflammatory storyline, but there are many more. Let’s consider them, in order of increasing plausibility. Douthat then posted some paragraphs under the following four bullet headlines of stories liberal tell themselves. Under Douthat’s headlines I've inserted examples of how Times reporters have told their readers those same liberal stories. read more
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Howard Kurtz on Tuesday did something rather noteworthy two weeks before Election Day: he scolded the media's coverage of the Tea Party while at the same time bashed press members for excessively praising Barack Obama during the run-up to the previous elections. This rare appearance of honesty about journalism's pathetic performance in the past three years makes ” How the Media Blew the Midterms ” an absolute must-read: read more
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They both made a dangerous product look attractive. One of the most successful marketing campaigns ever was the Marlboro man, the handsome cowboy who rode the range smoking Marlboros and living life as men were supposed to live it.
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President Obama at the Grand Canyon, photo: US Embassy in Bolivia / Creative Commons . Considering the dismal state of American knowledge of climate change science , and seeming dwindling enthusiasm for science and math more broadly, every little bit of effort helps: Towards that, the White House is hosting a science fair and President Obama hi… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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And it will hand the House majority over to the GOP : Seven months ago Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent a busy week rounding up votes to pass the Senate version of the Democrats’ health care legislation. It wasn’t easy. She had to get Democrats who had voted no in November to switch to yes in March. And she had to get Democrats who had refused to vote for the bill in November without an anti-abortion amendment to vote for a bill in March that lacked that language. She took the unusual step of scheduling the roll call for Saturday — so members wouldn’t go back to their districts and be besieged by Obamacare opponents. Those opponents, according to polls at that time, included most American voters. But Pelosi, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton predicted the bill would become more popular after it was passed (and, Pelosi said, after people had a chance to read it). National polls indicate that hasn’t happened yet. But what about the districts of the House Democrats who cast the key votes that made Obamacare law? Those Democrats have an interest in persuading constituents of the law’s merits. So how are they doing? In general, not very well. You can read the rest of the post for examples of individual Democrats who are giving up their political careers for Obamacare and Nancy Pelosi. If the Democrats take the kind of beating expected on Nov. 2nd what’s going to happen to Pelosi? Her arm-twisting is directly responsible for the passage of Obamacare and the loss of the House. How can she possibly continue in any form of House leadership? Generally, when the majority shifts control the ousted leader resigns from Congress. I don’t think Pelosi has that level of integrity, but what are they going to do with her – just let her be the crazy old lady with stories about how she used to run things? The post-election period will be pretty interesting between the lame-duck shenanigans and the leadership battles that are sure to take place.
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Mark Shields on Friday accused the White House of making up the story about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce funneling foreign money into Republican campaigns. Appearing on PBS's “Inside Washington,” Shields said of the issue the Administration and many of their media minions have been harping on for over a week, “It was absolutely fallacious on their part. And they made it up, the White House did” (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
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On Friday's Newsroom, CNN's Ali Velshi channeled the homosexual lobby's disappointment with the Obama administration's defense of the military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy: ” This unjust policy has gone on far too long in America .” Velshi also stated that homosexuals ” have a right to serve. They have a right to fight .” The anchor criticized the Justice Department's appeal of a federal judge's Tuesday injunction halting the military from enforcing the 17-year-old policy during his regular “XYZ” commentary. After giving a brief on the judge's ruling and the Obama administration's Thursday appeal, Velshi outlined his opposition to”don't ask, don't tell:” VELSHI: Justice delayed is not necessarily justice denied in this case, but it is justice delayed. I t's time to end 'don't ask, don't tell' now. This unjust policy has gone on far too long in America . Countries around the world allow gay troops to serve openly and just because a policy has been deemed constitutional in the past doesn't actually mean it's good policy and it certainly doesn't mean it's right . read more
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Not that there was any doubt, but we now have confirmation that the new MSNBC “Lean Forward” series of promos is all about . . .
