Posted on 10/28/2006 12:53:14 PM PDT by Phsstpok
Preview and analysis for Weekend Talk Shows, October 28th and 29th, 2006
It's the last two weekends of campaign '06 and all pretense (and restraint) has been abandoned. The reliable hard left old media is pulling out every stop and ignoring even the simplest of ethical consideration in their all out commitment to defeat Republicans and elect Democrats. CNN is leading the pack with expensively produced specials attacking the Republicans (their Broken Government series, for example) as well as their usual cast of Dhimmicrat attack dogs, Cafferty being the bleeding edge of their moonbat pack. Even Wolf Blitzer has taken the plunge with a bizarre ambush of Lynne Cheney about James Webbs pornographic novels when they had booked her to talk about her patriotic (and non-partisan) children's book (see The Latest October Surprise: Lynne Cheney thread for details). The oldest of the classic old media from their post war (WW2) glory days, the three broadcast networks, have totally given over their news operations to DNC talking points for the remainder of the campaign. And the older still print media "power houses," The New York Times, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek, declared war on America long ago.
This week they're no longer touting the polls because even their own stilted polls are trending the "wrong way" from their point of view. They're instead concentrating on three main themes: it's a done deal, why fight; if the Democrats don't win it's because the Republicans cheated / are racists; Republicans are evil, by definition. The "it's over, why fight?" argument (directed at conservatives) is being carried, with less and less conviction but more and more stridency, by the moonbat wing of the punditocracy, primarily based at MSNBC and CNN, but filtering out to all of the DBM. Think particularly of Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman and Jack Cafferty. The increasing number of stories about supposed voter suppression, "unfair" Republican get out the vote efforts and the growing number of race based attacks on the Republicans are intended to both energize the Democrat/moonbat base as well as provide excuses for losing along with a basis for litigation after the fact. Pay particular attention to the new spin about black voters not turning out because they are convinced that their votes don't count anyway (for example, Democrats Fear Disillusionment In Black Voters). Talk about a twofer. It "explains" that any lack of black Democrat turn out is because of evil Republicans, not abandonment of the Democrats, and it reinforces the notion that Republicans are trying to suppress the black vote. The DBM feeding frenzy over the Michael J. Fox controversy and the Harold Ford Playboy ad ("call me") were preordained, only the particular ads and issues were unknown until they broke. It's likely that the Fox / stem cell controversy was pre-planned, though the inclusion of Rush Limbaugh couldn't have been completely guaranteed, while the Harold Ford Jr. "race card" was a cocked gun from day one of that campaign. The bottom line for both is that Republicans are evil and must be defeated at all costs and "by any means necessary."
On to the shows.
NBC Meet The Press has what should be a barn burner debate. Tim Russert and Ben Cardin versus Michael Steele. I expect Steele to wipe up the floor with both of them. I wouldn't even be surprised if lil Timmah suddenly called in sick and let someone else take the debate. How about that well mannered and always temperate David Gregory? In the run up to this debate the DBM appears to have been concentrating on the Michael J. Fox / stem cell controversy as their main line of attack. Following the Steele campaign's highly effective rebuttal ad I think this will be minimized. The fall back position for a Democrat in that type of situation would be to play the race card (he's a Republican, therefore he's racist), except that Steele is black and Cardin is white. To top it off Cardin angrily stiffed a county NAACP group where he had agreed to debate Steele and went to a majority white county event elsewhere instead. It appears he did this when the country NAACP refused to attack Steele as Cardin wanted in the run up to the debate. This has clearly hurt Cardin in the critical black vote in Maryland. His counter argument is to agree to a state NAACP sponsored debate, but the state organization is recognized as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party, so that's just not going to play. I expect fireworks from a clearly desperate Cardin, DNC and their lackeys at NBC News. Steele strikes me as someone able to handle the hysteria. This could be a bellwether (I got it right this time, AB!) for how the rest of the national campaign will go. Steele might totally redefine the Republican party for the black community with this performance. Wouldn't that be interesting?
CBS Face The Nation offers us St. Murtha (no Abscam questions, please) and evil Duncan Hunter (are you now or have you ever been a capitalist?) along with Howard Dean and Ken Mehlman (not at the same time, of course, since Howard won't allow that, and he's the boss). Murtha and Hunt will no doubt square off over Iraq, with Murtha getting softball questions allowing him to pontificate profoundly on the failures of the Bush administration and Hunt being peppered with questions about "blaming the messenger" for daring to question CNN's showing a terrorist propaganda snuff film. Dean and Mehlman will be asked different questions by Old Bob (not at the same time), who no doubt wants Howard's take on the coming Democrat takeover of the House and Senate while he'll be most interested in getting Mehlman to address accusations of racism, dirty tricks and inevitable defeat surrounding the Republicans. No bias there. Move along. Move along.
