Yes they can
One of the more tiresome arguments to come out during the primary battle is whenever someone says that “so-and-so can’t win against McCain in the fall.” Uh, people, look at this:
At the polls, it has been a massacre. In recent weeks, Republicans have lost a Louisiana House seat they had held for more than two decades and an Illinois House seat they had held for more than three. Internal polls show that next week they could lose a Mississippi House seat that they have held for 13 years.
In the polls, they are setting records (and not the good kind). The most recent Gallup Poll has 67 percent of voters disapproving of President Bush; those numbers are worse than Richard Nixon’s on the eve of his resignation. A CBS News poll taken at the end of April found only 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the GOP — the lowest since CBS started asking the question more than two decades ago. By comparison, 52 percent of the public has a favorable view of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats could run a Pauly Shore/Gallagher ticket and still crush the GOP. Either Clinton or Obama will run roughshod over St. BBQ, peeps. Mark me words.
Very true. Here in England McCain is constantly portrayed as a real contender, with some pundits even going so far as to predict his victory in November. I’m sorry, I just cannot see this happen. Seems to me Americans are fed up of Bush and by extension the Republicans. Whether Obama or Clinton can do any better remains to be seen.
I’m still pulling for the Carrot Top/Urkel Unity ticket.
All week around here it’s been “yes, but what if an old white man wins again” among colleagues…a non-sandstone (read non-Ivy League) university in Sydney, Australia, where your nomination race got front page coverage on North Carolina – Indiana day, for the second or maybe third time since super Tuesday. But it’s 6pm Sunday night now and the news bulletins all day today have been about – apart from the bushette’s wedding – the shift of superdelegates to Obama as the leading candidate with the valid claim. Then again the airwaves are not quite as crowded here.
– MC
You are goddamn-fuckin’-A-straight-up right!!
Magda,
Are you as thrown as I am by the experience of seeing George McGovern’s endorsement of Obama getting major coverage on networks 7, 9 and 10 the other day?
I almost expect Obama to make a guest appearance on Neighbours before September…
You Democommies are going to be flat out beat by the landslide that our patriot President, George Willlard Bush (who’s a RupubliCAN, not a RepubliCAN’T) will see in this unpcoming election. The Heartland WILL NOT vote for LIE-bruls as we don’t believe in sex or evolution, like you depraved socialists are trying to teach our children. Is Hitlery or Obama Hussien X a jet pilot hero of the Iraq war? I thought not. Did either of them win the Battle of Iraq (almost single-handedly) and then land their squadron on the aircraft carrier to tell the waiting nation “Mission Accomplished”? I thought not. I don’t know how you could think that any Democommie could win this election unless you’re all on medical marijuana and dope and think you can fly like Batman. The President of the Heartland of the USA of America is going to win this election, so you LIE-bruls had better get used to it! He and John Fauntleroy McCain will get the votes of USA Americans here in America, USA!, USA!, USA!!! The Right-wing will win and the Wrong-wing won’t, so go crying back to Stalin, commies!!
I think you’re overlooking several things: there is a depressingly large group of people in this country who will not vote for either a black man or a woman; McCain is getting the free-est pass I have ever seen by the fourth estate, who portray him as a maverick – hero – warrior – expert guy despite all evidence to the contrary (& remember, most people in this country do not pay close attention to politics — at best they might pay scant attention to this narrative which is pervasive across the media spectrum). Those two things taken together mean that all the election has to be is close enough for Diebold to step in and win it for the good of the party.
That’s what I have come to hate about the Republican Party: everything is for the good of the party and precious little is for the good of the nation. As much as I don’t especially care for the Democrats, who have shifted so far to the right that the majority of Americans simply have no representation whatsoever at the Federal level any longer, well, at least the Dems do tend to put the country ahead of the party.
Brad:
Hmm, Pauly Shore or John McCain… let me think… it’s such a tossup… wait, who’s the VP pick?
Gallagher?
I’m staying home.
.
I agree with Zhak that the actual votes will be depressingly close. Frankly, I think either Obama or Clinton will absolutely paint the walls with McCain in the debates, but that’s not going to matter to 40-45% of Americans who realize that they care more about pissing off liberals then they do about responsible government and real progress. Hell, people are still buying SUVs these days, with gas raising every day and having no where to go but up.
On the plus side, now’s the time to invest in booze stocks, as the “my friends” drinking games sweep the nation.
Brad,
We are simply not used to the hope, dude. It’s easier to be glum so the what-feels-like-disappointment doesn’t hurt so much when it comes.
But maybe some Spring will help.
Now, back to the garden!
Damn! ‘what-feels-like-inevitable disappointment’.
Like a watermelon? Do Democrats in the front row get a tarp?
It’s an amazement, really, that with poll numbers like this they still act like they’re running the the country with a landslide mandate, and everybody lets them!!! The major reason that Congress’ poll numbers are deep in the shitter is because they have yet to restrain these fuckwhistles. I swear to God, Alf could be brandishing a cat for his campaign platform, if he’s running against Pelosi in the primary, the little furry fuckwad has my vote.
While we know that 1/3 of our country is a couple of urinal cakes short of a trough, I think that that thirty-whatever percent approval rating is actually high. I am of the opinion that there are actually a significant number of Americans who are just too damned nice, or stupid, to say what they think, even to pollsters. I think that number increases when you’re talking about the President. There are people who would never ever say a disparaging word about our dear leader. If they’re Republicans, they looked at Clinton’s blowjobs and quietly shook their head, perhaps saying a prayer. Should they be Democrats, they’ve been self-medicating to the point that their English comes out as broken and incomprehensible as the President’s for the last seven+ years, but haven’t told anyone why. I honestly think you could knock five or ten points off the poll numbers and have a more accurate picture of support for this administration.
That said, yeah. Even with the media consolidation and the big bucks and the Freedoms Watch (which I have to wonder whether it spent eight years up Walken’s ass, but I digress) types and all that jazz rolling out as heavy firepower as they can find to back the
Lobbyist’s ToolKeating Five ConspiratorMaverick McCain, that motherfucker is going down in flames like the Hindenburg. The filibuster proof majority in the Senate will be icing on the cake.If, after this sort of sign writ large upon the heavens is delivered, the asshat Dems still can’t be bothered to realize that the only appropriate way to reach across the aisle with the modern Republican Party is with a hefty cudgel, preferrably studded, firmly in paw to smack the bastards with, I fucking quit. Time to move to Russia, or some sub-Saharan African nation where despotism isn’t glossed over, but rather, practiced openly. At least you know who’s bought and paid for, and by whom.
