What did we learn today?
Hey folks, your friendly neighborhood Stryker has joined the party here at Delaware Liberal. I intend to work the evening shifts, and with that in mind, let’s reflect on the day that was, November 16th, 2008.
1. Tom Noyes’ voice is so soothing, it deserves to be posted twice.
2. The Iraqi Cabinet sent their Parliament a resolution to have our troops out of Iraqi cities and towns by the end of June. Yes, June 2009 – but we can stay on the bases we’ve built until the end of 2011. This is a big green light for Obama to send most of those troops to Afghanistan to finish the job, and it effectively ends any argument the GOP could make against it.
3. Obama’s approval ratings: 59% (Rasmussen), 65% (Gallup). Bush’s disapproval rating is 65% according to Gallup, and for the full month of October, Rasmussen registers 64% disapproval. My favorite polling-related headline of the week is “75% of GOP Voters Fear Too Much Change“, which is as succinct a definition of conservatism as I’ve ever heard.
4. Elliot explains the PVI, which for Mike Castle is now D+7.
5. Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell thinks that newspapers should institute affirmative action for Republicans. That’s right, she thinks the media should ask job interviewees what their political alignment is, and making hiring decisions based on this. Her reasoning is that WaPo is losing subscribers, and she thinks targeting Washington Times readers is the answer, despite the country’s recent jump to the left. Newspapers trying to be more conservative is as likely to work as Republicans trying to be more conservative – and just as short-sighted.
6. Dana covers DNREC’s laughable insistence that the metal dust covering the cars and windows of residents living near the Claymont Steel mill isn’t dangerous because it’s “too heavy to breathe.” Paging Jack Markell; you’re going to need to clean house at DNREC – literally.
7. The Eagles tied the Bengals. Yes, tied; they are so inept that they couldn’t produce a single score for the entirety of overtime. Against the Bengals. Let me say this again: AGAINST THE BENGALS. I mean, seriously? What is wrong with these guys? The Eagles offense is falling apart – does anyone have an excuse for them? Fire Andy Reid, please.
Final thought: Faced with utter failure, the RNC may be turning to former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, which would really one-up this Onion story.
Good night.
“Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell thinks that newspapers should institute affirmative action for Republicans. That’s right, she thinks the media should ask job interviewees what their political alignment is, and making hiring decisions based on this.”
Nice spin, as usual, but a total mischaracterization of Howell’s article. Her argument is for journalistic diversity at the Post because of the repercussions of the blatant bias they showed during the campaign. Suddenly, you have a problem with diversity?
Mis,
The notion that any news media in this country needs to be more conservative is laughable on its face.
I think we’d all be happier if we had a system similar to the UK where a Newspaper/TV/Radio stations are more like Fox News in that their political bias is transparent. This sham objectivity that the US media goes for is BS.
X –
I heard that game on the radio and I have to say that it was probably the comically pitiful thing I’ve ever heard. Then, amazingly, it was matched in comic pitifulness by Andy Reid’s press conference.
X, I see that miscreant has welcomed you.
Welcome X!
Yep, conservatives are against affirmative action for people other than themselves.
Hey Delaware Liberal–What is this? The Christmas help? Everyone else is laying off–wow that is HOPE!
Just kidding…welcome XStryker–you must be something–DL couldn’t decide on an IC, so you must’ve really overwhelmed ’em.
Jason is right – I’d rather the media drop all pretense of objectivity, because it’s a sham. The media often ignores stories because they are afraid of seeming too liberal or too conservative. That does not advance the cause of truth and often promotes false moral equivalency. They already have conservative columnists on the opinion pages of liberal newspapers to go along with the liberal ones. Reporters should not be required to declare their politics to get hired, period.
Joanne – what’s an “IC”?
Insurance Commissioner
Ah… if only all decisions were as easy as X!
Heh, well, I filled in for Jason wayyy back in January 2007, plus my work on the primaries over at Election Inspection was pretty spot-on. So I guess you could say I’m something of a known quantity with a good track record. Of course, it’s up to me to bring my “A” game now that I’m a regular at the Delaware-blog-of-record.
“So I guess you could say I’m something of a known quantity with a good track record. ”
No, just another discordant voice in the partisan Greek Chorus that is Delaware Liberal. So much for diversity. Wait, that was the Washington Post.
Never mind.
Hi Xstryker!
Deborah Howell is a known bad excuse for a newspaper ombudsman, but I can’t imagine what hiring based upon political ideology will do for the Post — if you are a regular reader, they already have a fairly conservative editorial board and a quick look at their regular columnists shows a definite lean to the right. All accusations of bias towards McCain — by a media that was hugely friendly to him — was mostly due to the horrific campaign he waged. That campaign gave lots of media people lots of fodder to discuss the disorder of the campaign, to factcheck the barrage of character assassination pieces and rhetoric from the campaign, offer to compare the two campaigns and find the McCain effort wanting. And it took the media a very long time to get there. But Al Gore can tell you something about that, I think.
I don’t mind the so-called objectivity as much as I mind the lack of effort to give any of the he say she say crap some context or basic fact-checking.
“I don’t mind the so-called objectivity as much as I mind the lack of effort to give any of the he say she say crap some context or basic fact-checking.”
You mean like *fact checking* this statement?
“Deborah Howell is a known bad excuse for a newspaper ombudsman…”
I’m a bit surprised the left hasn’t thoroughly investigated her background and launched a smear campaign (like Joe the Plumber and S. Palin), simply because she stated the obvious in a very objective report.
Perhaps we should investigate Howell’s countertops. Oh wait, that was the Malkinites.
Jason knows what he is talking about, for example, KWS has named Tom Gordon to her transition team…..
Ugh, Gharmon, is that true? How did you hear this?
Joe the Plum soiled his own name with obvious contradictions and proving a total lack of knowledge of political and economic systems.
This is easily applied to the crap Palin’s been spewing…
In other words “Character Suicide”, not assassination fool.
The PR disaster that was Palin and not-Joe the not-Plumber was wholly the fault of John McCain. McCain just has a tendency to latch on to ideas without really considering them. If he’d thought it over, he might have floated Palin as a trial balloon so that she could have done some interviews and proven her mettle or lack thereof. While the media was out wasting their time getting to know Pawlenty (who easily survived the process), they could have been talking to Palin as well, and that would have given McCain’s people more to work with as far as seeing if she could hold up her end of the bargain (answer: No). And making “Joe the Plumber” the centerpiece of the entire third debate was not only an idiotic idea that put the nail in the coffin of his campaign, but it was obviously going to turn Joe the Plumber into an overnight celebrity. When you turn someone into a celebrity, that person is going to have as much privacy as Lindsey Lohan. Fox News stood right along side the rest of the media to feed that hunger.