Fox News Sunday repeats last weeks Schumer/Dole appearance from CBS and I expect much the same result: unchallenged over the top rhetoric from Schumer and lots of questions for Dole about how she bungled this campaign. Moving on to the Senate races they offer up Santorum, the presumed Republican loser in Pennsylvania and Ford, the presumed Democrat winner in Tennessee. With Ford they also have the opportunity to examine the evil Republican's playing the race card. I think the set up for this presumes a desperate Santorum and a confident Ford. I fully expect them to be very disappointed with the outcome, with Santorum exhibiting confidence, competence, poise and optimism, while I think Ford will be in full melt down mode. But I don't expect that the rest of the DBM will pay any attention if that is the case. Brit is missing from the panel (wonder where he is?) but Michael Barone will fill in. Barone is no Brit and won't even come close to smacking down Juan or Mara, but he is always interesting to listen to. I also expect Juan to go way over the top on the "Harold Ford vs. the racist Republican ad" issue. He's taking lots of heat over his book and he has to get back in the good graces of the boss man and overseer of the Democrat party's plantation, Howie Dean. I plan to compare what Dean says on the topic and what Juan says. I'm betting we'll find some verbatim comments (unless they actually read this... nah). And the fact that Mort isn't included can only mean that they don't plan on diving deep on embryonic stem cell research, which is one of his obsessions (he's in favor, screw any ethical questions).
ABC This Week continues this weeks DBM theme and takes it a step further up the obvious meter. John Boehner will serve as the poster boy for evil Republicans, with relentless questions about Foley and failure, while St. Michael (J. Fox) will be lavished with praise for his bravery and willingness to tell truth to power (Rush Limbaugh, the most evil man on the planet). What's truly incredible is that they'll believe every ridiculous word that they say as they try to pull this off. ABC is quickly becoming the home of the "true believers" of the American Democrat left. They have to do someothing to make up for that "Path to 9/11" sin that they committed against their heinouses, Bill and Hill. The ABC panel is locked into increasingly more strident Bush Derangement Syndrome support groups (it's OK to believe these things, since Bush really is Satan) and will no doubt rail against all things Bush. And to top it off they roll out Sarah Jessica Parker to talk about UNICEF and extol the virtues of that perfect government's efforts to "save the children." We must all surrender to the wisdom of the UN (and their friends in the Dhimmicrat party).
CNN Late Edition presents the DBM roadmap for the last part of campaign 2006 regarding Iraq. A panel heavily weighted with Bush critics is presented as "representative" and, in truth, it is. It's representative of the left's views of Iraq. Pay attention to what they say on this show and you'll get a complete preview, IMHO, of how the left will play out the Iraq issue in the closing days of the campaign. Wolf went all in with his ambush of Lynne Cheney on Friday and if his side loses on Novmber 7th the consequences for him and his profession are catastrophic. We may be witnessing the practical effects of a situation where one side has no way out. The apocryphal advice from Sun Tzu about always leaving your enemy an avenue of escape comes out of a practical understanding of what really happens when desperate people are cornered. So far they've only abandoned ethical constraints, but if pressed they may abandon the last shreds of reason.
The Saturday shows follow their recent pattern of dreck, dreck and more dreck, followed by The Journal Editorial Report addressing the issues all of the news shows should be addressing, regardless of their point of view. Ah well, it is the minor leagues, after all. I wonder how Newton Meadow would view today's 500 channel cable landscape, particularly the "news" programs?
So, the gloves are off and the agenda is clear. The Dhimmicrats and their allies in the DBM will do anything, say anything, tell any lie, ignore any ethical boundaries, so long as it gets power back for the "right party (the leftist one)." I repeat my prediction that the Dims won't take both chambers, not even the House by itself, and that they may just lose some seats. All of their calculations presume that they hold all of their seats and that clearly ain't gonna happen. I'm now betting that they lose some big seats this time around, ones they fully expected to hold, such as Harold's old House seat in Tennessee (thanks to brother Jake running as an independent). One note of concern has been raised in the last 24 hours that might spell disaster for us. It is being reported that Hugo Chavez has managed to take control of one of the major e-voting companies (not Diebold) through complicated dummy corporations to cover his involvement. If true I think it would mean that the Dhimmicrats have decided to make real for themselves the fantasies they've been spouting about Republicans rigging the vote and they turned to a Stalinist billionaire dictator to make it happen. Since their accusations of this type of fraud have been dismissed so consistently (because it didn't happen) how can Republicans dare to challenge even the most outlandish results if they skew to the Dhimmicrats?
Well, it's only about ten days till the opening law suit of the post election day election process. I wonder who it will be and when it will be decided?
