2008 US Election Thread

[Trooper 8]

Palin scares the crap out of me. Its not the lack of experience that bothers me its the outright lack of knowledge on certain subjects. Her latest interview was simply painful to watch.

I have already live through VP "potatoe" and I would rather not do that again!

Most politicians don't know that much. Some have economic experience, some foreign policy experience, some have law backgrounds, some are just executives who are good at leading, but none of them knows everything about everything.

Listen to interviews with senators and congressmen very carefully, then switch to another channel as they make their rounds on the talk shows. They say the same thing and stick to the same talking points. They don't know enough to improvise. Obama doesn't know shit about this current economic situation, he sat down with some experts, they hashed out a position, wrote up some talking points, and Obama hit the airwaves and speech circuit and his campaign issued some press releases. They don't have a detailed plan. The same with McCain.

The president doesn't do things on his own. The president coordinates those under him (maybe her) and leads a team.

[ponty 0]

Palin scares the crap out of me. Its not the lack of experience that bothers me its the outright lack of knowledge on certain subjects. Her latest interview was simply painful to watch.

I have already live through VP "potatoe" and I would rather not do that again!

Most politicians don't know that much. Some have economic experience, some foreign policy experience, some have law backgrounds, some are just executives who are good at leading, but none of them knows everything about everything.

Listen to interviews with senators and congressmen very carefully, then switch to another channel as they make their rounds on the talk shows. They say the same thing and stick to the same talking points. They don't know enough to improvise. Obama doesn't know shit about this current economic situation, he sat down with some experts, they hashed out a position, wrote up some talking points, and Obama hit the airwaves and speech circuit and his campaign issued some press releases. They don't have a detailed plan. The same with McCain.

The president doesn't do things on his own. The president coordinates those under him (maybe her) and leads a team.

I agree with most of what you have to say here. You are correct that ALL of these folks have their talking points but they tend to be clear on what they have to say. Can you imagine a situation where Palin is the VP and she comes accross like that? Whether you like it or not but image plays a huge role as being president or VP. What would happen to the stock market today if Palin was VP or President and made a similar foggy comment.

You can debate me all day of the positives of what McCain has to offer and I would probably agree. Palin? Sorry but I respect your viewpoint but I can't agree.

[troy 12]

Debates!

[kovalchuk71 212]

God do I want to knock that smerk off McCains face.

[gxc999 7]

The difference in McCain and Obama is that Barack is willing to change his stance to accommodate changing circumstances while JMac (does that work?) won't. Do we need 4 more years of someone who can NOT admit that they are wrong or even that there's a remote chance of it? Palin would be a fine President... of the Soccer Mom Association of America but that's about it.

[troy 12]

I liked it. I think he cut undercut Obama's aloofness quite well a few times.

Edit: Oh, and, "an orgy of spending..."

[Spreedizzle 1]

Had the republican candidate made a comment about an "orgy of spending" every national news media would of been SHREDDING him in a heartbeat. I loathe biased news reporting.

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

[kovalchuk71 212]

Time for a debate thread.

[Spreedizzle 1]

You would definitely be the "master" of it. ;)

[kovalchuk71 212]

Hey, I wasnt saying I was going to contribute in it. I was simply making a suggestion! ;)

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Had the republican candidate made a comment about an "orgy of spending" every national news media would of been SHREDDING him in a heartbeat. I loathe biased news reporting.

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

It's a bit of a myth really

[ponty 0]

Had the republican candidate made a comment about an "orgy of spending" every national news media would of been SHREDDING him in a heartbeat. I loathe biased news reporting.

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

I hate biased new reporting too. I need to watch more Fox news and Carl Rove for more of that fair and balanced talk. ;)

Seriously. Watch MSNBC for 20 minutes then Fox. After that re-watch the debate and make your OWN decision.

[Jason Harris 31]

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

Maybe the media tend to be more educated on the issues or critical thinkers than the bulk of society?

[Monty22 821]

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

Maybe the media tend to be more educated on the issues or critical thinkers than the bulk of society?

