Category: Politics & Elections

Do you myth me?

Examples: In the past two months, the Kyl-Lieberman amendment has played a major role in the Democratic primaries. Have you seen a single [media] report examining the merits of this amendment? Driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants have turned the Democratic race upside down. Have you seen any reports, of any length, about the states which already allow this? (About New Mexico, whose governor is one of the Democratic candidates?)

The Daily Howler, which once again explains how much of modern political coverage is just plain myth-making. Some good background on David Broder and his infamous 1972 report which described Ed Muskie, the leading Democrat, with “tears streaming down his face.” No other reporter mentioned tears.

Flip Flop

In May, [Albuquerque Mayor] Chavez had announced plans to expand his program to include freeway-based speed cameras. In April, he successfully lobbied New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) to veto legislation that would have limited profit from automated ticketing. The pro-camera lobbying effort was so strong that leaders of the state legislature asked for an investigation into whether lobbying rules were violated.

Despite this active and effective role in the photo enforcement program, the official Chavez for Senate campaign website biography limits his most important mayoral accomplishments to: “He declared war on gangs, graffiti and DWI.” Photo ticketing does not merit even a brief mention on an extensive list of his accomplishments while in office.

The Newspaper

Interesting, very interesting

A new Zogby Interactive survey shows Democrat Hillary Clinton of New York would lose to every one of the top five Republican presidential contenders, representing a reversal of fortune for the national Democratic front–runner who had led against all prospective GOP opponents earlier this year.

Meanwhile, fellow Democrats Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards of North Carolina would defeat or tie every one of the Republicans, this latest survey shows.
. . .

The online survey included 9,150 likely voters nationwide, and was conducted Nov. 21–26, 2007. It carries a margin of error of +/– 1.0 percentage points.

Zogby International

Obama beats each of the five Republicans by 5-7 percent. Clinton loses to each by 3-5 percent.

Best line of the day, so far

Discussing an audience question to John McCain which asked “How do we beat the bitch?”

[MIKE] ALLEN: All right. But what Republican voter hasn’t thought that? What voter in general hasn’t thought that? And what people like about McCain is his straight talk, his candor, and if he had folded or buckled under that question, that would have looked ridiculous…But Kiran, this was just a funny moment on the campaign trail.

[KIRAN] CHETRY: Well, it’s only funny unless you’re offended by somebody calling a woman the b-word.

Quoted at Daily Howler.

Two best lines about last night’s debate

“… Kucinich, who is the presidential candidate most likely to be secretly a member of the X-Men. (We should abide by international law, he said at one point, but you know he was thinking to himself, ‘And also intergalactic law.’)”

“… Richardson, ever the diplomat, said, ‘Let us stop this mudslinging. Let us stop going after one another on character and trust. Let us debate the issues that affect the American people, and let us be positive.’ NOOOOOO, screamed the CNN producers. Get that guy off stage!!”

Joel Achenbach in a post entitled “Steel Cage Death Match in the Desert.”

More on Tipgate

In a follow-up to the follow-up, the Associated Press revealed that the restaurant owner had been left a tip which through some mistake had not been shared out, and it was not a bad one: $100 on a total bill of $157! So no story. And yet … the NPR piece had also followed-up a terribly sad case of a woman whose brother is suffering from cancer and who had turned up at a Barack Obama rally looking for solace. The candidate had addressed her, and held her hand. He kind of promised to write the brother a note as well (“if I have time”) but, you guessed it, the note never came. And yet this woman refused to be even slightly cross. “I do the same thing with friends of mine,” she said.

Now here is the point: the Clinton story has the candidate looking bad even though she actually behaved just fine; the Obama story ends with the candidate genuinely forgiven and honoured though, frankly, he fell down on the job. Does this tell us something bigger and more important about charm and politics? Such as, you either have it or you don’t and money (or even a good tip badly administered) cannot buy it?

Justin Webb

Or just possibly, it tells us something bigger and more important about the news media — at least if you accept The Daily Howler view. The “conventional Washington wisdom” is that Hillary could win the presidency, so the MSM needs to emphasize her negatives. And Obama can’t win the presidency, so the MSM needs to build him up so he’ll take the nomination from Clinton and lose to the Republican a year from now.

Just sayin’. If you don’t believe me, ask Al Gore.

Update: NewMexiKen wrote the above before seeing today’s Daily Howler:

Sadly, the facts are clear: Your ‘press corps’ is full of trivial people, and trivial people love trivia. They don’t give a sh*t about how health care works. Readers, they already have it! Instead, they like to tell stories about people’s character. There’s an older word for this trait. They’re gossips.

Four Pinocchios

Rudy Giuliani is simply wrong when he claims that his chances of surviving prostate cancer are almost twice as high in the United States as in England, under a “socialized” medical system. The mayor seems to be making a habit of making sweeping statements with little or no factual support. See our recent posts on his claims about Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union, the cost of health care premiums, and his own record as mayor of New York.

We award Giuliani four Pinocchios.

PinocchioPinocchioPinocchioPinocchio

The Washington Post Fact Checker

Link via Crooks and Liars.

Elsewhere Rudy is caught with three lies in one sentence — defending Bernie Kerik.

‘Strongly disapprove’

Fifty percent of Americans now say they strongly disapprove of President George W. Bush’s performance as president. This marks the highest percentage of Americans strongly disapproving of his performance since Bush came into office. Although Gallup has not measured the intensity of job approval regularly over the years, this “strongly disapprove” number is among the highest Gallup has measured for presidents, going back to Lyndon Johnson.

Gallup

An additional 14% disapprove, just not so strongly. 31% approve, about half of them “strongly.”

Is this a good thing?

With an open Senate seat for the first time in 25 years and THREE open House seats, New Mexico is shaping up as the center of the political universe in 2008.

The Fix

And for those of you unaware, New Mexico only has THREE House seats. In other words, 80% of the New Mexico Congressional delegation is on the line next year. (Chris Cillizza above is assuming Rep. Tom Udall will run for the Senate — meaning all three House members are in the fight.)

And another “Why ask why?” question. A significant number of state and local New Mexico politicians appear to have Hispanic origins. None of the current Congressional delegation — Domenici, Bingaman, Wilson, Udall or Pearce — appear to. Why is that?

I know he’s not doing well in the polls

But Bill Richardson would be the best president of the lot. For example:

My opinion of Gov. Bill Richardson has just grown by leaps and bounds. He has appointed veteran criminal defense lawyer Charlie Daniels (a real criminal defense lawyer, by the way, who truly believes in and has been passionate about defending the rights of the accused his entire career) to be a Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Talk Left

Sort of the anti-Alito.

Why’d the old man cross the road?

One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”

The old man said, “Okay,” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”

The man thanked him and again just walked away

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.”

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”