Reading post-election tea leaves - Was the Libertarian Party's successful pick-up of some dissatisfied GOP voters in non-presidential races a worrying sign for GOP, or just a reaction to some GOP candidates underperforming and voters not wanting to vote Democrat?

Among the things to me that are noteworthy in this piece from last week's Washington Post The Fix blog, about whether the Libertarian Party is cannibalizing the GOP, is that in also making the point that non-presidential Libertarian candidates did well in some places -which is news to me and other South Florida news consumers since the local media down here have yet to report this fact- is their noting that their U.S. Senate candidate in Indiana won 6% -actually 5.8% according to http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Elections/2012/Senate/Indiana/1/

But in the Post's own story the following day, below, they NEVER mentioned this important fact, nor did they even mention the name of that Libertarian candidate, Andrew  Horning, whose numbers clearly rose as a direct result of Richard Mourdock's campaign numbers coming back to earth after his landslide upset victory of longtime incumbent Richard Lugar in the spring GOP primary, and Mourdock's self-inflicted wounds, which he never recovered from in his battle against Joe Donnelly, which Kim Gieger of the LA Times was all over: 
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-donnelly-mourdock-poll-20121102,0,7739135.story
Yes, this omission in The Post was very Miami Herald-like.

The Washington Post

The Fix blog

The GOP’s growing Libertarian problem

By Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan

Updated: November 20, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/20/the-gops-growing-libertarian-problem/

Indiana Election Results 2012: Donnelly beats Mourdock in Senate race; Pence wins governors race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/indiana-election-results-2012-pence-wins-race-for-governor-donnelly-beats-mourdock-in-senate-race-romney-wins-hoosier-state/2012/11/07/0a430bda-23a2-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html 

See also:
DID LIBERTARIAN PARTY COST GOP 9 RACES?
http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/26/did-libertarian-party-cost-gop-9-races/

Glenn Kessler of Wash. Post ponders the continual "Overselling" of the the importance of Independent Voters in Presidential politics, and Kessler's piece support's Rush Limbaugh's longtime contention re GOP consultants fixation on Independents to the exclusion of core voters and GOTV

Two weeks after the Obama-Romney presidential election we are finally starting to get a more-nuanced, fact-based picture of what actually took place that day and in the lead-up to it, and part of what we're seeing is that some long cherished myths and notions among the professional political class may now be gone with the wind, because they can not be proven with real voters anymore.

The Washington Post

Overselling the importance of independent voters

Posted by Glenn Kessler at 06:02 AM ET, 11/20/2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/overselling-the-importance-of-independent-voters/2012/11/19/1c04b598-3294-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_blog.html

In my opinion, this article goes a long way towards validating one of the central tenets of Rush Limbaugh's oft-repeated point that, in general, GOP political consultants worry far too much publicly about -and perhaps spend too much resources towards wooing- Independents and Undecideds.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/19/the_gop_consultant_class_blames_me

That Mitt Romney won the support of the majority of Independent Voters in the U.S. and yet still lost the election, logically, ought to be a not-insignificant fact that should matter and be taken into account, and have a ripple effect across the political world.

Yet you can pretty well expect that by the time the new year rolls around, the very army of

consultants that Limbaugh is talking about (complaining about), will conveniently try to forget

this new fact as soon as possible because it directly challenges their personal M.O., their

business plan AND their world view.

It seems that the world does not revolve around Independent voters after all, but that news might be bad for business!

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"; @jamespoulos

VOAvideo YouTube Channel: VOA's Jeffrey Young examines so-called "Identity Politics" in this segment of "How America Elects." Uploaded June 20, 2012.
http://youtu.be/a0Hui4sEBfI

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"

This afternoon I read a Forbes.com column, below, that for all practical purposes is the book-end to that earlier Mark Hendrickson piece at Forbes.com that I mentioned this morning, regarding what I perceived to be the self-serving motives of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and many other GOP pols and consultants' jabs at Mitt Romney, and in particular, Jindal's unfortunate moth-like affinity for TV news cameras, as if lack of exposure was his real problem.

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/11/16/bobby-jindals-jab-at-mitt-romney-underscores-republicans-dilemma/

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/bobby-jindals-looming-mainstream-media.html

Forbes.com

Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe Highlights GOP Confusion On Obamanomics

WASHINGTON  
11/15/2012 @ 11:43AM

By James Poulos

Having not particularly relished telling donors what they wanted to hear during the campaign, Romney has now taken his lumps in the thankless task of telling them what they want to hear afterward.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/11/15/romneys-gifts-gaffe-highlights-gop-confusion-on-obamanomics/

His honesty in this think piece about the Obama campaign's use of identity politics stands in stark contrast to many reporters, columnists and pundits who are twisting themselves into uncomfortable pretzels to deny that it was used, even though it was both obvious and successful.
I encourage you to start following him because unlike many better-known pundits, like those seen on MSNBC, Poulos doesn't ask you to deny what you know about human behavior or to deny what your own eyes can see -Obama & Co. used identity politics and it worked.

