The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rick Santorum Will Score Upset Win in Tonight’s ‘Pivotal’ ABC Debate in Iowa

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 33 Comments

That’s not the headline on the ABC News story, of course:

Only three weeks from the Iowa caucuses, the top Republican candidates will square off tonight at a pivotal debate in the state capital. The debate, hosted by ABC News and moderated by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, starts at 9pm ET, live from Drake University.
The prime-time debate comes as the GOP race has started to reach a boiling point. With Newt Gingrich surging to the top of the pack, former front-runner Mitt Romney has launched scathing attacks from all sides, from his key surrogates to a political action committee that, while not affiliated with the campaign, is funded by many Romney donors.

We should recognize this as what it is: Hype, of the same sort of stuff Hunter S. Thompson used to write when he was moonlighting as a publicist for a Florida wrestling promoter:

“The entire Fort Walton Beach police force is gripped in a state of fear this week; all leaves have been cancelled and Chief Bloor is said to be drilling his men for an Emergency Alert situation on Friday and Saturday night — because those are the nights when ‘Kazika, The Mad Jap,’ a 440-pound sadist from the vile slums of Hiroshima, is scheduled to make his first — and no doubt his last — appearance in Fish-head Auditorium. Local wrestling impressario Lionel Olay is known to have spoken privately with Chief Bloor, urging him to have ‘every available officer’ on duty at ringside this weekend, because of the Mad Jap’s legendary temper and his invariably savage reaction to racial insults. Last week, in Detroit, Kazika ran amok and tore the spleens out of three spectators, one of whom allegedly called him a ‘yellow devil’ . . .”
— from Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

The TV network publicists want to hype up this “pivotal” debate as a cage match between Newt and Mitt, so that viewers tune in to see these two Mad Jap stranglers go at one another. The multimillionaire ABC celebrity superstar anchors Diane and George want to burnish their reputations as Important Journalists by presiding over an event of historic consequence and, for that very reason, Rick Santorum might finally catch a break.

What better “news” for ABC than to have their cage-match debate destroy both of the Mad Jap stranglers? And what better dramatic turn in the saga of Campaign 2012 than for the upset winner to be the scrappy underdog now polling in single digits? Can’t you just hear Diane and George in the post-debate analysis segment, “I was surprisingly impressed with Rick Santorum”?

This is predictable, you see. It’s about the narrative arc, because TV news is show business, and show business requires a story that captures the public imagination. The people who run TV news are, to a greater extent than most viewers understand, deliberately controlling the story, deciding what is and is not “news.”

Our perceptions are being manipulated by these people, as I argued last month in my American Spectator column, “Debating the Deciders”:

During the third debate — Aug. 11 in Ames, Iowa, televised by Fox — the moderators clearly were trying to incite clashes between Bachmann and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who both were going all-out to win that week’s Iowa Republican Party straw poll. Pawlenty came out the loser in both the Thursday debate and the Saturday straw poll, and by Sunday quit the race. Meanwhile, the race had been transformed by the entrance of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who quickly rose to become the front-runner. Perry seemed an unstoppable juggernaut until his performance in three June debates derailed his bandwagon. While most of Perry’s debate damage resulted from self-inflicted wounds, this is not to say that the manipulations of moderators were without effect. Howard Kurtz watched as the Fox News team planned for the Sept. 22 debate in Orlando, Florida, aiming to “get some fireworks going,” as Fox managing editor Bill Sammon put it.

Political bias isn’t the only bias of which news media are guilty, although they’re guilty as hell of that. Even those in the media who are conservative tend to have their own prejudices, including the prejudice for inciting “fireworks” in debates — and beating other networks.

That’s why I’ve got a gut hunch about tonight’s debate: The ABC moderators aren’t willing to let Fox News play the “pivotal” role with the Dec. 15 debate. If this race is going to pivot, by God, Diane and George will do the pivoting. I’ve called Santorum a “brutal counter-puncher” in debates (he got some heavy body blows in on Perry during that Orlando debate), and if my hunch is right, the ABC moderators will let him use those skills. Here’s what to look for: Controversial “gotcha” question to either Mitt or Newt and then, after they’ve attempted to evade the question, the moderators call on Santorum to respond, at which point he hammers on the front-runner, who then gets 30 seconds to respond and this back-and-forth then turns into a shouting match — “fireworks!” — with the two candidates interrupting each other.

