Posted by John Publius Jr. on June 25th, 2008 — in Barack Obama, Comic Relief, Talk Radio, Mainstream Media, John McCain, Blog
The 2008 general election battle between John McCain and Barack Obama is starting to take shape. This election is a critically important referendum on the future direction of the United States. We have very serious decisions to make about both our bad economy and problematic foreign policy, including the Iraq War.
Meanwhile, much of mainstream media and talk radio focus on unfounded, meaningless, and downright stupid attacks on candidate spouses Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama. I cannot possibly find a better way to address this than to include some comic relief with this video from The Daily Show’s John Stewart:
I hope that this video is final word on candidate spouse controversies. This election should be about the policies and character of the candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. The attacks against both Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama are ridiculous and frustrating distractions from important issues. People perpetuating these attacks are shameless.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on June 13th, 2008 — in Mainstream Media, Blog
News media giant Tim Russert died today from a heart attack. Russert was 58 years old.
Russert was best known as the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” and a frequent commentator on other NBC and MSNBC news shows.
Tim Russert played an important role in this 2008 presidential campaign, including being a moderator of one of the final debates between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio on February 26th, 2008. Here is the entire transcript as printed in the New York Times.
Watch this short video excerpt of perhaps Russert’s most memorable and widely quoted statement in the 2008 campaign.
Some news analysts pointed out that once Tim Russert declared that Obama would win the nomination, the race was effectively over. Russert’s opinion was perhaps the most respected in all of election news media.
News junkies will greatly miss Tim Russert. He has been an outstanding analyst and intelligent voice in television news for decades.
Russert had unparalleled insight into presidential election campaigns as demonstrated by this excerpt from the Wikipedia article:
Russert calculated possible United States Electoral College outcomes on a marker board on the air during NBC’s coverage of the 2000 presidential election and memorably summed up the outcome as dependent upon “Florida, Florida, Florida.” Russert again accurately predicted the final battleground of the presidential elections of 2004: “Ohio, Ohio, Ohio.” On the MSNBC show Tucker, Russert predicted the battleground states of the 2008 presidential election would be New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, saying, “If Democrats can win three of those four, they can lose Ohio and Florida, and win the presidency.”
I find it unfortunate that so many people casually bash the news media. Tim Russert provided a great service to the public and he will be sorely missed.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 24th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mainstream Media, Blog
In South Dakota yesterday, Hillary Clinton made a very unfortunate comment during an interview with the Editorial Board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper.
While discussing why some people want her to end her campaign, Clinton said the following:
I don’t, because again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere around the middle of June.
We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. Um you know I just I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.
This video of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is the most passionate criticism of Clinton’s statement that I have heard:
See these related links:
My commentary on this controversy:
I agree with much of Keith Olbermann’s commentary. It seems that every time I write something positive about Hillary Clinton, the next day she sparks a new, unfortunate, ill-advised controversy. I have always had a “soft spot” for Hillary Clinton because I don’t like the way she has been unfairly demonized over the years. Sadly, her 2008 campaign has alienated many people unnecessarily.
These recent remarks by Clinton cross a line, touch the third rail. Obviously, her comments were not intentionally meant this way. But it shows a lack of judgment. She should know better than anyone else to be more thoughtful in presenting her political messages. Everyone makes mistakes, and when we do, it is important to correct them as effectively as possible. Her “apology” was oblivious to the seriousness of her mistake.
I have gone out on a limb by advocating an Obama/Clinton ticket. I’ve always had doubts about this, but I have thought the potential upside outweighs the downside. Today I am much less enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton.
I do believe in redemption. Hopefully, her next attempt at an apology will invoke her “better angels”. Hillary Clinton needs to prove that she can transcend her own narrow political ambitions. She needs to do this because it’s the right thing to do instead of weighing the potential political consequences.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 6th, 2008 — in Opinion Polls - VOTE!, Issues/Policy, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Mainstream Media, Blog
Just when I thought the Democratic Party nomination would only be a referendum on bowling vs. basketball, finally the media is covering a real issue: gasoline prices.
Gas prices impact most people much more than candidate flag pin accessory decisions. It is encouraging that we can analyze a real issue.
Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in calling for a “gas tax holiday”, proposing a suspension of the federal tax of 18 cents per gallon of gasoline during the summer months. Many analysts and Barack Obama have heavily criticized this proposal. They claim that this “gas tax holiday” would have little economic benefit and encourage more gas consumption when our energy policy should instead focus on conserving oil and other energy resources. Clinton critics also decry this proposal as nothing more than political pandering. (Steve Brenan’s article is one example. If you can find someone praising the proposal, please post it in the comments - I always want to present “both sides”). Clinton has dismissed her critics as simply “elite opinion”.
For many people, a temporary elimination of the federal gas tax will not add up to meaningful savings. However, most people whose income depends on significant driving would welcome this relief.
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The “gas tax holiday” proposal is not a major issue, but it opens the discussion to a critically important one: U.S. energy policy. Everyone should know about the “peak oil” debate.
The candidates actually have much more substance than the goofy nonsense that dominates the media coverage.
Remarkably, unlike the websites for the Democrats, the “issues” section of John McCain’s website does NOT include “energy policy” as one of his issues. It does list “Second Amendment” (guns) as one of the major issues. I really try to be objective, but WOW!
