The ‘Cuda speaks, one in a series

In this case, on Anchorage’s Bob and Mark show, dated 11/6/08. There’s something weird with their web site: I could make the sound files play only in Google’s Chrome browser.

I’m tellin’ ya, this woman is a Republican Harry Truman, with a bit of Reagan thrown in.

 

Technorati tags: Sarah Palin, Bob & Mark, radio, interviews

Iowahawk on the election

Our 21st century Thurber on this historic moment:

It’s also heartening to realize that as president Mr. Obama will soon be working hand-in-hand with a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard like Senator Robert Byrd to craft the incoherent and destructive programs that will plunge the American economy into a nightmare of full-blown sustained depression. As Vice President-Elect Joe Biden has repeatedly warned, there will be difficult times ahead and the programs will not always be popular, or even sane. But as we look out over the wreckage of bankrupt coal companies, nationalized banks, and hyperinflation, we can always look back with sustained pride on the great National Reconciliation of 2008. Call me an optimist, but I like to think when America’s breadlines erupt into riots it will be because of our shared starvation, not the differences in our color.

I laugh. Lest I cry.

 

Technorati tags: Iowahawk, satire, Barack Obama

This is news?

It seems like the Washington Post’s ombudsman is only now discovering what everyone knew a year ago: their coverage was mostly free of policy content and wildly skewed in favor of Barack Obama. Washington Post Ombudswoman Deborah Howell writes:

The [Washington] Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.

My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates’ backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4. Numbers don’t tell you everything, but they give you a sense of The Post’s priorities.

The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts’ views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues.

It wasn’t just the Post: the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC were all good little propagandists for the Obama campaign. The LA Times, my local paper, even went so far as to suppress a videotape that could have illuminated Obama’s ever-shifting positions on Israel and the Palestinians.

They all tried mightily to ignore Obama’s radical associations, his history with the Chicago and Cook County political machines, his work supporting the Leftist agenda with millions of dollars during his time on various charitable boards, and even his voting record while in the Illinois State Senate.

Yet they had plenty of time and resources to dig through Sarah Palin’s trash to discover a) she had bought herself a used tanning bed with her own money, and b) a non-scandal about her dismissal of an insubordinate cabinet member.

Walter Duranty would be proud.

Ed Morrissey throw his hands up in exasperation:

The media never bothered to make a hundredth of the effort on Obama that they did with Palin, and they had two years to do it.

That’s the issue Howell should have addressed in her column.  We already know that the Post gave imbalanced coverage of Obama and McCain, as did most of the rest of the media.  And now Howell gives the mea culpa in her first column after Election Day, when it’s far too late to do anything about it.  Where was Howell during the last three months?  Why wait until the election is over to speak up?  That’s an answer in itself.

The major media has abdicated its role as the guardians of an informed citizenry, and it’s time we sought replacements.

LINKS: Sister Toldjah.

 

Technorati tags: Washington Post, Deborah Howell, media bias, journalism

By the way

Can we please finally lay to rest this nonsense that the United States is a racist country and that Americans are a racist people?

Probably not.

 

Technorati tags: racism, bigotry

Will and Won’t

So, I’ve had a few days to think over the election. I won’t offer analysis of what happened that night; there are plenty of savvier commentators who can do that. (I especially recommend Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, the guys at Power Line, and AJ Strata) But I do want to talk about what this means going forward. Since I can only control my own little corner of reality, what I’m about to write is really only valid for me. You all can make your own decisions.

But this is all about me.

That said, here’s a list of what I will and won’t do going forward, starting with the won’ts.

I WON’T:

• …fall into the trap of Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS). I’ve spent eight years, since election night 2000, watching the Democratic Party, the media (but I repeat myself), and the farther Left demonize George W. Bush, accusing him of everything from being an idiot and a stooge of a Machiavellian Dick Cheney to a Hitler-clone about to impose fascism on the country. I’ve watched them lie about the state of the economy, making it look far worse than it’s been for most of the last eight years, in order make people "blame Bush" for something that wasn’t happening. I’ve seen them talk down our war effort, reveal national security secrets in time of war, falsely accuse our forces of horrible crimes, and do their level best to get us to give up and come home in defeat. All this in service of the short-term electoral interests of the Democratic Party. This is inexcusable. I will not do this to Obama.
• …trust the major media for a long, long time. The bias of their liberal monoculture has been obvious for years, but this year they turned themselves into the marketing arm of the Obama campaign and abandoned any pretense of being real journalists. The sexism toward Hillary Clinton, the refusal to do even basic research into Obama’s background, thus leaving the public in the dark about this far-Left product of the Chicago Machine, and the savaging of Sarah Palin stripped away their last claims to be anything other than propagandists.
• …trust the "cocktail conservatives" of the Washington-New York elite. Their revulsion at a woman who represented the best of Middle America shows how detached they’ve become from their own people, and how fearful they are of losing their invitations to the best parties under the new administration.
• …engage in McCain bashing. A couple of brilliant moments aside, McCain ran a poor campaign, refusing to use weapons even his opponents said were legitimate. But I will not do what I’ve seen commenters on other Rightie boards do: denounce him as a "RINO" or worse, heap all sorts of abuse on his head, or even accuse him of deliberately losing the election. McCain can be criticized for a lot, both from a conservative and an electioneering standpoint, but he is an honorable man who has served his country well, and I still like, admire, and respect him.
• …call for a Purity Jihad to drive out anyone who isn’t a "true conservative" (Whatever the Hell that means.) from the Republican Party. Aside from being a sure way to a guaranteed minority, it implies a self-destructive intolerance for those who may disagree on some issues. The way to a true majority and another shot at being a long-term governing party is build a coalition from the moderate Center to the Right, with the Center-Right as a bridge encouraging both sides to see their mutual interests and compromise. In other words, I won’t contribute to making the tent smaller than it has become.

I WILL:

• …criticize President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress when they deserve it, which I fear will be often. But I will also support him when I think he is right. Even if it means gritting my teeth.
• …work to build that Center-Right coalition, encouraging my Rightie friends to remember that it’s okay to compromise (even Reagan did) and showing my moderate friends (and reasonable Center-Lefties) that their best interests lie with us, not with the Social Democrats the Democratic Party has become.
• …support pro-market and pro-limited government reforms here in California. We made a small start with the passage of Prop 11 last Tuesday, but much, much more is needed.
• …strive in my own way to preserve and expand at home the principles of free markets, limited government, low taxes, and reward for risk. I believe in the ownership society and think all Americans should be investors, and that the government should reward that, not punish it.
• …push for a strong foreign and national security policy, one that places America’s interests first on the assumption, which I think proven, that what is best for us is best for the world. (Ooooh! How arrogant of me! )
• …continue to believe in American exceptionalism and a special destiny for us.
• …promote Governor Sarah Palin as a potential candidate for president in 2012. From what I learned of her over the last two months, she herself is truly exceptional. I think we need her and many, many more like her in Washington.

So, that’s my list. I may have forgotten one thing or another, but this will do.

Now, to enjoy the rest of Saturday.

Technorati tags: politics, Republicans, conservatives, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, John McCain, Democrats