McCain Campaign Loves the Media -- for a Moment

My mother is eighty-five and lives in rural Missouri. She surprised me with her common sense approach to politics. She is voting for Obama.............

http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/11/02/old-women-talk-politics/

AMC Nice to see you back from the Bunny Ranch. Hopefully you will now have enough dollars to attend one of the two election night venues.

The KO skit was way over the top and beautiful all at the same time. I've heard KO loves the piece. And why shouldn't he, it drives even more people to his show to check out the carzy man with the grey hair and striped pimp suits. Oh crap it just dawned on me... KO is your pimp. No wonder you are featuring him.

Bet Billo has to be spitting nails at this point as he realizes that SNL's facination with KO will only increase KO's viewership.

@sgw - Agreed. Olbermann is pompous; Hannity is evil.

Multiple comments:
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The trouble with parodying Olberman is the show itself is mostly snarky parody of Fox news. The dead serious Special Comments are ripe (and that part is the funniest part, because there is no snark there, just the deadly serious intellectual Keith Olberman.).
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gunny, I thought Cindy was fine parodying the use of game show models.
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McCain's camp's interest in this stems directly from their running a national media campaign at the expense of everything else that makes up a successful campaign. Obsessed with the daily news cycle, deeply concerned with how this is playing with the Village. Also, the campaign staff desperately needs a scapegoat. For now, the media. But once this is over, I expect you'll see McCain blamed for being, as someone said early on, a AA ballplayer called up to the majors before he was ready. The rookie errors are legion.

newfloridian,
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You do know that Bill O wants to launch a federal investigation to find out why KO is beating him in the 25-50 male demographic. I will say this again. FoxNews can thank GWB for their high ratings. They were nobodies before Bush came along but because they p!mped so hard for him. They are going to be on the outside looking in now and KO and Maddow are going to PWN Bill O and Hannity for the next 4 years. Nobody will want to hear them ranting every night about the sitting president nor will any Dems go on their shows and let them get away with the crap they have been able to get away with under the "patriotism" banner of Bush. Thats why they are so scared and thats why they all just redid their contracts because they know the tide is turning and in a year or two they might be out of gas.

pourme
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Between Hannity and Kilmeade on Fox and Friends I cant decide which one has the bigger Napoleon complex. I long for the day when someone just punches either one of them during taping of the show. Kilmead was such a "richard" when Jeanine Garafolo was on the show but she totally PWNED him and showed herself to be WAY more informed than he is. Hannity is seriously a mental midget and nobody ever calls him on that. He can't argue a subject at all. Thats why they have the weakest dem leaning guests they can find. But that pool will dry up after tuesday and he will be left arguing with himself.

@sgw - Because Hannity's whole schtick is fueled by hate and opposition, an Obama win will usher in a golden period for Hannity in terms of ratings and ubiquity. Rush became Rush because of Bill Clinton. An Obama win, in many ways, is great news for right wing talk radio.

Loved the KO sketch. Used to regularly watch MSNBC at night, until they were totally taken over by fervent partisans. Can't watch FoxNews for the same reason. I long for true fairness and balance.

Note to CNN: Lots of middle ground is available for the taking.

sgw said: "KO and Maddow are going to PWN Bill O and Hannity for the next 4 years."
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I doubt that. The Faux/Palin base is going to be, if anything, more rabid now. Always insecure and paranoid, the last few weeks of the McCain campaign has given them plenty to obsess about (black people stole the election, etc.) and Faux will be happy to oblige. Plus, there will be all the anti-dem stories to flog.
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But I am looking forward to (fingers crossed, knocking on wood) KO and Maddow taking on the Obama administration over policy. Anyone who doubts they will hasn't been paying attention. They will be sympathetic only so far as the administration performs.
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jay said, about McSame: "Obsessed with the daily news cycle, deeply concerned with how this is playing with the Village." Speaking of the Village, perhaps they are somewhat less important now that there are new voices out there. RM has a great respect for the blogosphere as a source of merit-based, peer-reviewed information, and TPM just released their numbers for October:

Absolute Unique Visitors: 3.12 million
Visits: 15.29 million
Page Views: 30.99 million.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/242086.php

@sgwhiteinfla

The funniest part of Scarborough was when egomaniac Joe declared that he was worried that Obama was an egomaniac. Buchanan (who is playing an appointed role, according to a little blip on the Chris Mathews show couple of weeks ago, chimed in with agreement about Obama's arrogance. Barnacle and Mika couldn't see the connection that Scarborough was making.

I think Scarborough is often full of it. I also believe that all the players behind the desk are playing assigned roles. Scarborough may just be trying to enrage Liberals and Progressives with Buchanan added in for spice. I doubt if Scarborough actually believes much of what he says.

I would have loved the KO sketch a lot more, if Ben Affleck had spoken slower and louder. I realize he was doing an impression, but I can always understand KO perfectly, and I had to watch the sketch twice to catch everything.

That said, the outrage over the cat (Miss Precious Perfect) was HILARIOUS!

sgwhiteinfla

The funniest part of Scarborough was when egomaniac Joe declared that he was worried that Obama was an egomaniac. Buchanan, who is playing an appointed role, according to a little blip on the Chris Mathews show couple of weeks ago, chimed in with agreement about Obama's arrogance. Barnacle and Mika couldn't see the connection that Scarborough was making.

I think Scarborough is often full of it. I also believe that all the players behind the desk are playing assigned roles. Scarborough may just be trying to enrage Liberals and Progressives with Buchanan added in for spice. I doubt if Scarborough actually believes much of what he says.

testing. The same comment is being held in moderation.

pc said: "An Obama win, in many ways, is great news for right wing talk radio." I'm sure that is true, but Obama is utterly not Clinton. The Big Dawg's personal characteristics were always evident, and were easy fodder for the haters. If Obama behaves as President as he has campaigned, which I have zero reason to doubt, respect for him as a person will simply continue to grow. And it is already remarkably high.
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From Gallup: "Obama's favorable rating is 62% -- the highest that any presidential candidate has registered in Gallup's final pre-election polls going back to 1992."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/53---42.html
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And a Sully Obamacon:

"Part of the Obamacon phenomenon is certainly a rejection of McCain. But this is missing something. Some pro-lifers, for example, are beginning to embrace the idea that the best way to reduce abortions is to flood society with life-positive options, including more money for low-income health care. This has especially taken hold among Catholic pro-lifers as opposed to evangelicals because there is a deep and strong tradition for social welfare in the Catholic world.

Obama embodies this type of thinking to his soul. I think, and I could be projecting here a bit, that the reason for the size of the Obamacon phenomenon is that some conservatives in the libertarian, realist, and religious categories are acting on the sense that Obama is one of them. It's not about any one policy. It's that when they hear him talk, they recognize their own kind of thinking. He is reasoned, thoughtful, temperate, ethical. While they may worry about this policy or that, they have a gut feeling that they trust him to be making the decisions."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/understanding-1.html

I long for true fairness and balance.
Note to CNN: Lots of middle ground is available for the taking.
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I'd prefer real disagreement between well-informed articulate people. The problem isn't the polarization. It's the moronic level of the content, which is made worse by using operatives as analysts. There are plenty of non-partisan people in the media and academia, and also people who have partisan opinions but can actually reason their positions through.

KO loved it too. McCain's disdain for Olbermann is a lot more worrisome than Olbermann himself (the stuff he said at the Al Smith dinner was a little, uhm, out there). Sure, Obama rags on Fox News, but I think we all know that's a pretty legitimate point to make. KO is harmless though. He's all about bravado, and he knows that, and all his viewers (including me) know that.

