The Blue State

Obama on Meet the Press

While the last two weeks have seemed like one big doom and gloom moment for Barack Obama, NBC announced today that Obama will appear on their Sunday show Meet the Press for the full hour just two days before the vote in Indiana and North Carolina.

If he ever had a chance to turn things around, this is the one!

Where has the real campaign news gone?

Our economy is in the tank.  Gas prices are at an all-time high.  Some analysts think that gas might reach $10 a gallon in the near future, boosted by a declining dollar and an uncontrollable spike in demand.  Consumer confidence is at a five-year low.  This is the second recession under President Bush, yet all the 43rd president can do is blame Congress.  And this is just on the domestic front.  Don't even get me started on our mess abroad.

With all this happening, we are perhaps in the middle of the most important presidential campaign in a generation.  There are issues to be discussed.  Yet, all the media seems to be focused on now is Reverend Wright.  The Obama Campaign is stuck in a corner.  Today on the campaign trail, Obama promised yet another big press conference on Reverend Wright, following his former pastor's address on Sunday in front of the NAACP.

Why can't all this stop?  The media does a great job of putting candidates into a box.  They have with John McCain as well -- portraying him as an old, angry man.  Or Obama, a fringe liberal who attended an anti-American church.  So the media finds any evidence to back up their preexisting view of a candidate and reports it.  Hardly do they report contradicting stories, as if to tell the American public, "I know you can't handle nuance, so let's make this easy for you by reporting only one side of the story."  Like today, the media is ignoring the fact that Barack Obama called for non-violence in New York City, which angered Reverend Al Sharpton.  Sharpton went on to accuse Obama of trying to "grandstand in front of white people."  But that does not fit the media's perception of the anti-American, pro-Black Panther -- otherwise known as Barack Obama.  So they won't report it.

This campaign is now nothing but a circus, and the media has complete control over it.  No wonder it has lasted this long.  Cable news doesn't want it to end.  It's their soap opera.  It's their excuse for not reporting actual news.  The Clintons love drama.  As long as the media reports on the tactics, which the Clintons are good at, and not real issues, this contest will continue all the way to the convention.

Catholic priest challenges Fox host on Wright

I saw this on Youtube yesterday.  This Catholic priest, a supporter of Reverend Wright, stood up to a FOX News reporter on the issue of racism in America.  Nice job!

This is a two-part video:

And he elaborates more:

FOX Host: Democrats are "damn fools" for not coming on FNC

FOX News' Chris Wallace tells Politico what he thinks about the Democratic presidential candidates:

“I think the Democrats are damn fools [for] not coming on Fox News,”Wallace said. “And my guess is that once you get a nominee, theyprobably will come on, because they know that we get a lot of votersthey are going to need if they are going to win the election.”

Hillary would go on FOX if she gets the nomination.

Sunday News Shows

Here are the guests that will appear on the news network shows tomorrow.  The notables are in bold:

ABC's "This Week" — Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Mark Penn, chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Clinton campaign.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

CNN's"Late Edition" — Mideast peace envoy and former British Prime MinisterTony Blair; Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., ArlenSpecter, R-Pa., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Former President George H.W. Bush.

What a huge interview this will be for Fred Thompson, who is not really getting anywhere in Iowa or New Hampshire.  If Mike Huckabee finishes 2nd in Iowa, then Huckabee, not Thompson, will be the one to beat in South Carolina.

A big day for John Edwards as well, as he tries to keep what was the best week for his campaign going.

FCC considering investigation of Murdoch's media empire

Rupert Murdoch, proud owner of the conservative cable network FOX News, is facing fresh scrutiny, this time from the FCC:

Democratic Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps asked FCC chairman Kevin Martin to open an inquiry into News Corp.'s purchase of The Wall Street Journal.

In a letter to Martin Thursday (although they are only a fewhallways from each other at the FCC), Copps said he is concerned thatthe $5.6 billion combination, which is not currently before the FCC forconsideration, would result in control of a network and two of thenation's five largest newspapers by a single company and would resultin the ownership of two newspapers and two TV stations in New York, thenation's top market.