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 6th, 2008 — in Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Talk Radio, Mainstream Media, Blog
Talk radio superstar Rush Limbaugh occasionally breaks out of his insular bubble and gains mainstream media attention. Recently pundits have been discussing Limbaugh’s latest effort, which he calls, “Operation Chaos: Rush the Vote“. Rush Limbaugh has been encouraging his Republican listeners (aka “dittoheads”) to vote for Hillary Clinton as a way to prolong the Democratic Party nomination process. The dittohead hope is that by keeping the Democratic contest going, the Democratic Party nominee will be damaged and the party will be further divided.
Cross-over voting is an interesting phenomenon and has been a political tactic for many years. It requires a bit a of sophistication in that people vote for someone they don’t want to be elected. I don’t fault people for promoting or engaging in this type of cross-over voting. People have the right to cast their vote any way they choose without providing reasons. One could argue that it’s “poor sportsmanship”, but I say “deal with it”.
Limbaugh argues, probably correctly, that Democratic voters helped John McCain win some primaries, especially in 2000.
Generally, this cross-over voting tactic has only marginal impact at best because relatively few voters actually vote this way. Operation Chaos may end up being the largest implementation of the tactic ever organized because Limbaugh has thousands of listeners in states still left to vote after McCain clinched the Republican nomination.
Today’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina are probably the best test of Operation Chaos’ impact so far. My guess is that enough Republican voters will vote for Hillary Clinton to sway the contests by a few percentage points. Someone who is only an occasional dittohead might be confused because in the past they’ve been told to hate Hillary Clinton. Casual dittoheads might accidentally vote for Barack Obama. The vast majority of Republicans will not vote in the Democratic primaries.
Limbaugh goes beyond this call for “cross-over” voting. According to Wikipedia:
On March 27, 2008, Limbaugh said “The dream end of this [of Operation Chaos] is that this keeps up to the convention, and that we have a recreation of Chicago 1968 with burning cars, protests, fire, and literal riots and all of that, that is the objective here [of Operation Chaos].”
Hyperbole is the lifeblood of political talk radio and the Rush Limbaugh show especially. Obviously, sharing his wishes for violence is incredibly irresponsible to say the least. I don’t believe that Limbaugh actually believes most of the nonsense he projects. Unfortunately, probably some of his listeners take him literally and even agree with his most reprehensible proclamations.
Getting overly upset about Rush Limbaugh is like yelling at rain.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on March 27th, 2008 — in Hillary Clinton, Mainstream Media, Blog
The media has been firing verbal shots at Hillary Clinton for claiming that she was “under fire” when her plane landed in Bosnia in 1996, shortly after the end of the Bosnian War.
Hillary Clinton repeatedly made several false claims about her trip to Bosnia including:
- her plane and the passengers were under sniper attack when they landed. Several eye-witness accounts (including one from the pilot) contradict this claim.
- the ceremony needed to be moved to an inside location because it was too dangerous outside. Video proves this is false.
- her trip was the first time a First Lady visited a war zone since Eleanor Roosevelt. First Lady Pat Nixon visited Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
- she was the first “high-profile” U.S. representative to visit Bosnia in the aftermath of the war. Her husband, then-President Bill Clinton visited Bosnia a few months earlier.
After reviewing archival news accounts and video of Clinton’s trip to Bosnia, reporters have proven that all of these assertions are false. Clinton’s response was to say, “So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I’m human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation.”
The news media are especially critical of Hillary Clinton’s misstatements about her trip to Bosnia because:
- it raises doubts about her credibility, especially because she repeated this highly exaggerated story several times.
- Clinton has made her “foreign policy” experience a centerpiece in her argument as to why she is the best candidate for president. This Bosnia misstatement prompts people to wonder if she has widely and generally distorted her claims to more experience.
- Clinton has similarly claimed that she played an important role in the Ireland peace process. Reporters are reviewing this claim again under high scrutiny, and many have already concluded that this too was a big exaggeration.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on March 15th, 2008 — in Rev. Wright controversy, Barack Obama, Talk Radio, Mainstream Media, Blog
Yesterday, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign suffered perhaps its largest political setback, as all U.S. news media focused on controversial videos of inflammatory sermons given by Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Barack Obama is member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. I visited this website months ago and concluded that it was not especially controversial, but this issue has been on my radar. The mainstream media dismissed the issue months ago, but they say the story has re-emerged because “now there’s video”.
This ABC News video summarizes the story well:
For the first time, Obama’s presidential campaign appears tainted in the eyes of the mainstream media. “Guilt by association” is not fair, but Obama had a long-standing, close relationship with Rev. Wright. Barack Obama’s message of transcending social divisions is in stark contrast with the highly divisive rhetoric in some of Wright’s fiery sermons.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 27th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Hillary Clinton, Talk Radio, Mainstream Media, Blog
Referee whistle: against the Mainstream Media, Personal Foul - Roughing the Passer, 15 yards
This criticism is more general than typical judgements of election fairness.
Background:
It really goes back to 1992 when some talk radio hosts especially began attacking Hillary Clinton. They never stopped attacking her. The general message seems to be that “Hillary Clinton is a power-hungry anti-christ”. It is a “big lie” strategy - keep repeating it long enough and loudly enough, and eventually more and more people believe it.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 27th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Mainstream Media, John McCain, Blog
Referee whistle: against the New York Times, Holding, 10 yards.
Last week the media focused much attention on this New York Time front page story about John McCain: For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk.
It is fair that many people have criticized the New York Times for this article, especially that the NY Times made it a lead story. The article is mainly a review of McCain’s history with the Keating Five corruption issue (in the late 1980’s) and his subsequent emergence as a champion of campaign finance reform. The “new” in this news story centers on McCain’s relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, based on vague information from anonymous sources. This article is an attempt to sell more newspapers.
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