I have no really used Swampland since the new format. Two benign comments are being held in moderation for no reason.
I'll return when the format changes

@jay - Totally agree, but KO doesn't help much there. He may have had a shot at it, but he's been "leaning caricature" for months, and I'm calling it "solid clown" now. The smart partisans are mostly online.

wvng,
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If we are talking Hannity on the radio where other wingnuts like him can call in and be sympathetic then yeah he will do fine. But FoxNews is going to d!e on the vine at least when it comes to Hannity and Bill O. The ratings are already bearing that out. Criticizing the president is one thing. Calling him names on a personal level is something quite different. And remember that FoxNews has had unprecedented access to GWB operatives so that they seemed to be scooping other news sources and they always were able to promote the administration. When Obama freezes them out like he has the last two weeks their ratings are going to drop like a rock. Go back and look at the ratings KO got when he interviewed Obama a couple of weeks ago and then look at the ratings Maddow got from her interview last week. Now imagine that they both have access to people in the Obama administration while Hannity is stuck with Dick Morris and Bill O is stuck with Karl Rove. Just watch how the ratings change in the coming months. Ill bet by January of next year if Obama wins Fox News will be second in all demographics according to ratings.

jay: "I'd prefer real disagreement between well-informed articulate people. The problem isn't the polarization. etc" I see Maddow as a place where what you seek will happen. in fact, she is clear that she intends to do exactly that.

wvng,
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If we are talking Hannity on the radio where other wingnuts like him can call in and be sympathetic then yeah he will do fine. But FoxNews is going to d!e on the vine at least when it comes to Hannity and Bill O. The ratings are already bearing that out. Criticizing the president is one thing. Calling him names on a personal level is something quite different. And remember that FoxNews has had unprecedented access to GWB operatives so that they seemed to be scooping other news sources and they always were able to promote the administration. When Obama freezes them out like he has the last two weeks their ratings are going to drop like a rock. Go back and look at the ratings KO got when he interviewed Obama a couple of weeks ago and then look at the ratings Maddow got from her interview last week. Now imagine that they both have access to people in the Obama administration while Hannity is stuck with D!ck Morris and Bill O is stuck with Karl Rove. Just watch how the ratings change in the coming months. Ill bet by January of next year if Obama wins Fox News will be second in all demographics according to ratings.

the Faux/Palin base is going to be, if anything, more rabid now
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One of the remarkable thing about Fox's numbers (and Limbaugh's) is how LONG people have the programming on. OTOH, the under 45 demo is just going to get worse and worse for them.
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And, yes, even though it looks as if Obama is as much a poster child for probity as Fitzpatrick (pace drawdropping Spitzer-like developments), he's still black. And that will leave them foaming.

pourme,
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KO is over the top yes. But he also makes very salient points and is not JUST a hack. If you watch him on any given day you may see him rant about a McCain failing OR you might see him discuss the complexities of the relative calm in Iraq and how it might fall apart with informed people who have inside information. I have yet to feel informed after watching an episode of Hannity and Colmes. So I see KO as informed entertainment with just a pinch of hackery which I wouldnt watch every night but I would probably watch about 3 days a week. Hannity at this point is just unwatchable. besides there shouldnt be quite as much for Olberman to rant about if Obama wins.

wvng--
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Yes, and you could say that KO has paved the way for a more moderately toned, more thoughtful voice. Maddow also has more experience at this stuff than KO does, which shows. And it's not coincidence that she is looking to the blogosphere for some of that more articulate, informed commentary.

sgw - you may be right. One would hope, but then one would have hoped that such a venture could never have gotten off the ground. That rw radio personalities Limbaugh would have been canned for serially atrocious behavior. But they all remain welcome into polite society.

jay: "And it's not coincidence that she is looking to the blogosphere for some of that more articulate, informed commentary."

Yep. I sent Steve Benen a note the minute Maddow got her show, suggesting he practice "lookin good" in addition to just sounding good. What did it take, one week, for him to have his first spot?