Back from the dead
Hello everyone. I apologize for my absence over the past week. Like a lot of people, I’ve been experiencing political fatigue from the never-ending parade of bad news following the elections Nov. 4. Also, my life has disappeared into the collegiate hell that is week-before-Thanksgiving insanity. Papers, projects, and deadlines abound.
However, I’m back, and we’re ready to roll. Let the games begin.
These are the blogs worth livin’ for…
One of my competitors at the 2008 Blogging Scholarship finals (vote for me HERE if you haven’t already!), David Cameron’s U.S.S. Mariner blog, seems to have acquired some, uh, fans in his comments…
Fans of… me. Check out these comments (in a thread that was supposed to be about the blog competition)…
And another…
Thanks, IP, even though I have no idea who you are.
And Scooter4, yes, that’s really my name.
I love the blogosphere.
People ask me all the time: “What caused this economic crisis?”
And because people would rather watch a video with music and blinky thingies than read some long, boring explanation, I offer you:
This video was made right before the election; therefore, just watch the first 8 minutes or so.
Too long? I guarantee you’ll be riveted to the screen by 00:03:00. Watch it.
Keep in mind — the President-elect has all kinds of moneymen advising him, and after almost a week of receiving Presidential briefings, all he can say is that he wants another stimulus package (when the last 4 failed miserably). He can’t even tell Poland whether or not they’re still in NATO and whether or not we’ll still put up missile defense arrays, whether or not we’ll defend them in case Vladimir gets a jock itch and rolls into Warsaw.
Should we start printing up the “Don’t Blame Me; I Voted For McCain!” stickers now?
Washington Post: We were biased toward Obama, so what?
The Washington Post’s ombudsman analyzes the WaPo’s obvious bias during this election season:
The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32), and Obama got the editorial board’s endorsement. The Post has several conservative columnists, but not all were gung-ho about McCain.
But… too bad? Appparently, McCain was just boring and nobody wanted to write about him, if the Post’s assistant managing editor of politics, Bill Hammond, says so. In a response that can be loosely interpreted as “Suck it, Republicans,” he says:
“There are a lot of things I wish we’d been able to do in covering this campaign, but we had to make choices about what we felt we were uniquely able to provide our audiences both in Washington and on the Web. I don’t at all discount the importance of issues, but we had a larger purpose, to convey and explain a campaign that our own David Broder described as the most exciting he has ever covered, a narrative that unfolded until the very end. I think our staff rose to the occasion.”
Translation: “We think issues are cool, but Obama was cooler, and our staff thought so, too.”
UPDATE:
As soon as Drudge linked to the story, it went “exclusive” and folks have to sign in to read it. Interesting.
Another Bush fan comes out of the woodwork
Jim Towey, director of the White House’s Center for Faith-Based Initiatives from ‘02-’06 in the Wall Street Journal:
I remember coming to the West Wing one morning before the daily 7:30 senior staff meeting and seeing Mr. Bush at his desk in the Oval Office, reading a daily devotional. I remember the look of sorrow on his face as he signed letters to the families of the fallen. When he met with recovering addicts whose lives were transformed by a faith-based program, he spoke plainly of his own humiliating journey years ago with alcohol. When a Liberian refugee broke into tears after recounting her escape to freedom in America, the president went over and held and comforted her.
Little acts behind the curtain like these inspired intense loyalty by staff members. They spoke of someone never too busy or burdened to care — like when he took time on Air Force One to call my wife when she was sick. The president’s true character rendered his media image pure caricature.
“Intense loyalty by staff members” — possibly the explanation for why the Bush White House was so leak-proof — to many who have been stymied by the Administration’s sheer inscrutability. Which causes me to wonder — why hide this side of the man from public view? For what?
I can only hope that the next GOP administration defends itself better than this one has seen fit to.
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And the definition of crazy is…
Oh, right, doing the same thing again and again while expecting a different result.
In related news, Obama calls for a new stimulus package to further stimulate the economy. Because that worked so well, last time.
In fairness, I believe that the Bush stimulus package was just as stupid an idea.
Cabinet Watch: Gibbs for Press Secretary
Obama has appointed Robert Gibbs Press Secretary to the forthcoming Obama administration.
I actually like this guy, and he seems as though he would be a much more effective, and perhaps transparent, vice for an Obama Presidency. As I seem to recall, the only thing any Bush press secretaries have ever done is fence-match with the press corps while answering absolutely nothing.
Wiki has more here.
A Word to the Wise, from The Onion to Obamatrons
Obama supporters responsible for banning gay marriage in California.
Even as African-American and Latino voters were a powerful force in boosting America’s first black president to victory, in California they also were crucial to passing Proposition 8, a ballot measure labeled, “Eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry.”
Exit polls showed that 70 percent of black voters, and a majority of Latino voters, voted yes on Proposition 8, one likely reason why the measure won a slim majority in Los Angeles County, where pre-election polls had suggested it would lose, even though it lost by a huge margin in the Bay Area.
Even though conservative Republicans likely formed a strong constituency to ban gay marriage via Prop 8, Obama’s most homogenous voting bloc (92% of blacks voted for him on Tuesday) also formed the most consistent opponents of a measure that white Obama supporters were confident could be overturned. Many of the groups who thought Prop 8 would be defeated without delay got a rude awakening Tuesday night.
Life lesson: Once you empower a new voting bloc (like Obama has done many minority groups), learn their preferences before you try to exploit them, take them for granted, or herd them like sheep toward your own agenda.
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