But will that formula actually work for non-African-American, non-presidential Democratic candidates for office?
In my opinion, no.
I believe it was unique to Obama and has no transferability, which is why much of the crowing I've seen and heard from many national Dems I usually respect, and in some cases actually know, who are drawing all sorts of conclusions and over-reaching on some of the implications of Election Day, reminds me of young kids patiently building sand castles at the beach with their plastic buckets and shovels.

Kids, there's a wave out there in the ocean that you can't even see now, and guess what?
It's got very big plans for your castle and all your carefully-laid plans.

------

http://blogs.forbes.com/jamespoulos/

@jamespoulos  https://twitter.com/jamespoulos

https://www.rebelmouse.com/poulos/

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gets played and walks into quicksand, led by CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his condemnation of Mitt Romney: 'We Don't Win Elections By Insulting Voters.' Jindal doesn't seem to fully appreciate the fact that if he were being equally critical of President Obama in his public comments as he was of Mitt Romney prior to his appearance here, he wouldn't be appearing on TV at all. Someone as experienced in dealing with the news media as Jindal should be smart enough to appreciate that he is on TV specifically because he fits the post-election Mainstream Media narrative, but he doesn't. Why? Is the lure of the red light on the camera that powerful to him? sadly, it would appear so, since it's easy to see that when he says something in the future that the same news media wants to exaggerate or misrepresent because it doesn't jibe with the narrative that they want to put forth to the country, who does Jindal think will help him when he's complaining about being left out to dry, the Republican governors? Hardly. It's so damn laughable.
And you'll notice that Jindal is so concentrated on blasting Romney and mouthing high-minded feel-good cliches that he never has the good sense to pivot and turn things around by saying, matter of factly, "On the other hand, Wolf, I sure don't envy you and CNN and the rest of the Beltway media on Inauguration Day trying to remind your viewers what the big idea or ideas proposed by President Obama during the campaign were. You know, the ideas or plans that you and CNN presumably plan on holding him to account for in the new year. No, I don't envy you because there weren't any." Nope! There's none of that sort of quick thinking on his feet. LOL! 
Uploaded November 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/IUsXAseSeXg

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

The Mark Hendrickson column at Forbes.com that I received late Friday night was clearly written before Friday morning's New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial blasting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for resisting creating an Obamacare health insurance exchange.

Forbes.com

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma

Mark Hendrickson, Contributor

OP/ED  |  11/16/2012 @ 6:18PM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2012/11/16/bobby-jindals-jab-at-mitt-romney-underscores-republicans-dilemma/

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Gov. Jindal is ignoring his people's needs: Editorial

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/11/gov_jindal_is_ignoring_his_peo.html

In my opinion, despite all his many admirable qualities and talents, it's likely that Bobby Jindal will STILL likely be trying to reason with the national news media and East Coast elites over the next few years even as they're verbally lynching him by twisting his words and making him seem either ridiculous or dangerous (or both) in ways that he, his friends and supporters can't even imagine now.
Well after the point that it's been clear to me and many others I know that those elites are "just not that into him."

To them, Jindal's an interesting oddity, the fish-out-of-water that complicates their usual patronizing view of The South, so far from the norms of Manhattan and the Beltway.
He's the human anecdote to bring out when important guests come over and you've got the fine china out on the table and want to show you're refined.

For such a very smart guy, remarkable actually, he displays an air of unreality about him at times that's positively frightening, almost childlike, and truly disconnected from the political history of the past 25 years in this country, where people like him are left on the side of the road.

It's as if Jindal thinks -not unlike John Edwards or Bill Clinton- that he can single-handedly talk anyone and everyone he meets into agreeing that he's not only uniquer-than-unique, but also quite correct on the public policy as well.

In many uncomfortable ways, to me, after years of seeing interviews with him on every matter of policy shows and forums and reading what he's written, Jindal seems like Exhibit A from Central Casting in what radio host Rush Limbaugh regularly says about a certain sub-set of Republican pols and consultants who care, desperately, about what the Beltway news media and pundit class think about him.

Just like former GOP senator from Wyoming, Alan Simpson, who was never more popular with the Beltway and East Coast MSM than when he was publicly disparaging the House Republicans in the '90's, esp. Newt Gingrich.
As I know even better, that was especially the role carved out by the media for Indina Senator  Richard Lugar, who for so many years played the role of shadow Secretary of State, even while taking things for granted back in Indiana, where I went to school.
It's also one of the chief reasons he lost the GOP primary to Richard Mourdock in a landslide. 

