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The Tears of Clowns (A bummed MSNBC)
National Review ^ | September 04, 2008 | Stephen Spruiell

Posted on 09/05/2008 3:21:45 AM PDT by nickcarraway

If you watched MSNBC on mute Wednesday night after Sarah Palin’s speech, it looked like the top story was that a hurricane swept through the North Pole and killed Santa Claus, so crestfallen were the network’s stars. It was the same with the sound up. Keith Olbermann’s first words after the applause in the Xcel Center finally died down were, “That appears to be the end of it.” He sounded relieved.

The same man who literally couldn’t find anything wrong with Barack Obama’s speech in Denver last week — calling it “spellbinding,” “fully realized” and “tough” — found that the best he could say of Palin’s speech was, “People who like this sort of thing will find this… the sort of thing they like.”

Chris Matthews, who gets thrills up his leg when Obama speaks, sounded shell-shocked. “Well, I have to say that I was completely surprised by what I saw,” he said, without an ounce of enthusiasm. “She is a torpedo aimed directly at the ship of Barack and Michelle Obama. That’s what she is. She’s an alternative to them. This is not an alternative to Hillary. This is a cultural alternative to Obama and his proposed First Lady. This is a very direct cultural shot.”

After he’d had a moment to compose himself, Olbermann tried to come up with a better reaction. Of the speech, he said there was some “condescension in there towards Obama.” Condescension is an interesting word. Here’s a woman who was belittled for being a small-town mayor by a guy who described small-town people as clinging to their guns and religion because they’re bitter. And yet, when she hits him back, she’s the condescending one.

It wasn’t just MSNBC’s anchors who were struggling to respond. On the floor of the convention center, a visibly depressed Andrea Mitchell interviewed a beaming Rudy Giuliani about Palin’s speech. Some context: Last week, reporting from among the Democratic delegates at Invesco Field, Mitchell relayed the reaction of the delegates to some of Obama’s best lines, literally shouting, “Whooee! Whooee!” into the camera.

But there would be no sharing in the Republican delegates’ joy over Palin’s speech for Mitchell. Instead, after her interview with Rudy was over (sample question: “And you don’t think she’s vulnerable on the size and scale of her executive experience and the brevity of her political experience?”), she stared dead-eyed into the camera and said, “The war has begun.”

Some might say the war actually began when the media decided to aggressively pursue every smear against Palin the left-wing blogosphere could think up. First, they questioned the maternity of Palin’s son, Trig, after a left-wing blog accused Palin of faking the pregnancy to cover for her daughter, Bristol. This forced the campaign to make a very private matter — Bristol’s real pregnancy — public. (Bristol’s pregnancy predates Trig’s birth by two months, proving she’s not his mother.)

The latest smear is an attempt to paint Palin as an anti-Semite. Two weeks ago, the executive director of a group called Jews for Jesus spoke at Palin’s church. Her pastor says she was in church that day. The guest speaker made some controversial comments and insinuated that the conflict in the Middle East is attributable to God’s “judgment of unbelief.” So, just to be clear: This was a guest speaker, not a man that Palin sought out, befriended, and received spiritual guidance from for over 20 years.

Nevertheless, the newest addition to MSNBC’s prime-time line-up, Air America radio host Rachel Maddow, was quick to imbue this story with grave portent Wednesday night after Palin’s speech. “Was she sitting in the pew in her church in Wasilla two weeks ago when a speaker said that the Israelis deserves terrorist attacks because Jews are unbelievers in Christ?” Maddow said. “I mean, there are tough questions she’s going to have to answer.”

Maybe so. Maybe someday, the media’s campaign to bury Sarah Palin will yield something more substantial than the smears and innuendo we’ve seen so far. Maybe somewhere, a left-wing blogger is closely inspecting a JPEG that will sink McCain’s campaign. But there is no joy in MSNBC-ville — mighty Sarah has struck back.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008rncconvention; andreamitchell; demsmearmachine; hatinpalin; maddow; mccainpalin; mediabias; mediameltdown; msnbc; olbermann; palin; palinspeech; propagandawingofdnc
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To: nickcarraway

MSNBC bias from last night

Maddox “keep her on the minor league circut she has not been before the national press”

O’Donnel “we’ll have to see if it was too sharp in terms of tone”

Brokaw [Just read all the Democrat critical talking points on Palin from a sheet of paper, he’s bitter in tone]

Brokaw “I was struck by the attacks on the media”

Brokaw “they don’t do that by accident” [yep Tom It’s because they love America]

O’Donnel “at times this was sarcastic”

Mitchell (to Rudy)”she’s going after the very people you represent”

Mitchell “is she vulnerable on the size and scale and brevity of her experience”

Mitchell “the game is on Keith, the war has begun”

Olberman “is that the right tone”

Olberman “did the expected dynamics of the Vice Presidential Debate change”[like dealing with reality? Keith?]

