“Gallup is saddled with some methodological problems,” [Obama adviser David] Axelrod tweeted today. He also directed Twitterati to a National Journal piece arguing that Gallup polls showing Romney in the lead “has a sample that looks much more like the electorate in 2010 than the voting population that is likely to turn out in 2012.”
“There will be an effort by the, quote, vast left-wing conspiracy to work together to put out their message and to attack me. They’re going to do everything they can to divert from the message people care about, which is a growing economy that creates more jobs and rising incomes. That’s what people care about. . . .
“Many in the media are inclined to do the president’s bidding and I know that’s an uphill battle we fight with the media generally.”
Moran is a tool, a tool’s tool, and a precision tool for the calibration of other tools. It was fun to see someone else share the love on FaceBook for his crotchetiness: Continue reading FaceBook Love: ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran →
On whether escalated violence in Afghanistan will accelerate US withdrawal:
No. The [liberal] base [of the Democratic Party] is loyal and cynical. It will not attack its own president in the run-up to an election — no matter what. It stands on principle only if the Republicans are in office.
Political parties are a special case of Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy. The GOP and the Dems put on an occasionally interesting bit of theater while beggaring the crowd.
You’re not going to get rid of them. Therefore, the question moves to what we can do to minimize their negative impact on We The People.
Ann Romney was already fully immersed in stay-at-home motherhood — raising five sons, ages six to 16, in her Belmont home — when Mormon prophet Ezra Taft Benson took to a pulpit on February 22, 1987 and delivered a definitive sermon on gender roles in the church titled, “To the Mothers of Zion.”
Rubin notices that Coppins is doing the “media Mormon expert” gig and accurately recognizes the insinuation that the LDS “creed has ominous political implications” — just like I done told ya! — but other than abhor the insinuation, what can you do?
Jen, seriously: Have you bothered to investigate the history, beliefs and practices of LDS? Because there is a metric buttload of this stuff just laying around out there, and those tolerant and enlightened liberals in the press corps are gonna unload it all.
Do you really think they’ll stint to use the dirtiest tricks in the book? Remember how your liberal friends learned to sling around “neocon” as an epithet (nudge, nudge) during the Bush years?
Ann Romney’s own parents were barred from attending the Mormon service for her wedding.
So, if you see an article that strikes you as gratuitously raising Romney’s religion as an issue, and complain about it, your complaint will then be used as an excuse to write more articles making gratuitous reference to Romney’s religion.
Heads liberals win, tails Romney loses.
UPDATE III: Full text of Ezra Taft Benson’s 1987 sermon, “To the Mothers in Zion,” which cites Brigham Young as an authority. So ask yourself, “What do liberal journalists know about Brigham Young? Is he the kind of guy liberals would endorse and praise as an authority on ‘family values’?”
If you are familiar with the Tea Party movement, you almost certainly know that Jennifer Stefano of AFP Pennsylvania is one of the movement’s most feisty, outspoken leaders.
@katyabram Reminded me of female attorneys in the late ’70s when I starter practicing. Relentless … giving no quarter.
Hmmmm. Is there some kind of “boys club” thing going on here? Grant that going after an antagonist during the commercial break is probably considered “unprofessional” among TV commentators. But the protective circle-the-wagons defense of Beckel would seem to be rather — what’s that fancy word the feminists use? — gendered.
We’ll let the feminists decide whether the token Democrat on Fox News is guilty of being a MISOGYNISTIC PATRIARCHAL OPPRESSOR, and just give props to our favorite “rabid shrew.”
Bob Beckel didn’t realize when the commercial break ended during tonight’s final segment of Hannity, caught in a heated off-camera argument with fellow panelist Jennifer Stefano. . . .
In a blooper that is as hilarious as it increasingly becomes painful, it slowly dawns on Beckel what actually happened, as Hannity insists he apologize and Beckel, after saying he won’t several times, finally realizes the cameras are actually rolling. When he finally figured it out, he told Hannity to “run your show better,” then covered his head in shame and refused to speak, other than to say “I’m going to be fired.”