Sen. Lugar had become the very picture of the media-absorbed pol, albeit a very smart and articulate one, and it was hard fro me not to notice, even before I came back to South Florida in 2003, that he was increasingly getting on TV, on the front pages of major newspapers or being cited in Thomas L. Friedman columns not because of what he had to say about foreign policy, but because he was so consistently willing to publicly criticize other Republicans' policies or ideas.
The MSM found him a 'useful idiot' for their purposes of supporting Democratic policies.

All of that is something that was discussed back on May 16th in a post titled, Richard Mourdock: Precursor or anomaly? Greg Garrison and Charlie Cook adroitly pinpoint where Sen. Richard Lugar eventually lost his way, started losing the trust of Hoosier voters, then lost in a landslide due to the dis-connect. Points largely lost on a predictably apoplectic Beltway MSM
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/richard-mourdock-precursor-or-anomaly.html

What Limbaugh says about that is 100% true, in large part because it's simple human

nature, as I witnessed for 15 years while living and working in D.C. with many Republican

friends who were staffers who worked for bosses on The Hill or the agencies who were constantly being fooled into thinking that someone in the Beltway media and Think Tank Cool Crowd really liked them.

Who doesn't want to be liked? 

That was the central conceit with many new younger male Members of Congress, many of whom were fortunate to be born with either  connections, money or good looks because they sure WEREN'T very bright.

They were so used to people deferring to them that they couldn't tell when they were being played.

Those folks didn't like them, of course, they just wanted to have them around long enough to have some fun at their expense, before eventually tiring of them and sending them packing like Mean Girls -dismissed!

Unless he wises up pretty soon and recognizes reality and stops caring so much what the national news media thinks about him, that's Bobby Jindal's future -mockery and put-downs by the very news media that he so desperately wants to persuade thru his genuine brilliance.

Video: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hits the U.S. presidential debate in Boca Raton and immediately heads for the media spin room in search of political nuance and intelligent discussion among the assembled media hordes and the party's surrogates...for Triumph to poop on!; Robert Smigel's comic genius returns to the small screen again!

TEAMCOCO video: Conan O'Brien Show on WTBS: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hits the last of the three U.S. presidential debates held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, and immediately heads for the media spin room in search of political nuance and intelligent discussion among the assembled media hordes and the party's surrogates...for Triumph to poop on! Uploaded October 26, 2012. 
http://youtu.be/I46iwLIF1Fo

http://teamcoco.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph,_the_Insult_Comic_Dog

http://www.vice.com/read/robert-smigel-556-v17n10


, 
Tvrecycled video: Robert Smigel & Louis C.K. doing a comedic bit from a 1993 appearance on the Conan O' Brien Show where they were writers. Uploaded March 15, 2010. http://youtu.be/2FFyNyfOqQQ

Déjà vu opinions from a new perch: National Journal's Beth Reinhard may've left the Miami Herald behind, but she STILL makes the same tired and unpersuasive arguments as before. You'll never guess who she writes will be the key to 2012 vote. Surprise -Hispanics! She's wrong -it's actually Catholics in the Midwest and PA

Déjà vu opinions from a new perch: National Journal's Beth Reinhard may've left the Miami Herald behind, but she STILL makes the same tired and unpersuasive arguments as before. You'll never guess who she writes will be the key to 2012 vote. Surprise -Hispanics! 

She's wrong -it's actually Catholics in the Midwest and PA

If you think that former Miami Herald political reporter and columnist Beth Reinhard can go even three sentences in this story WITHOUT mentioning the I-4 Puerto Rican voters that we've all been reading about for at least 18 months, you LOSE.

Lose, just like Herald readers did for so many years when they opened the paper and thought that if only out of randomness, perhaps that would be one of the few times in the year when they might see something original under her byline, and yet inevitably, what would follow was almost always the same banal and predictable words and "observations" about subjects that we'd all already seen.
Already seen and better-described and analyzed by other reporters and columnists MANY MONTHS before.

Yes, she even comes up with some of the predictable italicized names (for Hispanic food) to show that she's in touch.

Que Dios!

The National Journal

The Story of the Hispanic Vote Is the Story of the 2012 Campaign

Cuban-Americans aren’t the only Latinos candidates need to woo in Florida. Puerto Ricans also command attention.

By Beth Reinhard

Updated: November 1, 2012 | 9:39 p.m. 

November 1, 2012 | 2:00 p.m.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-story-of-the-hispanic-vote-is-the-story-of-the-2012-campaign-20121101?page=1

My favorite part?

Where after NOT explaining why Spanish-surnamed voters in the near-future will politically be more like Puerto Ricans than Cubans or Mexicans or Central Americans, and thereby curtail Cubans' relative power and favored role in Florida and the U.S., at the beginning of the fifth pargraph. 

