On Rabid Partisanism and Media Bias

This just in, George W. Bush is NOT running for President.

I believe that the independents and undecideds will make their mind up about the forthcoming election based on a review of the big picture. The problem is that the big picture is being deliberately whitewashed by a complicit and decidedly partisan media.

Unfortunately, it takes people like me and many other bloggers to try and highlight the glaring lack of experience or accomplishment for Obama. Admitting he did some blow is not the same as admitting he was wrong - a key criticism from many about W. If it is good for the goose it is good for the gander.

Obama's choices in mentors and advisors shows a critical lack of judgement, and his actions when enough people call him on it show him to be overly maleable and disloyal, he tossed his 'spiritual mentor' of 20 years, who apparently he never actually listened to, under the bus, along with his 'typical white' grandmother as soon as it became politically expedient to do so.

I and people like me may take poetic license in how we word it, but it is not factually inaccurate.

For your consideration, some recent entries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_...in-fannie.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp...eature=related

Raines and Johnson were/are on Obama's team and they, along with Barney 'there is a gay prostitute ring in my basement' Frank and Chris 'Thanks for the donation' Dodd are largely responsible for the situation at Freddie and Fannie that started this whole collapse. The sub-prime mortgage concept is a DEMOCRAT innovation and it was FORCED on lenders and Freddie and Fannie. Raines was fined for accounting irregularities that led to his enormous bonuses (he made $90M in six years).

Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist and there are questions about the CAC, significant questions involving the public trust and $100M. Obama and his team are blocking every attempt to gain access to the PUBLIC records about this and even Chicago has had to investigate corruption in Obama's Garden Program - HOW BAD DOES IT HAVE TO BE FOR CHICAGO TO CALL IT CORRUPT?

Again, I think partisanism is a key element in having a robust discussion, some call W 'shrub', I call Obama the Uh-uh-uh-nnointed one, does not really matter - what matters is that the discussion include the reality and the history of BOTH sides and that has clearly NOT happened.
More attention was paid to Gov. Palin's NON book banning than has gone into the Obama-Ayers connection, or the Obama-ACORN connection, or the Obama-Raines connection, or the Obama-Johnson connection, or the Obama-Wright connection, or the Obama-Flager connection, or the Obama-Alinsky connection, or the actual results of Obama's work as a community organizer.

I agree that there should not be wide ranging poll results as the electorate is pretty roughly split right now - but the action line that Obama won the debate is manufactured. The kook Left netroots are in a panic (HuffingtonPost, DailyKOS, etc,) about how poorly Obama did, the conservative blogs (Politico, Human Events, Real Clear Politics) are abuzz about how good McCain did - think about that, Left and Right agree that McCain won, but the mainstream media line is Obama won - THAT is the problem.

A lot of critics miss the point I think when talking about the MSM and talk radio, and that chiefly is that it is called TALK radio, in other words, it is NOT called NEWS radio. Talk radio is entertainment and again is from an OVERTLY conservative point of view. The Liberals have failed miserably at talk radio due to their message and their delivery - it is real free market.

Rush or Hannity or O'Reilly or Gibson are not masquerading as objective journalists like Dan 'National Guard Hoax' Rather, or (cough, cough) Keith 'Worst Person in the World' Olberman or Chris 'Tingle up his leg' Matthews.

It is people from inside the media, like Bernard Goldberg, and finally some Democrats themselves like Hillary Clinton, Howard Wolfson, Ed Rendell and others who have made the charge of liberal bias and specifically a pro-Obama bias in the mainstream media.

The behavior of the media towards Obama has been an embarassment by any objective standard - and it is their behavior which has confirmed the bias. The only rejoinder for some is to accuse us of 'rabid' partisanism.

Many of we Conservatives ARE partisan, but we are hardly rabid.

Rabid indicates there is only foaming-at-the-mouth, no thought or logic in it and that is very far from the case. Many Conservative posts are well structured, humorous and reserve the name-calling for the stumbling empty suit nominated by the Democratic party - he has a bracelet too you know, his uh, name uh, is, uh, uh, what was the question?