Yes, McShame gets the white-guy-at-all-costs vote. Thankfully, it’s smaller than it used to be, and continues to shrink. Still significant, but come now, these folks haven’t voted for Democrats since 1964 anyway.
Correct as well. McCain, like mildew and cockroaches, does best in the dark. His strategy of shutting up and letting his BBQ buddies do the heavy lifting is working great in this between time. Once he has to step up to the plate and flap his own pie hole, all bets are off.
Yes and no. This time the Republicans can’t whip up the sort of turnout they could before. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. It’ll still be closer than I like, but I don’t think it’ll be close enough to swipe.
Sadly, no. If they did, we’d already be done with the impeachment by now.
Oh, DB, spring is 403.
Dude, that’s a Gallagher / Shore ticket, not the other way around.
Sheesh!
Though I’d really go for a Streisand / O’Donnell ticket, myself. James Brolin would make one hell of a First Laddie..
To be fair, you are forgetting the Basic Law of Democratic Party Politics; if there’s a way to lose it, they will.
a couple of urinal cakes short of a trough
Honestly, officer, I did not steal that phrase. I had every intention of paying for it. It must have just somehow fallen into my shopping bag.
Will you accept “several chromosomes short of a karotype” in exchange?
If they did, we’d already be done with the impeachment by now.
Amen to that!
There is, and I suspect always be, a portion of Americans that would vote for fascists and criminals, for the soothing lies of the con men and women who tell them that they’re better than everybody else. As long as the right words are said, they’ll look the other way. And if it doesn’t personally affect them, it doesn’t matter – you can round up all of their neighbors (after all, Mrs. Jones down the street was always a little strange, but Mr. Smith…well, it goes to show you just don’t know about people), and they don’t care. Even when it comes to laws that directly affect them, they may bluster with arrogant anger, but it’s a short-lived anger as they just get used to it. Or they continue on doing what they’re doing, even if it’s made illegal, confident that their personal political savior will grant them pardons because they’re a part of the club, the big guys, and nothing bad will happen to them as long they believe in Dear Leader/God/High Fructose Corn Syrup Apple Pie. In reality, the leaders don’t care, there is no God, and the Apple Pie is just a plastic representation of a pie…but because the proper and magical words are said, they believe that they’re a part of the secret club. They will never believe otherwise. They will always get conned and lament, “Oh why did I get conned again?”, and then they blame whatever appropriate group (godless organic food-eating liberals), and go on to be conned yet again…and again….and again, without ever once really thinking about it, because it shouldn’t happen to them because they’re in the secret club. Maybe this time, it will be different! But it never is.
Meanwhile, the rest of us want health insurance, because Great Aunt Sally didn’t have any, and it was such a shame that they didn’t get to the breast cancer in time before it spread. Or that we want to drive cars that run on everything other than that old and ancient method of gasoline. Or that we paid attention in history class and know that imperialistic wars never end well, and that we should just suck it up and leave Iraq.
I think we’ll do okay for this election, but in eight or tweleve years? They’ll be back again. How many times do we have to do this?
I think you’re overlooking several things: there is a depressingly large group of people in this country who will not vote for either a black man or a woman; McCain is getting the free-est pass I have ever seen by the fourth estate, who portray him as a maverick – hero – warrior – expert guy despite all evidence to the contrary (& remember, most people in this country do not pay close attention to politics — at best they might pay scant attention to this narrative which is pervasive across the media spectrum).
The group of people in this country who will not vote for a black man or woman are pretty much the ones over the age of 60. I fully expect Obama to lose that group of voters, because they tend to vote Republican anyway and let’s face it, they’re the most racist group in the country, having grown up under segregation and Jim Crow. Sure, there are some stormtroopers younger than 60 who also won’t vote for a black man, but thankfully they are a minority. As for McCain, he’s proposed these town hall meetings state by state – if the Obama camp takes him up on it, it should only be under the condition that they are all scheduled and agreed upon before he agrees to do even one of them. To keep McCain from backing out after the carnage of the first one.
Look, I’ll grant you that people in this country are way too fond of cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. But the economy is in the shitter and by November it’s going to be a lot worse. McCain has been talking about how great the Bush economy has been. He’s utterly clueless, and it shows. You’d almost have to be a skinhead to vote yourself into a cardboard box under the bridge just to keep a black man out of office.
The more worrisome issue in this election is the behind the scenes campaign of rumors they’ve already started, and unfortunately, Hillary has fed it. I ran up against this yesterday with two old people (grandparents of my friend’s child who graduated college yesterday – Louisiana Pentecostals, to give you an idea of Just. How. Bad.). They launched into that “he’s a secret Muslim who won’t wear a flag pin” bullshit, swore that it wasn’t “just a rumor” so I said, well, have you heard John McCain or any Obama political opponent saying any of that out loud? No, they said. I asked, well, doesn’t that make you wonder about it being true? I mean, if it was true, wouldn’t it be the only thing they’d have to say to beat him? So if they aren’t using it out loud in public, knowing that it will beat him, gee, why do you suppose that is? Think maybe it’s because it’s not true and they’d have to answer for telling some whopper lies if they tried it?
These folks will still vote McCain, but at least it shut them up. The whisper campaign stuff is awesomely easy to rebut…but we all need to be out there rebutting it, and forcing people to use their own common sense to figure out why it’s obvious bullshit. As for the people without common sense, they’re going to vote Republican anyway, but this is still a good “shut up” tactic to take with them.
I think we’ll do okay for this election, but in eight or tweleve years? They’ll be back again. How many times do we have to do this?
We’ll have to keep doing it for as long as we make sure that they pay no price for doing what they do. A series of investigations and prosecutions once we get them out of office would go a long way towards making sure it doesn’t happen again in 8 or 12 years.
Either Clinton or Obama will run roughshod over St. BBQ, peeps. Mark me words.
I take issue with your verb usage. Obama will run roughshod over McCain. Clinton would run roughshod over McCain, but won’t, because she’s outta the running.
The most amusing thing is, the ReThuglicans who’ve made this country what it is today [insert picture of overflowing toilet] and have two brain cells to bang together, don’t want to win.
They know the GOP can’t stand 12 straight years in charge because blaming shit on Clinton and Carter has already gotten o-l-d and in 2010 it might cause riots. I bet they were poised to leap from the 13th floor if Mittens Romney or Frederick of Hollywood had gotten the nomination because those two had the best chance of getting in the White House. What a relief it must have been when Gramps McCane got the nod.
Like all good crooks the smart ‘Thugs know that once you’ve cleaned out the house, you don’t hang around, make a snack and watch a little T.V. The donations aren’t flowing in like they used to because big business doesn’t want its pet political party to become so unpopular it gets taken away and put too sleep.