Just saying it doesn't make it so.

There, she lays this gem on the table:

"Regardless of the outcome, the Hispanic vote will be one of the most important markers of the parties’ futures...'"

Sounds like backsliding and equivocating to me.

  

It's not for nothing that I once justifiably titled a blog post here -on September 3rd, 2010-
Addition by subtraction: Beth Reinhard leaving Miami Herald, heading to D.C. and The National Journal. Herald readers finally win one!, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/addition-by-subtraction-beth-reinhard.html

What time zone is she in? And year?

More past posts that mentioned Reinhard are here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=reinhard

The only saving grace -and I do mean ONLY- is that Reinhard doesn't make the obligatory butt-kissing reference to some Univision TV personality flacking a book like Jorge Ramos, did in 2004, complete with grandiose and self-serving reference to the power of people with tildes in their last name, something that Reinhard surely would have seen fit to do if she were still at the Herald.

What's that?
You say that you don't you recall the name of the Ramos book from 2004?
It was "The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Choose the Next President"
Hmm... not so much.

But because he's one of their favorites, America's Mainstream Media just pretends that boast and the book behind it never existed, and it's like Ramos never got an at-bat and struck-out.

At One Herald Plaza, right on Biscayne Bay, there still seem to be far too many people, even in the year 2012, who haven't caught on to the fact that their constant sycophantic need to make Hispanic media or Hispanic-oriented advertising executives -especially the ones in Miami whom the Herald wants to sell advertising space to or partner with, with all its attendant log-rolling- the ones quoted so extensively and so over-the-top in articles about Spanish-language media the past few years, sound like young Jones Salks, instead of car salesmen or Hi-Fi salesmen of the mid-1970's that they are, reeks of desperation.

Would you like that new stereo with "Quad" sound, sir?

The people they've quoted so promiscuously were nothing more than salesmen trying to sell something -a product or service.

That's fine, but there's nothing lofty or high-minded about selling toilet paper and air freshener and cookie and beer, so stop acting like there is.

It's sales!
That's all it is.

Vacillating Obama: Washington Post's Jackson Diehl zeroes-in on fundamental weakness of Obama's dithering Mid-East policy and multilateralism: Obama’s greatest failure - "His miscalculations on Syria have led to a wider war" that threatens to bring in more dangerous players and more unpredictability, NOT more stability and democracy; @JacksonDiehl, #syria

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I've been wanting to post this excellent analysis by The Washington Post's veteran foreign policy hand Jackson Diehl since reading it online early, early Sunday morning, while listening to some hard news online via the BBC.
Soon thereafter, I sent it out to a couple dozen well-informed friends and acquaintances across the country and around the world, who follow U.S. foreign policy as closely as I do, and who also like me, shake their head at what President Obama is doing. 

Though we all disagreed on lots of matters whenever we were together, we're all in agreement about this Diehl column -it's spot-on analysis from the get-go about Barack Obama's unwillingness to stop digging the foreign policy hole he has put the United States in.
He just keeps digging, utterly convinced that he's right and that everyone else is wrong.

I suspect that in about a dozen years or so, people who voted for Obama in 2008 will actually shake their head in wonder that they ever allowed themselves to willfully ignore his inexperience and weaknesses and elect someone as president who was foolish enough to convince himself -and them- that his carefully-constructed personal/media narrative would somehow allow him to solve longstanding problems.
It hasn't and it doesn't and it won't.

Despite all the accumulated evidence on U.S. foreign policy that shows he has made already bad situations worse, sometimes, much worse, Obama still remains utterly convinced that the sheer star power of his personality will lead to positive results.
It's the ultimate act of -and sign of- his amazing hubris.

The Washington Post

How Obama bungled the Syrian revolution

By Jackson Diehl

October 14, 2012

Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans are doing their best to portray the assault on the U.S. mission in Libya and its aftermath as a signal foreign policy disaster for Barack Obama. But my bet is that when historians look back on Obama’s mistakes in the last four years, they will focus on something entirely different: his catastrophic mishandling of the revolution in Syria.

The deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi were a calamity — but those losses were mainly the result of poor security decisions by mid-level State Department officials, not policy choices by Obama. The president’s handling of Syria, on the other hand, exemplifies every weakness in his foreign policy — from his excessive faith in “engaging” troublesome foreign leaders to his insistence on multilateralism as an end in itself to his self-defeating caution in asserting American power.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-how-obama-bungled-the-syrian-revolution/2012/10/14/13c492d2-13b2-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html


Read previous Diehl columns at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/jackson-diehl/2011/02/24/ABccMXN_page.html
I subscribe to his RSS feed and get his columns as sson as they go online.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/rss/linksets/opinions/jackson-diehl

Also see his Twitter page: https://twitter.com/JacksonDiehl

The National Journal
Obama’s Quagmire: Syria and the Islamist Arc, Hammered on leadership, the president struggles for a Middle East policy.
By Michael Hirsh
Updated: September 21, 2012  1:55 p.m., 
September 21, 2012  1:07 p.m.

