The pride of Pennsylvania

No sense in reporting both sides of the story, is there ?

Dan — Have you emailed copies of this link to Emily Rooney and Joe Sciacca? On ‘Beat the Press’ last night the two of them were working overtime to downplay any other story on this issue that wasn’t from the veteran, 30-year journalist.The young man got some fascinating stuff. My one criticism is that he should have taken a page from Errol Morris’ book and posed the question and let the people talk. The follow-up questions seemed to shut down a group that was willing to open up much more than they did on the video.

And I think Ferraro countered with “kiss a little ass,” which was hilarious. But here is another example cranberrycynic could have posted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stIThere has always been volatility of opinions and political views in this country. Some have been based on fact; some on fear. Some on hate and anger; some on perceived rights. We go through this every two years. Any student of history knows that this happens each and every cycle. The difference is that we are more connected to data and information than ever before. Instead of editorial cartoons and headlines in our newspapers displaying some of the most rancorous of opinions, we’re getting it fast and furious and digital. There really is little difference between the hatred displayed between Palin supporters mimicking Obama for his middle name, “Hussein” and New Yorkers booing and flipping McCain supporters the bird; Palin supporters showing off their Curious George Obama dolls and McCain supporters being calle fascists and Nazis. It’s all the same. It may seem new – or at least the last 16 or 17 years, probably since Bill Clinton was elected – but it actually goes back a lot further than that. Each side uses their own mechanisms to excite their own cause and keep us distracted over the crumbs while the top dogs destroy the country and steal trillions. Frankly, as someone who considers himself a political junkie and devours this stuff, I’m really sick of it all at this point. The 2008 presidential campaign has been too long. It has been vacant on substance. I’m sick of the lying on both sides … I’m sick of the fact that every supporter of the two major campaigns are controlled zombies following orders instead of being free-thinking people and realizing that a little bit of both campaigns – with a lot of Ralph Nader thrown in – is the answer to the country’s problems … I’m sick of campaign ads fibbing and twisting things [“McCain voted for trade deals that sent jobs overseas and destroyed the middle class…” eh, yeah, so did Joe Biden and a majority of Congressional Democrats!] … I’m sick of the brainwashing of things like the classic “Palin is inexperienced” when, in fact, she has more experience in executive offices, more experience balancing budgets, more experience as a small business owner, and more experience firing or attempting to fire bad government employees than Obama. Obama has more experience as a community organizer and more experience serving in legislative bodies. The difference? She isn’t at the top of the ticket. If you don’t like her opinions, that’s fine. But you can’t lie about experience. They are pretty much equal as far as experience goes. Yesterday, I was saddened to read that Bill Siroty will no longer be publishing NH News Links, a source for a lot of great stuff for many of us over the years: http://www.politickernh.com/brianlawson/4257/end-era-nh-politicsReading this made me realized that, you know, there are a lot of important things out there that many of us may be missing because of our connection to everything online. I don’t post much – I have my own blogs, work stuff, and I post occasional comments here and PolitickerNH.com. But after this cycle, maybe we should all take a breather … assuming it isn’t a nail biter like 2000.

“I’m sick of the fact that every supporter of the two major campaigns are controlled zombies following orders instead of being free-thinking people and realizing that a little bit of both campaigns – with a lot of Ralph Nader thrown in – is the answer to the country’s problems”And I’m sick of people who pretend to outside the fray and make comments about how everyone else is a lemming.”If you don’t like her opinions, that’s fine. But you can’t lie about experience. They are pretty much equal as far as experience goes.”Of course you can’t lie about experience. The difference is Palin apparently hasn’t *learned* anything from her experience and she certainly hasn’t shown the intellectual capacity to grasp complex issues. Experience is useless if you keep doing the same stupid things over and over and her pattern of hiring cronies, abusing her authority, and getting whatever she governs into financial difficulty seems to be her level of capacity.The need of the media and people in general to perform some sort of calculus to say both sides are equally bad amazes me. Both sides are *not* the same.