Saying this was unprecedented in the history of the FCC, Coppsproposed opening a proceeding to determine "whether approval of thistransaction accords without public-interest responsibilities" and,taking the opportunity to make a subtle pitch for regulation, posed thequestion of whether "our existing media-ownership rules and precedentsare adequate to deal with this proposed transaction."

With just a few billionaires controlling most of the American media landscape, it should not surprise people when so many among the general public are so misinformed when it comes to news.

A right-wing poll if you've ever seen one

You can always count on FOX News Opinion Dynamics to make a point out of every single poll they release.  Look at their latest one.  What kind of a question is this?

Do you personally think the world would be better off if the United States
loses the war in Iraq?

ALL: Yes - 11%, No - 73%
DEMOCRATS: Yes - 19%, No - 62%
REPUBLICANS: Yes - 7%, No - 76%

Of all three political affiliations, you can bet which one FOX News used in its headline about the new poll.  Here was the Fox headline:

FOX News Poll: Nearly 1 in 5 Democrats Say World Will Be Better Off if U.S. Loses War

The odds are that O'Reilly and Hannity will have fun with that.  But you haven't seen anything yet.  The questions in the poll got even crazier:

Have you ever said a prayer for President Bush?

Have you ever said a prayer for soldiers serving in Iraq?

Have you ever prayed for the war in Iraq to end?

How often do you pray?  SCALE: 1. Every day 2. Several times a week 3. Several times a month  4. About once a month 5. A few times a year 6. Never 7. (Don’t know/refused)

Can this so-called poll from this alleged 'news channel' get any more personal?  Maybe.  I came up with six more questions FOX News might want to consider in their next poll:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most), how uncomfortable do you feel around gay people?
2. How many guns do you own?  Five?  Four?  Three?  Two?  One?  Or are you a wimp?
3. Do you use an assault riffle while hunting?  Or were you already taught how to aim?
4. Who is hurting America more: Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Hillary Clinton or the Dixie Chicks?
5. Who is more fair and balanced: Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, John Gibson, Brit Hume, or All of the Above
6. George W. Bush is an amazing ______ 1) Leader 2) Conquerer 3) Philosophizer 4) Strateger 5) Efficient Spender-er

I'm still working on it!  I'd love your ideas, if you have any.

Rush Drops the "S" from his "Phony Soldiers" comment

Barack Obama said: "We've got to get the job done there and thatrequires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages andkilling civilians, which is causing enormous problems there"....Hedidn't mean the soldiers were doing this on purpose, he was referring to the"cluster-F**K" that was going on, and it needs to be handled.

John Kerry said: "Education, if you make the most of it, you studyhard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."...He didn't mean the soldierswere stupid, his reference was to George Bush, figuratively speaking Bush ISstuck in Iraq (and is about as sharp as a bowling ball). Kerry supports thetroops in an unconsciously competent way (he doesn't have to even thinkabout it) 

When you listen to the conservative commentators and media, they usuallyparaphrase it as "Obama said our soldiers are bombing and killing innocentpeople" and "Kerry called our troops dumb" (Sean Hannitypractically ANY night of the week)

Now let's take a look at Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" remark. Ithink we need to pick this apart to try and get an understanding of who Limbaughwas referring to.

CALLER: No, it's not. And what's really funny is they never talk to realsoldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to themedia.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud toserve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they'rewilling to sacrifice for the country.

RUSH: They joined to be in Iraq.

The caller is clearly talking about actual soldiers. The "phony soldiers"appear to be soldiers that don't agree with the war, or veterans that speak outagainst the war. Conservative commentators may have spoke too soon when theysay Rush was referring to the people that aren't or weren't soldiers at all, butscammers. I say spoke too soon because according to Rush (even though he did say"soldiers) what he meant was:

LIMBAUGH: I was not talking, as Contessa Brewer said here, about the anti-warmovement generally. I was talking about one soldier with that "phonysoldier" [Comment: he dropped the "s"] comment, Jesse MacBeth. They had exactly what I'm going to playfor you. This is Michael J. Fox all over again. Media Matters had thetranscript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point. Hereis -- it runs about 3 minutes and 13 seconds -- the entire transcript, incontext, that led to this so-called controversy.