They Bravely Ran Away, or Would You Believe a ‘Redeployment’?

As serious challenges to the US Economy are reported with glee Pelosi and Reid are trying to bravely turn their tails and flee. With $200B in estimated costs to fix the subprime bombs at Freddie and Fannie, $85B to AIG, Lehman Bro’s and Merril Lynch on the Auction Block, high energy prices, rising unemployment and massive panic on Wall Street, the ‘leaders’ of the Democratic House and Senate try to skate out of town to leave their mess allowing Obama to apportion blame rather than fix the underlying issues now.

In Monty Python’s cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we are introduced at one point to Sir Robin who runs away when faced with danger. His minstrels, which could pretty well be today’s mainstream media, sing as they run to keep up with him:

Brave Sir Robin ran away...
bravely ran away away...
When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about, and valiantly, he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet, he beat a very brave retreat.
A brave retreat by brave Sir Robin.

And what could bring me to pay homage to such an institution in English Comedy? The comically announced intention for Sen. Harry Reid (D – NV) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – CA) to adjourn the congress in the midst of a significant challenge to the overall stability of the American economy.

I am not a doom and gloomer and I recognize the farcical inaccuracy of Obama, Reid and Pelosi talking up the current difficulties as the ‘worst economy since the Great Depression’, but these are challenging times and one of the duties of our elected government is to stand fast and put up a brave face, and right now only two leaders in the American political scene are doing that, their names are George W. Bush and John McCain.

Although woefully unreported by the decidedly partisan Liberal mainstream media, both Bush and McCain have tried, unsuccessfully, to reign in the excess at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Bush in 2003, and McCain in 2005. They were opposed by long term Freddie/Fannie ‘family members’ Sen. Chris Dodd (D - CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D – MA), the Congressional Black Caucus, a wide range of Democrat Senators and Representatives, as well as some from their own party as well.

These same names appear at the very top of political contributions from Freddie, Fannie, their leadership, and many of their employees. Democrats have benefitted from political contributions from Freddie and Fannie and Lehman and Goldman-Sachs and other Wall Street giants by a factor of 150% compared to Republicans. And Wall Street has seen a similar benefit from the largesse of their ‘friends’ in Congress.

So now, when there is a crucial need for leadership within the Congress and from the Administration, when there is a clear need for criminal investigations not only into the leadership of the GSE’s and the other recently weakened Wall Street companies BUT ALSO the members of Congress and the Administration who benefitted from or enabled them, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want to run away from the swamp and leave Bush to pick up the pieces.

I agree there should be investigations, but Congress can not be trusted to perform them, The investigation simply must delve deeply into the ties that bind these failed institutions and companies to the Senators and Representatives that have protected them, encouraged them, enabled them, and (in the case of requiring sub-prime mortgages for people who could not qualify for conventional mortgages) FORCED them into the situation that has the markets in turmoil and which could top $500B in costs to the American Taxpayer.

While there is an opportunity for political benefit for Republicans if the do-nothing Democrat Congress retreats and the Bush Administration does manage to shore up confidence, the first cause is not to seek political gain, it is to lead the Nation, to protect the American Taxpayer, and to put into place soild proposals to rectify the challenges the economy faces today.

Proposals like this take time to develop, more time than is allowed in the 24-hour news cycle, and this has led to a neophyte kneejerk proposal from the Part-Time Junior Senator from IL and criticism of a lack of a plan from John McCain.

Well, Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) has just today announced a proposed a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust, similar to the Resolution Trust Corporation that successfully managed the challenge of the Savings and Loan bailout from the late 80’s. Economists from the Carter, Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton administrations all agree that this is a good and workable solution with a similar chance of success if developed and managed properly.

The time is for leadership, the need is for leadership. McCain has proposed just such a thing, while Pelosi, Reid and Obama seek only to apportion blame and take political advantage.