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CBS Befuddled by How Tea Party Candidates Have Survived Despite Their ‘Unusual Assertions’

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

ABC, CBS and NBC all ran full stories Monday night on how an old video clip showed Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell talking about how, as a high-schooler, she had “dabbled into witchcraft.” CBS, however, used O’Donnell to pivot to marveling at how other Tea Party-affiliated Senate candidates remain viable despite what CBS considers exotic views.   “Christine O’Donnell’s witchcraft comments may have spooked some Republican leaders,” Nancy Cordes related on the CBS Evening News, “but her fellow Tea Party Senate candidates are living prove that unusual assertions are not necessarily campaign killers.” Cordes elaborated with some contestable summaries of positions expressed: Take Kentucky’s Rand Paul who questioned the historic civil rights act, but is still tied with the Democrat in a recent poll. Nevada’s Sharron Angle is neck and neck with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, even after she advocated an armed insurrection against the government. And Utah attorney Mike Lee is crushing his Democratic rival even though Lee favors dismantling Social Security and eliminating unemployment benefits. Priorities he shares with Alaska’s Joe Miller. Katie Couric set up the story: “Republicans were counting on picking up a Democratic Senate seat in Delaware. That is until Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell won the GOP nomination. Will her past statements about, among other things, witchcraft, come back to haunt her?” On ABC’s World News, Jonathan Karl finally delivered a broadcast network mention of reasoning that should be “haunting” O’Donnell’s Democratic opponent: And O’Donnell isn’t the only one haunted by past statements. Politico obtained this article, “The Making of a Bearded Marxist,” where the Democratic candidate, Chris Coons, wrote in his college paper that “my own favorite beliefs in the miracles of free enterprise and the boundless opportunities to be had in America might be largely untrue.” Not surprisingly, Coons says he won’t make an issue out of old comments. Unsaid: Politico “obtained this article,” from the Amherst College student newspaper, back in May. Politico’s May 3 headline: “ Coons took ‘bearded Marxist’ turn .” It took four months for someone at a network to care. (An oddity: Every network — cable and broadcast — but CBS managed to obtain a good quality version of the 1999 Politically Incorrect clip played by Bill Maher on his HBO show on Friday night, even if just from a recording of the HBO program which has been re-run several times by the pay-cable channel. CBS, in contrast, played a low quality clip, with awful audio, lifted from a Web video on the left-wing Think Progress site.) Friday night : “CBS Dishonestly Touts ‘Non-Partisan Watchdog’ Group’s Quest for a ‘Criminal Investigation’ of Christine O’Donnell” The piece on the Monday, September 20 CBS Evening News: KATIE COURIC: Republicans were counting on picking up a Democratic Senate seat in Delaware. That is until Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell won the GOP nomination. Will her past statements about, among other things, witchcraft, come back to haunt her? Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reads the tea leaves. CHRISTINE O’DONNELL, ON POLITICALLY INCORRECT IN 1999: Because I dabbled into witchcraft, I hung around people who were doing these things. NANCY CORDES: Christine O’Donnell’s witchcraft comments may have spooked some Republican leaders. KARL ROVE: She’s got to deal with it and explain it. CORDES: But her fellow Tea Party Senate candidates are living prove that unusual assertions are not necessarily campaign killers. RAND PAUL: Watch out, here we come. CORDES: Take Kentucky’s Rand Paul who questioned the historic civil rights act, but is still tied with the Democrat in a recent poll. Nevada’s Sharron Angle is neck and neck with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, even after she advocated an armed insurrection against the government. LAURA MYERS, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Senator Reid still is not very popular in Nevada because a lot of people blame the bad economy on him. CORDES: And Utah attorney Mike Lee is crushing his Democratic rival even though Lee favors dismantling Social Security and eliminating unemployment benefits. Priorities he shares with Alaska’s Joe Miller. LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Here’s the difference: Delaware is a Democratic state and those other Tea Party states are either competitive purple or Republican red. CORDES: Back in Delaware, supporters of Christine O’Donnell- O’DONNELL ON POLITICALLY INCORRECT: One of my favorite first dates was with a witch on a satanic altar and I didn’t know it. CORDES: -say they’re not fazed by the latest skeleton in her closet. MAN: I’m going to vote for people on what they’re running on, not what they did 20 years ago because I’d never get elected myself if that happened. CORDES: O’Donnell was a frequent guest on comedian Bill Maher’s program back in the 1990s and he plans to release more colorful clips like that one. For now, she’s laughing off the threat saying, “Hey, Bill wanted ratings, I gave them to him.” Katie?

