57 Comments

1. outa my league:

That reminds me, Wretchard, I gotta drop off the kids for karate mallpractice.

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:02 am 2. JMH:

There are two very sad things about this. One, I have to live with consequences of these morons, and two, they’re all so damn proud of themselves, aren’t they.

A 527 should make an ad out of this. Run it six weeks before the next election in Democrat strongholds, and end with a voiceover:

“Voting While Ignorant isn’t a crime, but it sure is embarrassing. Please, educate yourself on the issues before stepping into the voting booth.”

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:43 am 3. wildernesscalling:

JHM, with the last words being said as the camera fades to a Hitler looking canidate waving and grining from ear to ear like he just won an election! yes folks it has been worse in the past(ignorants, drunks and dead people voting), But at least then you could count on the media to root out the truth about the canidate, today that important part is gone and the media helps to spread the myths and falsehoods of their oppent while ignoring the obvious truths about their canidate.

Nov 19, 2008 - 1:40 am 4. David Thomson:

The followers of Barack Obama often have far too much in common with those who pledged their allegiance to Benito Mussolini. They worship at the feet of the Great Leader. What are the odds that we can save the United States? Is it even 50/50? I keep getting the impression Obama intends to become our benevolent dictator for life. Let’s face it: a high number of his voters would eagerly accept such a state of affairs. Obama could therefore claim that he is only complying with the wishes of the people.

Nov 19, 2008 - 4:26 am 5. 3Case:

We are now officially “Stuck on Stupid”. Except that the responses to the redistribution questions more says to me, “Thieves”…something about the recurrent smiles accompanying the answers.

Media malpractice in the midst of ongoing education genocide.

“The rights of man don’t mean a damn here in the Age of Stars.” – Willie Nile, Cellphones Ringing

Nov 19, 2008 - 4:55 am 6. 3Case:

“say”; shoulda been “say”.

Nov 19, 2008 - 4:56 am 7. anton:

3Case, I love that “…….ongoing educational genocide” may I please use that in the future, it is the paradigm of laconic precision.

The flippant attitude to their own ignorance is staggering, I hope all of these people have jobs doing something really important like developing a Gender Studies Course for the local left-wing college. The substitution of the trivial for the significant lowers the bar even further, heck why don’t we just run a reality-show like “America’s Got Talent” but call it “America Gets Screwed”. I wouldn’t hire any of these moonbats to walk my dog.

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:10 am 8. Mike Sylwester:

The Republican Party had plenty of opportunities to focus the public’s attention on particular issues. Many millions of people watched the Republican convention and the debates between McCain and Obama and between Palin and Biden. Many millions of people watched the many political advertisements that were broadcast and published in the months before the final election.

The Republican Party, and in particular John McCain, squandered these opportunities. They wasted the public’s attention and their own time and money talking about personal histories and about trivial issues. They did not focus the public’s attention on the major issues and educate the public effectively about those issues.

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:44 am 9. 3Case:

anton, certainly…and thank you for your kind words.

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:59 am 10. tomw:

8. Mike Sylwester:
Ejumukate: to watch Dancing with the Wolves, Barrier CSI, Desi does Detroit .. make up you own inane pap TV show.
The people who Zogby contacted do not pay attention to anything said by either party. They hear one thing, their one thing, and if it is mentioned by one side, that side gets the vote. Apparently, there are a couple ‘things’ that got peoples’ hot buttons, and they heard what they wanted to hear. There is no education involved at all, as they will not listen.
I remember voting for Carter. I heard one ad, and it was something like “how can an actor be smart enough to be president” or some such. I didn’t know diddly about parties, politics, taxes, SCOTUS, bailouts, or any other thing of substance. I heard a ‘thought bite’ and it stuck. There was no way I was going to get ‘educated’ on this, to my shame.
The only way to get an informed electorate is to reserve the ballot to those that can pass a simple test of knowledge of the topics of the day. If you cannot name a few of the ‘most important’ officials, perhaps you don’t have the wherewithal to vote intelligently. I expect there could be a bipartisan (hah) set of low level expectations to be met, but it won’t happen as bread and circus sells today.
Sorry for the digression.
tom

Nov 19, 2008 - 7:03 am 11. steveaz:

Mike, your “McCain squandered” clause is almost right.

