HuffPo reports that RedState co-founder Joshua Trevino wrote in his blog that he filled in his CA absentee ballot intending to vote a straight Republican ticket but in the end he couldn't vote for McCain. He wrote in Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
How about that for a kick in the teeth to McCain!
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
RedState Cofounder Doesn't Vote for McCain
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Million-Dollar Web Design Company
Say you've got a million dollars to spend on a website. Your first thought is probably, do I really need to spend that much on a website. But, okay, you need to launch big and launch now. So who do you hire. You can have your pick of top firms. Would you choose a company that not only never ran a website before, but has as its website something that looks like the free template that comes with your domain name? Like this one below. Would you hire these people at even one-tenth of that, say $100,000?
These are the people McCain hired to do his website. Well, you say, Gramps is no wizard when it comes to the web. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on the minute you hear the names. Partner - campaign manager Rick Davis, the same Rick Davis who is a partner in the lobbying firm Davis Manafort, a firm that lobbies for the mortgage industry. The campaign has been saying that Davis hasn't worked for the firm for years, but it turns out his salary is paid to the lobbying firm! So Davis, and his lobbying partner Manafort start up a web design company and right out of the box they get a million dollar contract. What are the odds of that happening to you or me?
Cronyism is the heart and soul of lobbying, of influence peddling, of corruption in government and business. Welcome to McCain's world.
BTW, this is from US News and World Report in May, 2007.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
When Elephants Forget
The elephant and the donkey. Republican and Democrat. Elephants are supposed to remember. Remember when you opposed integration - of the military, of baseball, of schools? You were angry and resentful. Remember that? All the liberals you hated and now you have to admit, it was the right thing to do.
Remember when you said going after Osama bin Laden was a Clinton ploy to draw attention away from the Monica Lewinsky scandal? How you spent our national will on an impeachment instead of stopping a terrorist? The terrorist who masterminded 9/11? Do you feel at all responsible? Clearly not, as you still insist your party keeps us safe where we Democrats would not.
Time and again, you sneer and gleefully block the liberal bogeyman, and end up harming this country while you moan about how much you love America. And time and again, when the liberals do get in power, yes, they bring about change that you only later admit was fair, but they also bring higher net paychecks to your bank account, lower taxes on working people, and general prosperity for the country. Always.
Maybe we should trade symbols. You take the donkey. You sure seem stubborn enough. You ignored the hated liberals and gave Bush a blank check and now you won't admit you prefer seeing American young men and women kill and die or come home broken by a criminal war than admit it was criminal, that you fell for his lies because because you wanted to. You probably still deny it. But I promise you, like an elephant, I will remember.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Softball Ex-Press
The blogosphere and supporters of Barack Obama have been railing over the mild-mannered treatment John McCain has received from the main stream media. The examples of glossing over his inconsistencies, mistakes and downright lies are so numerous, the voices pointing them out sound like broken records in their call for more balanced reporting. There are several reasons, however, why this gentle treatment makes sense, though none of them are about truth or the interests of the body politic. They are all about the nature of the news in the post-journalism era and the human preference for equally matched opponents.
The MSM is fighting for its life. The advertiser-driven model that pays for news wants eyeballs on the page. The big problem in covering McCain in the news is that nobody really cares about him. Obama is the story. Obama gets the eyeballs glued to the TV so that the advertisers can market their razor blades or deodorant. It has nothing to do with fairness. Obama is a celebrity, and every detail of his day will be picked apart endlessly by a ratings-driven broadcast news system (thanks to Reagan) hosted predominantly by spokesmodels instead of reporters. (Who but a bevy of spokesmodels would think that photoshopping a competitors face would be a legitimate attack against their reporting as was done at Fox News this week?) Since ratings are all, the ‘news’ must find or manufacture controversy and excitement in the subjects of interest to its viewers. And the only political subject of interest is Obama.
But it seems the media are actually bending backward to try and frame McCain’s failings and gaffe’s in a positive light. McCain’s non-joke that exporting cigarettes to Iran would have the benefit of killing our enemies was headlined by the Associated Press as a moment of fun spousal play when Cindy McCain poked hubby in the back for his comment. Or how about the headline that shows McCain leading Obama among the all-important voting bloc of pet-owners. This goes beyond picking apart Obama. It seems the MSM is actually supporting McCain by white-washing his image for him.
The election year ratings are at the core of this artificial 'balancing' of the candidates. If only one candidate is likely to be elected, if there's no real contest, then there's no news. Some semblance of a competition has to be maintained if coverage of the election is going to draw enough viewers and readers to keep news departments afloat. That presidential press corps is expensive. What's the point of spending all that money if the race is over. People will not watch a sport if the outcome is known beforehand. The Yankees playing my office baseball team would not draw much in the way of fans. After the 217th home run by the Yanks in the first inning, who would keep watching. Golf lets people of unequal skill play each other. Think of the MSM bias as being McCain's high handicap score. The media is actually raising McCain and trying to lower Obama so that the American people will be uncertain of the outcome and tune in.
Some argue that this is a betrayal of the protections offered the Fourth Estate. News should be impartial and serve the public interest. And the public needs to know just how awful McCain is. These folks are looking at the McCain campaign as a fair fight and want the blows by each side to be covered evenly. But let's face it; on a human level, it's not a fair match. No one wants to see the shame of an old man brought to face his decrepit and degenerated state. The more awful McCain is, the more I see a pathetic old man. And hitting a weak man when he’s down elicits a reaction against the messenger. The news tries to be a happy place despite the litany of death and destruction, and rubbing grampa’s nose in the mess he’s making smacks of senior abuse. They can’t admit it because he is the presumptive Republican nominee, so they avoid noticing his decline and keep us all focused on the glory that he enjoyed in his prime.
Such is the softball game played by the press with the McCain campaign. It is not a love affair with him and his maverick image. It is a self-serving posture of neutrality with all the trappings of a kangaroo-court where the verdict has been decided beforehand: the two Presidential Candidates are locked in an even battle for the White House. Details at 11.
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