The NRCC and the RNC are now operating without a brain. The smart guys GtFo and left the patsies who are too stupid to hear the sirens to take the heat. How bad is it? These shit heads are rallying around George Bush, that’s how bad it is, and that’s all you need to know about the IQ of your average elected GOPer.
My predictions for 2009:
1. McCain in office (yep, it’s possible but, meh) with an overwhelming Dem majority in Congress. McCane can’t get any of his dimwitted legislation through. In 2012 when the country is less than perfect the smart guys will crawl out of their holes and blame it on the obstructionists Dems in Congress.
2. History: African American or Woman in the White House with slightly more Dems in Congress. In 2012 calls for “new blood,” but only GOP blood.
3. The riots that began in 2008 spill over into 2009 and no one gets anything done.
The tell is that primary voting turnout has run two and three times higher for Democrats than Republicans in almost every state. Plus, Obama has been registering and organizing lots of new and energized voters.
McCain might win, but further down the ballot it’s going to be a bloodbath. This could be up there with the post-Nixon Congressional elections.
At least I can (live in) hope(y).
. . . the only appropriate way to reach across the aisle with the modern Republican Party is with a hefty cudgel . . .
justme, can we get that written backwards on the forehead of every Dem running for office, so that they see it every time they look in the mirror?
I’m always wary about making political predictions, but clearly these are not promising times for the repubs. So sad.
Dude, you’ll be doing it your whole long life. You just keep fighting the assholes. Such is politics.
The tell is that primary voting turnout has run two and three times higher for Democrats than Republicans in almost every state. Plus, Obama has been registering and organizing lots of new and energized voters.
Obama’s surge of new voter recruitment is probaby the big untold story of this campaign, and I’m pretty excited about it. But, um, the last time I felt really good about a campaign going in, it was 2004, and that didn’t turn out so well. So you’ll pardon me if I spit over my shoulder and spin around three times every time you guys mention how inevitable this victory is.
At this point, I seriously need a drink and a Dramamine.
I think we’ll do okay for this election, but in eight or tweleve years? They’ll be back again. How many times do we have to do this?
If the Dems have a collective rectal craniectomy, then preventing this kind of mess in the future can be done. A few suggestions:
1. Restore the Fairness Doctrine. The airwaves are a public resource, and TV and radio stations use them at the public’s sufferance. The ability to rebut GOP/corporate propaganda immediately would go a long way toward clearing some of the bullshit out of the public discourse.
2. Campaign finance reform, big time. Again, corporate money favors Republicans (except when they’ve broken the country and non-droolers need to be brought in). Serious and enforceable limits on donations and donors (and including issue campaigns that favor specific candidates must be included) will help make challenging incumbents easier, and level the playing field.
3. The Dems have to go back to being the party of labor and consumers, and they have to point out that the GOP is the party of the economic elites. They have to point out GOP stupidity and destructiveness over and over, and they have to stop abetting it and indulging in it. It’s hard for the Dems to call out their opponents when they are only marginally better and when their donors won’t let ’em; time to fix both of those things.
4. Tax the churches. No, it won’t help, but I like saying it.
5. The economy’s in a very deep toilet, and it isn’t going to get better any time soon thanks to our wild trade imbalance, our overreliance on fossil fuels, and our crumbling infrastructure. What we need is something a bit like FDR’s New Deal, wherein infrastructure-repair programs employ people and fix the damn roads & sewers (and put in streetcar lines and other mass transit) and something like JFK’s space program, wherein alternative-energy/efficiency programs employ people and wean us off the damn hydrocarbon burning. These kinds of approaches were once a Dem specialty.
With programs like that running (and with a Dem majority in Congress, it’s acheivable), the GOP will continue to look stupid until the next taxpayer rebellion–and any politician who has any brain at all should be able to remind her/his constituents how that turned out the first time.
The Fairness Doctrine is key. We *must* have that back, no matter what else happens.
As for the rest, it’s moot if Bush/Cheney/McCain bombs Iran. Remember, they want chaos because that makes their work much easier—and gasoline much more expensive.
Yes, there’s no rest for the weary in politics.
I’m glad Obama is winning but tell me one thing–he’s said he won’t prosecute the lawbreakers. How will he restore rule of law? He’s said we are needed to bring democracy to the world. Will we get out of military adventures or not?
If we listen to what he says, he doesn’t say he’ll do what we want. If he does what he says, and we believe what we want to believe, we’ll be nearly in the same boat.
We need to treat Obama the same way we would Clinton or McCain.
We need to campaign for each other, not for a candidate.
I’m sorry, guys, but Obama can not win in the fall. There are too many voters who will not vote for a black man. These voters, however, can not wait to vote for a woman.
Of course, anyone who suggests that a *Clinton* victory over Obama has anything to do with race is a terrible, terrible person.
The fact is, the Fairness Doctrine is bias, and means 100% liberal ideas, and no room for the other point of view, because the liberals want it so bad, I don’t.
Doc,
While I wholehearetedly agree that the state of big media nowadays is sick, I think a return of the Fairness Doctrine would be a huge mistake. Remember that:
1. It’s Gov’t officials who would be deciding what is “fair” and what complaints were valid; and
2. It’s the fringe right that does the best at acting offended and complaining at the smallest thing. If you think the pearl-clutching being done during the Great Primary War of Ought Eight was something (see Zombie Thread four posts down), you’ve intelligently stayed out of the wignuttosphere.
It’s essentially the Fairness Doctrine that’s driving the Intelligent Design Creationist’s argument – “Teach the controversy.” What controversy? One that still gets way too much airtime.
A real solution to this whack a nutjob problem has to address the issue that there is no penalty for these actions. All the war cheerleaders can still be found in op-ed pages and on screen, many with higher profiles than before. Blackwater got its contract renewed again. There’s no deterrent to advocating atrocities. Screw impeachment, the only way to stop the bomb-happy is war crime trials. Remember also, that the vast majority of these little pissants are chickenhawk cowards. If there was even a remote possibility of personal responsibility, of consequences that would be bourn by them and not a bunch of foreigners in the Middle East, they’d go back to bitching about domestic issues.
Ewww, I just agreed with Ruppert. It feels so dirty. Someone wash out my brain!
Obama will run roughshod over McCain. Clinton would run roughshod over McCain, but won’t, because she’s outta the running.
She won’t, because she doen’t want to. “Oh John, you’re so ready to be president! Wow, John, your gas tax holiday is a great idea! Yes, John, we should be ready to bomb Iran at a moment’s notice!” People think that, just because the right-wing hates Hillary, she hates them back. She obviously doesn’t.
4. Tax the churches. No, it won’t help, but I like saying it.
Of course it would help. The Republican party is the party of Christianity. People who are not religious are more than twice as likely to vote Democratic as Republican. And that demographic is growing fast.