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SEIU Activist: Local Networks ‘Willing Partners’ in Campaign Against Wis. GOP Gubernatorial Candidate

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Are the three news networks actively working to defeat the Republican candidate for Governor in Wisconsin? According to the far-left Service Employees International Union, yes, they most certainly are. SEIU spokesman John-david Morgan – also, incidentally, a former journalist – told a staffer  ( audio embedded below the fold ) for GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker that local media affiliates for all three major networks were “willing partners” in the union’s efforts to defeat Walker. The staffer gave a fake name and recorded the conversation without Morgan’s knowledge. “They’ve really been willing partners in it,” Morgan told the staffer. “They come in with the TV cameras, and [channels] 58, 12 come, and 6 doesn’t always. But, yeah, they’ve been really helpful. They think it’s fun.” Channels 58 and 12 are Milwaukee’s CBS and ABC affiliates, respectively. “It’s not perfect,” Morgan added, but “they get our message across.” Indeed, Morgan apparently felt that some items from these outlets reinforced the SEIU’s anti-Walker campaign. Among the issues the union planned on hammering Walker for, according to Morgan, was a disaster at O’Donnell Park in Milwaukee, where a parking garage collapsed over the summer, killing a 15-year-old boy. Morgan apparently approved of the local CBS station’s coverage of the fallout over the accident. He posted a story from the outlet on his Facebook page, as seen in the screenshot below:   Morgan also mentioned channel 4, the local NBC station, for its coverage of inspections of state facilities, which the SEIU hopes to use as the basis of an attack campaign against Walker. According to a transcript of the exchange, Morgan described the union’s tactics – and the media’s role in it – thusly: Yeah, you know, like, when we did the people’s building inspection, we went around to a bunch of buildings where we know stuff is falling apart. Scott Walker has neglected these buildings, and he keeps putting repairs off because he, you know, won’t fix anything. So, you know, they poked fun at us a little bit for having like a phony report card. It’s like whatever, but then they said, “But the group does have a point – a piece fell off the courthouse in May.” And sure enough, a search through channel 4’s website reveals a story from August 19 on the SEIU’s fake “report card” on the state of public facilities. The piece regurgitates a number of claims from union, and one attack from a county supervisor who joined the SEIU in its sham “inspections.” “I think that people should beware of the dishonest budgeting of Scott Walker,” said Democratic county supervisor Chris Larson, whose party affiliation is not mentioned in the piece. I contacted Morgan via Facebook and asked him to elaborate on his “willing partners” comment. At first, he said that he was only expressing his appreciation for “all the hard work that broadcast journalists did covering our events.” When I asked about the disconnect between that claim and the numerous comments he made in his recorded coversation suggesting more than a simple third-party-observation role on the part of the news media, Morgan refused to comment any further. He instead referred me to the transcript of the exchange, in which he said “my meaning is best reflected.” None of the three networks’ local affiliates returned requests for comment by deadline. The Wisconsin Democratic Party, Walker’s oppoenent’s campaign, and SEIU Local 1 also did not respond to such requests. But the Wisconsin Republican Party – to whom the Walker campaign directed a press inquiry – was happy to offer its views on media coverage of the race in a phone conversation. I asked whether the party thinks the media is in fact aiding the SEIU campaign against Walker. Wisconsin GOP spokesman Andrew Welhouse told me: I think that the only voice that you really need to hear is the SEIU’s. I think that the fact that the said something so blatantly – I mean, it’s their words, not ours. They’re the ones that are saying “these guys are in the tank for us.” I can’t imagine that he would say something like that if he didn’t have anything to back it up – a feeling that they were all going with. Asked whether media bias has been a significant problem in the campaign, Welhouse stated: What people see on TV and what people read in the newspaper goes a long way in determining how they perceive their elected officials as representing them, and it goes a long way in how they perceive new people coming on the scene. People know there’s a difference between paid advertising and what they read in the news and what they see in the media, and if there’s an ongoing perception that the media is biased or stilted one way or the other, that’s a big problem. And for the other side to so blatantly say, “we’ve got these guys in our camp,” that’s not only a problem for one party saying one thing and the other party saying another thing and there being a campaign between two different sides, but that’s a real problem for people who see the news media as an unbiased source of information. Though none of the media outlets in question returned requests for comment, it seems safe to assume that they would deny any official collaboration with the SEIU. But the fact that the media in question were so eager to cover events in a manner friendly to a group as far to the left as the SEIU implies a convergence either of political ideology, if not political objectives. Even if the media are not actively working with Democratic shock troops, they apparently share a sense of what is news – in this case, events damaging to the Republican gubernatorial candidate. The bottom line is Morgan’s admission raises serious ethical concerns beyond political bias. The news media can have a dramatic impact on elections, since they proclaim themselves wholly objective and non-partisan. This revelation may belie that claim – at least in Milwaukee.

