Veepstakes! Veepstakes! Veepstakes, Galore! Also, Special Pimping (And Time Filling) And Drew Griffin Makes Some "Terrorist" Friends
Hi everybody. We've got Campbell Brown keeping the anchor chair warm again tonight, and I'm guessing for the rest of the week, unless they drag Anderson Cooper back for Obama's supposed forthcoming VP announcement. Speaking of the number two position, apparently it's all anybody can talk about. The subject kicks off the hour in the form of BREAKING NEWS that Biden has buzz! So much buzz in fact, that the press corp have seemed fit to stake him out while he's in his car, like he's Britney Spears and they're the freakin paparazzi. For his part, Biden says he's not their guy.
Now, I'm not saying the VP pick isn't important, but this is ridiculous. The pundits can bloviate all they want. At the end of the day they still know nothing. Anyway, John King joins us live and then we get David Gergen by phone and Mark Halperin. I'm not going in depth on any of this because by the time most of you read this on Wednesday it may very well all be moot. Although it would be kind of funny to be able to go back and point to how completely wrong they were.
Next up, we have a Joe Johns piece on McCain's attacks against Obama. The theme here is that Hillary Clinton basically handed McCain a plan of attack on a silver platter because he's just taking what she did further. I can somewhat agree with that. I know I was none too happy with how she ran her campaign, with one of my chief concerns being she was hurting the democrats' chances if he were to get the nomination. That being said, you cannot tell me that McCain wouldn't have pulled this crap on his own even if Clinton played Pollyanna. Republicans attack. It's what they do. Don't call it the Clinton playbook; call it the Bush or Rove playbook. McCain should know; he's was on the receiving end of their nastiness in 2000.
Moving on now to discussion with Mark, The Gerg, and Suzanne Malveaux. The reason this is becoming an issue now is because McCain is gaining traction in the polls, which is apparently being attributed to his attacks. But man, it is still very early, people. Calm down. Clinton's attacks during the primaries are again brought up and Campbell wonders why, after going through that, Obama isn't more prepared for McCain. The Gerg thinks it's not in Obama's DNA to go on the attack.
This whole conversation makes my head explode. It's discussions like these that are the epitome of why some people believe the media is out of touch. They're talking like attacks are a good thing and the fact that Obama doesn't want to engage in that kind of behavior is some kind of minus against him. What is wrong with these people? Look, I get how the political world works. He needs to fight back. I want him to fight back. But shouldn't this conversation have focused on the character of John McCain? Even Joe Klein can't ignore McCain's seemingly "severe character defect." Everyone seems to be blinded by the war hero sparkliness. The media likes McCain. Fine. But might I remind them that they liked Bush in 2000 too. Do not do this to us again.
On now to Suzanne Malveaux previewing a special on Obama that is to air tomorrow. I think we've seen this before. Or if not, we've seen something similar because I'm definitely getting deja vu. The clip we see touches on Obama's stint in the world of Chicago politics. After Suzanne, John King previews a special on McCain and we get a clip that's all about McCain the hero. Big surprise. Afterwards, John notes McCain's infamous reputation for being a hothead, and then quickly brushes the subject away. My guess is the horrid Chelsea Clinton joke will not be mentioned. Also, about those horrors McCain endured as a POW? As Andrew Sullivan fantastically points out, according to the Bush administration, no torture ever took place.
Transitioning now to a piece from our favorite little "terrorist," Drew Griffin. You might remember that after filing a critical report on the TSA, Drew found himself on the Terror Watch List. And now it seems he's started himself a "terrorist" club. Apparently a lot of viewers contacted Drew to tell him they were in the same inconvenient boat. Three of these enemies of the state are named James Robinson and they include an airline pilot who is licensed by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit (something you probably wouldn't want a terrorist to have), a former assistant U.S. attorney general and Washington lawyer, and . . . a third grader. Drew makes sure to give that last one a good grilling. "Are you a terrorist?" he asks. "I don't know," the boy replies. Don't take that for an answer, Drew! You hold his little feet to the fire! So anyway, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says it's easy-peasey to get off the list if you follow their procedure. But this is the same guy that said no one could have predicted Katrina, so yeah, they're still all stuck on the list, no doubt forever.