Non-MBA:
War crimes trials are a fantastic idea, but these pricks are going to cover for each other unto eternity. Even Pelosi refused to initiate impeachment hearings; do you think the party of Rahm Emanuel is going to stick his fellow DC politicians in Den Haag?
When you find yourself on the same side as Gary, it’s time to reviews your arguments. Let me point this out: government officials deciding what’s “fair” is still better than corporations doing the same. I think the past eight years have borne that out.
The fact is, taxing the churches would be unfair and biased toward Republicans for this reason. You have the liberal media, the schools, the colleges. Let us have the pulpit. We have the right to spread correct information in our churches in a tax free matter, the fact that you can’t is because your churches are no good. Don’t you dare punish is for our success, or the retribution will be merciless.
What, you’ll tongue bath Bush to teach us a lesson?
When the dust settles, it will be Obama versus McCain.
In any venue, be it Jello Pit or Caged Death Match, it will be No Contest.
Barack Obama seems to be the only national politician who doesn’t have the pithed frog reflexes in dealing with the Right Wing Trash Talking machine. When he rebuts them, they stay rebutted.
Polls already show the Rev. Wright thing is old news for voters, though the pathetic tv talking heads won’t let go of it.
The way the R’s got into power was because in 2000, everything was fine. People are so dumb they think the government just runs along, and it doesn’t matter who is in charge, and that’s the sick pony the R’s rode to a close enough finish to steal.
Through their own efforts, they sure don’t have that advantage now.
Yes, there’s racism and sexism in America. But votes don’t lie. Overwhelming numbers voted for either the black man or the white woman; it’s obvious some people realize we are deep in it, and those stupid distinctions are not so important. How many people are going to quibble about WHO is throwing them a life ring, when they are feeling the waves close over their heads?
Does anyone really think those “values voters” are going to stick by those values in the face of all these disasters that, for once, are hitting them? All those Heartland folks watching the skies this summer (tornadoes last year almost quadrupled in number, and they are starting earlier) know in their hearts that they can be tossed aside as easily as the people in Louisiana.
Republican voters operate from resentment. They don’t see that they are getting anything and by god, they use their vote to make sure that no one else does, either. But when that cold metric starts slicing and dicing them and theirs… well, values change.
I predict a lot of switchover. They might not tell their wife, or mother, or minister. But when they are standing in that booth, and the choice is Screw You Again and someone else… I predict they won’t be picky about who, what, or where that someone else might be.
You have the liberal media
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5685
I don’t know. I have a creepy feeling about this election that was only reinforced by McCain’s bizarre rebuttal to the Fox news intern’s red carpet gaffe:
Jennifer Locke: I voted for you in the primary! You’re gonna win!
McCain: You’re not supposed to reveal that.
I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. But I just can’t get past the idea that they did not go through the trouble of super charging the Unitary Executive to hand it to Barry Hussein X.
Step One: False Flag Terrorist Attack on US Soil
Step Two: Declare Martial Law
Step Three: Suspend Election
Step Four: Profit?
I may be paranoid, but I wouldn’t put it past them.
We know their goal; a presence in the Middle East, and access to oil. We just have to figure out how they are doing it. Invade, Build big bases with perpetually available soldiers, Profit!!
The Dems will win by 15% across the board in november because, essentially, the piggies stayed too long at the trough.
8 Years of bush administration arrogance, thuggery and incompetence has caused all but the most deluded 28%ers to blame at least some portion of their current misery/concern on bush/cheney policies.
If they had backed off for a while, acted to govern fairly and let some domestic progressive policies through, albeit of course watered WAY down, they could then have calibrated their tactics back up after they once again used fear and racism and hatred and divisiveness to win yet again in ’08. But alas, this is not in their nature.
As the worst kind of scorched-earth authoritarians, they only have one setting, and that’s an always-on “Pilliage”. And now, with the economy showing permanant strains, incomes down, jobs getting harder to find, college and health care increasingly out of reach, pretty much every family in the US has a real incentive to get the thugs out of there and pull back from empire and try to find out if it’s not too late to save what america is.
And yes, the cycle will always repeat. Depending upon how things go, enough people will be fed up with the government in four or eight years to elect the other side again. It’s kind of a sine curve of public opinion, and it never ends, it only accelerates…
mikey
Either Clinton or Obama will run roughshod over St. BBQ, peeps. Mark me words.
Absolutely.
Michelle Norris was on Timmeh or Tweety or Wee George this AM (can’t remember which) and said the reason McBush is whining (and will continue to whine) if the Dems point out his advanced age is that the GOP probably has internal polling that shows that McBush’s age is an enormous liability, especially among older voters, who have been nice and reliable for the GOP in the past.
Overheard in my old neighborhood re: the current presidential race:
“An old white man, a black white man, and a female white man. What a show!”
I think we’ll do okay for this election, but in eight or tweleve years? They’ll be back again. How many times do we have to do this?
Sporkey, I think you need to take a somewhat longer view. I’m honestly starting to believe that we’re approaching the end of a cycle that began about 40 years ago (which roughly corresponds to my lifespan). It has been a predominantly conservative era, though it didn’t really get going until 1980. Before that, there was a roughly 40-year-long period of Democratic dominance, starting with the New Deal, and culminating with the Voting Rights Act.
I’m not sure if history always has to happen that way, with the pendulum ponderously swinging back and forth every generation or so, as if it were mandated. But if the past century is any indication, the country is ready for another generation-long era of liberal and reformist dominance (though of course one should always put words like “liberal” and “reform” in their proper perspective).
It’s an amazement, really, that with poll numbers like this they still act like they’re running the the country with a landslide mandate, and everybody lets them!!!
Junta Boy will be America’s Popular Wartime President™ till he dies. Ditto St. John Maverick, Tax-and-Spend Democrats, and a host of other evergreens,
It’s now easier to change the government than to change The Master Narrative.
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”
Max Planck
“They launched into that “he’s a secret Muslim who won’t wear a flag pin” bullshit”
Jennifer–
Next time, ask–nicely, of course–“If he wanted to keep it secret, wouldn’t he actually WEAR a flag pin? To conceal his true agenda? So that people wouldn’t ask questions about it?”
HTH.
Pauly Shore/Gallagher ticket
I assume you mean Noel? ( Gallagher, that is?)
Also, current polls as to who will or won’t vote for whom are about as dependable as chicken entrails. Do I mean chicken? Do chickens have entrails? Goats? Something with entrails.
It’s MAY. This isn’t even spring training. It’s off-season-trades-and-free-agents time.