Your comment doesn’t hit on the reason for John’s “squandering.” McCain didn’t dare to do the media’s work for them, lest they call him bad names, like “racist.” The result is it appears that he avoided many opportunities to educate America about Obama.

Maybe he thought we still had a functioning media-estate in our country. Which makes him almost a Fool.

Them’s the rules on the playground these days: point out your opponent’s agenda and its flaws – and you’ll get pushed off the swing-set. Point out his ties to terrorists, and the media’ll pull shoot spitwads at you and pull your pony-tails.

When America’s politics remind one of a gang of 2nd graders racing to recess, something’s definitely amiss.

Nov 19, 2008 - 7:19 am 12. Tom Holsinger:

These sound like normal American voters.

“I am shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that there is gambling going on in this establishment!”

Nov 19, 2008 - 8:01 am 13. DocBill:

A huge chunk of the ‘Boma electorate was mesmerized by his voice, much like the Germans were by Hitler. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out the same way. They didn’t care about the issues, it was the image.

We all will suffer at the hands of the Messiah and his owner George Sorros.

Nov 19, 2008 - 8:16 am 14. johnclubvec:

Guys, please don’t forget about rational ignorance. It’s not about ’stupidity’. Mr. Ziegler’s point appears to be the undue effect a biased mass media can have, given that it’s “rational” for any particular voter to not invest much at all in knowledge about candidates.

Nov 19, 2008 - 8:42 am 15. cat007:

Just keep kidding yourself. It’s like drinking. You’ll bottom out eventually. Liberals can’t rule forever. You couldn’t. You are acting like idiots

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:14 am 16. Mongoose:

Oh, a young Obamabot. Ya, I bet you know a lot about drinking. Up early are we?

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:33 am 17. WSL:

I would agree with cat007:15 that liberals can’t rule forever except that liberals seem most able to change the rules to favor their longevity in office. Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine is but one example. When the secret ballot is eliminated in union certifications, union coffers will grow making their political clout that much more difficult to counter. Soros is providing enormous funding to overturn elections by forcing recounts and challenging unfavorable results in the courts. Al Gore almost succeeded in doing this in 2000, and the strategists have become more effective in their efforts since then. The only hope I have at this point is that, when Obama cannot or will not deliver on the left’s agenda, disillusion sets in and the obamabots don’t deliver for him in a future election. But it is only hope that keeps me believing that real, substantive change will come one day.

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:44 am 18. 49erDweet:

just getting in, more likely, and found the screen was still on……….

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:49 am 19. Eggplant:

As I have said ad nauseum:

“It was the American People versus the MSM and the MSM won.”

People like to blame McCain but the deck was stacked against him by the MSM. Briefly after the Democrat Party Convention, there was a brief glimmer of hope that McCain might get past the MSM news embargo. Then the economy collapsed and that glimmer of hope went out.

Our fate is now in the lap of the gods. Obama is arguably the most potent demagogue ever to be elected President (he’ll need to be beat Reagan’s performance to claim the #1 position). The economy is on the cusp of free fall. If it goes into free fall and Obama opts to do a “Huey Long” then he might be able to suspend the Constitution or organize a Constitutional convention. The only thing really holding Obama in check is the Democrat party elite.

In case people are interested here is a historical time line. The main guy holding back Hitler’s rise to political power was Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg. In the 13 March 1932 presidential election, Hitler got only 30.1% of the vote, the Communist candidate Ernst Thaelmann got 13.2% and the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg got 49.6%. Hindenburg remained in office as president but was compelled to have a runoff election. Keep in mind that Germany in 1932 was fully in the teeth of the Great Depression. During this runoff election, Hitler and Thalemann’s goon squads were terrorizing the German public with constant street battles through out Germany. The German people soon realized that their options were:

1) Paul von Hindenburg, a tired-out, war hero who was clearly in over his head and becoming senile.
2) Ernst Thaelmann, a vicious communist, committed to extending (foreign proxy) Soviet control over Germany.
3) Adolf Hitler, self made man, war hero and brilliant orator.

