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The Press is insane (and biased)
Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics has a few choice paragraphs on how the press is making itself look like (again) as if they’re insane. He recounts a press briefing with Scott McClellan after he released some information on Bush’s Guard duty. Bevan thinks it looked like he had entered a "vortex of insanity." You can follow the useful links. Bush serves, gets an honorable discharge, and becomes a war president. The press is doing the dirty work of his Democratic opponents by throwing muck around around, pretending it is their duty. If the President were a Democrat, this wouldn’t be happening. Does anyone out there think the press is not biased? No. Bill Hobbs has more to show how the so called "facts" the press is using, are not facts after all. This non-story is more revealing about the nature and bias of the media than of anything else. Attack, attack, confuse, confuse, and then say, "Oh, OK, we dug up the facts and it was a non-story after all. Let us now praise ourselves." Here is a letter to the editor from a retired fly-boy Colonel who was in the same unit with W. telling the press to "knock it off."
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments | 2/12/2004 8:59 AM
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Sherrod Brown slapped around by Powell
Secreteray of State Colin Powell did not allow Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown (D) to get away with the National Guard AWOL issue. He fought back. I saw a minute of it on the news this morning, and I thought it was great. A petty politician trying to use his moment in the sun (Powell was testifying in front of the House Committee on International Relations) being turned on by a man of dignity and character, a large man. Powell should reveal his anger more often. It was powerful.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments | 2/12/2004 8:49 AM
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Kerry and gay marriage
I thought that this sort of clarification would take a while longer, but, what do you know, it turns out that Kerry just might be a Massachussets liberal! This AP story reports that John Kerry, "who opposes gay marriage and hints he might support a limited ban, just two years ago signed a letter with other congressional colleagues urging the Massachusetts legislature to drop a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual nuptials.
And when Kerry opposed federal legislation in 1996 that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, he compared the law to 1960s efforts in the South to criminalize interracial marriages and accused his supporters of engaging in the ’politics of division.’
’This is an unconstitutional, unprecedented, unnecessary and mean-spirited bill,’ Kerry declared then even as 85 senators and President Clinton supported the measure."
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 2/11/2004 10:16 PM
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Women in the Arab world
This dozen-page Carnegie Paper, considers "Women’s Rights and Democracy in the Arab World." Not great, but has some useful information in it. Note citations to the Arab Human Development Report 2002 (and 2003), which I recommend.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 2/11/2004 2:44 PM
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Kerry’s problems
Hugh Hewitt has a short paragraph on what is going to become Kerry’s problem in this campaign. He includes a couple of useful links, including Kerry’s infamous testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April, 1971.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 2/11/2004 11:54 AM
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Kerry’s march to victory
Andy Busch reflects on John Kerry’s march to victory, how and why it happened, and why it may not be such a good thing for the Democratic Party to have a nominee who only had about three weeks on the hot seat. I agree.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 2/11/2004 11:52 AM
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AP Wire Report: Clark Drops Out of Race
My (Virginia) local news reported tonite that Wesley Clark has dropped out of the presidential race. He’ll return to Little Rock to announce his decision later this week. We may not have the good general to kick around any more, but his surrogate (read: sponsor) Hillary is sure to surface for the 2008 election. Yes, that assumes two things: (1) Hillary will NOT accept the Democratic nomination for VP this July even if Kerry is stomping Bush in the polls, which is typical for the lead convention, and (2) Bush will win re-election.
Posted by Lucas Morel | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 2/10/2004 11:54 PM
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Burglar mowes lawn
Man in Alabama is caught removing furniture from house, guy pulls a gun on him, forces him to mow the lawn with a push-mower until he figures out what to do (has no phone) then takes burglar’s license. Burglar gets twenty years; he had been arrested nineteen times, and was on parole.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 2/10/2004 10:06 PM
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John Kerry wins
Here is the Washington Post story on Kerry’s victories in Tennessee and Virginia. Some interesting details, e.g., Dean ran strong in Northern Virgina, etc. This seems to end the possibility that Clark remains a viable candidate. And Edwards, who came in second in both states, is now going to run for the VP slot, if he stays in. Dean should be finished after Wisconsin. So the deed is done. The unsmiling Kerry--not seeming very happy after these two important victories--will be the nominee. A bit sad, all this, I think. Other things (like issues) aside, I think he will prove a tedious candidate. The more folks will see of him, the more the enthusiasm will decline.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments | 2/10/2004 9:51 PM
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Words
This short Boston Globe piece laments our inability to use the language as we should. Becky and I were pondering the beginning of Richard III this afternoon, and I was--again-struck by "sent before my time/Into this breathing world." It should be our occupation to be plain. (via The Remedy)
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 2/10/2004 6:20 PM
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Joe Trippi talks
This is kind of interesting. A story on how Joe Trippi is recommending that the e-mail list of donors and supporters (circa 600,000) that Howard Dean has gathered NOT be given over to the Democratic Party. These folks signed on with Dean, the person, and not necessarily the Demo nominee, he says. Also note that he blames the downturn in Dean’s fortunes on the effects of the Gore ednorsement. He said that sparked a torrent of media scrutiny and attacks from rival candidates. But in this Reuters story he blames the internet for Dean’s downfall. "Internet activism that thrust up the Howard Dean U.S. election campaign later hobbled the organization’s ability to respond to criticism in the weeks before the primaries, Dean’s former campaign manager said on Monday.