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CBS’s Rodriguez: Will Christine O’Donnell ‘Play Media Victim’ Like Palin?

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Following a report on Monday’s CBS Early Show that slammed Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell for comments she made on Bill Maher’s ‘Politically Incorrect’ in the 1990s, co-host Maggie Rodriguez suggested O’Donnell’s response: “Well, she could do what Sarah Palin has done and which has worked so beautifully for Sarah Palin, and that is to play media victim.” [Audio available here ] Rodriguez made the comment to political analyst John Dickerson, who added: “That’s right. And the victim card is one that Sarah Palin has played, Rand Paul has done the same thing. It’s a bit of a time-honored technique and it works with your supporters, who are apt to believe the things you say…” He then warned: “…but if you’re trying to get to voters in the middle or independents….they’re not just going to take it at face value that you are a victim and rally to your side.” Neither Rodriguez nor Dickerson questioned whether media coverage of Palin and O’Donnell had been fair. In the prior report, correspondent Nancy Cordes touted how “O’Donnell says she’s a devout Catholic, but in the video she describes her experimentation with witchcraft. And the man who released the clip says there’s a lot more where that came from.” Later, Cordes mentioned how “The 1999 clip was released by comedian Bill Maher,” without noting his left-wing ideology. After playing the clip of O’Donnell explaining that she hung around people in her high school days that practiced witchcraft, Cordes placed the admission on the same level as the candidate’s religious views: “[O’Donnell] was already dealing with the fallout from this 1996 MTV documentary, where she equated masturbation to adultery.” In a September 14 report for the Early Show, Cordes similarly portrayed O’Donnell’s social conservatism as bizarre: “[She] has crusaded for abstinence and against porn. Writing once that ‘when a married person uses pornography, it compromises the spouse’s purity.'” Concluding her Monday report, Cordes declared: “Bill Maher says he has a many more clips of O’Donnell and will release one a week until she comes on his show.” Rodriguez asked Dickerson about the political fallout: “O’Donnell’s critics, some of whom are members of her own party, are really taking her to task over these old clips. How damaging do you think they’ll be to her campaign?” Dickerson explained: “…it’s not just one of these clips, they’re coming out one after another. And it’s, if nothing else, it’s a distraction and it’s a barrier between her and trying to tell voters what she actually believes….The problem is just the tonnage of these clips.” Here is a full transcript of the September 20 segment:  7:00AM TEASE MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Politically incorrect. A video comes back to haunt the new darling of the tea party, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell. CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and I didn’t know it. And, I mean, there was a little blood there. RODRIGUEZ: We’ll take you inside the bizarre political showdown between D.C. and Hollywood. 7:03AM SEGMENT RODRIGUEZ: Time now for politics and tea party candidate Christine O’Donnell, who surprised everyone by winning her primary in Delaware last week. Well, there’s another surprise now, as a video from her past comes back to haunt her. CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes has more from Washington this morning. Good morning, Nancy. NANCY CORDES: Maggie, good morning and welcome back. O’Donnell says she’s a devout Catholic, but in the video she describes her experimentation with witchcraft. And the man who released the clip says there’s a lot more where that came from. CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: I dabbled into witchcraft, I hung around people who were doing these things. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Politically Incorrect; Tea Party’s New Star Responds to Old Tape] CORDES: The 1999 clip was released by comedian Bill Maher, who frequently invited O’Donnell to appear on his show, ‘Politically Incorrect,’ back in the 1990s, when she was an abstinence activist. O’DONNELL: One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and I didn’t know it. And, I mean, there was a little blood there and stuff like that- JAMIE KENNEDY: Your first date was a satanic altar? O’DONNELL: Yeah, we went to a movie and then, like, had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar. CORDES: Delaware’s Republican senatorial candidate was already dealing with the fallout from this 1996 MTV documentary, where she equated masturbation to adultery. O’DONNELL: The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So, you can’t masterbate without lust. He already knows what pleases him and can please himself, then why am I in the picture? CORDES: O’Donnell canceled her scheduled appearances this weekend on CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday, but at a campaign picnic, she made light of her witchcraft experimentation. O’DONNELL: I was in high school. How many of you didn’t hang out with questionable folks in high school? There’s been no witchcraft since. CORDES: Sarah Palin, who endorsed O’Donnell, urged her via Twitter to ignore the, quote, ‘Nat’l media seeking ur destruction.’ And, instead, use her time ‘2 connect w/local voters whom you’ll be serving.’ SARAH PALIN: Thank you so much, Iowa! CORDES: Palin herself was connecting with voters in Iowa this weekend, speaking at the Republican Party’s annual Ronald Reagan dinner, fueling speculation that she’s laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2012. PALIN: It’s time for renewal, restoration of honor, and those time-tested truths. And it may take some renegades going rogue to get us there. CORDES: Bill Maher says he has a many more clips of O’Donnell and will release one a week until she comes on his show. O’Donnell says she has no regrets about what she said on his program. She said, ‘Hey, Bill wanted ratings and I gave him ratings.’ Maggie. RODRIGUEZ: CBS’s Nancy Cordes. Nancy, thank you. CBS News political analyst John Dickerson joins us now from Columbus, Ohio, to talk more about this. John, good morning. JOHN DICKERSON: Good morning, Maggie. RODRIGUEZ: O’Donnell’s critics, some of whom are members of her own party, are really taking her to task over these old clips. How damaging do you think they’ll be to her campaign? DICKERSON: Well, we’re in a very weird place in this Senate race, talking about issues we certainly weren’t expecting to. And that’s the problem, is it’s not just one of these clips, they’re coming out one after another. And it’s, if nothing else, it’s a distraction and it’s a barrier between her and trying to tell voters what she actually believes. And in Delaware, a blue state, she’s going to have to convince independent voters outside of the tea party group that has already elected her and so this is going to give them some questions about her. RODRIGUEZ: Does she have to answer those questions or can she, as she did this weekend, just make light of it? Karl Rove, for one, says that this raises serious questions about her character and she has to address these seriously. DICKERSON: Well, she seemed to have kind of brushed this one off pretty well, that’s the way these candidates have to do things. The problem is just the tonnage of these clips. And Bill Maher obviously sees an opportunity to promote himself here and so his self-interest is aligned with essentially taking her down. And so she has to find a way to deal with this, what’s going to be, or seems to be, a kind of a daily set of explosions of old videotape. RODRIGUEZ: Well, she could do what Sarah Palin has done and which has worked so beautifully for Sarah Palin, and that is, to play media victim. DICKERSON: That’s right. And the victim card is one that Sarah Palin has played, Rand Paul has done the same thing. It’s a bit of a time-honored technique and it works with your supporters, who are apt to believe the things you say, but if you’re trying to get to voters in the middle or independents who you have to convince that you have another set of ideas, they’re not just going to take it at face value that you are a victim and rally to your side. And so it might work a little bit, but she still has that big job to convince voters that she can be their senator. RODRIGUEZ: John, we saw Sarah Palin this weekend at that event in Iowa, where the road to the White House usually begins for a lot of people. But she wasn’t going the traditional route, she wasn’t out there going door to door and shaking voters’ hands. Do you think she has time to work that if she wants to be a serious contender in the Iowa caucuses? DICKERSON: She has time. Sarah Palin, at the moment in the – in conservative politics, makes her own weather. And so, she can – she can do as she pleases for the moment in Iowa and if she needs to kind of get an organization together quickly. But, of course, you can wait too late and candidates who’ve tried to sort of have these new-fangled organizations in Iowa, Fred Thompson tried to do this and it was a dismal failure. You have to actually do it. She can delay doing it, but she will, in the end, have to do that retail painstaking politics that works in Iowa. RODRIGUEZ: And she’s a lot more popular than Fred Thompson was at the time. So we will see. John Dickerson, thanks so much. At 7:09- DICKERSON: Indeed, she was – is.

