Forgive the rant, but I really wish the soulless ghouls who make up the pundit class could hold off on popping the champagne corks until after the election.
Howard Kurtz writes in “The Daily Beast” that heading into the midterms, the White House feels so beat up by the press and unable to push its own narrative that its gone into “bunker mode.”
“What’s fascinating is the belief that the bully pulpit has been permanently downsized, forcing the leader of the free world to shout for attention in a cacophonous world.”
Here’s my question to you: Is the election already over for the Democrats?
There are currently twelve governor’s races that are toss-ups, and some of us who live in those states care about the results.
I personally am hoping we can keep Fox News personality John Kasich out of the governor’s mansion in the state where I live. It may be silly, but I think we have a shot at doing that. It’s tough, because voters and volunteers have been listening to national media call the election for Republicans since August, but we’d like to try.
Can the political journalists go back to full-time promotion of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party? Did we ever settle the death panels or birth certificate controversies they ginned up and sold? Isn’t there something new they can misrepresent about the health care bill? What’s going on with the Burlington Coat factory mosque? I think O’Keefe released another doctored video. They could put that into rotation.
morzer
Is it really true that Howie Kurtz hasn’t yet been found in bed with a dead boy and a weeping goat?
BGinCHI
Or, they could talk about David Frum’s takedown of Charles “fucking idiot” Murray.
http://www.frumforum.com/murrays-bogus-elite
Also, too, Murray is a racist.
Big Guv race here too, Kay. Huge. Brady will decimate education and all kinds of necessary services.
The Bearded Blogger
I thought only dogs ate their own crap…
dmsilev
Seriously.
I made the mistake of turning on MSNBC earlier today when Tweety was on, and he was practically orgasming at the possibility of the GOP winning 60 House seats. Not a pretty sight, to put it mildly.
dms
morzer
@dmsilev:
I guess that tingle in his leg is heading north with some speed.
Karen
Nope. The new features that will be on all channels the second after the last polls close will be all about the heroic voter fraud investigators and Impeachment Watch: is being a black President reason enough to impeachment?
Karen
@BGinCHI:
Frum sometimes gets it right.
Nick
but if Obama just went out there and spoke to the people, the media would totally cover it! They would totally let him speak clearly! bully pulpit and all that!
Kay
@BGinCHI:
The people here are busting ass to keep Mr. Fox News Host John Kasich from using this state as a platform for Rupert Murdoch’s agenda and these useless assholes are doing their absolute best to make them think their efforts are in vain.
It’s not enough that they got not one thing right in the last two years, or that they subjected us to endless bullshit dressed up as “news”, now they have to be the first on the block to call the election.
I hope it’s good for their careers.
BGinCHI
@Karen: I didn’t mean to suggest that I’m bffing him, just that it’s nice to see that even someone on the right can instantly see through Murray’s bullshit.
And the price Murray will pay?
I predict a thinktank paycheck.
stuckinred
We’re trying mightily to defeat this fucking moron Paul Broun here but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
beltane
Funny how they were pretty quiet in 2006 when the Dems were poised to take Congress. I think the narrative then was that Bush’s numbers were going to rebound. One would think the media is engaged in a giant voter suppression effort.
I voted today. If the rest of the country goes teabagger, it is all the more important that my governor is a Democrat.
Lev
The media love the idea of a Republican House, since it would create a lot of drama and tension. Of course, I can’t imagine it will be good for folks on unemployment insurance, but Kurtz doesn’t know any of them.
The main reason why Obama is having political problems is Congress. Obama cannot attack Congress at the moment because his party has big majorities. Soon, it will not. A Republican House trying to roll back the ACA, shutting down the government to stop Wall Street Reform from going into effect, and opening the debate about “reforming” Social Security will make an excellent foil to Obama. Of course, I still hope we can prevent it.
BGinCHI
@Kay: Here it’s the Trib. Articles on the front page every day about Alexi (negative) and Kirk (positive or crickets).
They’ve been less sanguine about Brady, but endorsed him. The only reason they can’t splash headlines about his candidacy is that he’s a fucking train wreck.
He has ONE idea: cut everything and don’t ever, ever raise the income taxes (ours are low already).