Let’s face it: The media view Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann as yesterday’s news. Wouldn’t they relish their role as Deciders and Gatekeepers in picking Santorum as the new “Flavor of the Month”?

Should this happen — and it’s just a gut hunch, so I can’t guarantee it will happen — those of my readers who don’t like Santorum are going to be screaming bloody murder about these liberal network celebrities deliberately maniupulating the GOP presidential race. And my response will be, “You just now noticed this? They’ve been doing it all year, and it took you 12 months to catch onto it?”

The problem with some people is that they’re insufficiently cynical. No matter how many times they get played for suckers, they’re still suckers. And the carnies who run TV news have a professional obligation never to give a sucker an even break.

Category: ABC, Debates, Election 2012, Iowa, Rick Santorum

FMJRA 2.0: [Insert Appropriate Music Here]

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 6 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


HERMAN CAIN ANNOUNCEMENT
UPDATE: SUSPENDING CAMPAIGN
UPDATE: Therapeutic Vengeance

SANTORUM EXPRESS SUNDAY: Complete Iowa Tour Schedule

They Don’t Pay Extra for Tears

E-Mail to a Cain Campaign Staffer

2012 Is About Barack Obama: This Cannot Be Over-Emphasized

FMJRA 2.0: It Hurts To Breathe

Destination Iowa: The Intersection of Preparation and Opportunity

SANTORUM EXPRESS SUNDAY: Criticizes Newt Gingrich During Appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week’ UPDATE: Complete Video Added

SANTORUM EXPRESS SUNDAY: Conservative Gets Unexpected Endorsement by Tea Party Blogger

SANTORUM SUNDAY EXPRESS: Exclusive Video From May 2011 At SFVRC

Rule 5 Sunday: Truth

Sony 3D Blu-Ray Disc Player $108!

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.05.11

SANTORUM VOWS: ‘NO SURRENDER!’

God Bless You, Mary Zenecki!

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.06.11

You Have To Admire Nancy Pelosi

VIDEO: How Obama Stole Christmas

SANTORUM’S SURGE: Tells Palin Supporters, ‘I’m Your Guy’

Why Gingrich Will Lose: ‘Newt Wears Arrogance Like a Zebra Wears Stripes’

Pardon Me, Allahpundit: The Gerald Ford Analogy? Pardon Me

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.07.11

Let’s Face It: Jesus Railed Against The ‘Archbishops’ Of His Day

Rush Nails It On The Craven GOP

Rick Santorum: Praise by Sarah Palin ‘Absolutely Critical’ to His Money Surge

My Day (and Night) in D.C.

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.08.11

In the Presence of His Newtness

Let’s Be Extra-Accurate Here

‘Womyn’ Gripped By Tim Tebow Terror?

VA Senate Debate As 2012 Opener

Improving Our Accuracy: Laser-Like Focus

Impeachy-Keen Times For BHO’s Admin.?

‘10,000 Marbles, Please’

Miracles Keep Happening Every Day

Iowa or Bust: Rick Perry Campaign Compelled to Try ‘Last Ditch’ Strategy

LIVE AT FIVETEN – 12.09.11

Santorum Surge Gets Boost From Endorsements by Anti-Jihad Blogger, Conservative Billionaire and Iowa Secretary of State, But Mainly …

The National Popular Vote Is A Fine Way To Ferret Out Progressive Idiots

Holder Delenda Est, Rep. Adams Edition

BREAKING: Team Romney Snubs Conservative Media in Anti-Newt Call UPDATE: Team Romney Denies

Santorum ‘Planning to Win’ in Iowa

Top linkers this week:

  1. The Camp of the Saints (9)
  2. Don Surber (7)
  3. (tied) Daily Pundit and The Lonely Conservative (6)
  4. (tied) Lisa Graas and Republican Redefined (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! E-mail your links to me by Friday, December 16 to be included in the next FMJRA; be sure to include “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.

Category: Rule 5

#OccupyDC Provides Shenanigans At U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Christmas Party, Patrick Murray Non-Plussed

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Keith Olbermann lives! The story picks up at 5:13 into the clip. #Occupy protesters (the ‘99%’) laid on the ground and covered themselves in a red carpet for the people leaving the Christmas party (the ‘1%’) to walk all over:
In attendance was retired Army Colonel Patrick Murray, who sent the following email:

Last night I had the honor of attending the annual U.S. Chamber of Commerce Christmas party. Walking up, we were accosted by an angry, snarling mob of protesters, courtesy of labor unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and some of the “Occupy” rabble. All of them were screaming the now stale “Pay your fair share,” and “You walk on our rights, now walk on us” (daring us to step on protesters lying underneath a red carpet painted with “99 %”). As we waded through the rabble, I stopped to soak it all in, whereupon the protesters speculated about my heritage as well as offering some recommendations that I’m pretty sure are anatomically impossible.

