Day: July 28, 2010
A Selfish Consistency
“Sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus.”
So said Tony Hayward, BP’s unlovable cuss.
But indeed he was the bus driver,
And it’s we “small people” who suffer.
Just for once, Tony, could you think about us?
Verbatim
This is a very sad day for me personally. Whether it is fair or unfair is not the point. I became the public face [of the disaster] and was demonized and vilified. BP cannot move on in the US with me as its leader … Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus.
— Demonized and vilified Tony Hayward, announcing his resignation as BP’s CEO with the kind of cringe-making quotes we’ve come to love him for.
Republican–Tea Party ‘Contract on America’ Revealed
At 11 a.m. today, Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, DNC Vice Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democratic members held a press conference to introduce what they call the “Republican-Tea Party Contract on America.” According to DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan, these Democratic leaders, “will present the American people a handy 10-point blueprint for how the Republican-Tea Party would govern, based on actual positions taken and held by Republican-Tea Party members.” The blueprint includes repealing the health-care law, privatizing or phasing out Social Security, extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, repealing financial reform and abolishing the Education and Energy Departments.
FL Gov: Worst Ad Yet – McCollum Goes Eighties With Astley Video Takeoff
Should we assume that Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum knows he had to buy the rights for both the song and the video from Rick Astley’s record company?
Poll: Schwarzenegger Approval Stalls at 19% – Even Lower Than Bush And Palin
And even 19 percent approval seems high:
Casting a shadow over [GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg] Whitman’s campaign is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s continuing status as the least popular Governor in the country. 71 percent of voters in the state disapprove of the job he’s doing and only 19 percent give him good marks. Generally when you have an outgoing Governor that strongly disliked you’re not going to be inclined to replace him with another person in the same party.
Schwarzenegger is now even less popular in California than George Bush and Sarah Palin — arguably the other two most famous Republicans — are nationally:
According to [a NBC/Wall St. Journal poll earlier this month], just 29 percent view [Palin] favorably, compared with 43 percent who view her unfavorably (not far from George W. Bush’s 29 percent-50 percent score). In addition, the poll shows that 52 percent have problems with a candidate who has been endorsed by Palin, versus only 25 percent who are comfortable with that attribute. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Palin is more of a political celebrity than a political figure.
As I said last month, Schwarzenegger’s career as governor should be a cautionary tale about electing novices in times of crisis.
Just 1.38% of Fox News Audience Is African American – Majority Are the ‘Absolute Oldest’ Viewers on Cable
The New York Times’ Brian Stelter tweeted that, according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News has averaged just 29,000 black viewers in primetime so far this television season (9/09-7/10). That represents just 1.38% of its 2.102 million total viewer audience.
CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, both have far more black viewers, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of their overall audiences.
MSNBC has averaged 145,000 black viewers, representing 19.3% of its 751,000 total viewer audience.
CNN has averaged 134,000 black viewers, representing 20.7% of its 648,000 total viewer audience.
Last year, the trade magazine Variety reported that figures for the 2007-2008 television season showed that the average age of Fox viewers was 65 years old — the “absolute oldest” audience of any cable channel.
NH Sen: Palin Endorsement of GOP Candidate Appears to Have Backfired
[New Hampshire GOP senate candidate] Kelly Ayotte’s seen her appeal to moderate voters crumble in the wake of her endorsement by Sarah Palin and her lead over Paul Hodes has shrunk to its lowest level of any public polling in 2010- she has a 45-42 advantage over him, down from 47-40 in an April PPP poll…
Most of the movement both in feelings about Ayotte and in the horse race has come with moderate voters. Moderates make up the largest bloc of the New Hampshire electorate at 47 percent, and Hodes’ lead with them has expanded from just 8 points at 47-39 in April to now 21 points at 51-30. Ayotte’s favorability with them has gone from +5 at 32/27 to -19 at 27/46.
The Palin endorsement may well be playing a role in this. 51 percent of voters in the state say they’re less likely to back a Palin endorsed candidate to only 26 percent who say that support would make them more inclined to vote for someone. Among moderates that widens to 65 percent who say a Palin endorsement would turn them off to 14 percent who it would make more supportive.
Democrat Paul Hodes is unopposed. Ayotte faces Bill Binnie, Jim Bender and Ovide Lamontagne in the Republican primary on Sept. 14. They are running to replace Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican, in the general election on Nov. 2.
