The GOP and their laissez-faire economists really need some way to blame Barney Frank for this:
"I doubt this approach would play well with regulators, investors, rating agencies, etc," [John P. McMurray, chief risk officer of Countrywide Financial] wrote. "To some, this approach might seem like we've simply ceded our risk standards and balance sheet to whoever has the most liberal guidelines."Fortunately for them, they don't care about facts.
The fiancé story only has to last two months.
Ed Rollins, despite being a Republican operative, actually manages a commentary on Sarah Palin that's not blithering. I have to admit that that was unexpected. Usually his species is completely incapable of anything that's not hagiographic spin.
There are some facts in it that I wanted to know, and it's not all about atmospherics and personality like this piece of abject middle school idiocy. Some wingnut pundits would christen a 30-lb. granite boulder the second coming if McCain had picked it to be VP.
Rollins is a bit more realistic, as demonstrated by this shocking candor:
[W]in or lose or draw, she is a future star of a party in desperate need of young people and women role models.Rollins is a Republican, though, so maybe he profits by the soft bigotry of my low expectations. There's a lot of what he says that's wrong in silly ways.
[L]ike Reagan, Obama's speeches are his own words.Reagan's speeches included a few words of his own, but no one ever claimed, except in obeying the speechwriter's omertà, that he wrote them. When Peggy Noonan wrote the obligatory self-effacing white lie about her work for Reagan in On Speaking Well, the wink between the lines lingered like a relative of the Cheshire cat's smile.
Actually, journalism ignores comedy, but that just doesn't have the same ring.
Jon Stewart lays it out for the cable news blatherers. To their credit, CNN gives a summary that had to sting, starting with:
Jon Stewart took after the "established" media for getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin when it comes to political coverage.Then, McCNN proceeds to fill its Political Ticker with abject propaganda from two Republican political operatives who don't even try to find anything but a way to spin Democrats. And McCNN "balances" them with Bill Schneider, who is not only center right but who seldom misses the chance to push out some vacuous RNC mantra - "No one will mention Obama’s middle name here."
Every now and then, someone in the media tries to set the record semi-straight: Obama's not elitist for vacationing in Hawaii, the state of his birth. Problem is, they always start by reviewing the ridiculous Republican spin. In this case, their production people get the bullshit Republican message into the headline.
Just once, I'd like to see "GOP pushes obvious hogwash."
Update: I figured it out: The Republicans think that the fact that Duhbya vacationed in the shittiest vacation spot in America sets a new, iron-clad rule that every American Presidential contender must vacation in a shitty place and clear brush while doing it. Never mind that Obama doesn't have the money that the Bushes have to buy a vanity ranch.
Scott McClellan's book is really confusing Wolf Blitzer. How could Scotty bring up Duhbya's cocaine use when the story was "dormant"?!
Long before 9/11, the press gave Duhbya a complete pass on his youth. The vague spin-mantra of the Bushists ("young and irresponsible" times two) made it completely clear that either Duhbya had snorted nose candy or had done something even more damaging to his electability.
Remind me, Wolf, did the media quash Bill Clinton's youthful indiscretions? Oh, sure, that was his fault. "I didn't inhale" just wasn't the sort of spin-mantra that dead-ends questions. It's the Democrats' fault!
But what about the draft-dodging? Who got in more trouble about that?
The Fix assesses the "McClellan mess" with the help of four Republican spinners and zero Democrats of any kind. Oh, and this poses "no immediate danger to [McCain's] presidential campaign"!
Too bad Cillizza didn't take the buyout.
Frankly, I'll take the liberal bloggers over this tripe any time.
Again, CNN fails the most basic rules of responsible sourcing:
Unbelievable bullshit! Anonymous sources should only be used carefully to help the reader understand the story, not because they give a quote that fits your narrative. This is letting the White House put its spin into print without having to take responsibility for it.In response to McClellan's suggestion in the "Today" interview that the White House manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the war, a senior administration official said, "Scott McClellan's assertions about the administration's decision to go into Iraq are just flat-out wrong and not supported by the facts."
The official was not willing to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the book.
Time expects us to swallow the Bushist spin they regurgitate to "explain" why Gonzo resigned now. First, there's the sweet photo op of lunch with Duhbya and Laura. I wonder: do they get a second, fresh serving after the photographers are shooed away?
Then, there's the Josh Bolten deadline myth again. Why's the weather so nice in August? Josh Bolten told it that it had to leave now or stay until 2009. When senior White House aides jet off to cushy lobbying jobs next year, ya think we'll hear about Josh's deadline then. Tut-tut, how can Condi leave now? Suuure.
The story does quote Pat Leahy and Nancy Pelosi, posing their quotes as rebuttal to unnamed Republican sources who fear those nasty Dems will politicize the confirmation process. But the quotes are just boilerplate and, let me tell you, did not originate in response to the quote they are juxtaposed to.
In short, the Time story is almost pure Republican spin.