I grew up in Western PA in the 1980’s, and I think that Palin supporters in the video voice attitudes that are still widespread, especially in rural areas. As a youth, I saw robed Klansmen creating disturbances in two PA towns. I remember seeing the word ‘nigger’ written on walls at my high school. Even today, it’s not uncommon to hear racist remarks about blacks, Jews and Hispanics in casual conversation. And all of this occurs in an area of the country where evangelical churches flourish. James Carville was right when he said that PA was Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with “Alabama up the middle.” I look very skeptically at polls which give Obama a ten-point lead in PA.

Ani: I am a staunch opponent of campaign finance “reform,” as I made clear on BTP. Probably the only thing Mitch McConnell and I agree on. I have no problem with Obama’s huge fundraising advantage.That said, the broadcast stations, by law and regulation, have public-service obligations. They enjoy an enormous benefit in the form of their broadcast licenses, and they are supposed to give back to the community. Providing free time for presidential candidates is one of the ways they should be required to give back. This would also be the perfect forum to hear from the third-party candidates.The networks benefit from these licenses both indirectly (network-affiliated stations) and directly (networked-owned and -operated stations). So yes, it comes down to the networks.The cable stations would presumably have different and fewer obligations, by the way. And once we move to all-Internet distribution, there should be no regulation or obligations.But as long as broadcasters are making use of a scarce public resource — the airwaves — they should be required to serve the public in return.

The idea that Ralph Nader, or anyone else from outside the two major parties, is the answer is inane on its face. No third-party candidate would be able to get anything done in Washington. It’s hard enough for the party in power to accomplish anything. Without a built-in constituency in Congress, Nader would be DOA. (And listening to him speak lately, I’m not so sure that isn’t the case already.)

Thanks for the video, Dan.Now I know where all the pro-casino folks I met at anti-casino rallies came from.

I am still amazed by people who say that Obama and Palin have roughly the same experience/qualifications. No, they don’t, and it’s not even close. Obama graduated from Columbia University with a political science degree that specialized in international relations. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he lectured in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, one of the most prestigious in the world. After practicing law and serving as a community organizer–which the Republicans find funny–Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate representing a district with a population about equal to the entire state of Alaska, and more than 60 times larger than the population of Wasilla. Face it, Obama is a well educated, widely read, intelligent person with more exposure to Joe’s–both sixpack and plumbers–than Sarah Palin will have in a lifetime. The part that is really a riot is the fact that these days we treat smart, articulate people as out of touch elitists.

Tony:1. If you’ve got or can point to a video of Obama supporters acting as grotesquely as the folks in that Palin video, let’s have it. And let’s have them be recognizably Obama supporters, as opposed to pro-Mumia hippies or some damn thing. I agree that “Nazis” and “fascists” are out of bounds, but “warmongers” is a pretty accurate summation of McCain’s and Palin’s public statements and, in McCain’s case, his record.2. It was Mike who pointed to Obama’s Harvard education, not me. I think Obama would have been much better off if he’d gone to Northeastern.3. You keep bringing up Palin’s experience in running a small business. I must say, that’s a new one on me. Care to enlighten us?

Tony, let’s agree to disagree–agreeably. Honestly, I think you and I could balance Wasilla’s budget between innings of the Red Sox game tonight, and still have time to go to the fridge. Especially if, as the Guv likes to do, we decide that our philosophy is to boost our friends and nail our opponents.

Whether or not you might think balancing the budget in Wasilla was a difficult job, it was no doubt made substantially easier because the city hired a Town Manager to perform much of the administrative work.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129596.htmlThis is pretty despicable, no?

“3. You keep bringing up Palin’s experience in running a small business. I must say, that’s a new one on me. Care to enlighten us?”The Palins own a fisheries business and a snowmobile racing business. She had a consulting firm for a while and they have both made small investments in other family businesses. So, yeah, she has small business experience.

http://www.local6.com/politics/17784129/detail.htmlIt gets more frightening…