Olberman “Bristol Palin holding her brother Trig”

Maddox “that’s what the PTA Mom stuff is about”

Maddox “she’s got to be likable enough to overshadow that”

Mitchell “Do you think the Republican should really go after Democrats”

Mitchell “how do you compare Palin against Obama” [because Biden can’t come close?]

Mitchell “Sarah Palin comes with no (bla-bla-bla) experience”

Curry “Bristol holding the baby”

Curry “Bristol is there, so is her boyfriend” [just had to include red meat for MSNBC employees like Shivers Matthews]

Brokaw (on Romney) “he has been a member of the eastern capitol” [little jealous fella?]

Brokaw “alls fair in love and war and at political conventions”[coming from an MSNBC employee, we know who Toms in the tank with, Obama]

MSNBC Olberman now trying to insult Sarah Palin on her ‘geographical travel’, most likely she hasn’t done a lot, but it don’t matter Keith, Americans Love Sarah, and are getting wiser to you

Ron Allen [the guy Newt scrambled last night] “only been out of the country I think once”[Obviously doesn’t know facts, but the bias shows. Who ya in the tank for? Ron?]

Buchanan “will it send a tingle up your leg”

Matthews “I always report” (what I feel in the hall)paraphrased

Matthews “without casting any moral judgment on this”

Matthews “dig up stuff on the people who would rule this nation”[Your finally going to tell us about Obama?]

Matthews “some good reporter does that job”[MSNBC has yet to hire one of those]

Unknown round table MSNBC staff seated next to Buchanan “wouldn’t pass the smell test” [obviously shaken][found out it was Rachel Maddox]

MSNBC Rachel Maddox was about to go on about abortion, but I think they cut her short on purpose

Mitchell “speech modified from some unknown VP pick(?), made less masculine”

Brokaw “controversial choice”

Matthews “Gov Palin as David, us as Goliath”

Maddox(last nite) “the word ‘Bush’ was not spoken”(by any of the speakers)

MSNBC guest Congressmen Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) ”we know what Obama’s judgment on these issues, he’s been asked questions on the campaign trail”

Von Holland “We didn’t hear from them last nite on the economy”

Von Holland “Barak has talked about his vision for the last 18 months”

Von Holland “McCain rushed to judgment”(on VP pick)[good, we got a winner with that rushed judgment]

Matthews “no one doubts Palin is a political rookie” [Shivers ‘Goliath’ Matthews]

Maddox is still trying to make a big deal out of ‘vetting’[and she is even meaner tonite]

O’Donnel admission “well she has had a little experience as an executive”

[Challenge for Olberman]

[Olberman reads a statement about the personal attacks on the Palin Family]

Olberman “there no one I can think of that said anything like that”

.
I can, just last nite your buddy, Shivers ‘Goliath’ Matthews, Olberman- go back and check your MSNBC show last night at just prior to this time stamp, Tuesday, September 02, 2008 11:14:32 PM:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2073048/posts?page=2660#2660

To: Mr. Binnacle

Oh God, MSNBC, now Shivers Matthews can’t get over attacking the Palin Family, can’t win on Ideas, Shivers?

2,660 posted on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 11:14:32 PM by Son House


21 posted on 09/05/2008 4:19:39 AM PDT by Son House (Palin, Has The Left Press Wailing! [MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, New York Times,...])
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To: nickcarraway
If you watched MSNBC on mute Wednesday night after Sarah Palin’s speech, it looked like the top story was that a hurricane swept through the North Pole and killed Santa Claus, so crestfallen were the network’s stars.

Andrea Mitchell's face got even longer than usual.

22 posted on 09/05/2008 4:22:30 AM PDT by Allegra (Give 'em hell, Sarah!)
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To: 101voodoo
someone should do a U-tube split-screen video comparing Andrea at the Dem convention and then at the GOP convention with the title...Is the media biased??.....let the people decide
23 posted on 09/05/2008 4:23:43 AM PDT by M-cubed (Why is "Greshams Law" a law?)
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To: Son House
Brokaw “I was struck by the attacks on the media”

You can dish it out, but you can't take it, eh, Tom?

24 posted on 09/05/2008 4:26:41 AM PDT by Allegra (Give 'em hell, Sarah!)
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To: Misschuck

“I liked Brit Hume. After reading a canned response from the Obama campaign, he looked at the camera and said well maybe they’ll have something more original to say after they have had time to think about it.”

I caught that too. It’s why he’s the best anchorman on televison.