They HATE teachers and all public employees (though they make an exception for invasions of other countries).
Assholes.
BGinCHI
@stuckinred: Hi stuck. Is he your rep? Oh man, he’s shite.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: I assume the teachers retirement system in my old home state is still totally upside-down?
Lojasmo
Pardon my French, but why the FUCK is Minnesota listed as a tossup. Seator mark Dayton will be our next governor. Morons.
stuckinred
@BGinCHI: Yep, they gerrymandered this district to dilute the progressive vote from Athens. I knew his old man when I worked in Oconee County and he would be livid at this fucker. Meanwhile, his kid has gotten popped for reefer and dui in separate incidents. We have a recent law school grad running against him but I don’t think so.
Gwen is running for mayor again and, I think I mentioned, Jared Bailey is running for council
El Cid
The punditariat would absolutely squeal with joy if / when the Democrats lose the House. If they lost the Senate, too, they’d pass out after climaxing.
Roger Moore
@beltane:
Of course trying to suppress turnout by saying the election is already in the bag can be a dangerous game. There’s always the risk that you’ll convince the putative winners that they can be lazy rather than the putative losers that they should give up. Let’s hope that Faux News triumphalism makes the teabaggers too complacent to vote.
Steve
@beltane: What’s odd about 2006 was that even though it was obvious for months that the Democrats would win big, the media kept buying Karl Rove’s “I have THE math” schtick right up until the election and acting like anything could happen.
morzer
@beltane:
No, they are engaged in a giant intelligence level reduction effort. People tuning out of the political process is just a bonus.
Nick
@beltane:
would THINK?
Hunter Gathers
@BGinCHI: Voted strait Dem today in my little corner of Illinois. Brady and the Captain of the Starship Douchebag (Kirk) will clean up downstate, but hopefully there are enough urban peeps to send Alexi to the Senate and keep that bigot out of the Gov’s mansion. I seriously think that a Brady administration will take my newborn’s health care away, and if he does, he’s got an appointment with my Nerf bat, strait to the crotch.
stuckinred
@Hunter Gathers: I thought Illinois politics were fucked up until I moved to Georgia.
Mnemosyne
At this point, even beyond the obvious benefits to the government as a whole, I’m really hoping that the Republican wave does not, in fact, occur and Obama gets a majority like FDR’s midterm majority.
I would want to see all of these assholes’ faces as they desperately try to spin their complete and utter fuckery into, “No, really, we knew it all along!”
Hunter Gathers
@stuckinred: I hear tales of how fucked up Georgia is, but evidently Hotlanta is the shiznit. Quinn may suck donkey balls, but Brady’s an outspoken bigot, and I pity anybody who would have to clean up after Blago’s misadventures.
stuckinred
@Mnemosyne: I think it will fall somewhere between and both sides will do their usual spin bullshit and then things will go back to being the same.
beltane
@Nick: Usually I like to think of the media as lazy, but this year they are really putting in 110% effort for the GOP. I bet they’ve never worked this hard in their lives until now.
stuckinred
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Republican Senate hopeful Joe Miller admitted to improperly using three government computers over a lunch break to participate in a political poll, then cleaning the caches to try to cover up the activities.
Miller’s admission is included in records released Tuesday under court order following an open records request by The Associated Press and other media organizations.
Mnemosyne
@stuckinred:
I know you’re right, but a Dem sweep that de-pantsed all of them would make me laugh and laugh and laugh.
And then I would bake one of these.
stuckinred
@Mnemosyne: I’ll vote for that!
Linda Featheringill
@beltane:
Yes, one might think that.
Dennis SGMM
How about this: how about not watching the Nooz and not reading anyone who ever had a column printed in The Washington Post?
True story: three years ago I went to the doctor for some routine thing. My blood pressure was so high that they threw me down on a gurney and gave me an EKG lest I blow up or drop dead. Doc prescribed a fistful of pills. I didn’t take them. Instead, I rescued a dog, stopped watching anything but old movies and new DVD’s and walked and hiked and wrote and read. The BP dropped to optimal levels.
This doesn’t mean that you should ignore your doctor’s advice, Maybe, it just means that if you look for something to piss you off you will find it.
stuckinred
@Dennis SGMM: That’s what’s great about JefferyW, the old sky soldier just posts pictures of food and critters here!