U.S. and Western diplomats are concerned that the longer Bashar al-Assad hangs on to his failing regime in Damascus, the more likely it is that the aftermath of the Syrian rebellion will be dominated by Islamist elements, completing an arc of newly empowered radical groups along the southern half of the Mediterranean from Libya to Syria. 

Read the rest of the column at: http://nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/obama-s-quagmire-syria-and-the-islamist-arc-20120921?mrefid=site_search

As I've noted here several times over the past two years with videos of him speaking forthrightly about Syria, Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been much more realistic than Hillary Clinton's dog-chasing-its-tail State Dept. on the reality of what has been going on the Middle East and what is likely to happen if President Obama's dithering foreign policy is given four more years to make things worse.

And seriously, how does U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice still even have a job? 
Is there no penalty for her abject failure, serial lying to the American public and Congress and her calculated and willful ignorance?
Rice's performance the past month has validated all the criticism of her as nothing more than a political hack with foreign policy pretensions, not a serious foreign policy professional, no matter what her actual experience is.
Susan Rice is the female version of Rahm Emanuel -a fixer.
And a Grade B fixer at that.

How can we reasonably expect representatives of other countries to trust her and take her seriously if average Americans have learned from watching her for themselves, after paying attention to her own words and actions, NOT to trust her?


SenatorMarcoRubio video: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Foreign Aid to Libya, Egypt and Pakistan and what America and American taxpayers have a right to expect from these countries in exchange for U.S. dollars. Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/SFOBW7xkz7g Reminder, this video is a month old.

Articles and columns on Syria in The Washington Post, in chron order:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/search.html

By the way, if anyone reading this post knows anyone at Foreign Policy magazine, tell them that their YouTube Channel is the very picture of irrelevant.
One original video in the past nine months during a presidential election year?
That's embarrassing!
http://www.youtube.com/user/ForeignPolicyTV

Fred Barnes dribble drives, shoots and scores: "The canard that never dies—despite the total absence of facts to back it up" -Obama saved the U.S. from another Great Depression. Yes, he saved us from the thing that nobody predicted would happen -and which never was going to happen; #ThomasPeterffy

Thomas Peterffy video: Thomas Peterffy - Freedom To Succeed. 
"America's wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive with badmouthing success and you take away the wealth that helps us take care of the needy. Yes, in socialism the rich will be poorer -but the poor will also be poorer. People will lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs."
Uploaded October 10, 2012. http://youtu.be/UnX7TNFIELg

Fred Barnes dribble drives, shoots and scores: "The canard that never dies—despite the total absence of facts to back it up" -Obama saved the U.S. from another Great Depression. Yes, he saved us from the thing that nobody predicted would happen.

The Weekly Standard
Obama Didn’t Save Us
By Fred Barnes
October 22, 2012, Volume 18, Number 6

About the only talking point Joe Biden didn’t repeat in his debate with Paul Ryan was the one lionizing President Obama for having saved the country from another Great Depression. Biden used it in his speech at the Democratic convention, as did others, and it remains a hardy perennial of Obama lore. The president, ever immodest, has credited himself for this achievement. Last year Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told him, it’s “your legacy.” Andrew Sullivan, in a recent Newsweek cover story likening Obama to Ronald Reagan, twice credited the president with having “prevented a second Great Depression.”

Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/obama-didn-t-save-us_654408.html

-----
#ThomasPeterffy  http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ThomasPeterffy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Peterffy

Newt Gingrich on President Obama's curious choices and what they mean -placing more importance on meeting the hosts of ABC's 'The View' than practicing traditional U.S. statecraft and actually meeting other countries' leaders -like Netanyahu- at the U.N. And even elements of the MSM are upset

Video at: http://video.foxnews.com/v/1861429922001/

Fox News Channel video: Gingrich's take: Obama at UN, snubs, 'bumps' and more.

Newt Gingrich appeared on Greta Van Sustern's "On the Record" TV show on Tuesday night, September 25th, and opined on all manner of things, most notably, Obama's curious speech before the United Nations General Assembly, his continued use of "the video" as an excuse for what happened to four Americans being murdered in Libya, inc. our Ambassador, his public snub of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and what Mitt Romney needs to do for the rest of the 2012 campaign. 

Long story short: Newt Gingrich and many other Americans believe that actions STILL speak louder than words, so using that as your guide, President Obama has decided that running for re-election as president and appearing on various TV chat shows where he will get softballs lobbed at him, is more important than actually acting doing the duties expected of a U.S. president. 