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Marc Ambinder Fulfills Own Prediction, Provides Messaging Assistance to Dems: ‘Go After Palin!’

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

I didn’t know about what follows when I posted last night (at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ) on Atlantic politics editor and CBS Campaign 2010 “Chief Political Consultant” Marc Ambinder’s September 15 prediction that “The media is going to help the Democratic Party’s national messaging.” Though drop-dead obvious, I still found it interesting that someone in Ambinder’s position would admit it. It turns out that only two days after Ambinder put forth his prediction, he proactively made it come true. Despite the inquisitive title of his September 17 post (“Will the White House Play the Palin Card?”), Ambinder clearly believes that going after Sarah Palin should be part of the White House’s and Democrats’ strategy during the next seven weeks. It’s enough to make you wonder if he has already written his CBS election post-mortems. Behold Ambinder’s cluelessness: … when Tea Partiers are in “elect someone like Christine O’Donnell mode,” Democrats sense an opportunity. Simply put, the crazier the Tea Party seems, the more Democrats can link the Republican agenda to its source of energy, which in turn fires up rank-and-file Democrats. There is, in fact … someone whose very name provokes disgust among Democrats, someone whose name identification is 100 percent and whose ubiquity is extremely useful. That person is Sarah Palin. All that’s required is for the President to utter her name a couple of times. The Fox-Rush-Redstate nexus would explode. Palin would bask in the attention and respond. And respond. And respond. … Elevate Sarah Palin? How much higher can she go? Everyone knows her. Some of Obama’s advisers have argued in the past that the attention paid to Palin by Americans in the last stages of the 2008 campaign is one reason why Obama was able to win so cleanly. Palin and the Tea Party movement are not the same thing. The movement, evolving out of movement conservatism, is principally about government and the economy. Palin revels in the culture wars. But when that part of the Tea Party that does care about social issues becomes the story, linking the two in the public’s mind is easier. Anyone who thinks that Palin hurt John McCain’s campaign wasn’t watching the same election as everyone else. McCain was suffering from intense conservative disinterest until he picked Palin. When he did, she energized the sensible, conservative base of the party as no one ever has. The fact that McCain’s people then seemingly did all they could to water her down in the ensuing weeks is primarily McCain’s fault, not hers. Despite that, residual affection for Palin is what prevented McCain’s 7-point loss from going into double digits, and, for better or worse, arguably salvaged his ability to continue on as a U.S. Senator. Despite well over a year of exposure to it, Ambinder betrays a total misunderstanding of the Tea Party movement. Fiscal issues are currently very important, but if he thinks there’s a big divide within the movement on social issues, he’s got another thing coming. The overriding issue is, to steal from Mark Levin, liberty versus tyranny. There is probably no better example of how all of the supposedly divide-creating issues (fiscal, social, constitutional) tie together under the liberty vs. tyranny banner than Palin’s completely accurate, totally courageous assertion that statist health care will inexorably lead to “death panels” — and that they are designed into legislation this Congress has already passed and this President has already signed. So let me get this straight: During the next seven weeks, Marc Ambinder will be CBS’s “Chief Political Consultant” on Campaign 2010. He’s part of a team that will, in the network’s own words , provide “reports and political analysis (that) will be prominently featured across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms on the run-up to election night 2010 on Nov. 2.” At the same time, Ambinder has not only clearly chosen sides, but is actively providing “messaging” advice to which he hopes Team Obama and the Democrats pay heed. Assuming he continues to do this, Ambinder’s contributions to CBS’s “reports and political analysis” will then necessarily involve evaluating first, whether the home team followed his advice, and second, whether following or not following his advice was successful. Of course, you’ll never hear Ambinder tell his audience that “This is (or isnt’) what I suggested.” No-no-no. CBS will present its “Chief Political Consultant” as an impartial, disinterested observer. What horse manure. And they wonder why their ratings continue to drop. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Marc Ambinder: ‘Media Is Going to Help the Democratic Party’s National Messaging’