Joe Trippi, who resigned after defeats in Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, said the direct involvement of so many Internet supporters deprived the campaign of the traditional weapon of political surprise.
’We were having a real problem with how to say, "We could be in real trouble here,"’ Trippi told a technology conference of the tactical trouble the Dean campaign had in balancing the need to keep supporters informed."
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 2/10/2004 6:09 PM
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Kerry Leading
According to ’The Corner’ at NationalReviewOnline, John Kerry is coasting to victories in today’s primaries in Virginia and Tennessee. Doesn’t that mean the race is over?
NO COMPETITION: THE LOOK OF THE EXITS TODAY
Sources say the race in Tennessee and Virginia looks something like below, as of noonish:
TENN
Kerry 46
Edwards 28
Clark . 15
Dean 7
VA
Kerry 48
Edwards 25
Clark 1 1
Dean 8
Posted by Mickey Craig | Link to this Entry | Comments [5] | 2/10/2004 3:55 PM
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David Brooks as Bush’s Speechwriter
Today, the usually brilliant but always stimulating David Brooks has penned a NY Times op-ed that offers what Bush should have said to Tim Russert last Sunday in
"Bush on Bush, Take 2". Can’t say that I agree with but half of it, though it does clarify a key issue of the presidential campaign--Bush’s view of and approach toward global terrorism--and how Bush will have to remind voters of the connection between his policies (foreign and domestic) and his character.
I do not think Bush would be successful saying to the American people, as Brooks suggests, "I am a war president." Of course, we are at war, but the rhetoric the president uses to remind us of this fact need not be so blunt as to mislead the nation into thinking Bush is enamored of war-making. He will be more persuasive by November 2nd if he continues to defend our intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq (and points beyond, if necessary) as promoting our nation’s defense first and foremost, and only secondarily for its effect on making those nations and the world at large a freer place.
Aristotle teaches us that not only the force of logic or argument but also a speaker’s character and his audience’s disposition help or hinder his ability to persuade. The logic of Bush’s war against terrorism makes sense, but his rhetoric must accommodate the sentiments of the American people. Exit polls showing that Democrats rank terrorism as last on their list of concerns this election year say more about the Democratic candidates’ rhetoric than they do about what Americans really think about the grand scheme of things, foreign and domestic.
It will be Bush’s task to sketch this grand scheme of things that the Democrats so blithely take for granted: namely, that the world is a dangerous place, America is the main target of this threat, and therefore we cannot afford the luxury of allowing fairweather allies or a chimerical "world community" to determine if, when, and how to take the fight to our enemies. Domestic concerns (like the deficit) are important but can only be discussed responsibly in light of the pressing matter of national self-preservation.
Brooks and others on the Right are correct in pointing out the need for better speaking "off the cuff" from our president. As Lincoln once noted in a law lecture: "Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech." The "business" of attracting votes is important enough for Bush not to neglect this facet of his job. The American people can be grateful that his principles and convictions are good and steadfast, but they will not vote accordingly if his impromptu remarks do not show this.
Posted by Lucas Morel | Link to this Entry | Comments [6] | 2/10/2004 1:08 PM
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Cheney rumors
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post passes on the rumors that Vice President Cheney is getting a lot of flack from even pro-Bush folks, and maybe he should not be on the ticket. This will continue; rumor mongering is part of politics. In the meantime, Bush’s approval rating moved up three points in the CNN Poll, to 52%.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [5] | 2/10/2004 10:07 AM
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Al Gore raving & ranting
Some newscast last night reported on a speech Gore gave in Tennessee on Sunday night; he was yelling and screaming about how Bush was just like Nixon, the worst president even, and so on. The minute or so that I saw was quite extraordinary, if not shocking.
Chris Suellentrop of "Slate" has a few good thoughts about Gore’s raving and what it means. Very thoughtful and meaningful. The Democrats have to keep on eye on this guy, if he does things like this at their convention, it cannot possibly be to their advantage. Andrew Sullivan calls it a "deranged rant" and thinks that this crude anti-Bush anger may have peaked: Gore is always a good indicator of where things are not. And, alas, that may mean that Bush scepticism may be on the rise, which he thinks is more dangerous (for Bush). He’s right. Insultsunpunished ("Al Gore has lost his mind") links to an audio of the speech if you are up to it. (via Powerline)
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 2/10/2004 9:22 AM
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