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Yes, aside from the whole good governance and decency thing, I am hoping that the Dems do well just to spite the premature TeaOP triumphalism that is rampant in the media.
Nick
@beltane: I warned ya.
Ash Can
@Hunter Gathers: I’m convinced that if Brady’s elected, Chicago is fucked, unless the Dems retain strong majorities in the General Assembly and we can elect a strong mayor after Daley hits the road. That could be the silver lining to a Brady win — watching him whine and carry on like a four-year-old when the Dems smack him around and refuse to let him shit all over Chicago, Rockford, and the other cities.
Nick
@Ash Can: Pretty sure Lisa Madigan would swat him like a fly in 2014.
The bigger issue is if Kirk is elected. That’s six years, he’ll be there like a mosquito buzzing through the rest of Obama’s term
Omnes Omnibus
@Ash Can: Isn’t fucking over Chicago a ticket to not getting re-elected in IL?
Hunter Gathers
@Ash Can: Fiscally, Brady won’t be able to get much done; he’s going to a real asshole when it comes to social issues. He’ll be able to coddle enough votes in the assembly to push through some really horrible social policy. This may be Illinois in the 21st century, but kicking gays, blacks, mexicans, and single mothers will still get you a shit-ton of votes downstate.
John PM
@BGinCHI: #2
Brady as governor and Howdie Doodie as Lt. governor may not be good, but unless I have missed something the General Assembly will still be comfortably in Democratic hands, which means that Michael Madigan will make certain that all Brady does is sit with his thumb up his ass. Unless Brady starts to play ball with the Combine (as every other governor in Illinois has done), in which case he will have broken all of his promises.
Ash Can
@Omnes Omnibus: It pretty much ranks right up there with blowing farm animals on live TV as political seppuku, but I’m sure it wouldn’t stop Brady. He doesn’t strike me as being big on thinking things out.
It’s a very close race and nothing’s been decided yet. I just hope that if things don’t turn out well, Brady’s damage is held to a minimum.
cat48
Obama is coming back to OH on Sunday…he & Joe in Cleveland. I hope that helps you, Kay. He was on Tom Joyner’s Show this a.m. and they seemed excited about the election, too. They’ve already voted. Really hoping D’s win in OH, especially Strickland.
John PM
@Nick:
I know that everyone was hoping that Lisa Madigan would run for either governor or Senate this year. I think she made a wise choice to not run for governor because neither Brady nor Quinn is going to be able to do anything because of the mess left by the last two governors. I was surprised that she did not run for the Senate, but she said that she did not want to be separated that much from her family and I actually believe that. I think in 2014 she will run for governor and win handily.
Oh, and Mark Kirk’s “Mr. Independent” adds are driving me crazy. Thank you, Mark Kirk, for stopping polluting of Lake Michigan. It’s not like you live near it or get your drinking water from it. Douchebag.
Uloborus
I really don’t see this year as particularly different in terms of media coverage of the election. They always latch onto some universal narrative they think is fun (which *generally* flatters Republicans) and then dance around like baboons for twelve months. I can’t recall the media narrative ever being right about an election, and they’re remarkably smooth about failing to notice they were wrong when the election doesn’t turn out at all the way they predicted. Witness the anti-incumbent wave we’ve been assured has been rolling along in all primaries and special elections that have returned… what, a 93% rate of incumbents keeping their positions?
Pat
First. Why does someone read Howard Kurtz to begin with?
Second. Like any other “pundit”, what he thinks and writes are his own wet dream and those he is trying to please, not necessarily the reality out there.
My suggestion is to stop reading everyone you disagree with for a week. It puts everything in prospective.
As an example, I love Political Wire and follow on Twitter. I have stopped following him on Twitter until after the election because he has begun to quote every poll he sees. So in any given day the Democrats will lose/win the House or win/lose the Senate. Even the people with the best intentions are muddling the landscape. Just because there is a new poll, does every stinking number have to be reported? Does it really matter when you know a new poll will be out in two hours to debunk the poll you just read?
Sometimes it’s best to step back from the madness, before it send you mad.
I refuse to let any election do that to me!
GOTV Progressive Democrats!