I. Brownback Has Lost Me
Really, I am so embarassed. C'mon Brownback, you're Catholic, didn't you get JP's memo? We believe in evolution!
II. I'm Calling the Debates for Paul (Mainstream Media to spin it for Romney)
MSNBC has this completely unscientific interactive poll, where you could vote on your impressions about the candidates, positive or negative, before and after the debates. Most of the candidates pre- and post-debate had similar ratings, variations of one or two points. Ron Paul jumped up 32 points, from the bottom to the top, all in one night.
Ron Paul apparently pushed a very Goldwater conservativism, not at all Bush II (or so I hear, see III). It's an interesting solution for Republicans, who face a really tough 2008 election (as Bill Lacy recently confessed). How do you distance yourself from a reviled President? Conservativism! A movement that arguably elected this President, a movement which he has arguably abandoned.
UPDATE: More votes are in, and Ron Paul has kept his lead, but it's as if everyone across the board got a big dish of neutral votes. Paul's positives are down to the high 30s, Romney still second with high 20s, now with no change pre- and post-debate.
III. Your Democracy, Copyright MSNBC (et al.)
Third important fact about the debates: you can't watch them. You aren't allowed. MSNBC's copyrights are apparently more important than participatory Democracy. Barack Obama and John Edwards have signed on to a letter from famed copyleftist Larry Lessig advocating open access to the debates, they are joined by a number of politicos from both sides of the aisle.
UPDATE: CNN has freed the debates!
ABC is backing my play, but dismissing the Paul phenomenon as the work of one or two overactive computer geeks.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have any proof to back this up, but that's their hunch.
Maybe they're right, but since when did this pass for journalism?
Who on ABC? If it was Stephanopoulous (sp?) he probably is speculative because he is politico turned journalist and is merely jealous/angry that he didn't catch the phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteThe nightly news head is exactly that: a talking head meant to be as vanilla in opinions as they are stern in speech.
If it was a report from the field, they probably were forced to edit for time and are merely banking on that concept being true.
I didn't get a chance to see the debates, but what little Republican bashing I did get to see on late night TV couldn't have painted the head candidates any worse.
ReplyDeleteMy impression of how the candidates are coming off (based off very little information) in their attempt to master the cult of personality:
McCain: F - Trying to prove he can be a brighter stronger version of Bush. Just proving he can be an older version of Bush.
Romney: C - Moving along well at establishing himself as the pretty-boy GOP JFK, but loses points for changing his favorite book from Battlefield Earth to Huckleberry Finn (not a joke, actually happened).
Giulani: F - Getting destroyed by letting everyone (media, GOP contenders, Dems) define him by his incomprehensible abortion stance.
Brownback: F - Sticks to his guns but is going to have to chew the head of a living baby boy to get any media attention at this point.
Others: F - I can't think of the others so they clearly get the lowest grade.
Ron Paul might just be getting credibility amongst voters due to his Libertarian attacks. He believes what he says and does not attack anything divisive (who wants ID cards or the IRS? no one and the government). Right now he probably would have my vote, but I would need to know more about economic and foreign policy (my Libertarian sympathies only go so far).
1. The article mentioned above was by Rick Klein.
ReplyDelete2. MSNBC's debate transcript.
Paul came off as somewhat isolationist during the debates: "I'm suggesting very strongly that we should have a foreign policy of non- intervention, the traditional American foreign policy and the Republican foreign policy."
In line with that, seems he's for reducing immigration, which doesn't seem very libertarian to me.
The rest of his policies are starting to sound less libertarian and more paranoidian. One Perot was enough, I'm not sure I have anyone left to relate to in the Republican party.
Mission accomplished. Time to start crossing off the dems!
Er, wait, the debates are not free.
ReplyDeleteThe DNC is just going through the motions, and the RNC isn't even listening.