Imagine Obama debating McCain. Who will be more prepared for the other’s attacks? Who will speak better on his feet? Who will eat the other alive? I saw a video of McC giving a speech last week, and he makes Worf look sprightly and spontaneous.
Plus, either McC has to defend Chimpster, or repudiate him to avoid the taint. Ugh. I’ll rephrase. Either McC has to defend Chimpster, or repudiate him to avoid being dragged to meet Davy Jones by the sinking BushCo ship. Either way he’s got some fancy tap-dancing to do. Does he look capable of it to anyone here?
The media–who indeed will be The Other Enemy, come Nov.–will, I think, stop giving McC a free pass once the conventions are over. It’s in their narrowest interests to, never mind “their obligation as the Fourth Estate.” They want a slugfest. McC’s honeymoon will soon be over.
Nooooo, he’s their boy. He has the coattails they intend to ride to power. The slugfest they want is them, the Media, beating up Democrats.
McCain could still win. Bush did in 2004, without cheating even. All they need is a good scare. Remember Tennessee in 2006, the election turned on an advert claiming that Harold Ford Jr wanted to rape our white wimmins. Don’t get your hopes up. Life without pain has no meaning.
Yeah, they’ve been shoving Iran down our throat for 2 years now.
mikey: “the piggies stayed too long at the trough.” That would explain why they’re a couple of urinal cakes short.
Sure seems that Obama should win in a landslide. But then I remember that Bush won. Twice.
Bush did in 2004, without cheating even.
*cough* OHIO *cough*.
And if Obama does somehow manage to lose, it will be Hillary’s fault anyways
Doc,
War crimes may well be off the table, but they’re just about the only thing that’ll make 2016 Asshats think twice before suggesting an invasion of Iran. I stand by my denouncing, renouncing, denial, renial of the Fairness Doctrine.
I guess you’re probably expecting a suggestion on what to do instead. I’d suggest plenty of beer.
This is just more whistling in the dark, my liberal droogs.
You can point to East Bumblefuck Louisiana voting in a Democrat as evidence that your boy or girl is going to win, if you like, but guess what- the Presidential race is different.
You know this, of course – thus the frantic whistling.
Get used to how this sounds: “President-elect McCain today prevailed in a stunning 40 state victory over Senator Obama.”
Now if you want to know why this is going to happen, just ask nicely.
The Democrats could run a Pauly Shore/Gallagher ticket and still crush the GOP. Either Clinton or Obama will run roughshod over St. BBQ, peeps. Mark me words.
This is a losing strategy. Either Clinton or Obama will have a very tough race in the fall, and banking on inevitability is a loser’s strategy. I also believe that a well-executed campaign will result in the humiliating defeat of McCain.
See also:
Michael Dukakis
John Kerry
Thomas Dewey
Hillary Clinton
Because you’re a racist, and you represent racists who think they constitute the whole of America because in being racist, they get so much air time that you believe you’re the only voice alive in America.
That about cover it, racist?
“the 50 most influential political pundits…
1. Karl Rove”
Aaaugh!
That makes me so freaking mad I can hardly see straight. That man should be in jail along with the entire OVP and he’s a fucking “pundit?”
Aaaugh!
And I swear, if I see yet another article by a Republican asswipe offering “advice” to the Dems I’m going to fucking scream.
Yes, I’ve said this before. Deal with the redundancy.
Now if you want to know why this is going to happen, just ask nicely.
It’s not going to happen and I don’t want to hear any of the idiocy that dribbles out of your mouth like runny shit.
So fuck off.
Nice enough for ya?
mikey
I East Bumblefucked a guy from Louisana once.
Ohio notwithstanding. The point is, people wanted him to be President again.
Does that make you a Houma-sexual?
<So.Very.Sorry.>
This is not how the Fairness Doctrine worked in practice. TV stations used to reserve like a 5-minute segment for editorials and rebuttals, usually after the local news. Radio stations stayed away from controversy like the plague. And, no, it’s no up to “Gov’t officials” to determine who gets equal time. It’s quite simple: If a radio station doesn’t want to provide 4 hours a day of anti-Limbaugh programming, then all they have to do is not run Limbaugh in the first place.
Mikey,
Don’t be angry, big man. I didn’t vote in the Democratic primary, operation Chaos notwithstanding – I don’t vote for Elks when I’m a Moose, capiche? – so I’m not responsible for you folks putting up someone who belongs to an openly racist church and who is married to an openly racist wife. Hillary would have been a fight but Obama is going to be wiped out by McCain – and you know it, tough guy.
McCain is going to run a classy, upbeat campaign and is going to focus on four key areas… oh dear, I actually wasn’t asked to explain why he was going to win, was I? I’ll save that for your teary eyed fury on November 6.
The fact is, I’m scared of mikey.
Heh, I wonder if our new douchebag troll Teh Troof is going to be the Gary Ruppert of 2008—you know, all confident in his predictions until every fucking last one of them is proved wrong, then he just loses it when President-elect Obama is sworn in, turning into some kind of e-ghost that haunts the halls of Sadly, No! for eternity.
A pelican put its beak in my bumhole. That means your guy can’t win.
Plus, my head would explode if anybody with so much as a drop of African blood were elected President. So if you ask me about the craptastic talking points I’m spewing, I’ll just make up some more “quotes” that were never even in anyone’s thesis, and pretend they’re true.
<rattles chains>
If it weren’t for you meddling kids…
wow. i’ve never seen a moose with a pelican up its butt. that must really be something.
fucking pelicans.
I shouldn’t respond to trolls, but…how come when a person of African descent speaks plainly about racial politics in the US, that person is “racist”, but when a person of European descent makes numerous claims about the inferiority of non-Euros, that person is “forthright”? And how come some white people object most strenuously to being called racists but love to characterize black people as racists?
It were a quandary…
Wright is, as far as anyone can tell, proud to be racist against whites. Michelle is more subtle but her angry, supremacist dog whistle statements are easy enough to read.
You think people are going to forget this come November? Media cycles move on but the image of Michelle Obama ranting that she has never been proud of her country before now is going to linger, liberals. The memory of Wright mocking white children is not going away. But you know all this….
Doc sets up his straw men and knocks them down. Who on Earth is praising white racists (they exist just as surely as their black counterparts)? I am supporting the candidate who is in favor of free trade, low taxes, and crushing terrorists, and I reject the identity politics played so gleefully by liberals. I am very confident my favored candidate is going to win. Come back when you can substantiate something against me, Doc.
Remember the tooth!
THE TOOOOOOOOTH!
…run by the classiest, most upbeat lobbyists for the classiest clients.
Hey Truth-Borg: never mind your “why it’s going to happen” – we’ll settle for “HOW?”