Hitler’s Nazi party won a narrow majority in the Reichstag on 31 July 1932 (230 seats out of 608 total). However von Hindenburg being no fool did not appoint Hitler chancellor (von Hindenburg hated Hitler). Instead von Hindenburg gave the job to Kurt von Schleicher. Unfortunately von Schleicher could not secure a majority coalition in the Reichstag. Reluctantly von Hindenburg made Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. Violence continued on the streets of Germany along with economic chaos. After the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933, Hitler received the Reichstag’s two-thirds majority on 23 March 1933 needed to suspend the German constitution. It took nearly one year from Hitler losing the general election for him to seize total power. Paul von Hindenburg died from lung cancer on 2 August 1934. His office as President was left vacant since Hitler was now Fueher and the office of president was irrelevant.

Nov 19, 2008 - 10:12 am 20. Staring In Disbelief:

johnclubvec: Thanks for the GREAT link! I didn’t know it had a formal name. I remember when I was in college, I worked with a semi-retired handyman whose political philosophy was “Always vote against the incumbents.” At the time I was shocked at such a capricious and irrational approach to such an important decision.

Doesn’t look quite so irrational anymore. If one party is BIG WRONG about things and the only other party (the one in power) is MEDIUM WRONG, what do you do if your an IQ 98 voter? If you keep voting for MEDIUM WRONG, nothing changes and things keep getting worse. Vote in BIG WRONG, and if you manage to survive, you have a chance that someday MEDIUM WRONG will react to their defeat with a change to MODESTLY CORRECT and you might then have a chance to vote for MODESTLY CORRECT.

I was militantly against the Big O before the election, but now have a strange sense of calm.

Nov 19, 2008 - 10:21 am 21. whiskey:

The Media is not very representative of America. It’s habits, attitudes, backgrounds, and beliefs are quite alien to Americans.

This will manifest itself soon, I think.

Nov 19, 2008 - 10:23 am 22. Dave in NC:

Whisky 21: From your mouth to God’s ears.

Nov 19, 2008 - 11:03 am 23. outa my league:

Q. When you feel queasy & sick all over and are about to puke, what do you call that feeling?

A. Er, universal suffrage?

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:29 pm 24. NahnCee:

When I heard the (black) (female) DJ on the radio this morning say something incredibly ignorant, wrong and stupid, I thought to myself how much I’m going to enjoy the next year or so, stopping these people in mid-ignorance and saying, “Ahhhh, an Obama voter, I presume?”

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:30 pm 25. Orphaned Son of Liberty:

Eggplant opines thusly:

“People like to blame McCain but the deck was stacked against him”

Yes the deck was stacked against him, but holy cow, did McCain run a crappy campaign. He never distinguished himself on important issues, relying as many have noted on stories of his personal history, and statements about his “bi-partisanship” Blah! Would he, could he have won if he had run an effective campaign? We’ll never know. But let’s not let McCain off the hook for running a crappy campaign just because the deck was stacked against him, eh?

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:42 pm 26. Eggplant:

NahnCee said:

“.. I thought to myself how much I’m going to enjoy the next year or so, stopping these people in mid-ignorance and saying, “Ahhhh, an Obama voter, I presume?””

Think of how proud you’ll feel four years from now after everything has gone to hell. You’ll be able to say (without lying):

“I voted for McCain.”

Slightly off topic:

The Federal Reserve is talking about lowering the prime rate below 1%. To my mind that’s capitulation, i.e. the Federal Reserve will have run out of bullets and admitted that it no longer controls the run-away freight train.