The scary part is that the list is apparently pretty easy to get around. The mother of third-grader James Robinson simply tipped a sky cap and Drew Griffin has combined his first and middle names to avoid the list inconvenience. So . . . wow, that's unsettling. And before everyone emails Drew with shrieky "why are you telling the terrorists how to get around the list" emails, you have to ask yourself why we haven't caught Bin Ladin yet if the terrorists are too stupid to not have already thought to change their name or tip a sky cap. Drew did another Terror Watch List related piece that aired on Election Center a bit back, but I don't know if it ever aired on 360. Worth a watch.
I missed "The Shot" tonight because I was busy listening to Erica teach me things on the webcast. Thanks a lot Erica. Okay, perhaps the blame should go to the delay, which is really annoying. I'm liking the webcast itself and have geeked-out on all her little "how things work" tutorials. Erica also talked a bit about the behind-the-scenes "Beat 360" animosity that sometimes goes on. Man, I'd love to hear more about that, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen. She then tries to convince us that Anderson loves the t-shirts. Suuure he does. Riiiight.
The show was waaay too much politics--and not even politics that contained fact-checking. Honestly, besides Drew's piece, I would have rather watched Erica do a webcast for the hour. But anyway, I shall leave you with some Olympic and newsy fun:
Now, I'm not saying the VP pick isn't important, but this is ridiculous. The pundits can bloviate all they want. At the end of the day they still know nothing. Anyway, John King joins us live and then we get David Gergen by phone and Mark Halperin. I'm not going in depth on any of this because by the time most of you read this on Wednesday it may very well all be moot. Although it would be kind of funny to be able to go back and point to how completely wrong they were.
Next up, we have a Joe Johns piece on McCain's attacks against Obama. The theme here is that Hillary Clinton basically handed McCain a plan of attack on a silver platter because he's just taking what she did further. I can somewhat agree with that. I know I was none too happy with how she ran her campaign, with one of my chief concerns being she was hurting the democrats' chances if he were to get the nomination. That being said, you cannot tell me that McCain wouldn't have pulled this crap on his own even if Clinton played Pollyanna. Republicans attack. It's what they do. Don't call it the Clinton playbook; call it the Bush or Rove playbook. McCain should know; he's was on the receiving end of their nastiness in 2000.
Moving on now to discussion with Mark, The Gerg, and Suzanne Malveaux. The reason this is becoming an issue now is because McCain is gaining traction in the polls, which is apparently being attributed to his attacks. But man, it is still very early, people. Calm down. Clinton's attacks during the primaries are again brought up and Campbell wonders why, after going through that, Obama isn't more prepared for McCain. The Gerg thinks it's not in Obama's DNA to go on the attack.
This whole conversation makes my head explode. It's discussions like these that are the epitome of why some people believe the media is out of touch. They're talking like attacks are a good thing and the fact that Obama doesn't want to engage in that kind of behavior is some kind of minus against him. What is wrong with these people? Look, I get how the political world works. He needs to fight back. I want him to fight back. But shouldn't this conversation have focused on the character of John McCain? Even Joe Klein can't ignore McCain's seemingly "severe character defect." Everyone seems to be blinded by the war hero sparkliness. The media likes McCain. Fine. But might I remind them that they liked Bush in 2000 too. Do not do this to us again.
On now to Suzanne Malveaux previewing a special on Obama that is to air tomorrow. I think we've seen this before. Or if not, we've seen something similar because I'm definitely getting deja vu. The clip we see touches on Obama's stint in the world of Chicago politics. After Suzanne, John King previews a special on McCain and we get a clip that's all about McCain the hero. Big surprise. Afterwards, John notes McCain's infamous reputation for being a hothead, and then quickly brushes the subject away. My guess is the horrid Chelsea Clinton joke will not be mentioned. Also, about those horrors McCain endured as a POW? As Andrew Sullivan fantastically points out, according to the Bush administration, no torture ever took place.