Oh, & blow “openly racist” out your quivering hole. The folks who buy into that swill won’t be able to READ their ballot let alone remember which box to cast their ballot in. Racism implies a position of social dominance from which to be a racist – blacks who hate all non-blacks may be black-supremacists but in America, they haven’t got a chance in hell of ever being true racists.
In case you didn’t notice, Bush/GOP’s popularity is now down beyond NIXON-1974 territory. They’re being smoked even in seats they NEVER lose. McCain isn’t running via a popularity contest – he’s on the ticket because the other candidates sucked slightly worse & he stayed away from the media long enough for them to fail first. Works well in a nomination but not so well in an election. East Bumblefuck Louisiana is where your sacred GOP gets its votes to WIN from, dipshit – & they’re not going to bend over & grease up for you this time – the party’s over.
Last time I saw a GOP run this hopeless was … well … NEVER. Even Bush in 1992 had a better chance, & THAT was written off from the beginning. You should be getting ready to blame all Bush’s cock-ups on Obama – you may have a LONG time to swing that shovel. I’m not sure the GOP ticket in 2012’s going to suck much less than this one did, & this one’s a full-blown vortex of Pure Suck.
Thanks again to the trollbot for its INSIGHT … yeah, the guy that calls his wife a trollop & a cunt in public can SO spank Obama with a high-road campaign.
Oh, & the person that’s been organizing the GOP convention, some jagoff named Goodyear, has just been linked to Burma’s fascist SLORC ragime. Oh baby. Just look at those damage-points!
Yum yum yum – yet ANOTHER major GOP fuckup for the Dems to lock-&-load with … poor Dems: how in hell are they going to choose WHICH massive screwups to focus on between now & November? There’ve been so so many to choose from. Yup, that should be one INTERESTING high-road campaign McCain’s gonna run on, given that the GOP has literally zero experience in taking that route.
Go for it, Borg-boy. Tell us ALL about your “hero” & his 4-point plan.
Just keep telling yourself that our tears aren’t from laughing so hard.
I’m starting to think that racist means “not white” to some dumbfucks like The Truth. Really, how is Michelle Obama racists?
Thanks be to protected static – I stand corrected.
Two for the price of one!
Mmm, I smell something cooking.
Republican Stew?
Smells like it’s almost done.
To all the folks who think re-instating the Fairness Doctrine would help in the least, please explain what you think would happen.
Imagine ORLY or Big Pharma doing the lead-in to a five minute rebuttal. Note that it’s Bill-O’s or Rush’s producers that get to pick the responder. Example:
Bill: We should bomb Iran, and now some dirty hippy who wants us all to die in a terrorist attack to present the other side.
Some “foreign-looking dude”: Iran has done nothing wrong. We may have a fantastic military, but we are as innocent of agression towards the US as Saddam Hussein was.
Bill-O: Thanx for that, next up Sean Hannity sets Alan Colmes up for a lynching.
Yeah, that’d be great. And all it would cost is having any science show end with Ben Stein explaining how evolution is bunk and makes scientist want to kill people. Fantastic.
Yeah but every unattributed anonymous “ask your doctor about Restless Hair Dysfunction” commercial could be followed by a minute of some guy yelling “IT’S SCHERING PLOUGH AND THEY’RE MAKING UP SHIT TO SELL MORE PILLS!” which would be worth it.
The fact is, I’m afraid of Elk.
Dude, you’re quite mistaken. The producers don’t get to pick who responds. Didn’t work that way in the past, won’t in the future.
Once again, I’ll pose the question: unbridled corporate media or governmental interference?
I think the experience of the past couple of decades has shown that corporations will fuck you much more than governments will. Time for that counterbalancing force.
Who picks then?
In 1971 the Commission set requirements for the stations to report, with their license renewal, efforts to seek out and address issues of concern to the community. This process became known as “Ascertainment of Community Needs,” and was to be done systematically and by the station management.
Behind corporate malfeasance is the desire to profit. Behind government interference is some home-schooled bozo with a Liberty University degree. I’d rather they were trying to steal from me than save my soul.
Now that media is so much different than when only a dozen radio stations were available in a local area, it would be a new rule anyways. Please explain how it would work. Although I do love Doctorb’s brilliant commercial follow-up.
Mikey: The Dems will win by 15% across the board in november
See, I’m guessing that the exit polls will show this. But I’m also guessing that the election returns will show a 0.01% McCain win, mostly coming down to a handful of purple states and late-night come-from-behind wins. Surprisingly, it will be discovered that a whole slew of voters went for dems in down-ticket votes but for some reason voted R for president.
And once again, we’ll all scratch our heads and wonder how the exit polls could have been so wrong, despite using the same methods refined over decades… but in only a handful of states, while being dead-on accurate elsewhere.
Yes, they are that shameless. Their idea of changing up the scheme is to switch states. I’m guessing Indiana and Missouri will be among the questionable ones this go-round.
You’d have to go back to an earlier thread to feel the full onslaught of inanity. I don’t remember which one or I’d link it. Basically, Teh Toof started spewing bullshit, and when called on it posted a bunch of “supporting quotes” supposedly from her senior thesis. Except they weren’t. He just made a bunch of shit up and was promptly slapped down by one of our intrepid regulars. Irregulars? Whatever. Somebody posted links to the whole thing and, imagine our surprise, Teh Toof was pulling it all out of his ass like two weeks of ejuva residue.
So, apparently unfazed by losing whatever yoctoscopic shard of credibility he may have strolled in with, Teh Toof continues to post; a sad, lonely ghost ship’s bell echoing off the walls in the wee hours. I suppose we should be appreciative of the preview of what all the cool new whisper campaigns are going to be this coming season, but really, he’s just too tedious and self important for me to pull out the gold star for effort.
Just so ya know…
Lots of projection and wishful thinking here, Jim’s incoherent rant being typical.
Patkin projects racism on Obama opponents. Wait a minute, did McCain’s spiritual advisor mock black children on television? Must have missed that one, though I imagine you folks would have been all over it. Believe me, Americans get it that Wright and Michelle Obama hate and despise whites.
Werebear says that “Republican voters operate from resentment.” How fascinating, since all I see on this blog is burning, envious resentment! Liberals hate, and they yearn to be in a position to do something about it. Confiscatory taxes and relentless identity politics – based propaganda will be just the start.
Mikey says that “Dems will win by 15% across the board.” I don’t know if Nelson here means all elections or just the Presidental one, but why does he think that Obama will do something no Democratic presidental candidate has done in over thirty years: actually command a majority of the popular vote?
Dean, Artur and others seem to get it. The Democrats can’t win on a black supremacist ticket promising higher taxes, curtailed trade, and surrender to terrorists. Seems pretty obvious when I put in – ehm – black and white.