I spent 24 years serving my country in the Army and defending the Constitution (or as Jim Moran calls it: “meaningless”). That includes our 1st Amendment rights of freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble. But what I witnessed last night was chilling, because these aren’t the first such protests I’ve witnessed, albeit in faraway lands.

While serving in places like Belgrade, Moscow and Minsk, places that had strong Socialist movements and totalitarian regimes, I encountered the exact same thing, often in front of the American Embassy where I worked. The slogans and the signs were in different languages, but the methodology was the same (in the aforementioned locations, the AstroTurf mobs arrived in busses; SEIU just happens to have mountains of cash from taxpayers and forced union dues that they can fly their mobs in). But the Socialist, anti-American undercurrents were eerily similar, such that standing there last night I suddenly got an odd sense of deja vu. It was like I was back in a totalitarian state, except that I wasn’t. Instead, I was standing on H Street NW, right in the heart of our Nation’s Capital.

The more I think about it, the more disturbing it becomes. First, consider the inanity of supposedly jobless people out protesting against the Chamber of Commerce, a stellar organization that exists to create jobs and support small business. It’s also troubling that the protests here mirror those I’ve seen in remote places where there is no culture of individual freedoms or the concept of private ownership, much less representative government. But most troubling is that the goals of the anti-American mobs are shared by the leaders of the current Democrat Party. Massive income redistribution and ever-higher taxes to feed an enormous federal nanny state from which all blessings flow is the utopia of Jim Moran, Tim Kaine, Nancy Pelosi our current president. All wrapped up in the innocuous, poll-tested jingle of “pay your fair share.”

Patrick Murray for Congress

In defense of the #Occupy protesters, at least they were clever enough to frame their sad little stunt as an AC/DC reference:

Category: #Occupy, Jim Moran, Patrick Murray

Death by Penis Enhancement

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 16 Comments

Worth dying for?

Authorities have filed homicide charges against a woman after she allegedly administered a silicone injection into the penis of a 22-year-old man, who suffered a fatal blood clot.
The victim, who died in May, had been seeking a penis enhancement, authorities said today.
Kasia Rivera, 34, of East Orange, was arrested today on manslaughter charges and unauthorized practice of medicine in the death of Justin Street, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Probably not what he expected on his tombstone:

“Justin Street, 1989-2011: He Thought His Penis Was Too Small.”

On the other hand, at least Justin wasn’t expecting the government to provide him with . . . uh, stimulus:

According to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on penis pumps for elderly men over the past decade, and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001.
The cost to taxpayers for the pumps more than quadrupled during that period, from a low of $11 million in 2001 to a high of more than $47 million in 2010. And these represent only the costs for external devices, technically classified as “Male Vacuum Erection Systems,” not implantable devices or oral drugs such as Viagra.

Hasn’t this whole “pursuit of happiness” gotten completely out of hand? Is it really the responsibility of U.S. taxpayers to provide penis pumps and Viagra for geezers who can’t get it up? And apparently this kind of sexual welfare is not even limited to American geezers:

A Minnesota town is outraged over reports that an illegal immigrant was  implanted with a penis pump – paid for by taxpayers… Scott County Attorney Pat Ciliberto wants to know how an illegal  immigrant was able to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in medical  assistance.

This insanity must be stopped. America needs someone who will stand up and speak out  — a man of courage and conviction, a genuine leader with firm principles and clear vision to put an end to these abuses.

RICK SANTORUM for PRESIDENT
Because America Is Finally Ready to Say, “Enough Is Enough”

Category: Crime

Is ‘Vocal Fry’ Stupider Than AutoTune?

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Via Slashdot, there is some nonsense social research into ‘vocal fry’:

Vocal fry, or glottalization, is a low, staccato vibration during speech, produced by a slow fluttering of the vocal chords (listen here). Since the 1960s, vocal fry has been recognized as the lowest of the three vocal registers, which also include falsetto and modal—the usual speaking register. Speakers creak differently according to their gender, although whether it is more common in males or females varies among languages. In American English, anecdotal reports suggest that the behavior is much more common in women. (In British English, the pattern is the opposite.) Historically, continual use of vocal fry was classified as part of a voice disorder that was believed to lead to vocal chord damage. However, in recent years, researchers have noted occasional use of the creak in speakers with normal voice quality.