P.S.: Stefano says she actually likes Beckel. Scary to imagine what it would be like with someone she didn’t like. (Note to self: Avoid arguments with “rabid shrew.”)
Sarah Palin speaks in Manchester, N.H., Sept. 5, 2011
Yesterday, Ross Douthat engaged in a “counterfactual” what-if about the 2012 primary campaign: Could Sarah Palin have won?
Speculation unmoored from actual facts is one of those games intellectuals love to play. It’s light work for brainy people to imagine what might have been in an alternative universe. By contrast, the business of reporting — trying to get sources to return your calls, for example — is often enormously frustrating and the labor-to-output ratio sometimes makes you wonder if it’s worth it.
Why bother picking up the phone, when you can just speculate?
Successful politics involves telling stories — “narrative arc,” as the intellectuals say. In 2008, Sarah Palin had an awesome narrative arc: Feisty mother of five, husband an oil worker and snowmobile race champ, she fought the odds, beat the Republican establishment, became governor of Alaska, and was plucked from (relative) obscurity as the surprise choice for vice-presidential running mate.
Then her enemies went to work on her, and messed up that story, so she was scapegoated for John McCain’s 2008 loss and was made a symbol of everything anybody might hate about the Republican Party: A religious fanatic. A negligent mother. A tacky, selfish, scheming manipulator. An unsophisticated airhead lacking basic knowledge about major policy matters, who quit before her first term ended under a cloud of ethics allegations, and then cashed in with a book deal, a reality show, and a contract with Fox News.
A 2012 Palin for President campaign would have been about repudiating that negative version of her story, recapturing the narrative arc of the feisty Alaska hockey mom that had made her a heroine to so many people in 2008. And I would have loved to cover that campaign.
And so Bob ‘beckled’ himself on Hannity. ‘It happens when you party, Democrat-style. I liked Political Clown Parade‘s reaction:
I despise the guy and make no bones about it, but firing him would deprive us of witnessing his hoof-and-mouth disease as his regularly makes fools out of the current regime.
Don’t worry, Curmudgeon: idiocy, like weeds in the lawn, doth spring eternal.
Sissypuss the Blog Kitty reports hearing rumors that this means Beckel is definitely out for the as the new Fred Rogers for the Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood revival this fall. Apparently their backup plan is Ed Shultz. What could possibly go right?
The file, composed of highlighted and annotated blog items by Elizabeth Benjamin, one of Albany’s dominant political reporters, paints a picture of an executive branch that’s particularly averse to hints that Cuomo could be, as is widely assumed, conidering running for president in 2016. The document focuses particularly on seven items it describes as “GENERALLY SNARKY,” including one in which this passage is highlighted:
“The governor has already been speculated to harbor White House aspirations himself — an effort that would enable him to surpass the record of his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who contemplated, but never went for, a presidential run.”
Other sections of the document highlight any language that could possibly be interpreted as critical of Cuomo, much of it innocuous by most standards: The highlighted passages include Benjamin characterizing the Governor’s phrase “celebration on 9/11” as “an interesting choice of words” and her writing that he “declined to put even a ballpark figure on the coast of storm clean-up.”
Seven of the items are labeled “GENERALLY SNARKY”; an eighth, about parking placards, is given as an “Example of poor reporting/Inadequate fact-checking before distribution.”
A politician obsessed with his image? No big deal. What’s weird is that the governor’s communication director — employed at taxpayer expense — should be doing this kind of clearly political work, which would seem more appropriate to a campaign operative or consultant.
By the way, if anyone for the Mitt Romney campaign has been assigned to evaluate his coverage in the blogosphere, my entry should read: “GENERALLY SNARKY. Prone to expressions of hopeless gloom. Has expressed willingness to stop blogging about Mitt in exchange for six-figure ‘consulting fee.'”
