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‘Conservative entertainment complex’ killing GOP
Marietta Daily Journal ^ | November 16, 2012 | Kevin Foley

Posted on 11/16/2012 1:32:07 PM PST by ExxonPatrolUs

Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s seven-hour waiting lines in Florida’s minority voting precincts, President Obama won the state’s 29 electoral votes, giving him a 332-206 victory and, more important, a clear mandate to lead America forward.

Just two weeks ago, Republicans were told by Fox News’ resident genius Dick Morris the election was in the bag. So, what happened?

David Frum may have the answer.

“The problem with Republican leaders is that they’re cowards, not that they’re fundamentally mistaken,” said the conservative pundit and former George W. Bush speechwriter. “Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex.”

That “complex” includes Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, along with Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and scores of other far-right flamethrowers.

“Mitt Romney ... was twisted into pretzels,” Frum explains. “The people who put cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking.”

Right-wing opinion entertainers are successful because they tap the anger, mistrust, and resentment conservatives feel about the role of government by comingling entertainment and politics.

This combination has attracted large audiences by demonizing and disparaging those with whom conservatives disagree, people like Democrats, environmentalists, feminists, and civil rights activists.

(Excerpt) Read more at mdjonline.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: death; foxnews; gop; romney2012; talkradio
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1 posted on 11/16/2012 1:32:12 PM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

Oh, good, I get to be first! FUDF!


2 posted on 11/16/2012 1:35:29 PM PST by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

Frum is an idiot.


3 posted on 11/16/2012 1:35:44 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: ExxonPatrolUs
The problem with Republican leaders is that they’re cowards...

The author got this much correct.

4 posted on 11/16/2012 1:36:14 PM PST by Ingtar (Everyone complains about the weather, but only Liberals try to legislate it.)
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To: Flag_This

All the pundits were telling Romney to avoid social “wedge” issues.

“Mitt Romney ... was twisted into pretzels,” Frum explains. “The people who put cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking.”


5 posted on 11/16/2012 1:38:45 PM PST by o2bfree (All us minorities got us an Obamaphone!!!)
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

Little Kevin better git himself some iron underpants. What a crock.

This election was stolen in a selected set of key precincts in states where there was a contest. It was stolen because of a myriad number of drive-time AM radio stations (e.g., here in Atlanta) spouting talking points, Democrat insurgency masquerading as “Truth Detector” spots on the radio (again, here in Atlanta with WSB and the AJC)....and on and on and on.

It was stolen in a manner totally suspending disbelief in statistics where too-many-to-couny precints in PA and OH where reporting ZERO votes for Romeny/Ryan...

It was Stolen! If I ever meet that snaggletooth Kevin, I’ll punch him in the face and tell him so.


6 posted on 11/16/2012 1:39:13 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

So...

...the narrative is being set, exactly as predicted. Conservatives like Limbaugh, Levin et., al, are the ‘problem’ in the GOP and such ‘extremists’ tap into hate - and therefore divide Americans from cooperating with an all-intrusive government tyranny that exists for the benevolence of the plebes.

The unspoken solution: silence them and remove them.

That about sum it up?

That’s where all this goes anyway.


7 posted on 11/16/2012 1:39:18 PM PST by INVAR ("Fart for liberty, fart for freedom and fart proudly!" - Benjamin Franklin)
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

There was massive fraud in black wards...everyone knows this...in places in Penn. and Ohio Romney did not get a single vote...while tens of thousands were tallied for The One. It’s impossible that not one person in some wards did not, at least mistakenly, vote for the wrong candidate.

Same is likely true in Florida...we don’t have free and fair elections anymore...we have multi-day get-out-the-vote efforts by union thugs. They vote thousands of illegals and convicted felons...and nobody seems to care.

The media will not cover this corruption because the media has become corrupted.

It’s a mess.


8 posted on 11/16/2012 1:41:27 PM PST by kjo (+)
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

Frum is upset that Romney tried to veer right to appease Conservatives, and says the solution is to simply NOT appeal to Conservatives.

So Frum is suggesting that the GOP destroys itself in order to “save” it.


9 posted on 11/16/2012 1:44:11 PM PST by Shadow44
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

FNC is as middle of the road as a channel can be. It is not “conservative”.


10 posted on 11/16/2012 1:44:16 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: ExxonPatrolUs
Frum is usually wrong about everything.

In this example he is completely wrong about Rush Limbaugh.