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In a September 15 post-primary item at the Atlantic (“An Epic End to the Primaries: What It Means”), politics editor Marc Ambinder presented seven “different ways to look at the primaries of September 14, 2010.” His final item reads as follows (bold is mine): 7. The media is going to help the Democratic Party’s national messaging, which is that the GOP is a party full of Christine O’Donnells, a party that wants to take away your Social Security and your right to masturbate. Well, maybe not that last part, but then again, the implicit message of the party is that the GOP is about to elect a slate of hard social rightists to Congress. The bolded text is an obvious point to anyone with even the most rudimentary powers of observation, but it’s a pretty interesting admission nonetheless. That’s especially true because Ambinder is a bona fide member of the media. Indeed, he’s a  self-admitted Journolist member who despite (or perhaps because) of that involvement has a specific assignment involving covering this fall’s elections. On August 27, CBS announced its 2010 campaign coverage team. Marc Ambinder is on that team (HT Media Bistro ): Chief Political Consultant Marc Ambinder and Political Analyst and Contributor John Dickerson will join a veteran group led by CBS EVENING NEWS Anchor and Managing Editor Katie Couric that includes Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer, Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield and Correspondents Wyatt Andrews, Sharyl Attkisson, Jan Crawford, Nancy Cordes, Byron Pitts, Bill Plante, Chip Reid, Dean Reynolds and Political Analyst Dan Bartlett. Anthony Mason will once again help break down and analyze election night results for CBS’s viewers. “This already is one of the most-anticipated midterm elections in a generation, and CBS News is adding exceptional talent to offer our audiences comprehensive coverage in a complex and exciting political environment,” said McManus. “Complementing the award-winning tradition of CBS News with the latest technology, our remarkable team will completely cover all aspects of this pivotal election season.” Other items in Ambinder’s seven-pointer at the Atlantic give further clues as to where he stands: 3. I understand why some Republicans are trying to point out that Democrats are “crazy” too by noting how they re-nominated Rep. Charles Rangel in NY 15 and kicked out reformist mayor Adrian Fenty in Washington. That dog won’t hunt. 6. Expect an uptick in Democratic enthusiasm and expect several significant races to tighten. People tend to make judgments through the lens of the last major event. If Democrats interpret last night to mean that radical Republicans are threatening to take control, they’re going to be more receptive to the basic party message. Of course Ambinder’s entitled to his opinions, but facts on the ground appear to be contradicting them: As to his Point 3, the voters in Rangel’s district may or may not be crazy, but at least you can say that 49% of those who cast ballots voted for someone else . If you want evidence of Democratic “craziness,” how about the fact that Rangel got “endorsements and phone calls to voters” from former president Bill Clinton and pretend-Independent Mike Bloomberg? As to Point 6, maybe an enthusiasm uptick is on the way, but it’s missing so far. Two separate items from the Associated Press, which would surely jump on any hint of the real thing happening, demonstrate that it’s not here yet. The AP’s Mark S. Smith, in a report on President Obama’s Saturday speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, specifically cited “polls showing his party facing a wide ‘enthusiasm gap’ with the GOP,” and pollsters’ warnings “that blacks are among the key Democratic groups who right now seem unlikely to turn out in large numbers in November.” In a Sunday morning submission, the AP’s Julie Hirschfeld Davis noted that “in dozens of competitive districts … enthusiasm for the president is at a low; even some of his strongest backers aren’t motivated to go to the polls.” As if anyone needed further reinforcement, here is a passage from a year-ago post by Jeff Poor at NewsBusters addressing Ambinder’s opinion of Sarah Palin’s qualifications to express an opinion about ObamaCare’s “comparative effectiveness” regime (which was actually enshrined into law as part of the February 2009 stimulus bill nobody read), aka “Death Panels,” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: One left-leaning pundit has questioned if Palin was qualified to interject herself into the debate. Marc Ambinder wrote on the Atlantic Web site on Sept. 8 (that) the media shouldn’t take her Journal op-ed seriously because she doesn’t have the policy “chops” to take on this issue. “Palin has policy credibility problems. Big ones,” Ambinder wrote. “A few op-eds aren’t going to help her. But if the media treats her as as [sic] a legitimate and influential voice today, she won’t need to do the hard work that will result in her learning more about policy and actually becoming conversant in the issues that she, as a potential presidential candidate, will deal with.” However, the argument could made that Palin, with a baby with Down Syndrome, does have real-life expertise dealing with the American health care system. And her position as governor of Alaska makes her qualified to give insight into the bureaucratization of any part of the public sector, despite Ambinder’s calls to dismiss her as a serious voice in the health care debate. That was a great final point by Jeff. Apparently in Ambinder’s world, personal experience with medical challenges and dealing with the medical care delivery system don’t count. Ah, but serving in policy roles that lead to ghoulish ideas like Zeke the Bleak Emanuel’s “complete lives system,” whose priorities for allocating care include “youngest-first, prognosis, save the most lives, lottery, and instrumental value” (i.e., a death panels regime) — that’s great stuff. Ambinder is indeed correct in his assertion that “The media is going to help the Democratic Party’s national messaging.” It appears pretty likely that he’ll be serving as a willing provider of such assistance, and that his ability to deliver objective commentary as a CBS “Chief Political Consultant” is highly suspect. The presence of folks like Ambinder at CBS goes a long way towards explaining why it seems likely that most viewers will be getting their election news somewhere else during the next seven weeks. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Schieffer Bashes White House’s ‘Snarky’ Response to Boehner’s Tax Cut Comment