Nov 19, 2008 - 12:44 pm 27. Eggplant:

Orphaned Son of Liberty said:

“.. holy cow, did McCain run a crappy campaign. He never distinguished himself on important issues, relying as many have noted on stories of his personal history, and statements about his “bi-partisanship”…”

IMHO, McCain did poorly in his debates against Obama. A more skilled debater might have publicly humiliated Obama to the point of tipping the election against him (that was McCain’s only real opportunity to circumvent the MSM). Also, while Palin was a clever choice for VP, a better choice would have been Bobby Jindal (of course Jindal probably would have said “no thanks”).

However I must disagree with the Son of Liberty’s general conclusion. I think McCain did the best he could given a very bad situation. Look at what McCain was up against:

The Republican Party disgraced itself in the Congress when it broke the Contract with America. Why trust a Republican Presidential candidate after such a betrayal?

President Bush (correctly) exhausted all of his political coin in pursuing the Global War against Terrorism.

The MSM did almost everything in its power to pull down the popularity of President Bush and promote the candidacy of Obama.

The American people reflexively without thinking will always vote out the perceived party-in-power after the economy tanks.

Again, shortly after the Democrat Convention there was a brief moment that despite all the odds, it might have been possible for McCain to win. This was an amazing achievement partially due to the skill of McCain’s campaign managment and also due to the obvious fact that Obama is a very dangerous man.

Nov 19, 2008 - 1:01 pm 28. Captain Ramen:

What are the odds that we can save the United States? Is it even 50/50?

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. – I Kings 19:18

I’d say it’s much lower than that. Let’s face it, it is human nature to trade liberty for security. Being American doesn’t immunize us from this basic fact.

What we have now is a false messiah who effectively communicates a perverse form (modern) of liberal ideas. What we need is a prophet / guru like Reagan who can effectively communicate conservative (classical liberal) ideas. But the thing is we already got a Reagan and we blew it.

One of the things that irritates me about the conservative movement is that we’re all sitting on our asses waiting for the next Reagan to show up. The first christians thought Jesus would come back in their lifetimes. 2000 years later we’re still waiting. Do we even deserve another one?

Obama will probably be a one term president. He is not the problem, he is the symptom.

The system is broken – kind of like a 2 year old Windows installation. At first it runs great, but after 60+ application installations the registry fills up with crap, you probably have some spyware in there, and your drive is 80% fragmented. Best thing to do in that situation is reformat + reinstall.

2/3rds of the states can propse new constitutional amedments. Instead of waiting for Gipper 2.0, we should be focused on getting conservatives (not republicans) elected to the state legislatures.

Nov 19, 2008 - 1:24 pm 29. Eggplant:

Captain Ramen said:

“The system is broken – kind of like a 2 year old Windows installation. At first it runs great, but after 60+ application installations the registry fills up with crap, you probably have some spyware in there, and your drive is 80% fragmented. Best thing to do in that situation is reformat + reinstall.”

Yes, the system is broken. I don’t think repair will come up from the states (they’re broken too). My guess is that Obama will over-reach and trigger a constitutional crisis or a major city will get nuked and some tough but fair USMC general with a brilliant war record will take over. I’m really hoping that we can survive the next four years (but I was also hoping that against all odds, McCain would win).

Nov 19, 2008 - 1:44 pm 30. Bohica:

Staring in disbelief:

I find I have that same sense of calm you speak of. It derive from the fact that out of Carter came Reagan…

Nov 19, 2008 - 2:11 pm 31. OldSalt:

A 527 should make an ad out of this. Run it six weeks before the next election in Democrat strongholds, and end with a voiceover: – JMH

Next election? 527’s? You presume a lot. Expect “change”.

Nov 19, 2008 - 2:14 pm 32. OldSalt:

“..your “McCain squandered” clause is almost right…he thought we still had a functioning media-estate in our country.” steveaz

As sad as it is for the GOP and country, McCain’s loss is poetic justice. Obama swamped McCain’s message with $750M of mostly untraceable campaign contributions, plus several times that from “non-profit” interest groups and free media, ALL MADE POSSIBLE by McCain’s own campaign finance bill. He was ultimate the cause of his own misfortune.

