Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
So Will beat me to it, except I think she is way hotter than Tina Fey. Considering I also have a thing for McCain's wife there is a body part that wants to vote for the Republican ticket. If only this ticket would promise they would go back to the tax rates under Clinton (YEAH TAX INCREASE!) and choose moderate judges (Oh yeah, they are both against abortion). Since this isn't the case and I thought choosing Biden showed Presidential decision-making, I'm going with Obama.
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I am a fan of Keith Olbermann, but his constant approval of all things Obama and constant scorn for all things McCain has made him a Sean Hannity-like figure when it comes to reporting the news. While I agree with most of Obama's policies, my sorta fair and balanced radar, which was fine tuned from my journalism background, has real trouble with anyone who comes off extremely slanted one particular way. Liberal media outlets like Countdown or Rolling Stone Magazine (yeah, you Matt Taibbii) slammed Hilary Clinton every chance they got and have went even further that direction with McCain. The way FoxNews behaved for Dubya, many Liberal media outlets have emulated with Obama. I think their zeal to slam Hilary has already backfired and if this unknown Governor helps to connect with some of these disaffected voters, it might just be a death blow to the result they were looking for. Democrats are less likely to go for slanted political commentary, as we don't automatically root for the home team. This is the reason there will never be a progressive Rush Limbaugh. We like the NPR type slant in our news. Mild and classy, not blowharded crass.
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I thought McCain should have picked Pawlenty, as he is a really impressive politician. I am just happy he didn't choose Senator Joe Conn. I think he cost Gore the election as much as anyone outside of Ralph Nader and no politician gets on my nerves more than him. His sanctimonious behavior in condemning Bill Clinton's indiscretions was I began to turn against the guy. I have a real problem with people who lecture others on their marital behavior, as who is to know what goes on between a husband and wife. (I plan on posting something more on this subject in regards to John Edwards in the coming days.) I especially have problems with those who browbeat people with marriage difficulties when they have a divorce or 2 in their background, as well. See Limbaugh, Gingrich, Joe Conn, etc.
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I thought I would see a black person or a woman achieve the presidency and vice presidency during my lifetime. What I never thought would be the case is for a person who grew up in Hawaii or Alaska to be the one's to achieve it.
If Aaron Sorkin had written a West Wing script where a foxy mama from Alaska became the Vice President, he would have been criticized for doing it to boost ratings. Palin has an Anne Archer type sensuality, circa 1990. You look at those brown eyes and cheekbones and maybe that goofy show where Geena Davis was the nation's boss wasn't so far-fetched.
Oh dear!
vr, Xei
You are right about MSNBC, they are doing a little to much fawning right now for my taste, and I like the candidates they are fawning over.
Ha! You've still got it, comedian!
KO doesn't report anything. He is an opinionator. Did you hear him after HRC's speech the other night? "Hillary Clinton must have been proud to give that speech. I would have been proud to give it, and I'm proud of her for giving it"
The next Cronkite? Murrow? Puleeze. The guy is a gasbag. It's funny, but he's basically O'Reilly in a different jersey. The only real difference between the two is that O'R has a big enough audience to get A-list guests.
vr, Xei
Sometimes bias is knowledge-based, I'm biased against hitting my thumb with hammers (ouch) and biased in favor of delicious Pilsner Urquell Beer.
http://tinyurl.com/5dwat5
I'm not saying that O'Reilly is 100% BS, but his record is very spotty, 'truthiness'-wise. I'd love to see some examples of KO making things up out of whole cloth like the Fox 'News' Heads regularly do.
I can tell you that when Limbaugh got the gig with ESPN, it clinched me not watching their football show. KO being on NBC I think is a mistake, as he has become such a polarizing figure. I like the guy a lot and agree with most of what he says, but his PR role reciting the mantra OBAMA is INFALLIBLE has taken some of my respect away from the guy. His efforts to stretch anything McCain does into a negative makes KO look some days like...THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD.
When no one on TV was consistently taking Dubya to task, KO was an important beacon of truth. He now has become so strident that I haven't watched a show of his in months.
THE NATURE OF COUNTDOWN
Of course the original modus operandi for 'Countdown' was to FINALLY, 25 years late, have somewhat of a response to the ubiquitous presence of right wing hate radio/tv. "Countdown" would not exist without Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh etc… whereas the opposite is not true.
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THE HRC RED HERRING
Regarding Hilary and her supposed lack of fair treatment by the media, there were 4 issues that bothered Olbermann (and I believe CMatthews)and many many other people that included:
1) WJC's JJackson comments in NC
2) The 1968 RFK assasination comparison
3) the comments about "hard working white voters" in WVA
4)the not ready to answer the phone at 3am commercial
I do not believe that KO's reaction (or mine, or basically every American that I know*) to the HRC campaign was exaggerated and Hilary got what she deserved. The latest information about the role of Mark Penn in the HRC campaign only serves to show how these slips were not really slips but more like the tip of the iceberg of a very unethical campaign.
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*Then again, I live a rather sheltered existence…
The big problem I have is that KO can't have it both ways. He has become an unpaid spokesman for Obama, so he shouldn't be hosting coverage of any political event that features him.
In regards to Hillary, it was a political campaign, get over it. She was competing to win and I never thought any words she used ever went over the line except the RFK discussion. The liberal types in the party pretty much were in lockstep with Obama from the beginning, so she had a difficult job of trying to appeal to the more mainstream primary voters while still trying not to offend the liberal wing which she wanted to support her in the general.
The 3 AM ad was brilliant and it was the kind of thing that McCain was going to use on him, so why not get it out there now. It is real question.
The WJC comments are basically true. Obama won all the Southern states because of 99% support from Black voters. He was never going to win these states in a general, so their importance ended as soon as the primaries ended. Most of the toss-up states were states that Hillary did well in.
Obama barely won and the Clinton's supported him at the convention. If Obama would have thrown Hillary money to cover her campaign debt, the Clinton's would have taken a real backseat at the convention, but he decided not to, so they decided to continue the power play that a candidate who wins around the same amount of votes gets to do.
I'm supporting Obama because I believe in most of his policies, but I'm not giving the guy a free-ride. The infallibility that so many Obama supporters give the guy is scary to me. Kind of like how Reagan supporters used to be. Being a liberal to me has always been the case of questioning authority, even when it's the leader of the team.
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