25 posted on 09/05/2008 4:29:28 AM PDT by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: txzman

MSN has become such a joke. Maybe that’s why almost no one is watching. Drudge says nearly 3 times as many people have watched Fox during the convention. I suspect only angry lefties, like the scum who interrupted McCain, are the ones watching.


26 posted on 09/05/2008 4:32:01 AM PDT by TNCMAXQ
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To: Catholic Iowan

Ping for later.


27 posted on 09/05/2008 4:33:43 AM PDT by carumba (The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. Groucho)
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To: Darkwolf377
-- I'm starting to think that MSNBC's audience is made up of MSNBC employees, who then go on-air and talk about what they've just seen. --

There is no shortage of leftists. Underestimating the number of them would be a mistake. Besides being comprised of loonie-lefties, MSNBC merely caters to that audience. MSNBC is an excellent bellwether for "progressive" reaction, lies, half-truths, and lines of argument.

I watched the same network after Sarah Palin's speech, just for that reason. Andrea Mitchell looked like she was on depressants - Nora O'Donnell was at first enthused by the speech, but soon picked up the contact "anti-buzz" from her peers in the network, that she needed to find ways to criticize.

28 posted on 09/05/2008 4:43:38 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Catholic Iowan

That video of Mitchell is priceless!


29 posted on 09/05/2008 4:46:43 AM PDT by SW6906 (6 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, horsepower, guns and ammunition.)
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To: nickcarraway

Rachel, before you speak you must remove Hillary’s pubic hairs from your mouth, otherwise we just can’t understand your guttural utterances!


30 posted on 09/05/2008 4:56:27 AM PDT by Doc Savage ("Are you saying Jesus can't hit a curve ball? - Harris to Cerrano - Major League)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
That “country music” was Gretchen Wilson - singing the National Anthem.

Thanks for this information.

31 posted on 09/05/2008 4:56:28 AM PDT by syriacus (FIRST check out the Alaska state webpages. THEN tell me that governing Alaska is easy.)
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To: Doc Savage

Keith Olbermann-Rachel Maddow’s bitch!


32 posted on 09/05/2008 5:03:34 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus (( commander of the simian host))
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To: nickcarraway
The guest speaker made some controversial comments and insinuated that the conflict in the Middle East is attributable to God’s “judgment of unbelief.”

I just HATE it went folks do that!


Hebrews 3:16-19
 16.  Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
 17.  And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?
 18.  And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed ?
 19.  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
 

 
Romans 11
 
 1.  I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
 2.  God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah--how he appealed to God against Israel:
 3.  "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me" ?
 4.  And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
 5.  So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
 6.  And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
 7.  What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
 8.  as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day."
 9.  And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
 10.  May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."
 11.  Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
 12.  But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
 13.  I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry
 14.  in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
 15.  For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
 16.  If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
 17.  If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
 18.  do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
 19.  You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."
 20.  Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
 21.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
 22.  Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
 23.  And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
 24.  After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
 25.  I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
 26.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
 

 
33 posted on 09/05/2008 5:03:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 101voodoo
However as seen by everyone, this woman is anything but a shrinking Violet and in fact seems to actually grow in the face of the attacks on her.

Or GLOW!! ;^)

34 posted on 09/05/2008 5:05:21 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Catholic Iowan
Great video of a bummed out Mitchell.

You could tell that the Republican closing of the gender gap addled her brain as she spoke these words, "Mayor Rudith Giul...."

35 posted on 09/05/2008 5:05:27 AM PDT by syriacus (FIRST check out the Alaska state webpages. THEN tell me that governing Alaska is easy.)
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To: Catholic Iowan

I’m with the YouTube poster that said she was on a ton of Valuim.

That’s not depression, that’s medication. Valuim or Xanax, she was swallowing them like M&Ms.

I worked Psych, I know the look and she has it, big time.


36 posted on 09/05/2008 5:05:46 AM PDT by netmilsmom (If John's McCain's spirit was not broken by the Hanoi Hilton, it won't be by the angry left)
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To: nickcarraway

BFP

(Bookmarked for posterity.)


37 posted on 09/05/2008 5:07:10 AM PDT by syriacus (FIRST check out the Alaska state webpages. THEN tell me that governing Alaska is easy.)
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To: M-cubed

I bet I can find that!


38 posted on 09/05/2008 5:07:23 AM PDT by netmilsmom (If John's McCain's spirit was not broken by the Hanoi Hilton, it won't be by the angry left)
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To: Catholic Iowan
She obviously isn’t a happy camper.

"The game is on: the war has begun."

39 posted on 09/05/2008 5:09:12 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: nickcarraway
Maddow said. “I mean, there are tough questions she’s going to have to answer.”

Yeah... Sure...


Job 38

1. Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2. "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
3. Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

40 posted on 09/05/2008 5:12:45 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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