Conservatives need to quite complaining about media bias and other inequities, and frame and publicize our own message. Ultimately, nothing succeeds like truth and self-interest. The Democrats were able to promote their message to sound like truth and satisfy a majority of the populace’s greed. They were able to “out-Democrat” a RINO Republican; no surprise at all.

However, truth will win out, because ultimately, many of those Obamacians will be sorely disappointed that BHO did no produce a “chicken in every pot”, a 1.4 Obama-style mansion for every family, and “two foreign hybred sports cars in every garage”. Instead, their lot will be worse for Obama’s term, and someone needs to be ready to explain the facts of life to these folks when they come calling.

McCain failed to make his case, and hamstrung himself through his Senate-promoted policies. Obama successfully made his case and used hoards of cash to overwhelm his opponent. Obama deserved to win, and McCain deserved to lose. I’d say “deserved his fate”, but John will live out his life as near-royalty, a senior US Senator, feted by the media, heralded for his heroism of days past. He will suffer nothing.

Nov 19, 2008 - 2:28 pm 33. Yashmak:

Think of how proud you’ll feel four years from now after everything has gone to hell. You’ll be able to say (without lying):
“I voted for McCain.”
– eggplant

Yeah, and the willfully ignorant who voted for Obama will have already rationalized why it’s still (somehow) the fault of someone besides him. Sad, but you know it’s true.

Nov 19, 2008 - 3:40 pm 34. elby:

Let’s assume that the pendulum does swing back to conservatives, sooner or later. What do we do with the power, given that it may be only a brief time before it is lost again?

What few things could be changed that would give the most lasting benefit? two things need to be considered: fixing the American economy but also driving a stake through the heart of the leftist power base.

Here are a few items that I think are important:

1. Pass the flat tax. Getting rid of the onerous tax code and all the rent seeking it engenders would go a long way toward freeing up our economy and political system.

2. Fix our broken voting system. People should register at least a month before the election, and produce picture ID when voting.
Absentee ballots should be strictly curtailed, as well as early voting, and provisional ballots.

3. Seal the borders. Change citizenship requirements so that one parent must be legally a permanent resident in order for the child to be granted citizenship.

4. Curtail the power of unions with right to work laws. It would be great if we could get rid of public sector unions altogether.

It would be interesting what you other enlightened commentators think would be the few sweeping changes that need to be made if conservatives ever find themselves in power again.

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:09 pm 35. John Ziegler: Professional Prick | Prose Before Hos:

[...] See Also: Nate Silver’s Nemesis, Crazy Obama-Hater Curses Out Statistician for Questioning His Racist Poll, The Best Interview You’ll Read Today, Better to Remain Silent and be Thought a Fool…, and The Zogby Poll. [...]

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:19 pm 36. Orphaned Son of Liberty:

Quoth the Eggplant:

“I must disagree with the Son of Liberty’s general conclusion. I think McCain did the best he could ”

.. and then he goes on to show why the deck was stacked against McCain, with which I completely agree. And while I too would have preferred Bobby Jindal over Sarah, I was ecstatic with her choice as opposed to say Polenty. That being said, McCain’s failures were not just at the debates. His general “nice-guy” strategy (or don’t say anything strident to avoid being called a recist strategy if you prefer) allowed the MSM’s incredible uncuriousness to persist. If McCain was pointing out in every speech the Cloward=Piven strategy, its applicability to the financial crisis, ACORN’s position as C-P progeny, Obama’s relation to ACORN, etc. and kept hammering hammering hammering it, there’s a chance… just a chance mind you.. .that these things would have permeated the consciousness of the electorate. Might not have been enough, but we’ll never know. McCain should have known better, though.

Signed,

One bitter libertarian

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:50 pm 37. JFSanders:

OSofL,

All of what you state is true if not for the fact that those people in the documentary have neither the intellect nor the inclination to educate themselves. Those points would have passed through their craniums just like a neutron through concrete.

Jim

Nov 19, 2008 - 7:44 pm 38. Eggplant:

Orphaned Son of Liberty said:

“That being said, McCain’s failures were not just at the debates. His general “nice-guy” strategy (or don’t say anything strident to avoid being called a recist strategy if you prefer) allowed the MSM’s incredible uncuriousness to persist.”