He is not going to worry what high-minded people think, he's going after the yentas!

Which is why he is the first sitting U.S. president in over twenty years to come to the U.N. for this annual event and NOT actually meet any representatives from other countries. 

He's left that task to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Dennis Miller says he not only is NOT undecided, he's "over-decided" for Mitt Romney; opines on Sandra Fluke and the contrived issue of the "war on women"; the role of individual responsibility in combating unemployment and slumping U.S. economy and NOT allowing the govt. to have so much control over your life; the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign

Amusing and pithy as always, appearing this past week on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller, opinionated comedian and host of the nationally-syndicated radio program, "The Dennis Miller Show," told host Bill O'Reilly that he not only is NOT undecided, he's "over-decided" for Mitt Romney. He also discussed President Obama's appearance on CBS-TV's the "Late Show with David Letterman" and the softball questions he received while a guest there, and spoke about the 2012 election campaign. Uploaded September 19, 2012. http://youtu.be/tpN8u4uHe1M

LOL!

Appearing three weeks earlier on NBC-TV's  “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,”  Dennis told Jay what he really thought about Sandra Fluke and the Democratic party's contrived issue of the "GOP "war on women " in order to solidify their base of young female voters; taxpayer-funded government programs and the distinction he makes between helping people who are genuinely in need of help, and helping the merely clueless, who feel they can use the govt. as a hammock to support them when it's convenient. Uploaded August 27, 2012. http://youtu.be/lv2jAiWmpio


DennisMillerShow video: Dennis Miller Radio Show- Bathrobe Sessions #220. 
Dennis on the role of individual responsibility in combating unemployment and slumping U.S. economy and NOT allowing the govt. to have so much control over your life. Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/107_ZV_XV7s



"Dennis on The Road " tour schedule: http://www.dennismillerradio.com/b/Fall-2012:-Dennis-on-the-Road!/969152456530916447.html

http://www.dennismillerradio.com/

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DennisMillerShow 

The Hallandale Beach corollary to Paul Roderick Gregory's savvy piece at Forbes.com re the news media's assumptions & bias: What If 'President' McCain Was Running For Re-Election Against 'Senator' Obama?; What if 'Mayor' London was running for re-election against 'Comm.' Cooper?; @MayorCooper

 

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall and Police Dept. HQ. September 4, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Well, someone else thought of my brilliant idea that came to me while watching the Republican and Democratic National Conventions over the past month, to show the rather self-evident Mainstream Media's assumptions, bias and even lack-of-curiosity, Paul Roderick Gregory, and he got it printed it at Forbes.com, which I've got at the bottom of this post and encourage you to send to friends.

Reading what Gregory wrote a couple of times over had the salutary effect of causing me to re-purpose in my own head some of the central questions at the heart of his and the current political campaign here in Hallandale Beach.

Which is how I come before you today and ask you to ponder the question: What if 'Mayor' London was running for re-election against 'Comm.' Cooper?

Yes, it really DOES make you think, doesn't it?

Especially about all the negative, anti-democratic and just plain nonsensical things that we have all borne witness to and endured, and know for a fact happened to Hallandale Beach residents and business owners due specifically to Mayor Joy Cooper's own illogical words, vengeful actions and thin-skinned ego.

Ones that the local south Florida news media have largely decided didn't happen because they weren't there in person to observe first-hand.

Yet all of us can recite them from memory, can't we?

The press corps' thinking seems to be that if Mayor Cooper really calls a citizen minding his own business and sitting in his seat at a City Commission meeting -yours truly- a "Nazi" in a conversation to perpetually disconnected then-Comm. Bill Julian, did it really happen if a reporter wasn't there? 

Yes, it happened and does happen, regardless of whether or not a reporter, columnist or TV cameraman is there -especially when a reporter is NOT there- but to them, no, not really, it's just an "allegation."

We are the Broward capital of "allegations" that really happened. 

Towards that end, in the next few days, because of an email I received from a very well-known and cutting-edge web hosting company, one that's offering a huge discount, I'll have a constructive suggestion and tip to share with those of you who've spoken to me over the past 18 months about starting a blog or website of your own, to share your thoughts -and document- what happens in this city, this area and this part of the Sunshine State.

Especially since neither Change Hallandale and Save Hallandale have posted anything new since last year.

That'd be a good thing for everyone in the community, esp. as long as CRA funds are funneled to a fake newspaper that consciously chooses NOT to report what is really going on here for fear of offending Mayor Cooper, who -along with her husband- has previously threatened the fake newspaper's owners, even to the point of threatening to put them out of business.

It really did happen, but I guess because a reporter wasn't there, it's only an "allegation."

Personally, I'm guessing it sure didn't seem like just an "allegation" to the person on the receiving end of the pointed verbal threats from Mayor Cooper and her husband.