In the new study, scientists at Long Island University (LIU) in Brookville, New York, investigated the prevalence of vocal fry in college-age women. The team recorded sentences read by 34 female speakers. Two speech-language pathologists trained to identify voice disorders evaluated the speech samples. They marked the presence or absence of vocal fry by listening to each speaker’s pitch and two qualities called jitter and shimmer—variation in pitch and volume, respectively.

You know who’s doing a lot of vocal fry these days? The Worlds Youngest Blogger. Because he’s 4.5 months old, and has not figured out how to operate his vocal chords. Also, he hasn’t learned English.

I, for one, fear that vocal fry contributes to anthopogenic global warming, and should therefore be made a federal crime, along with everything else.

Category: Culture

They Told You If You Voted for John McCain, Right-Wingers Would Threaten to Lynch Black Men …

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 21 Comments

. . . and they were right!

OK, that’s not likely to get me a “Heh.” Professor Reynolds was featuring a Matt Welch Reason TV video about President Obama’s 2008 campaign promise of a “net spending cut,” and made a dry jest:

By the end, we may see profligate politicians hanging from lampposts.  But there’ll be a lot of bad stuff, too. . . .

This caused some sensitive soul to object that such a remark was “a little over the line,” which illustrates the intrinsic peril of edgy humor: You never know where the line is until you’ve crossed it. And political correctness has a built-in double-standard that permits the Left to get away with stuff the Right doesn’t usually even dare to try.

Speaking of standards: Since the Cain Train ran off the rails and I switched to the Santorum Express — the last train to Vanuatu, as it were — I’ve gotten another complaint about the BlogAds for “Mutually Beneficial Arrangements” and “3 Foods Never to Eat,” both of which feature bikini-babe photos.

While the BlogAds system notifies by e-mail me when we get new advertisers, I usually ignore the notifications and so never actually “approve” the ads. They just start running, and I don’t believe I’ve ever “disapproved” an ad.

Hint: They pay me money.

Back in November, I wrote about the “Arrangements” ad:

Perhaps some readers will be offended by this ad. Certainly I would not wish to be accused of endorsing such activities. On the other hand, my Bible-based belief system about such matters do not include much leeway in terms of moral relativity. There are not many shades of gray in the dark stains of human depravity.

While I sincerely wish there were such an overwhelming demand for ads here that I could be nitpicky about it — or that I could afford to hire someone and assign them to monitor ad content — that’s just not the way the cookie crumbles. We live in a fallen world, and the bikini-babe ads are a reminder of that, as are the weird occasions when Alan Grayson’s ads show up in the sidebar.

Hate me: I’m a capitalist. And here’s the video of Obama promising to cut spending:

Category: Blogging, Instapundit

VIDEO: Santorum on Hannity

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 19 Comments

Who’s fired up? Rick Santorum’s fired up!

Some headlines from Friday. ABC News:

Rick Santorum Nabs Big Iowa Endorsement
JOHNSTON, Iowa – Rick Santorum got his biggest endorsement yet at a small hotel here: Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz.
Calling it the “best day of the campaign,” he said he is “committed to Iowa” and the campaign is beginning to “pick up that critical momentum,” despite his low poll numbers. “People have asked me, ‘Why haven’t you started to catch on?’ And I say, ‘Well you haven’t been in Iowa for the last week or so because we are definitely picking up momentum in the state of Iowa and across this country.’ We feel it coming,” Santorum told a crowd of more than 50 people at the Stoney Creek Inn here. . . .

CNN:

Santorum predicts last-minute surge
. . . During his introduction of Schultz, Santorum lamented that Iowans “take their time to make these decisions,” but he was optimistic in his predictions for the coming weeks.
“We think the timing is going to be just perfect for us to be able to catch that wave at the right time as people start to make their decisions,” Santorum said. . . .

Politico:

Rick Santorum’s Iowa endorser:
‘I tend to like the underdog’
Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz became the first Republican statewide officeholder here to endorse a candidate in the presidential primary.
“I tend to like the underdog,” said Shultz, who won his own come-from-behind campaign in 2010, on Friday. “And slow and steady wins the race.”

