Well, that was an interesting coincidence, or a bit of fortuitous timing, or something. I came across this post when I started cruising the web at work this morning:
The rhetorical ground is already being set, with these two races its supposed proofs: look at how well Chris Christie did in a blue state! Look at how Cuccineli’s extremism lost us Virginia!
I sincerely hope Cuccinelli can pull it off. But I think the deck has been very intentionally stacked against him. It’s time we understood a simple truth: Every political battle now is an attack on the TEA Party by the status quo ruling class. And that’s because the TEA Party is the last barrier to the surrender of individual sovereignty and the permanence of big government statism favored by crony capitalists, corporatists, and liberal fascists.
Earlier, while I was watching CBS morning news show ("Your world in 90 seconds!"), I heard an analyst or consultant or whatever the hell CBS calls him make the same point: A moderate Republican is going to win overwhelmingly in a blue state! A Tea Party-backed nutjob is about to lose in a Red State! Take a hint and turn your back on extremism, you silly Republicans.
This CBS employee, it must be pointed out, is a "former member of the Obama administration." And he's the guy CBS turns to to give us a fair and honest assessment of the current political scene?Jeez, don't suppose they're trying to control the agenda and pull us all into "moderation," do you? Nah, that's preposterous.
Also reporing in another segment this morning was "senior correspondent" John Miller, who is a former FBI administrator. Today he was reporting on a mall shooting that turned out not to be a mall shooting, but usually he covers national security angles, especially the NSA's habit of oversnooping. And, guess what? In his reports, there is always a legitimate explanation, no matter how much our privacy is invaded. It's never NSA's fault. Not exactly objective, eh?
We hear a lot these days about the revolving door between Washington and the press corp, but usually the focus is on journalists who join the administration, because it offers proof that today's reporters are overwhelmingly liberal. I think we ought to pay a little more attention to traffic the other way, administration officials who wind up in the press.
I hasten to add that I've seen CBS start to do some actual honest reporting on the Obamacare rollout debacle, including some hard numbers I'm sure were pretty hard to come by. So has ABC News, and their Washington correspondent was the victim of some sneering Jay Carney sarcasm just because he tried to ask a straightforward question Carney didn't want to answer. (See video below.)
The rollout has been so bad that even some ardent Obama cheerleaders, like the Washington Post, are starting to do some real reporting. But we'll always have The New York Times editorial board to uphold the proud journalistic tradition of speaking truth to power:
Congressional Republicans have stoked consumer fears and confusion with charges that the health care reform law is causing insurers to cancel existing policies and will force many people to pay substantially higher premiums next year for coverage they don’t want. That, they say, violates President Obama’s pledge that if you like the insurance you have, you can keep it.
Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that.
Yeah, he "misspoke." And Gen. Custer took a little misstep. Honestly, what are we going to do about those evil Republicans who are stoking consumer fears and confusion with the nefarious ploy of telling the truth? The bastards!
