Month: October 2008

It’s the Democracy, Stupid!

Buck Banks

Andrew Sullivan, writing on the Atlantic’s Daily Dish Blog, headlines the following post “Grow Some, Media,” and we know exactly what he’s talking about, don’t we?

Until governor Sarah Palin gives a full press conference, it seems to me that the cable news outlets should stop running her stump speeches in full on television. The deal is: candidates get to broadcast their message if the press get to question them thoroughly. That’s how real democracy works – give and take. What the Palin-McCain campaign wants is all give and no take: an indirect propaganda filter and the outrageous precedent of no press conferences in presidential campaigns. This is an assault on democracy. It is closer to Russian or Georgian democracy than American. If cable news continues to enable this chilling process, they will become complicit.

Enough.

Donna Brazille Tells the Right Reasons Not to Vote for Obama

Trish

Nice job, Donna.

Now we can relitigate all these fights on race and gender and sexual orientation til the cows come home. But at a time when we’re in crisis, I want the best, I want the brightest. I want somebody to take me where we’ve never been as a country. Perhaps we’ve too stuck in the past — that’s why we can’t go forward. So let the next 31 days be about ideas, about inspiration, and about strength of character. Let it be about something that brings up together, not tears us apart.

Poll: The Early Line 10/08

Buck Banks

Obama/Biden 45%
McCain/Palin 44%
Undec 9%

– Obama and McCain are now tied 44-44% among men. Today’s Diageo/Hotline poll is the first in which Obama has not led men since he trailed them 46-45% in the survey completed 9/26.

– The candidates remained tied on economic issues. 42% believe Obama would do the best job handling the U.S. economy, and 42% say McCain. 62% meanwhile believe the economy is the most important issue facing the U.S.

– McCain, however, now has his largest lead ever on energy issues. 46% favor the GOP nominee on managing U.S. energy policies, and 40% favor Obama. One week ago, in the survey completed 9/30, Obama led 46-40% on energy.

Today’s Diageo/Hotline tracking poll, conducted 10/5-7 by FD, surveyed 904 LVs and has a margin of error of +/- 3.3%. Party ID Breakdown for the sample is 41%D, 36%R, 18%I.

Obama Wins the Halloween Mask Poll

Trish

Trick or treat!

Obama can cancel the third debate and declare victory, according to an ABC report that uses Halloween mask sales in a presidential election year to predict a winner. Two major national Halloween retailers are selling Obama masks by at least 60 percent to McCain’s 40.

In the last seven elections, this method accurately called the winner.

One caveat: Chinese suppliers are having a hard time turning out Sarah Palin masks quickly enough, so costume shops are just selling wigs and glasses to Palin wannabes, which could skew the results. No word on how many trick-or-treaters will be going as Joe Biden.

Plenty of Rules, But Where’s the Debate?

Buck Banks

debate, vi, to discuss opposing reasons; argue. (from Webster’s New World College Dictionary — you know, the one the Associated Press uses)

If you’re expecting a debate tonight from the presidential candidates’ town hall-style meeting, you’ve got another think coming. The Chicago Sun-Times lays out the ground rules:

Tuesday’s match-up at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., will be moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, with the questions to be culled from a group of 100 to 150 uncommitted likely voters in the audience and another one-third to come via the Internet. The Gallup Organization — as in past debates like this — has the job of making sure the questioners reflect the demographic makeup of the nation.

Brokaw selects the questions to ask from written queries submitted prior to the debate, according to the “contract.”

An audience member will not be allowed to switch questions. Under the deal, the moderator may not ask followups or make comments. The person who asks the question will not be allowed a follow-up either, and his or her microphone will be turned off after the question is read. A camera shot will only be shown of the person asking — not reacting.

While there will be director’s chairs (with backs and foot rests), McCain and Obama will be allowed to stand — but they can’t roam past their “designated area” to be marked on the stage. McCain and Obama are not supposed to ask each other direct questions.

I suppose I’ll watch the thing, but I don’t expect much, certainly not something that I would call a “debate.”

Crowd at Palin Rally Hurled Racial Epithets at African-American on News Crew

Jon Ponder

Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi’s depiction of Sarah Palin at the GOP Convention as “Gidget addressing the Reichstag” is becoming more apt by the minute. Earlier, Trish wrote about Palin’s incitement of verbal violence at a rally in Clearwater, Fla., when a Republican voter in the crowd shouted, “Kill him,” apparently in reference to Barack Obama.

Now the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank says the anger among the GOP rank and file in Clearwater was also directed toward reporters covering the event generally, and an African American sound man in particular:

Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

Given the racist bent of their base, and leaving aside their constant lying about Barack Obama, his associations and his record, John McCain and Sarah Palin are playing with rhetorical fire.