McCain obviously would have had professional spin doctors and propaganda experts as part of his campaign staff. My reading of McCain’s approach was that he tried out different campaign tactics on focus groups before actually using the tactic. McCain’s prime target voter block were independent voters between the Democrat and Republican main streams. McCain had to appeal to those independent voters without alienating his conservative base.

Now someone would immediately reply: “McCain was a RINO, he had already alienated his conservative base!”. To augment that point, I’ve seen statistics indicating that many of the die-hard conservatives did indeed stay at home on election day (I suspect that McCain believed incorrectly that the die-hard conservatives would vote for him anyway rather than allow a crypto-marxist to become president). Unfortunately McCain was up against a “Heads I win – Tails you lose” situation. If McCain had tailored his campaign to appeal to those millions of die-hard conservatives then he would have lost the tens of millions of independents who were essential for his victory. McCain had the near impossible task of appealing to widely different probability distributions of voters (his selection of Palin as VP was a clever attempt at dealing with this mismatch). Unfortunately, the overlap of those probability distributions was insufficient to get him elected no matter how the spin-doctors tweeked his story.

I might add, that Obama had a much easier time of it. All Obama had to do was utter platitudes about “change” that would not offend anyone, show off his skin color and let his friends in the MSM keep his dirty laundry from ever appearing on the 6 O’Clock news.

Nov 19, 2008 - 7:52 pm 39. Bob Murphy:

34. elby:
Nice list.

How about adding Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices.

Nov 19, 2008 - 8:34 pm 40. Bob Murphy:

Or alternatively, Mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court Justices because then you could factor in how long they would likely sit on the bench when you appointed them.

Nov 19, 2008 - 8:35 pm 41. bogie wheel:

Eggplant 27 –
Jindal did in fact say “no thanks.” McCain’s people called him & asked him if he would agree to be vetted. He said he had the job he already wanted, and declined.

I like Jindal a lot, and he has been on my radar for at least a year. For a long time I’ve been calling him the anti-Obama.

HOWEVER … if you think that the big (overwhelmingly secular) media raked Sarah Palin over the coals, esp. with regard to her religious beliefs, just wait until they sink their teeth into Jindal if he ever aspires to national office.

I have no problem with Jindal, being an evangelical myself. But just watch the bigotry and ridicule swell … Jindal’s remark about having personally witnessed an exorcism will, you can bet, become an SNL skit. With a built-in movie reference!

DocBill 13 -
Funny you should mention the bit about people being “mesmerized by his voice.” During the second debate, I specifically avoided watching the video image and just concentrated on listening. I came away with a (sickened) kind of awe at what a remarkable speaking voice Obama has — a rich, resonant, strong baritone. On top of that he was in pretty good form in that debate (in terms of avoiding stutters and gaffes).

In contrast to McCain’s near-whisper of an inflection-free voice, Obama had, hands-down, the “presidential” timbre. He *sounded* like he had more gravitas on vocal quality alone.

I had to admit that if I had not been listening for content, but just letting myself go with the flow of “style” and “sound,” I myself could have been reeled in by Obama.

I’m left wondering about the subconscious effect of a thing like this. Obviously people don’t consciously think, “oooh, nice voice … must … follow …” but, just as obviously, the level of voter ignorance about Obama’s political biography and policy positions demonstrates that a large swath of his supporters are not, in fact, paying attention to the content, only the style.

Is there some dog-whistle effect going on? Do pretty-sounding demagogues have a hidden register to their voice that only the useful tools can hear?

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:18 pm 42. qrstuv:

I fear that this is the end of the American experiment.

I do not believe that Obama actually won; there were too many phony voter registrations in play for that.

But he’s going to be in power, and he and Congress will have two years to make permanent inroads into our freedoms.

Sometimes I wonder philosophically whether the spirit of freedom can really survive against nanny-statism. Consider that most of the world (apparently) likes nanny-statism.