Transitioning now to a piece from our favorite little "terrorist," Drew Griffin. You might remember that after filing a critical report on the TSA, Drew found himself on the Terror Watch List. And now it seems he's started himself a "terrorist" club. Apparently a lot of viewers contacted Drew to tell him they were in the same inconvenient boat. Three of these enemies of the state are named James Robinson and they include an airline pilot who is licensed by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit (something you probably wouldn't want a terrorist to have), a former assistant U.S. attorney general and Washington lawyer, and . . . a third grader. Drew makes sure to give that last one a good grilling. "Are you a terrorist?" he asks. "I don't know," the boy replies. Don't take that for an answer, Drew! You hold his little feet to the fire! So anyway, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says it's easy-peasey to get off the list if you follow their procedure. But this is the same guy that said no one could have predicted Katrina, so yeah, they're still all stuck on the list, no doubt forever.
The scary part is that the list is apparently pretty easy to get around. The mother of third-grader James Robinson simply tipped a sky cap and Drew Griffin has combined his first and middle names to avoid the list inconvenience. So . . . wow, that's unsettling. And before everyone emails Drew with shrieky "why are you telling the terrorists how to get around the list" emails, you have to ask yourself why we haven't caught Bin Ladin yet if the terrorists are too stupid to not have already thought to change their name or tip a sky cap. Drew did another Terror Watch List related piece that aired on Election Center a bit back, but I don't know if it ever aired on 360. Worth a watch.
I missed "The Shot" tonight because I was busy listening to Erica teach me things on the webcast. Thanks a lot Erica. Okay, perhaps the blame should go to the delay, which is really annoying. I'm liking the webcast itself and have geeked-out on all her little "how things work" tutorials. Erica also talked a bit about the behind-the-scenes "Beat 360" animosity that sometimes goes on. Man, I'd love to hear more about that, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen. She then tries to convince us that Anderson loves the t-shirts. Suuure he does. Riiiight.
The show was waaay too much politics--and not even politics that contained fact-checking. Honestly, besides Drew's piece, I would have rather watched Erica do a webcast for the hour. But anyway, I shall leave you with some Olympic and newsy fun:
posted by eliza at 11:22 PM
3 Comments:
I point out that James K Robinson was a Clinton appointee and has spoken out on the politization of the DOJ. Thesis: he was put on the list out of spite, just like Drew was. And all the other inconvenienced James Robinsons? Collateral damage.
When is this corrupt regime ever going to be held accountable for their crimes?
Hi Eliza,
As usual, a humorous and sobering post. Like you, my head is close to exploding when these pundits keep nagging about Obama while not acknowledging the nastiness of McCain. Except for Joe Klein and a few others, the MSM keeps giving McCain pass after pass for his nonsense. They act like he was the only POW in the Vietnam war, McCain was one of thousands. One of my classmate's father was a POW, yet she never brought it up nor did any teacher. I didn't know until I saw a picture of her and her dad in an Encyclopedia article. Now that McCain is in bed woth the same peopele who smeared him in 2000, it shows me he has sold his soul and will do anything, say anything to get elected with the blessings of the media. I do have to laugh at how the press are hounding possible VP picks. Are you back to 100% after your illness? Anne D.
@arachnae--Good catch. Very probable. Did you watch the report I linked to about James Moore? He found himself on the list after writing critical books about Bush/Rove.
When is this corrupt regime ever going to be held accountable for their crimes?
Well, I don't think you believe in hell, so . . . never.
@anne--Yeah, the coverage has been pretty infuriating. And it's even confusing, seeing as though they treated Obama with kid gloves during the primaries. I guess the "new shiny" has faded.
Are you back to 100% after your illness?
No. I will never be 100%. My goal is to get off oxygen, but I don't know if it's possible.
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