Simba B asks, “Heh, I wonder if our new douchebag troll Teh Troof is going to be the Gary Ruppert of 2008—you know, all confident in his predictions until every fucking last one of them is proved wrong, then he just loses it when President-elect Obama is sworn in, turning into some kind of e-ghost that haunts the halls of Sadly, No! for eternity.”
See, I am absolutely fascinating by what is going to happen after the election too, when this little cottage industry of groupthink liberal blogs goes really ballistic. After the 2000 election, liberals were in whiny, self-pitying mode; after 2004, liberals were very very angry. I can’t even imagine what is going to happen on November 6 2008.
My suspicion is that your rage will turn against Americans in general. “How can everyone be so stupid and reactionary as to vote for the Republican in huge, historic numbers?!” you will wail. Oh, wait, that’s what you did in 2004. Wow, this is going to be exciting!
You’re not funny. We demand that our trolls make us laugh.
Dance, monkey! Or we won’t invite you to our angry party.
Wingnut projection at it’s finest.
Two things:
– Don’t bring back the fairness doctrine. I’d rather beat the crap out of wingnuts in the free marketplace of ideas than give them cause to rally the troops around whining about the playing field.
– Why Karl Rove is still considered an important/brilliant pundit/strategist/whatever is beyond me. He got his ass handed to him by “Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1” Dean in 2006 and had some fairly significant gaffes in ’00 and ’04 (why a GOPer would waste manhours during clutch time campaigning in California and friggin Hawai’i is beyond me). Got reeeeeal lucky in 2000, barely squirted one out against a fairly crummy candidate in 2004. Big whoop. As for his words now, it’s the same sort of Hewitt/Reynolds ad hoc bullshit we’ve heard a bajillion times before.
“…Somebody posted links to the whole thing and, imagine our surprise, Teh Toof was pulling it all out of his ass like two weeks of ejuva residue.”
________________________________________________________
Eesh.
The doctor on CSI thinks that is Too Much Information.
I’m tempted into flip-flopping on the Fairness Doctrine in the hopes that the next time J. Random Christian Radio Station stops the sermons to play With Arms Wide Open, I get to hear someone explaining in excruciating detail exactly why it is that Creed
suckshas the amazing ability to absorb things from its surroundings.Wait, on second thought, I never listen to Christian Radio, so the Fairness Doctrine can blow it out its arse.
And, on the other side of the argument, the Fairness Doctrine can also stuff it up its arse as well.
DN Nation–
From a guy that actually bought Big Pharma’s line that the US was the leader in drug R&D in the world and that national health would kill that…well, your referring to semi-monopoly corporate broadcast media as “the free marketplace of ideas” is unsurprising.
Non-MBA–
The station management answers to the FCC. Complaints from the community cause station management to play ball or lose their license. See? Works fine. And having Ben Stein come on after a science program is easy to deal with–the science program merely points out that the viewer is likely to see a rebuttal that is free of facts and logic, and that they are sufficiently informed to tell truth from falsehood.
The whole “teach the controversy” approach has arisen in the absence of the Fairness Doctrine. It’s the Fox News “some say the world is round, but others disagree…the truth must be somewhere in between” bit. That’s all since Reagan, and it’s why the political discourse is so foul. You may trust the corporate media to police itself, but I’ve seen it doing that, and that’s what got us here.
Having said that, Creed really does suck.
That’s kind of a stretch, man. I merely offered concern, concerns were struck down, and so I acquiesced. I will readily admit that I’m ig’nunt about healthcare. Consider it a fact-finding experience. I’m better for it.
Works fine, ‘cept that I’d rather argue with wingnuts rather than play Brent Bozell’s game. Even noting that the profit-margin deck is stacked against me.
That’s fine from a getting-yourself-off point of view, but remember: lots of people are depending on the broadcast media for news and information. You go ahead and indulge your ig’nunce or your cleverness, but limit it to the blogs. Do we really need another generation of voters raised on Fox News?
No. But I’m not comfortable with the government, or Bozellian aggressors, making it so.
To each his own. And so I’ll continue to, er, get off.
TV News really is shittier now than it ever has been. I don’t have any objections to the Fairness Doctrine coming back because I don’t lose anything by it.
The government–that’s you & me, bub, the people—owns the broadcast spectrum. The airwaves are ours. If you want to put out propaganda without government involvement, print a newspaper–you’re not using public resources. Meantime, how’s this: You don’t want the government insuring that broadcasters accomodate dissenting voices. OK, then: no more exclusivity of wavelength. Encourage, don’t prosecute, pirate radio, and even television. If you won’t accomodate dissent on your frequency/station/channel, then you don’t get to complain when someone hijacks you frequency. How’s that?
Doc,
Here’s your string for activating Fairness Doctrine response:
Complaint from audience (already skewing to more useful for the right)
Repsonse by station management (current status quo)
Overseen by FCC (my worry, the place stacked with people who are shocked by Janet Jackson’s nipple).
Note that it’s still station management that arranges response to pieces, unless you’re expecting the FCC to do that too.
Pros:
In the best case scenario, five minutes of every hour of Fox News broadcasting is dedicated to balancing points of view. Tripe like ABC-Disneys Road to 911 gets a follow-up about how the screenwriters liked to pull crap out of their asses and eat babies. Commercials for shifty products get somw whackjob screaming NO NO NO MY AMAZING WONDER TONIC WILL FIX YOU MUCH BETTER AND IS RECOMMENDED BY ALL 5 OUT OF 5 DENTISTS !!11elventy!!
Cons:
The potential for abuse is staggering. No, seriously, the potential for abuse is STAGGERING. Warrantless wiretapping pales in comparison. Imagine a Karl Rove headed FCC with a Fairness Doctrine ability to threaten broadcast licenses. Now tell me you still think it’s a good idea.
As people abandon TV for other pursuits where will the next Fairness Doctrine situate itself?
Another point, even if it does work well, there will still be mistakes made in applying the Fairness Doctrine. There will still be at least some amount of abuse. Now tell me, who’s in better shape to challenge something like that, Air America, PBS or NewsCorp?
Fine.
Next question.
(Additionally, I’m not sure how we push Fairness Doctrine II past this Supreme Court…)
And besides, all this talk (from one side) about electability – Edwards was always, always the most electable and by wide margins.
MBA:
Here’s the current algorithm for response to slanted news:
Don’t bother telling me about the marketplace. Broadcasters answer to advertisers, and they like people stupid.
The Fairness Doctrine was in place for decades, and I defy you to cite any examples of abuse of it in all of that time. Abuses of the public trust under the current system, however…
I thought “let the free market handle things, government can’t do anything right was a wingnut stance. Hmmm…
By the way, WordPress corrected my algorithm; it was six lines of blankness. I believe you get the idea.