In the end, I think this election was U.S. conservatives vs the world (certainly Obama accepted contributions worldwide!).

Nov 19, 2008 - 9:18 pm 43. NahnCee:

I don’t think McCain did everything he could have, and I’m at a loss to explain to myself why not. There’s a quote floating around out there that “McCain wanted to be a nice guy; Obama wanted to be President” which seems to me to pinpoint at least part of what the problem was.

Issues that were not even brought up — let alone hammered home — included his preacher “Goddamn AMerica Wright”, his terrorist pal(s) Dohrn and Ayers, his vote-stuff buddies in ACORN, and his illegal donation set-up which accepted overseas funding. Any of those issues give pause for concern, but I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts none of the moonbats interviewed in the Ziegler tape know anything about them.

Another issue that I, personally, am appalled by is the block voting of black people for this charlatan to the detriment of this country … because some of them (a majority?) think they’re going to get lots of good Free Stuff out of an Obama Presidency. I suppose logically that’s no worse than some aged Senator bringing home the pork to get re-elected, but I am so offended by some welfare mother beaming about her anticipated free gas and free mortgage payment that I can’t get beyond the image.

I think Obama warned America about its racism, and in the way he ran his campaign, he wanted racism, he’s sure as hell got it now. And McCain never, ever, broached *that* as a topic either.

So we’re not allowed to talk about Mohammad cartoons in the 21st Century, or are we allowed to notice that racism is alive and well in AMerica and what that means is that everyone of the black race now expects special treatment both from the government and from all citizens around them. What does it say when we are reduced to treating black people the same way we treat whackadoodle Muslims?

Nov 19, 2008 - 10:39 pm 44. Eggplant:

Bogie wheel said:

“Funny you should mention the bit about people being “mesmerized by his [Obama's] voice.” … I came away with a (sickened) kind of awe at what a remarkable speaking voice Obama has — a rich, resonant, strong baritone. … Obama had, hands-down, the “presidential” timbre. He *sounded* like he had more gravitas on vocal quality alone. … I’m left wondering about the subconscious effect of a thing like this. … Is there some dog-whistle effect going on? Do pretty-sounding demagogues have a hidden register to their voice that only the useful tools can hear?”

Bogie wheel has touched upon why Obama scares me senseless. Obama’s appearance is disarming and his voice hypnotic. He is the classic demagogue (utterly terrifying). History is littered with the corpses of great nations ruined by demagogues like Obama.

If we survive the next four years, we really need to do sometime about our MSM. They should have immediately recognized Obama for what he is and stopped him in his tracks. Instead, the watchdogs were hypnotized by the snake and became his willing servants.

Nov 19, 2008 - 11:54 pm 45. sf:

MSM…”should have immediately recognized Obama for what he is and stopped him in his tracks.”
–Eggplant

What you overlook is that the MSM *wanted* Obama. Thus *no amount* of proven unfitness or wrongdoing would have been sufficient to get them to weigh in against him.

The MSM are only watchdogs against *Republican* corruption or wrongdoing.

Nov 20, 2008 - 7:28 am 46. elby:

#38 Eggplant:

James Gimpel had an interesting article over at National Review about just who these ‘independents’ are. Polling shows that they are not ideological at all. They don’t vote on issues. They vote mostly on feelings and how they perceive others are voting and therefore cannot be reached by tweaking a candidate’s stance on issues. They were prime fodder for Obama’s hope and change message. With the media covering up Obama’s radical positions and associations, McCain had almost no chance to reach these people. The Zogby poll referenced in Wretchard’s post bears this out. Very few Obama voters knew anything negative about Obama.

Nov 20, 2008 - 8:43 am 47. Eggplant:

I earlier said:

“The MSM should have immediately recognized Obama for what he is and stopped him in his tracks.”

Sf replied:

“What you overlook is that the MSM *wanted* Obama.”

I’m well aware that the MSM ***wanted*** Obama.

The MSM wanted Obama because they’re broken as an institution and have become a threat to national security.