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday bashed the White House for how it responded to House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Oh.) tax cut comment uttered on “Face the Nation” a week ago. As readers are likely aware, Boehner made news – if not friends amongst conservatives! – by telling Schieffer that if the only thing that came out of the House was an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all but folks that make $250,000 or more per year, he would grudgingly support it.  After reading the White House’s official response to Boehner during this Sunday’s final segment – “Time will tell if his actions will be anything but continued support for the failed policies that got us into this mess” – Schieffer scolded, “I can remember when the first move by a president like Lyndon Johnson or maybe a smart aide in the Eisenhower White House would not have been a snarky press release.” “I`m guessing LBJ would have been on the phone to Boehner in five minutes after seeing him on TV saying something like, if you`re serious, why don`t you come over here quietly and we`ll try to work out something good for both of us and the folks out there,” continued Schieffer. “As we saw, no chance it could happen today. And we`re right back to the partisan war” (video follows with transcript and commentary):  BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: Finally, House Republican Leader John Boehner did a rare thing on this broadcast last week. He got off the talking points. I asked him about extending the Bush tax cuts that expire this year. Boehner gave me the GOP line: We should extend those cuts for all Americans, rich and poor, Democrats want to extend the cuts only to those making less than $250,000 a year. And when I pressed Boehner, he carefully said that was just bad policy, but if it came down to tax cuts only for the lower and middle income groups or no tax cuts at all, he said, he would reluctantly vote for just the lower and middle income cuts. That was big news all across the country. And it set off a thunder bolt of reaction in both parties. By mid-afternoon the White House acknowledged Boehner`s change in position but added in a written press release: “Time will tell if his actions will be anything but continued support for the failed policies that got us into this mess.” Blame it on a long memory, but I can remember when the first move by a president like Lyndon Johnson or maybe a smart aide in the Eisenhower White House would not have been a snarky press release. I`m guessing LBJ would have been on the phone to Boehner in five minutes after seeing him on TV saying something like, if you`re serious, why don`t you come over here quietly and we`ll try to work out something good for both of us and the folks out there. Call me a romantic, but I believe that might have happened. As we saw, no chance it could happen today. And we`re right back to the partisan war. Too bad really. Nicely done, Bob, but isn’t this possibly another instance of you not being as aware of things going on in Washington, D.C., as you should be? After all, it was only two months ago that Schieffer interviewed Attorney General Eric Holder and not only didn’t ask him about the New Black Panther Party controversy at the Department of Justice, but also admitted to CNN’s Howard Kurtz that he hadn’t heard anything about it.   Regardless of the media’s pathetic echoing of the Democrat talking point that Republicans are the Party of No, GOP members in the House and the Senate have been offering legislative ideas since Obama was inaugurated. Problem is the Party currently controlling Congress and the White House has wanted to implement its policies without any input from Republicans relying instead on their majorities in both chambers. As such, it’s by no means surprising the Obama administration didn’t immediately jump on Boehner’s comments from last Sunday to try to use them as a means of coming to a resolution on this matter. That’s not been this White House’s modus operandi since January 20, 2009, and Schieffer would have known this if he wasn’t accepting the administration’s talking points as the Gospel truth. Why he didn’t this time is anybody’s guess unless like so many folks on the Left he’s beginning to come out from under the Hope and Change ether. Stay tuned. 