Speaking of blogs and websites:

a.) have you come across this interesting one yet, Hallandale Truth? http://hallandaletruth.com/ 

b.) I was going to mention this about a week ago but I've taken the opportunity to look at Michele Lazarow's new campaign website and it's VERY well-done and put together.

Michele's website  is at: http://michelelazarow.com/

Her campaign's Facebook page is at: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michele-Lazarow-For-Hallandale-Beach-City-Commissioner-2012/407115322683911

c.) If you didn't see my post about it a few weeks ago, Csaba Kulin's campaign website is at http://www.kulin2012.com/

Csaba told me that his plan is to try to update it fairly frequently and write about what's going on now in Hallandale Beach -or what isn't and ought to be, like Comm. Sanders and Bill Julian agreeing to actually show-up in public for an old-fashioned debate, where those two can be PUBLICLY asked questions that they've been dodging for YEARS. 

Csaba doesn't plan on letting his website remain static for the next six-and-a-half weeks, and he's already shown me some of what he's written after months of research about the city's finances and its ticking pension time-bomb.

Words that I think you'll all find of great interest!

-----

Forbes.com

Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor

What If 'President' McCain Was Running For Re-Election Against 'Senator' Obama?

9/15/2012 @ 2:12AM

Imagine John McCain, having eked out a narrow victory in 2008, running for reelection against Illinois Senator Barack Obamaunder today’s economic and foreign policy circumstances. The following would be  a sample triumphant press report – New York Times,Washington Post, LA Times, what have you — dated Saturday September 15:

“President John McCain’s reelection bid is tottering on the verge of collapse. The raising of the black flag over the Cairo Embassy, the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya, and the outburst of violent protests throughout the Mid East appear to be the coup de grace to McCain’s faltering campaign. 

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/09/15/what-if-president-mccain-was-running-for-re-election-against-senator-obama/

What voter fraud? Oh, THAT voter fraud! Robert Wexler of Palm Beach and suburban Maryland was the trailblazer! Maryland Democrat withdraws from MD-1 race after allegations she voted in 2 states -the other being -wait for it- Florida, are confirmed; What voter fraud? Joe Gibbons!

When I first heard about this story on Tuesday morning after reading the latest on the Orioles amazing winning ways in the Baltimore Sun's sports section -only ten times better than the Miami Herald's and or Sun-Sentinel's combined- I must admit that the political romantic in me hoped that the woman caught up in a political ethical scandal before she could even be elected to Congress, Wendy Rosen, was from either Broward County or Miami-Dade, so there'd be yet another South Florida angle to a political scandal, but sadly, she's from mundane St. Pete, the land of the equivocating (Charlie) Crists.

When she isn't from Maryland... 
But she's described by Politico as being a "Miami native," so we have that at least.

The day after Rosen dropped-out of the race, a newspaper story appeared that recounted how her opponent, Republican incumbent Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist, was involved in a life-saving rescue involving a small child on the road he was traveling on while campaigning.

Can you imagine? 

You don't have to be a political genius to know that the odds of a write-in candidate -John LaFerla- trying to fill the void of a major party candidate who drops-out and successfully map a battle plan that knocks-off a popular incumbent, with only nine weeks to go, has enough problems on their hands before a newspaper in the CD runs a headline that reads, essentially, "Incumbent saves boy's life."

But political reality is stranger than fiction.

Even in places not named Florida.

The Baltimore Sun

Democrat withdraws from 1st District congressional race after allegations she voted in two states

Rosen says she registered in Fla. to support friend there

By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun

9:50 a.m. EDT, September 11, 2012

Wendy Rosen, the Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Andy Harris in the 1st Congressional District, withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she voted in elections in both Maryland and Florida in 2006 and 2008.

It was unclear, however, whether she could remove her name from the ballot with the election less than two months away. Under state law, a candidate has until 70 days before an election to remove his or her name from the ballot. The deadline for the Nov. 6 election passed on Aug. 28.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-wendy-rosen-withdraws-20120910,0,3764352.story

Harris saves boy's life along U.S. Route 50 

September 12, 2012 5:30 am 

Updated: 6:27 pm, Tue Sep 11, 2012.

http://www.myeasternshoremd.com/news/caroline_county/article_480efa72-fc5c-11e1-a8f8-0019bb2963f4.html

-----

Wendy Rosen campaign website: http://www.wendyrosen.com/

Andy Harris congressional website: http://harris.house.gov/

The fallacious Fact Check epidemic: As the U.S. Mainstream Media's bias becomes ever more apparent, some are naming names and shaming the guilty and aggressively pushing back; TheWrap on Dinesh D'Souza calling-out the AP's Beth Fouhy; PolitiFact Florida "rulings" show a pro-Democrat bias according to MediaTrackers.org

Fox News Channel video: "Fox News Watch" -Media coverage of the RNC; Host: Jon Scott, Special Guests: Judith Miller, Jim Pinkerton, Alan Colmes, Cal Thomas. Uploaded September 1, 2012. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1818497994001/
See the entire show at: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-watch/2012/09/03/media-coverage-rnc

Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer once famously felt compelled to share with his best friend what he was doing with some of his free time when we didn't see him -"I'm watching the watchers, Jerry.' 