War crimes trials for the architects of what Jon Stewart calls the Mess o’ Potamia is probably also what you would call a wingnut stance. Hmmm. Hmmm indeed.
I can’t give you an example where the Fairness Doctrine was abused because I don’t know enough about how it was applied. I’m just responding based on how much it sounds like a “not very good idea”.
In my defense, I also can’t come up with any historical presidents who let a city drown either.
Right, wingnuts are calling for war crimestrials for the Bush crew. Mmm hmm. You’re receiving signals that the rest of us just don’t pick up, MBA.
Letting cities drown: look up Huey Long and why he was so popular.
I guess I should probably try to contribute something positive, instead of just stock up on beer.
Here’s what I view as the real discrepancy. When religious right wing fringe lunatics proclaim that they are insulted/offended/etc. they get action. This is not only because media management is conditioned to respond to these idiots, but it’s because they follow through on boycott threats.
On the progressive side, blantant racism and sexism, and to a lesser extent homophobia, gets a similar response, bu tonly after much more effort. And usually, the targets aren’t the roght ones. If the progressive sphere really wants to get in on the debate, they gotta put up or shut up. Pick a target, say Timmeh or Tweety (as warm up before attacking the Murdoch Mothership) and follow through. Hound them until they are out of work. Organize boycotts of MtP and Harball advertisers. Stick with it until you’ve collected a couple big name scalps. Don’t let them get away with “oh I’m just too passionate about my job and sometimes I have a slip of the tongue” BS.
At the very least, get Imus back off the air. Complaints from teh Left, Norbizness excluded, are considered jokes. Because that’s what they are.
I forget sometimes that sarcasm doesn’t come through teh tubes.
Look, I might disagree with you DocAmazing, but I’m not going to accuse you of subscribing to Instapundit or Malkin RSS’s.
When religious right wing fringe lunatics proclaim that they are insulted/offended/etc. they get action. This is not only because media management is conditioned to respond to these idiots, but it’s because they follow through on boycott threats.
As before I’m lukewarm on this, but a Fairness Doctrine allows station management to throw up their hands and say “We had to put that dirty fucking hippie on.” Boycotts are pointless.
Hey, I’m not claiming a magic bullet, but if Great Orange Satan really does get millions of uniques monthly and he can get say 10% to write angry letters he’d get attention. If he could get, say 50% to follow through on a boycott, if only for say two weeks, head office will see an actual effect. Two weeks might be longer than necessary.
The goal is to turn around the accepted wisdom that boycotts are pointless. But then again, I’m just talking out my ass, so what do I know. I don’t even have an mba.
I do think it’d be a bigger help than the Fairness Doctrine.
Boycotts are, generally, pointless, Spocko going after San Francisco talk radio notwithstanding. Once again: the audience isn’t the customer. The advertisers are the customers. The advertisers like a right-wing slant. It’s pro-corporate and anti-regulation. They dig that kind of thing, and they pay for it, and broadcasters are willing to lose market share in the short run if it keeps their big-money advertisers happy. Hell, even PBS kisses corporate ass these days.
But hey, the free market will fix the problem, as it has for these past three decades.
Well new times call for new boycotts. Boycott the advertisers. Write a couple hundred thousand letter, each with a unique signature, to every advertiser on x. Something like:
I saw your advertising on Hardball. It’s my opinion that Chris Matthews is a horrible misogynist who fosters a hateful environment for women and minorities. Since your ads are paying his salary, I find that I can no longer use your product as I can not bear the thought od one single dime of my money going to feed his perverse tastes. Plus he’s ugly.
I mean, how hard would that be to do? The problem is that progressives don’t have the kill instinct. They refuse to pull the trigger. Even when they raise a big enough stink that Tweety tells us that he gets it he doesn’t have to change his behaviour at all. And it doesn’t have to be Matthews. You can basically pick a talking head at random and have a justified cause.
The problem with the press isn’t that there aren’t enough rules, it’s that there’s no accountability. Seriously, if Joe Klein has neither the time nor the expertise to inform himself about issues he writes about, before going ahead and wtiring about them, what the hell is he doing still writing?
If I got to pick the target, I’d pick someone who’s firing would shake the establishment to its knees. Wanker Emeritus Broderella. Here’s how it would go down: When the next outrageously stupid and offensive column by his Imperial Deaness comes out (i.e. his next column) an organized movement would publish the list of everyone that advertised in that issue, and then “everyone” would write them informing them that their products/services are no longer wanted as long as they are connected with anything Broder. If “everyone” happens to be in the five or six figure range then at the very least we can expect a Broder hiatus.
But getting that type of organized response from progressives, for whatever reason, seems impossible. Although I would suggest that it’s less impossible than a return of the Fairness Doctrine.
You’re not getting it. Such boycotts do occur; they don’t work. Except for Spocko getting San Francisco talk radio to clean up a little of its act, advertisers are willing to take the hit that a boycott causes, so that their overall pro-corporate message is undiluted.
Organized Jesus freaks haven’t had the success you’re describing, either; Disney World still has plenty gay people there–The Mouse is good at managing image, and the Jumpin’ Jesus brigade can’t quite dent the Disneyland magic.
Advertisers loooove right-wing bias. They’re rich, remember?
Sadly, Nebulous No!
You’re probably right. But in part it’s because religious leaders generally don’t have to follow through. Often, just the threat is enough to get some sort of action. Ford’s ads in gay friendly magazines for instance, were pulled until the uproar of caving to religious bigots got Ford to put them back in.
Maybe my perspective is wrong, but it certainly seems to me that when the fundies get their britches in a knot, something happens. It may not last, like Ford or Dixie Chicks or Disney but the impression is certainly that they are having successes with their threats. Maybe it’s related to churches historically being very powerful, I don’t know.
Nonetheless, I still feel that this is a better approach than stronger
government management of broadcasting licenses. And easier to achieve.
No reason both can’t be undertaken. One does not preclude the other.
Actually, DN, it’s pretty obvious that advertisers like a right-wing slant–seen the leftist equivalent to Fox anytime lately? Noticed that the advertising for Air America doesn’t even begin to touch Liddy’s, let alone Rush’s?
I’m not sure what media you’re watching/reading, but in the US, large corporations like to be unregulated and untaxed. For that reason, they tend to finance pro-capitalist, right-wing media. That’s why Project Censored has so many stories to choose from at the end of the year.
Too many patients! Commenting too time-consuming! Must…use…links…
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-liberalmedia.htm
No good! Another…link…
http://www.ourmediavoice.org/article_reform_bw.html