Flipping through some channels. Just checked real quick on CNN.
I catch Anderson Cooper talking about how “Lipstick” has, sadly, dominated the news cycle for the past two days.
His question for guests….are they still talking about it because it’s so effective for McCain or are they still talking about it because of how Obama responded.
I mean…really? They only way to stop talking about it, is to stop talking about it. Not talk about how you talked about not talking about it.
Anderson, you win the “Really Shitty Info-Tainment Host of the Day” award (he’s nowhere near a “journalist”…which is an inuslt to most). Congrats!
In the view of this longtime skeptic, Biden has grown up tremendously in the four months since he withdrew from the presidential race amid a swirl of controversy about his exaggeration of his academic record and his alleged plagiarism.
The Biden I saw in a two-hour interview last week had no time for self-pity or self-justification. He was excited about the trip he was about to begin to Western Europe and the scheduled meetings with the leaders of Britain, France, West Germany and the NATO forces. He was looking ahead to a Senate year in which he will share the gavel in the hearings on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces INF Treaty and later conduct hearings on the War Powers Act and the procedures for committing U.S. forces in nonnuclear conflicts.
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He has begun impressively by running the Judiciary Committee hearings on the Supreme Court nominations of Judges Robert H. Bork and Anthony Kennedy with skill, tact and fairness that earned bipartisan praise. In leading the effort that defeated Bork and set the stage for confirmation of Kennedy, Biden rose above partisanship and narrow ideology.
He does not exaggerate when he says those hearings helped educate the nation on the qualities that are vital in a Supreme Court justice and the proper role of the Senate in filling court vacancies. They also made it clear to everyone, including the Supreme Court, that a national consensus exists on the civil-rights gains the high court certified during the past generation.
After listening to him, I believe that Biden is just as well prepared to use the 1988 Foreign Relations Committee hearings for a similar educational purpose: ”to reestablish an essential bipartisan center . . . that can sustain foreign policy on a stable basis.”
This was after he screwed up and dropped out of the ’88 race. This was 20 years ago. Since then he’s been all over the world using the same kind of skills. He’s been something of a lost goat in this election (OMG, Goat!), but his long experience dealing with a wide variety of issues will be an asset to Obama in the Presidency.
The fact that he doesn’t have a vagina and wasn’t a POW has been something of an impediment to getting people to talk about his experience, but since I can see beyond such things, despite their obvious appeal, there ya go.
One thing about the experience stuff. Biden has been a fighter for his causes, often quite moderate, over the past 30+ years. McCain is in the same boat, occasionally bucking against insane Republican policies. Occasionally. Obama, regardless if you hate him for it or not, has been on the same path, fighting for the same things, his entire career. Palin is the odd one out here, with such a short, sporadic history you can only guess where she’ll go from here. Evidence has shown a great deal of flippity-floppity in the last two years, so who knows what 20 more in power would bring.
With Biden we know. With McCain we know. With Obama we know. With Palin we don’t. I know VPs don’t mean a great deal (unless you have faux concern for their emotional well being), but the comparison here between the tickets is such as joke that…well…people are talking about lipstick and farm animals, instead of foreign policy and violence against women.
Speaking of which, I wonder if Palin is against VAWA. And I wonder when anyone will get the chance to ask her.
So we all know Fox is a joke, but it’s kinda funny when they themselves point it out..
But with so many news outlets – especially cable and Internet – influencing the news cycle, it seems as though personalities, gaffes, and yes, even made up controversies will continue to make their way to the forefront of political coverage.
And there you go. That’s how you put bias in an article. A textbook example really. All that personal flavor. On an article about nothing, featured on Google News as Fox’s finest.
UPDATE: I’ve made no secret of my love for the internet. This is why. Above you see a text version of the event. Below, you see a video version of the event.
When comparing the two, it becomes blatantly obvious that trusting Bonney Kapp to bring you news about politics is retarded. If I want bullshit, I’ll buy some cows.
I didn’t think the McCain campaign could really do much more stooping, but it looks like they are trying very hard.
On Tuesday, Obama criticized McCain’s economic policies as similar to those of President Bush, saying: “You can put lipstick on a pig … it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”
The McCain campaign contended that the comments were directed at Palin, the GOP’s first woman on a presidential ticket. In her acceptance speech last week, she had referred to herself in a joke about lipstick being the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull.
Accusing Obama of “smearing” Palin in “offensive and disgraceful” comments, the McCain campaign demanded an apology – though McCain himself used the folksy metaphor a few times last year, including once to describe Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan.
The McCain campaign on Wednesday issued an Internet ad that said Obama was talking about Palin and said of Obama: “Ready to lead? No. Ready to smear? Yes.”
The McCain campaign is counting on something they’ve done before (by “they” I mean Rove and Co.). What they are doing is the basic antidote to a clean campaign run by a popular, qualified candidate…smear the crap out of everything. Fling so much shit that everything and everyone is covered. By the time the election comes around, it looks to the electorate like everyone is flinging shit and only one campaign is trying to claim being “clean”.
See how that works? This is exactly what you are seeing now. More smoke and feces.
They just need one crap story a week to win. This is only the next, in a long line of ’em (secret muslim, crazy black man, illegal alient, america-hater, flag pin….it’s been done a bunch before).
Really. Think about it. If Palin is so tough (a bitch, pardon, pitbull in lipstick) why can’t she take on these personal attacks herself? Why can’t she address any questions from real people?? Why does she have to hide behind a campaign aide? If she feels so personally insulted, why not address it personally, and call for an end to personal attacks?
Why aren’t they doing that? Because doing so would clear things up. It would brings things into focus. The Rove squad doesn’t want clear, because when things are clear, the choice is easy and obvious.
When things get muddled and dirty and you can’t tell who said what when and there is shit, both real and imagined all over the place, the hope is that enough people will ignore the facts or confuse the facts and vote the disguised porcine back into office once again.
Said pig being then completely swathed in Change®-brand red, white, and blue lipstick.
Which most Americans can still see, somehow, shining through the shit.
Did I mention John McCain was a victim, pardon, POW?
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UPDATE: O.k. read this quote…nice job McCain.
“I don’t like anyone being referred to as a pig in any context,” McCain added. “I think there’s a lot more educated conversations we can have about the ticket than just saying these remarks like that.”
Robot Pirate Ninja 