Uh, no.

[chippa13 1844]

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

Maybe the media tend to be more educated on the issues or critical thinkers than the bulk of society?

How far did your typing get before you started laughing?

[kosydar 0]

Had the republican candidate made a comment about an "orgy of spending" every national news media would of been SHREDDING him in a heartbeat. I loathe biased news reporting.

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

It's a bit of a myth really

I'm a Political Science major at what most would consider a very liberal university. Throughout my three years I have taken classes with a large variety of professors, most of whom would self identify as liberal. I have never once had any of them refute that the majority of the media has a somewhat liberal bias. Of course many of them have tried to rationalize it or downplay its importance. Like Jason said, people in the media tend to be very educated and statistically higher educated people tend to be more liberal. It is impossible for people to ignore their own beliefs and report the news unbiased. Another factor is that historically Democrats have given much more support to financing media, such as NPR.

[chippa13 1844]

When he was 11, Jennings started attending Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he excelled in sports. After the CBC moved his father to its Ottawa headquarters in the early 1950s, Jennings transferred to Lisgar Collegiate Institute.[1] He struggled academically, and Jennings later surmised that it was out of "pure boredom" that he failed 10th grade and dropped out. "I loved girls," he said. "I loved comic books. And for reasons I don't understand, I was pretty lazy."[2] Jennings then briefly attended Carleton University, where he says he "lasted about 10 minutes" before dropping out

Tom Brokaw dropped out of The University of Iowa, where he says he majored in "beer and co-eds" before receiving his B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion in 1962

Rather was born in Wharton in Wharton County west of Houston, the son of Daniel Irvin Rather, Sr., and the former Byrl Veda Page. The Rathers moved to Houston, and Dan attended Love Elementary School and Hamilton Middle School. He graduated in 1949 from John H. Reagan High School in Houston. In 1953, he received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Sam Houston State University where he was editor of the school newspaper, The Houstonian. At Sam Houston, he was a member of the Caballeros, which was the founding organization of the currently active Epsilon Psi chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity.[1] After obtaining his bachelor's, he briefly attended South Texas College of Law in Houston

Williams was raised in a middle class Irish Catholic home. In his childhood his family moved from his birth place, Elmira, New York, to Middletown, New Jersey. He graduated from Mater Dei High School, a Roman Catholic high school in the New Monmouth section of Middletown.[5] While in high school, he was a volunteer firefighter for three years at the Middletown Township (New Jersey) Fire Department. After high school, he attended Brookdale Community College, before transferring to George Washington University, and then to The Catholic University of America.[6] He did not graduate, instead taking an internship with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He now calls leaving college one of his "great regrets." In 2004, he returned to The Catholic University of America and gave the commencement address, and in 2008 he received an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree from Ohio State University.

I'm not seeing "highly educated" in any of those.

[Trooper 8]

Highly educated media? You mean to tell me that people with MBAs and law degrees are going to pass on the chance to make real money so they can start out as reporters?

The difference in McCain and Obama is that Barack is willing to change his stance to accommodate changing circumstances while JMac (does that work?) won't. Do we need 4 more years of someone who can NOT admit that they are wrong or even that there's a remote chance of it? Palin would be a fine President... of the Soccer Mom Association of America but that's about it.

So how do you rectify the fact that the Obama campaign was calling McCain a flip flopper for changing his stance. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

Explanation? No. But surveys of journalists reveal an overwhelming trend to vote Democrat and surveys have found that they are 5 times more likely to describe themselves as liberal than conservative.

I agree with most of what you have to say here. You are correct that ALL of these folks have their talking points but they tend to be clear on what they have to say. Can you imagine a situation where Palin is the VP and she comes accross like that? Whether you like it or not but image plays a huge role as being president or VP. What would happen to the stock market today if Palin was VP or President and made a similar foggy comment.

You can debate me all day of the positives of what McCain has to offer and I would probably agree. Palin? Sorry but I respect your viewpoint but I can't agree.

