War is hell, as they say, and Joe the Plumber, in an ongoing campaign to earn his place as the most famous idiot in history, has just come forward with a solution for dealing with this irksome little fact. Ban war coverage.
Joe, who until his adoption by the McCain campaign’s after-school outreach effort was known as Samuel Wurzelbacher, recently touched down in the Middle East to begin a 10-day stint covering the conflict in Gaza for a conservative web site. He’s only been there a day, but what a day he’s had. According to CNN, Wurzelbacher, an unlicensed plumber-cum-foreign correspondent (who needs government re-training programs?), had this to say about media coverage and what he sees as its anti-Israel bias:
“I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting. …if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity,’ well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.” Keep reading →
I have a theory about William Shatner: 10-15 years ago, he had an epiphany. Either he could go on being an unintentionally farcical B-actor or he could embrace it and by doing so transcend it. He could go from being Shatner and instead accept his clownsish reputation and become … Shatner.
The Priceline commercials followed and then Denny Crain in the late, great “Boston Legal.” James Tiberius Kirk was a great leader and Denny Crain a clownish figure, but as a friend of mine observed to me tonight, Captain Kirk never won an Emmy.
With today’s signing of the elite first baseman Mark Teixeira, the New York Yankees had their Shatner moment.
I might be developing a journo-crush on Shepard Smith.
Here’s his latest act of professional heroism (which could only be improved upon by dismissing the notion of the “mainstream media” as the absurd artificial construct that it is):
Then there’s this one, previously, where he dismantles “Joe the Plumber:”
What a long strange trip it’s been — and I’m just talking about the final week of the 2008 presidential campaign. As the “year of living on the edge of our seats” (to quote a recent New York Times headline) comes to an abrupt conclusion today, let’s look back on its closing hours. As they say, a week is an eternity in politics, and the last seven days certainly felt like one.
Wenesday: The Obama infomercial airs on just about all the major networks. Obama highlights the hard-luck tales of ordinary Americans. This is hardly “morning in America.” The whole country sniffles and worries about the dwindling supplies in the refrigerator, while Obama pontificates on tax credits and clean energy jobs. Then he goes on the “Daily Show,” where he smiles profusely and impresses Jon Stewart with his “Obama magic.” Meanwhile, John McCain sits down with Larry King and concedes that Obama is not a socialist, but he’s still steamed about some tape the LA Times refuses to release (because it loves its sources more than him) showing Obama saying nice things about a Pro-Palestinian activist and professor. This might have been a story but it turns out a group McCain once headed funded organizations linked to this very dude — so much for that October surprise.
Back in Obamaland, the Great O appears at a midnight rally in Florida with Bill Clinton. The tension is palpable. Obama looks profoundly uncomfortable. Clinton waxes rhapsodic about his administration’s past achievements. Do you remember Clinton’s “chicken in every pot?” Obama will give you that. Obama says nice things about Bill Clinton. They are all on tape. Keep reading →
As is so often the case at this time of the political season, the Truman comparisons are coming out. There have been several good takes on this, not only my own over at US News, but also Robert Dallek’s there and one by my old college classmate Jay Robison at Salon’s open forum.
The final days of a losing campaign inevitably lead to rounds of finger pointing. Already, unnamed McCain advisers have called Sarah Palin a “diva” and decried her “rogue” behavior, terms more typically associated with demanding actresses and terrorist states than vice presidential nominees. In turn, Palin associates have fired back, criticizing her roll-out by the campaign’s top brass. Over the weekend, the New York Times magazine ran a cover story attributing the flagging McCain effort to its failure to settle on a central theme. Barring some last-minute miracle for John McCain, polls indicate that Barack Obama is on track to be the president-elect this time next week.
McCain deserves to lose on execution alone. Keep reading →