But Hannity and O'Reilly are blowhards with nothing original or important to say. Glenn Beck is, to put it mildly, "eccentric." Coulter was once sharp but is now a self-caricature. Laura Ingraham is derivative, but not nearly as clownish as O'Reilly.

We do not need Frum's weak ideas. Dole/Kemp was his idea of a dream ticket.

We need principled conservatism that is long-term in its thinking.

11 posted on 11/16/2012 1:44:16 PM PST by wideawake
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To: ExxonPatrolUs
Columnist Cal Thomas, echoing Romney’s “47 percent” crack, claimed the 62.2 million Americans who voted for Obama are “freeloaders” and “moochers.”

Sorry, Folks, but there's merit in this comment. When I hear a woman in Cleveland telling people to "Vote Obama 'cuz he git me a free cell phone", I knew we were in trouble. It will never happen, but I'd love to see a current events test as a prerequisite to voting, or at least show that you paid income taxes and that you have something in the game before you can affect the outcome of that game. The truth is, there are now more people not paying taxes than those who do and that has no long run viability.

12 posted on 11/16/2012 1:44:51 PM PST by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: kjo

I believe it was 19,000 to ZERO in favor of the kenyan in those 59 Philly precincts. Impossible.

I think some of the talk of PA being close spooked the dims and they absolutely committed fraud.


13 posted on 11/16/2012 1:45:08 PM PST by lodi90
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To: kjo

“.in places in Penn. and Ohio Romney did not get a single vote.”

-

Where did you get your information? I would love to throw in the faces of a few libs I know.

.


14 posted on 11/16/2012 1:50:33 PM PST by Mears
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To: Flag_This
Oh, good, I get to be first! FUDF!

Good job and a hearty amen. The instant I saw that David Frum was the source for the "answer" my first thought was . . .
15 posted on 11/16/2012 1:51:06 PM PST by rockvillem
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To: ExxonPatrolUs

I don’t even understand his point, here. Obviously he’s embarrassed by people like Rush. But Romney lost because he was afraid to tell the far right off? On what do we base this conjecture? Had anyone been told before the election that the turnout would be as low as it was and that Obama would lose as many votes from 08 as he did they’d automatically assume Republicans won. But they didn’t, and Romney got less votes than McCain of all people.

That implies conservatives stayed home. Tell me they were turned off by Romney not criticizing Rush enough. What utter nonsense. I could see Drum’s point if the conservative blusterers alienated independents. That’s an old tune. But this argument is that conservatives are being radicalized, that they are out of touch, and that that somehow lost the election. It makes no sense.

What about the leftist media complex? It’s bigger and at least as cloistered and self-rationalizing as the Fox-plus-AM-plus-Internet cabal that apparently decided the election. I’d tend to think they’d even eachother out. But Drum is only concerned about the right side. Because he’s embarrassed by them at Washington cocktail parties, because libs mistake him for being one of them, and for no other reason.

By the way, if the Fluke distraction actually cost Romney votes then democracy doesn’t work.


16 posted on 11/16/2012 1:51:28 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: ExxonPatrolUs
"by demonizing and disparaging those with whom conservatives disagree, people like Democrats, environmentalists, feminists, and civil rights activists."

Nobody has to demonize these freaks; they demonize themselves just by existing.

17 posted on 11/16/2012 1:51:46 PM PST by CatherineofAragon (The idiocracy has come home to roost. God help us.)
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To: Ingtar

“The author got this much correct”

Yeah, but to him they’re cowards because they don’t make fun of conservative talking heads enough to sick up to libs. Which is his definition of courage because it’s what he does for a living.


18 posted on 11/16/2012 1:53:19 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: wideawake
"In this example he is completely wrong about Rush Limbaugh.

But Hannity and O'Reilly are blowhards with nothing original or important to say. Glenn Beck is, to put it mildly, "eccentric." Coulter was once sharp but is now a self-caricature. Laura Ingraham is derivative, but not nearly as clownish as O'Reilly"

I'm in complete agreement with you. Rush is still good, but my favorite is Mark Levin.

19 posted on 11/16/2012 1:54:08 PM PST by CatherineofAragon (The idiocracy has come home to roost. God help us.)
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To: Tublecane

Yeah, he thinks he’s so smart why? He wrote one speech for W?


20 posted on 11/16/2012 1:54:47 PM PST by Fledermaus (The Republic is Dead: Collapse the system. Let the Dems destroy the economy!)
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