I won't debate all day on McCain's positives as I really can't believe he actually got the Republican nomination. It's more that I'd vote for Big Bird over Obama than the fact that I like McCain/Palin.

[kosydar 0]

Why didn't you include Katie Couric (University of Virginia), Charles Gibson (Princeton), Anderson Cooper (Yale), O'Reilly (Boston U and Harvard)? What about all the people who make the decisions who aren't on camera? I could look up more but I don't see a point.

[chippa13 1844]

You sure you want to include O'Reilly. Kind of refutes your point about educated media and liberalism.

[kosydar 0]

I'm obviously well aware of the fact that O'Reilly is far from liberal. You were arguing that the leading people in the media aren't highly educated (regardless of their politics). I showed you omitted some very important ones. What about print media? Look up any of the New York Times op ed columnists who are almost all criticized for being too far left and you'll find they went to schools like Oxford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Yale, MIT, etc.

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

I won't debate all day on McCain's positives as I really can't believe he actually got the Republican nomination. It's more that I'd vote for Big Bird over Obama than the fact that I like McCain/Palin.

Larry Robinson is running for president? :lol:

[Jason Harris 31]

On a similar note......does anyone have any form of historical reference, or explanation for the national media's extreme bias towards the liberal/democratic party?

Maybe the media tend to be more educated on the issues or critical thinkers than the bulk of society?

How far did your typing get before you started laughing?

Actually, I started laughing before I began typing, since I knew what the reaction would be....

However, we can argue whether I've come to the right conclusion -- although I wasn't giving a conclusion, only a possibility -- but we can say with 100% certainty that the media is more educated on the issues than the bulk of society, while we'd probably have to scale back to 99% certainty whether the media has more critical thinkers than the bulk of society.

I'm not referring to the bubble headed bleach blonde who comes on at five. I'm talking about reporters, analysts, pundits, editorial boards, et al, whose work weeks probably consist of 70+ hours of reading, interviewing, discussing and writing, while those of us who actually try to keep current on the news are too often limited to reading the paper at breakfast or watching the evening news. Sadly, the remainder of the people don't really put much effort into keeping themselves educated. And it is they who comprise "the bulk of society."

Most of us are aware that women couldn't vote until 1920, but it's less well known that, at the time of the Constitution, under 10% of the people could vote -- and that was by design. Voters had to be white, male landowners of a certain age, since the prevailing wisdom was someone who was not in that position had no business making decisions that would affect those who were. Although everyone over 18 can vote today (except felons or ex-felons in most states), the thinking hasn't changed much. Political scientists believe it's not desirable to attain 100% voting, since too many people aren't educated enough about the issues.

That's quite evident today, when 26% of Americans still approve of the job that Bush has done, or when a knee-jerk reaction turns Sarah Palin into a rock star during her first month in the spotlight. Fortunately, however, the honeymoon is beginning to end, as five conservative pundits this week expressed sentiments ranging from: Palin is unqualified to be V.P.; is a farcical pick for V.P. and an example of poor judgement on McCain's part; or Palin should withdraw.

[gxc999 7]

I have to agree with Jason. The segment of the media to which he is referring is more educated than the American public, but that doesn't necessarily make them right either. As someone with a P.S. degree, I was surprised by the half dozen or so conservative professors I had, compared with probably 8-9 liberals. Realistically, most educated people should hate both parties :P

[Trooper 8]

That's quite evident today, when 26% of Americans still approve of the job that Bush has done, or when a knee-jerk reaction turns Sarah Palin into a rock star during her first month in the spotlight. Fortunately, however, the honeymoon is beginning to end, as five conservative pundits this week expressed sentiments ranging from: Palin is unqualified to be V.P.; is a farcical pick for V.P. and an example of poor judgement on McCain's part; or Palin should withdraw.

The above is nothing more than opinion. You insinuate that those who disagree with you aren't qualified to vote. Good argument until the last paragraph. Five conservative pundits? Holy cow! And Biden spent the beginning of the week cutting Obama off at the knees and the second half backtracking. We could come up with select groups to reinforce certain points for eternity.