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Jim Geraghty from National Review spoke at American University last night and gave his views on the upcoming election. Jim’s not given to bouts of irrational exuberance, so if he says things are going to be really bad for Democrats on election day, you can be pretty sure he’s got the numbers to back up that assessment (from Jim’s Morning Jolt email): So what’s going to happen on Election Day? Usually when you’re talking about wave elections, you compare it to some massive natural disaster. It’s a landslide. It’s a tsunami. It’s a political earthquake. We’re now in the territory where we need some new terms. Perhaps we can call it “Political Climate Change.” “Mass Extinction Event” seems to cover it. For a lot of Democrats, opening the ballot box is going to feel like opening the Ark of the Covenant, complete with heads exploding and faces melting. Instead of provoking the Wrath of God, they’ve provoked the Wrath of the Electorate. Start with the Gallup generic-ballot numbers. As Republicans, we’re used to rooting for a tie. Usually, if Republicans are down by 3 or less, they feel pretty good. If it’s a tie, Republicans feel like they’re set to have a really good year. “Ahead by 17″ isn’t really on the usual scale. You’re left tapping the screen and asking if it could possibly be right. Keep in mind, in the good scenario for Democrats, with higher turnout, Republicans are still ahead by 12. Everything has shifted over one step. You will probably be able to count the number of defeated incumbent Republicans on one hand. Joseph Cao in Louisiana. Maybe Charles Djou in Hawaii, even though a poll shows him ahead. By the time you’re hitting three or four, you’re already reaching. No David Vitter in Louisiana, no Richard Burr in North Carolina. Then you’ve got your traditional swing states that look pretty much over: Roy Blunt in Missouri, Pat Toomey and Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania, Rob Portman and John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in the governor’s race in Michigan — a lot of these states have been rough sledding for Republicans in the past couple cycles. All of the candidates I mentioned should not just win, but win pretty easily. Then you’ve got your deep-blue states that look competitive. Russ Feingold looks like toast in Wisconsin. In California, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have good shots. Dino Rossi has had a narrow lead in Washington lately. Richard Blumenthal was supposed to lock up Connecticut; hasn’t happened. Then you’ve got your what-the-heck-is-going-on indicators. John Dingell has represented Michigan in Congress since the Big Bang and he’s running attack ads. Same with Dale Kildee in that state. My congressman in Virginia, Jim Moran, usually wins 2-to-1. You know him, he sounds like Mayor Quimby. He’s below 50 percent. David Price in North Carolina. All of these guys are acting not necessarily like they’re afraid they’re going to lose, but like they have to work for it this year. My discovery today: in the last three weeks, 39 GOP House challengers have outpolled their Democratic rivals. Now, we’re Republicans. We know things can go wrong. In some places, they have. In Colorado, Republicans effectively gave away the governor’s race. Scott McInnis committed plagiarism, and Dan Maes is amazing us with his inability to campaign. At this point, no Republican is going to be competitive statewide in New York, and that’s going to hurt the House candidates there. In Delaware — need I say more? But the Democrats really brought this on themselves, for five big reasons. 1. No jobs, and they promised the stimulus would create jobs. 2. Health care. Never polled well. Americans never liked it. The vast majority of House Democrats are now either running from it or trying to pretend it didn’t exist. 3. Border security, and the DOJ suing Arizona. I’m still waiting for the ad showcasing Democrats standing in the House of Representatives applauding the Mexican president as he denounces the duly-elected lawmakers of the state of Arizona. You can hear the voice over now: ‘They stand with him, and they don’t stand with you.’ 4. Runaway spending. The deficit is no longer a numbers issue; it is a moral issue. Go to a Tea Party and you’ll hear people talk about what we’re doing to our children and grandchildren and what kind of a country we are to do this sort of thing. 5. The Ground Zero mosque — not so much support of the mosque but how quick the Democrats and their media allies were to demonize those who thought it was a bad idea and insensitive. Democrats have forgotten how to make an argument to persuade someone who doesn’t already agree with them. They’ve gotten lazy and are used to being able to denounce the opposition as xenophobic, racist, hateful, and out of the realm of respectable society. We had a million indicators this was coming throughout the past two years, or at least five big ones: Christie and McDonnell winning in 2009; the rise of the Tea Parties; the town-hall meetings during the summer of 2009 (“Congressman, they’re burning you in effigy — perhaps you had better open with a joke”); and perhaps the biggest warning you could imagine, Scott Brown’s win. Not to mention higher turnout in GOP primaries throughout the year. And they pressed on anyway. Keep in mind the subtext to this is that we were told, repeatedly, that President Obama was the smartest, most savvy, most prepared man to step into the Oval Office. We were told, by liberals and the MSM and by almost every Democrat except Hillary Clinton, that Barack Obama was just about the most ideal candidate the party could imagine in 2008. And look at where we are as a country. So that’s the outlook for Republicans: The floor is a pretty darn good Election Day; the ceiling is if not the Extinction of the Modern Democratic Party, then the end of Keynesianism, the end of the notion that entitlements are untouchable, the end of the public trusting the mainstream media, the end of the notion of public option and nationalized health care, the end of amnesty, the end of Card Check and the end of the demonize-first-and-ask-questions later mentality of today’s Democrats. If that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what does. But don’t get cocky, kids. It’s not over. As they say in NASCAR nobody gets the trophy and the big check for winning the Daytona 499. You’ve got to go all 500 miles.
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