The Price of Press-Corps Fellatio

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Ed Driscoll calls our attention to this interesting media dynamic: Every reporter in the White House press corps is writing a book promising “inside access” to the Obama administration, which bends the supply-demand curve for such access.

Reporters are being required to provide fawning “blow job” coverage and then wait their turn for access. So don’t be surprised by the lack of hard-hitting investigative reporting from the White House press corps.

Of course, historically, the White House press corps is the last place anybody should look for hard-hitting investigative reporting. That’s not the function of White House correspondents and never has been. The Watergate scandal wasn’t broken by White House correspondents.

Using the promise of access to keep the White House press corps on a leash is also not a new trick. But the sheer number of reporters hustling Obama books means that this administration has more leverage. In 2001-2002, New York publishing houses weren’t showering book contracts on White House correspondents promising “inside access” to the Bush administration.

If You Can’t Bedazzle With Brains, Baffle With Bacon Sandwich

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by Smitty (via C0MM1TT3D on Twitter)

Toward the end of a question-and-answer session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the president whether it was a “wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care” package.

“We are overtaxed as it is,” Doris said bluntly.
Obama started out feisty. “Well, let’s talk about that, because this is an area where there’s been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I’m going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have,” the president said.

He then spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze

POTUS: brevity.

In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10:19

Update: Teach had a good title, too, but I win the alliterative battle.

DailyKos Poll Puts McCain Over Hayworth

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by Smitty (via Lucianne)

The Daily Caller reports that a DailyKos poll puts McCain over Hayworth in the Arizona Republican Senate Primary race. The lack of detail makes the entire exercise sketchy, and the final DC quotation even moreso:

The liberal site put it this way: “The bottom line? The Democrats become competitive, if Hayworth somehow manages to score a victory in the GOP primary.”

Others, seeing McCain’s bona RINO fides, might consider the Dem’s position a win-win at the primary stage. Whoever the Dems field has to face Barbara Espinosa, to which this blog opines: it hurts to be the Dem.

UPDATE (RSM): OK, via Real Clear Politics I’ve found the DKos poll, and the numbers are:

McCain 52%, Hayworth 35%

This result is buried among a slew of hypothetical fall matchups, all of which show either Republican leading any of four possible Democrats candidates — Bruce Babbitt, Gabrielle Giffords, Rodney Glassman and Nan Stockholm Walden. The other interesting result is that 46% of those polled have an unfavorable opinion of John McCain, compared to 42% unfavorable for J.D. Hayworth.

The DKos/Research 2000 poll follows a Rasmussen Reports poll two weeks ago that showed McCain’s lead over Hayworth had eroded to 7 points (48-41) and I don’t know that the two surveys can be compared. R2000 surveyed 400 GOP primary voters, whereas Rasmussen sampled 541 and there are enough other differences in methodology that it might be apples and oranges.

The unfortunate tendency to over-interpret public polling — to grab the latest result and shout, “Eureka!” — is something that all pollsters caution against. That is especially true when you’re polling several months ahead of the election. The Arizona primary is not until Aug. 24, and the general election is not until Nov. 2, and the question of who people would vote for “if the election were held today” is a hypothetical that is not — repeat, is not — a prediction of what will actually happen on Election Day.

For more about the Hayworth campaign, you can read my American Spectator column, “Scorched Earth in Arizona.”

Normblog Profiles Fausta

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by Smitty

How can you do anything but admire the lady?

What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to disseminate? > The moral benefits of capitalism.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat? > Communism in all its incarnations.
Can you name a work of non-fiction which has had a major and lasting influence on how you think about the world? > Free to Choose by Milton Friedman. A simple, clear book on the benefits of capitalism and individual responsibility.
Who are your political heroes? > Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.

Read the whole thing.

Harpoon Him!

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Damned whale-hugger: 

An anti-whaling activist has been indicted in Tokyo for illegally boarding the Shonan Maru II, a Japanese harpoon boat, as part of a protest against a whale hunting expedition in Antarctic seas.
Peter Bethune, a 44 year old activist from New Zealand, “was indicted on Friday for trespassing, causing injuries, obstructing commercial activities, vandalism and carrying a weapon”, a spokeswoman at the Tokyo district court said.
Bethune, from the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, boarded the harpoon boat from a jet ski in Antarctic waters on February 15, allegedly carrying a knife which he used to cut a guard net as he boarded the ship. . . .
“Bethune inflicted a chemical burn on a Japanese whaler’s face by hurling a bottle of butyric acid which smashed aboard the Shonan Maru II days before he boarded the ship,” the prosecution brief said. . . .
Bethune faces assault and business obstruction charges, which each carry prison terms of up to 15 years or fines of up to $5,000.

Environmentalism as justification for vandalism? Maybe the Japanese whalers should hire a few dozen unemployed American rednecks. Give ’em a couple of boats and tell ’em to bring their deer rifles. Open season on environmentalists.

Just sayin’ . . .

How About A Union of Liberty-Conscious Americans?

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by Smitty

The ULCA, i.e. ACLU spelled backwards, could be founded by lawyers who grasp the Constitution, and help defend American civil liberties in a manner that actual Americans find intelligible.

Just a thought, echoed by one President to whom BHO is never compared:

“The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism.”
–George Washington

Back in the modern day, do avail yourself of this Trifecta episode, which is a fine pick-me-up.

Who Is Brent Budowsky, and Why Should Anybody Care What He Thinks?

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To answer the first question, Budowsky is a former Democratic Capitol Hill aide, but I don’t know that there is any valid answer to the second question, as Budowsky slags Matt Drudge in The Hill:

Let me suggest here that Drudge’s power may turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing for Republicans and conservatives because in my view, it fosters delusions that can lead to defeat. Recently a Gallup poll, of course highlighted on Drudge, found that Obama’s numbers had (then) turned more unfavorable than favorable. This has (now) dramatically changed, unreported by Drudge, with Obama’s favorables now well above his unfavorables. The generic Democratic vote is leading the generic Republican vote in the last Gallup congressional election survey.The healthcare bill has passed and the president’s polls have moved up. Democratic numbers have crept up. Media focus on right-wing death threats is alienating political independents and motivating the Democratic base. But readers of Matt Drudge, listeners to Rush Limbaugh and viewers of Glenn Beck are being fed a false dose of Republican triumphalism and a megaphone for what a majority of voters might see as extremism that is both delusional and politically damaging to Republicans. . . .

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Budowsky sitting around whining about what’s on Drudge (or Limbaugh or Beck) is like conservatives who sit around whining about what’s in the MSM — except that (a) the MSM reach a much larger audience, and (b) the MSM pretend to be neutral.

Of course, Drudge doesn’t declare a partisan bias up front, he just links headlines. I don’t think he is selective about linkage in the way that Budowsky claims, but even if he were, so what? He’s one guy with a Web site. There is more news in the world than is linked by Matt Drudge, and if Budowsky is obsessed with Drudge, whose fault is that?

Obama’s New Low

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He’s heading toward the dreaded Carter Zone:

President Obama’s overall job approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 44 percent, down five points from late March, just before the health bill’s passage in the House of Representatives. It’s down 24 points since his all-time high last April. Forty-one percent of those polled said they disapproved of the president’s performance.

Ed Morrissey has more. And if you think this poll was bad news for the White House, just wait until it’s revealed that Obama is now dating Michelle “Bombshell” McGee.

Oh, darn. April Fool’s Day was yesterday . . .