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Schieffer Bashes White House’s ‘Snarky’ Response to Boehner’s Tax Cut Comment

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Mark Levin: Christine O’Donnell is ‘Smart to Bypass’ Sunday Talk Shows

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Conservative radio host Mark Levin thinks Delaware Republican senatorial nominee Christine O’Donnell is “smart to bypass” the Sunday talk shows she was scheduled to appear on this week. As the Associated Press reported Saturday, O’Donnell canceled her appearances on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and FNC’s “Fox News Sunday”: Campaign spokeswoman Diana Banister cited scheduling conflicts and said O’Donnell needed to return to Delaware for commitments to church events and afternoon picnic with Republicans in a key county where she has solid backing.  Sunday morning, Levin told his Facebook followers this was a good decision: Christine O’Donnell is smart to bypass these shows and the O’Donnell-hating media. All they’ll do is try to rip her with cherry-picked clips and the rest. They’ll use Rove, Krauthammer, Weekly Standard, National Review, Powerline, Castle, etc., quotes against her. She owes them nothing. Her goal is to get elected. Now that she’s raised nearly $2 million, she can tell the voters who she is and what she believes, rather than subjecting herself to the frenzy and bias of the media which clearly seek her personal destruction.  As the media are in a full-court press to dig up dirt on Tuesday’s surprise winner, it seems a metaphysical certitude they’ll attack her no matter what she does. With this in mind, was this a good decision on O’Donnell’s part, or are political candidates better served to face the press regardless of their biases? 

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Mark Levin: Christine O’Donnell is ‘Smart to Bypass’ Sunday Talk Shows

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Even Repeats of Big Bang Theory Crush Thursday Night Competition

Posted on September 17, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Maybe those 333% raises were warranted? Just last night, CBS warmed up The Big Bang Theory ‘s new Thursday night home by airing a two-hour marathon that crushed its new competition. The Chuck Lorre sitcom boasted nearly twice as many viewers as the season premiere of The Apprentice on NBC and over twice as many viewers as new episodes of The Vampire Diaries and Nikita on the CW. [ Deadline ]

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Even Repeats of Big Bang Theory Crush Thursday Night Competition

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Open Thread: Obama, the Musical

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

As Jonah Goldberg puts it, ” Oh, Dear Lord “. Hey, at least the dancing is impressive. Thoughts? 

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Open Thread: Obama, the Musical

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Big Brother 12 – Britney Haynes House Burns Down – She Doesn’t Know!

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The Big Brother 12 finale is happening tonight, LIVE on CBS. The last female standing was Britney Haynes who was the last house guest evicted. http://backseatcuddler.com/2010/09/15/big-brother-12-season-finale-britney-hayne… added by: MacKenzieFox

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