Note is drops the plural. He refers to the transcript running about 3 minutesand 13 seconds...Rush edited 1 minute and 35 seconds out of it. Listen to hisedited radio broadcast HERE(transcript can also be read at the same link). For any conservatives that wouldlike to cross reference the typed transcript, it can also be found at Rush'ssite, or from the conservative blog WakeUp America.

I truly believe Rush meant any serving soldier or veteran that is against thewar and speaks out against it as one of the "phony soldiers". I saythis because it seems to be a trend among conservative commentators, radio showhosts etc. For example Melanie Morgan, when she was on The News Hour with JimLehrer and subsequently got banned from that show for her viciousness towardsJon Soltz. The post with videos can be viewed at 'MelanieMorgan banned from 'The News Hour with Jim Lehrer'.

Once again, listento the broadcast Rush replayed and read along either HERE(shows where edit starts and ends), HEREor HERE.

Newspaper site ratings

The online newspaper ratings for the month of August are in.  August was a month of change for this Administration.  Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales and Tony Snow all announced their resignations.  The Larry Craig scandal broke.  The situation in Basra deteriorated.  Here were the newspapers that scored big:

Brand or Channel -- Unique Audience (000) -- Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)

NYTimes.com -- 13,078 -- 0:23:50
USATODAY.com -- 9,582 -- 0:17:00
washingtonpost.com -- 8,995 -- 0:14:59
L.A. Times -- 5,381 -- 0:08:10
Wall Street Journal Online -- 5,066 -- 0:17:00

Boston.com -- 4,311 -- 0:14:42
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 3,589 -- 0:11:36
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 3,257 -- 0:18:40
New York Post -- 3,080 -- 0:09:08
Chicago Tribune -- 3,045 -- 0:10:20

Newsday -- 2,966 -- 0:03:10
The Houston Chronicle -- 2,719 -- 0:16:18
Azcentral.com -- 2,554 -- 0:22:13
Chicago Sun-Times -- 2,538 -- 0:06:58
Star Tribune -- 2,443 -- 0:22:07

Daily News Online Edition -- 2,216 -- 0:05:57
The San Diego Union-Tribune -- 2,160 -- 0:04:18
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 1,895 --0:06:12
The Seattle Times -- 1,881 -- 0:06:44
International Herald Tribune -- 1,855 -- 0:02:07

Philly.com -- 1,758 -- 0:06:09
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,500 -- 0:07:44
NJ.com -- 1,470 -- 0:06:48
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1,437 -- 0:11:21
DenverPost.com -- 1,407 -- 0:04:35

MercuryNews.com -- 1,391 -- 0:06:33
Sun-Sentinel -- 1,336 -- 0:06:54
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- 1,210 -- 0:22:22
OregonLive.com -- 1,164 -- 0:07:24
Boston Herald -- 1,143 -- 0:05:58

When it comes to liberal blogs, more than 50 million visited sites like this one in the month of August.

Politics on television is changing

A few bloggers commented on how those who saw Bush's Thursday Iraq speech on a high-definition television, as opposed to a regular television, said the President looked very exhausted.  Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly predicted what this will mean for the future of televised political speeches:

Clearly we're seeing a technology paradigm shift at work. Just asRichard Nixon "lost" the 1960 debate because, although he sounded fineon radio, he looked bad on TV, so modern politicians are going to haveto learn to look good even when they're looming over their audience on80-inch HD plasma screens. Looking good on a scratchy 32-inch tubedoesn't cut it anymore. I predict booming business for a whole newgeneration of media advisors and skin care consultants.

So who benefits from the HD era?  John Edwards and Mitt Romney, some might presume.  Maybe not so much Dennis Kucinich or Bill Richardson.  No offense.

It is sad we are even bringing this issue up, but the reality is that all throughout US history appearance has, to some extent, affected the presidential vote.  From the paintings of George Washington; to Franklin Roosevelt's unwillingness to reveal his medical condition; to John F Kennedy's debate performance; to George W. Bush's World Trade Center megaphone pep talk -- appearance does matter.