Des Moines Register:

Iowa Secretary of State endorses
Santorum in GOP presidential race
. . . Schultz said he is asking Iowa GOP members to give Santorum a second look in the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses. He said he had been wooed by other Republican candidates, but felt the Pennsylvanian was the best person to put in the White House. He described Santorum as a strong voice for the pro-life movement who had fought for welfare reform and other conservative causes.

More at Memeorandum.

RECENTLY:

 

Category: Election 2012, Fox News, Iowa, Rick Santorum, Video

Santorum ‘Planning to Win’ in Iowa

Posted on | December 9, 2011 | 10 Comments

OK, that partial quote from Friday’s blogger conference call with Rick Santorum may sound like he’s ridiculously raising expectations, when in fact he was doing the opposite. I’ll crib the full quote from Tina Korbe at Hot Air:

“We obviously are planning to win here in Iowa. We don’t have to win. We’re not like some of the other candidates who have put all their eggs in one basket. [But] we have to do well here. We have to finish in or near the money. … I’m convinced that’s happening and it will happen and I feel very confident that we’ll have a bounce coming out of Iowa that will lead to a surprise finish in New Hampshire. Then, off to the races.”

To be “in the money” in horse racing means top three, and therefore “in or near the money” means at least fourth place in Iowa. If Santorum maintains his current momentum, I think he’s actually lowballing the estimate.

While it would be wildly irresponsible to predict a Santorum victory in Iowa, he would have a dramatic impact if he finished second or third. Why? Because Santorum’s the guy that all the “experts” have written off, and he’s got a fraction of the money raised by Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

Should Santorum finish in the top three in Iowa, at least one of those big-money candidates would suffer a disastrous humiliation, having finished behind a longshot candidate with a low-budget campaign. The most likely victim of such an embarrassment is Rick Perry.

As Bob Belvedere says, the Perry campaign absolutely reeks of desperation these days, and desperation is not attractive.

Big news: Santorum is going to Mass and eating his vegetables while on the campaign trail. Thanks to Lisa Graas for asking about that. Meanwhile, The Lonely Conservative has more:

When asked why he hasn’t caught fire as the anti-Romney “flavor of the month,” Santorum replied “I’m pretty boring — married 21 years, 7 kids, no scandals, give answers that make sense in debates.” He said that the “low expectations” the media and the pundits have for his campaign is a good thing. “Exceeding expectations is better than not, we saw that with Tim Pawlenty who finished third [in the Aug. 13 Ames Straw Poll] and he’s out.”

The point here is that, in an underdog campaign like this, you go all-out, every day, playing to win, and try not to worry too much about the odds against victory. Because if you stopped to think about the odds — when all the “experts” say it’s hopeless — you’d quit. But a lot of crazy things have already happened in this campaign, and it’s not completely insane to think that a hardline social conservative who has practically lived in Iowa since May might have a shot.

If you bought InTrade shares for Santorum to win Iowa, $100 today would pay off more than $5,000 should he pull a miracle upset Jan. 3.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Steve Ertelt got online with the first article about the conference call:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Friday that he doesn’t recall former Speaker Newt Gingrich leading the battle on pro-life issues during the time to two lawmakers served together in the House. . . .
Although Gingrich compiled a 98% pro-life voting record, Santorum said “he was not a pro-life warrior, that was not his gig.”

Keep in mind that Santorum didn’t bring up this topic. Ertelt asked the question, and Santorum gave his honest opinion. This wasn’t gratuitous Newt-bashing. NTTAWWT.

My own interest was trying to capture a sense of how the campaign “feels” out there in Iowa, so my American Spectator story began:

Rick Santorum says his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is on pace to exceed expectations in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3.
“We’re hitting our stride at just the right time,” the former Pennsylvania senator said Friday as he traveled across the Hawkeye State, where he has campaigned relentlessly all year. The news media have repeatedly tried to portray the GOP campaign as a two-man battle between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and a series of “flavor of the month” rivals — the latest being former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — but Santorum said, “again, they are wrong.”

Gut hunch? They think they’re finally catching fire, but they’ve had this feeling before and were disappointed, so they don’t want to get too optimistic just yet. With 25 days to go, they’ll know for sure soon enough.

Da Tech Guy has a list of bloggers who asked questions during the call, but I was shocked to learn after the conference call ended that somehow Zilla of the Resistance didn’t get her invitation to the call. Somebody goofed.

Finally: TeresAmerica has endorsed Rick Santorum, and you know that every time a blogger endorses Rick Santorum, an angel gets his wings.

 

 

Category: Election, Iowa, Rick Santorum
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