This will cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com. This post exists primarily as a heads up for who is on the weekend talks shows, what they've been invited on to push (based on their recent pronouncements) and the spin (meme) the DBM is likely trying to push based on that information. All of this is prep work for the weekly Sunday Morning Talk Show thread posted by Alas Babylon!. That thread provides a live commentary and analysis of the Sunday talking head shows, with rare insight and exceptional fact checking. we are the Jedi Council of FreeRepublic, at least in regards to these DBM gabfests. You wanna know what was said and what it meant, as well as where they messed up? Read that thread!
Here's a link to Mark Kilmer's excellent preview of the Sunday shows over at RedState.COM. He beat me again this week. Third week in a row. Of course, the fact that I was out of state most of the week must be taken into consideration, but I'll try to do better (not next weekend, I'm traveling again this week and may even be later in posting next weekend).
I'll also post a link to this Sunday's live thread here when it is up.
have at it.
I just heard on Fox News that Michael Steele "crashed" a NAACP meeting...that Cardin was at.
Imagine...a black man having to CRASH a NAACP meeting....black people have been "propagandized" for so long...they are like the Palestinan kids...that are told Israeli's are pigs...
Yes, its so strange....NAACP invited all the candidates except Steele...the one black man in the race. Go figure.
I was reading through the abundant and wonderful list of articles about tomorrow's guests..and I hit the one under Ken Mehlman's name...that has Mike Rogers in the headline.
Well...the article was pretty smarmy...BUT, the first comment after the article was SO disgusting..I felt like I had been slapped.
Ugh...what a site you sent us to, Phsstpok...LOL
As far as I am concerned...THEY were being racist by not inviting him.
A black man, a REPUBLICAN, no, they can't have that!!..
What if the Republican party said NO to Steele??
BUT, watch the MSM try to shove Osbam Obama down our throats..
To be perfectly clear, I never endorse the content of the articles and sites I link to here. The intent is to show what others are thinking and saying about this person. That explains, for example, the inclusion of sites like AlterNet. Do you think I would go there willingly? Eeeewwwwwwww! <g>
I've been lying low today. I had a very hard (but productive) week down at Austin, but my eyes are 100% shot. That's one of the reasons that it took me so long to post this thread. The other is that my brain is also about 95% shot. I'm a burn out right now. I got home late on Thursday (including a little excitement with a near miss while my flight tried to land) and my "day off" to recover on Friday turned into 5 hours at my office plus several hours spent getting my early ballot cast (but I did get that done - WooHoo!). But I couldn't pass up on your post.
It's not my fault!
Seriously, I pulled several moonbat links this week. They are out in full force and that is part of what I took for my analysis. It's not so much that they said these things, it's that so many of them were saying such outrageous things and were still being picked up by the DBM as sources and things worthy of mention.
Think "Battle of the Bulge." I'd like to think we are collectively playing the part of General Anthony McAuliff in Bastone when he responded to the German's surrender demand with the simple phrase "Nuts!" (really they swear that's what he said).
LOL Of course I had to go check it out.
Actually, Jim Pinkerton took on Neal's more outrageous lies some this week. He seemed reluctant to push it, but he did challenge several things Neal said in very stark terms "Neal, that's just wrong" type of stuff.
I wonder how things will be after November 7 if the Dhimmicrats lose? We all know how the Stalinist thought police will act if they win.
Thanks, Bah. Has anyone (outside of CNN) seen those e-mails
Gabler: Media Have 'Tread Lightly' on Rush The 'Cancer'
Neal was just a tad over the top, and his closing smirk about "Bush messing up this country" was 100% a keeper. I'm looking forward to his contrite apology after November 7 and his admission that he has been wrong about everything he's ever said.
/NOT
What I'm really looking forward to is shoving that smirk down his throat.
I am sorry if it sounded like I was MAD at you...I really wasn't....I was more taken aback than anything.
I am also sorry you are having such a hard time with your vision.
This will be the last time I post...because I don't want you to have to strain your eyes any more than you already have.
Also...since I got Bahbah to look...it was worth it...LOL
Minx :)
I sure hope Steele wins!
It is the producers of these shows who LOOK for guests like Lugar...an ineffective Republican.
No problem at all. I wasn't mad and I'm sorry if I sounded that way.
Ooooo, you've given me an (evil) idea for the thread. I'll have to try to find at least one totally outrageous site to send everyone to each week. Now don't complain. It was kind of your idea, after all.
I have written off Cal Thomas since Katrina days. He is too easily swayed by Beltway opinion. The term "jerk" comes to mind.
Gabler also mentioned that he was writing a book about things like what Rush "did"!!! blech
Why is it racist?
Why is what racist?
Lynn Cheney is my hero after her slap down of Wolf.
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