After Obama has proceeded through his process and gone away AND ASSUMING that the United States survives then we will need to take a long-and-careful look at the MSM with the object of reform. Reforming the MSM will require extreme delicacy because the Freedom of the Press is essential for democracy’s continuation. However the MSM as it is currently configured is detrimental to the survival of the American democracy. This is an obvious contradiction that will need to be resolved.

Nov 20, 2008 - 12:39 pm 48. JollyRoger:

My goodness, your panties are in quite the knot, aren’t they?

I have some advice for you; stop being a bunch of control-freak hatemongers and return conservatism to its traditional definition. Who knows? You might even end your marginalization that way.

Nov 20, 2008 - 6:28 pm 49. Ed Darrell:

Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.

Interesting that this small victory for the facts was presented almost as if it were error. 56% of Obama’s supporters knew the facts? The anti-”MSM” propaganda machine got beaten again.

Moral of the story: Stick to the facts. Obama didn’t start his political career in the living room of former Weather Underground members. Anyone who thought that accurate must think the world was created six years ago.

Nov 21, 2008 - 1:08 am 50. buddy larsen:

Tut tut, old fellow, I have already ended my marginalization. The transfats you know. Bum for the old ticker.

Nothing but the freshest butter for me, churned nightly by the downstairs staff and served by old Mrs. Cavendish at eight o’clock sharp in the Tea Vestibule of the Tusk Room in the south library annex, along with my hot scones, orange marmalade, and of course the morning Times.

Nov 21, 2008 - 1:13 am 51. buddy larsen:

“The anti-”MSM” propaganda machine….”

hahaha –good one –how bout, “the anti-bulldozer tinkertoy”? “the anti-tsunami beachball”? “the anti-Tyrannosaurus-Rex bunny-wabbit”?

Nov 21, 2008 - 1:31 am 52. Lifeofthemind:

@buddy larsen,
Toss a scone at me at the next meeting of the Drones? What what?

Nov 21, 2008 - 7:29 am 53. Eggplant:

Look’s like the cat dragged in a couple moonbats.

Hate it when that happens, such a bother cleaning up the mess…

Nov 21, 2008 - 10:10 am 54. peterike:

Given the media skew, I think the best thing Palin can do for the country is chuck politics and become the white, conservative Oprah. Get a day time television show and hammer the ignorant female masses over the head with reality.

She could have a reading club like Oprah that pushes right-leaning books. She could promote conservative ideas. She could run investigative reports showing the perfidious behavior of Democrats. She could, in short, bring a sword of light into the belly of the beast. I think she would have 100 times the impact as a TV star than as a Senator or anything like that.

I hope she moves in that direction.

Nov 21, 2008 - 1:24 pm 55. Dave:

Buddy, Mrs Cavendish is a Dear, is she not?

Too bad her moonbat nephew bears the same
family name. Or is that moonbat niece?
These days with the name “Butch” Cavendish
one remains a bit unsure of gender.

In those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear, there was no such confusion. However, Silver will still run the miscreants down.

So Get’em Up Scout. Time for a bit of a go at the latest bunch of wogs.

Nov 21, 2008 - 7:44 pm 56. tommyvee:

As an Obama supporter, it amuses me to read conservatives railing against the “MSM”.
I thought conservatives believed that free markets and capitalism by definition produced the best possible results (the invisible hand and all that).
But the dreaded MSM is just a bunch of profit-seeking corporations, so by conservative defintion they are producing the best results possible (or do “conservatives” want government-run media instead).
Quite the cognitive dissonance there, not that I expect it to be addressed.
That push-poll by Zogby was full of half-truths and trick questions, so there is no suprise that people did not answer with the results that conservative orthodoxy would expect.
If this comments section is representative of conservative “thought” get ready for a long time in the wilderness, true believers.

Nov 23, 2008 - 9:28 am 57. Dave:

Dear tommyvee:

We conservatives will not tolerate government-run media.

Therefore, we are free to criticize the MSM—-or anybody else we choose to criticize.

That is the free market in operation.

Do not try to silence it.

Nov 23, 2008 - 7:36 pm

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