Similarly, former LA-based Slate blogger Mickey Kaus, long a favorite of ours, and now with a media perch at The Daily Caller, takes a scalpel to the the U.S. Mainstream Media over their new "Fact Check"-ing obsession and wonders if what they're really doing is simply walking onto more thin ice -and only MORE BIAS.; Kaus adroitly observes that it "opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, esp. when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns"

The Daily Caller

Credulous fact-checkers fall for scam

By Mickey Kaus

September 2, 2012

Why the Fact-Checkosphere is failing: So, as I understand it, this year the MSM will righteously strike back against “Post-Truth Politics” through rigorous fact-checking, followed by a manly, non-balanced, yet authoritative calling out of transgressors for the liars that they are.  James Fallows and Jay Rosen, among others, have heralded this great new day. One problem, of course, is the ease–rather, the constant temptation–of presenting debatable policy issues as right/wrong fact issues, a problem emphasized by dissenter Ben Smith yesterday. Another is the way what Smith calls “the new pseudo science of fact-checks” opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, especially when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns.

Read the rest of his post at:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/02/credulous-fact-checkers-fall-for-20-scam/ 

Earlier this afternoon, TheWrap had the story on an effort by one prominent conservative media personality to push back at what they see as the guilty parties. In this case, reporter Beth Fouhy at the AP who seems to have a history of... well, you be the judge, and take a look at what one well-known conservative media website says.

Can they really be so wrong about one person who has such a proven track record like Fouhy's, many of whose pieces appear in the Miami Herald? 

That would have to be an awful lot of coincidences for her to be correct every time, wouldn't you say? http://newsbusters.org/people/beth-fouhy

TheWrap

'2016: Obama's America' Author Dinesh D'Souza Fires Back at Associated Press 'Fact Check'

By Todd Cunningham

September 03, 2012 @ 2:37 pm

Author Dinesh D’Souza, who wrote and co-directed “2016: Obama’s America,” told TheWrap Monday that a recent Associated Press report “fact-checking” his hit documentary is “a crude and inaccurate attack masquerading as a news story.”

The AP article, posted Friday and written by Beth Fouhy, was headlined “Fact Check: Anti-Colonial Obama Not Plausible.”

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/2016-obamas-america-author-dinesh-dsouza-fires-back-associated-press-fact-check-54501

Closer to home, the problem of media bias, and even institutional bias, is even more rampant on a local level because there are not only fewer people paying close attention and who know all the details and context about what's REALLY GOING ON, there are fewer people in newsrooms who will stand up and stop it from airing or going into print.

They just look the other way and make a mental note of it.

A SUBTLE FORM OF BIAS IN LOCAL NEWS

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/01/A-Subtle-Form-of-Bias-in-Local-News

And just so there's no confusion on this point, let me be clear.

In my opinion, despite the efforts of Journalism Schools to inculcate a stronger sense of pro-active ethical probity into their students the past thirty years, the evidence to date suggests that in an era of news reporting retrenchment and uncertain economic futures, fewer people in the press corps will stand up to their own corporate management team, editorial superiors or Editorial Board when those people engage in untoward behavior and bias, and in some cases, don't even try to hide it,.The reason?

Because, hello, those are the very same people who will have a say in who is around a year from now in that very newsroom.

NATIONAL USC ANNENBERG-LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL SHOWS LOCAL TELEVISION NEWS RULES WITH VOTERS

Posted August 24, 2012

http://annenberg.usc.edu/News%20and%20Events/News/120824LATimesPoll.aspx

That is especially true in South Florida, where despite what you may want to believe, the general level of ethics in the news room down here is certainly no higher than you'd find in the offices at City Hall, County Halls and the State Capitol that are being followed. 

That level of newsroom ethics in South Florida is largely below-average compared to the rest of the country, and some have been able to keep jobs despite how well-known their own biases and proclivities are for looking the other way and making excuses for shoddy journalism practices. 

Over the next week, I'll be pointing-out some examples of this to you readers here on the blog by putting some sunshine on some stories and news angles that you haven't seen mentioned or reported upon elsewhere.

MediaTrackers.org

PANTS ON FIRE: PolitiFact Florida Rulings Show Clear Bias in Favor of Democrats, Against Republicans

By Sean Davis

30TH AUG 2012 AT 12:36

http://florida.mediatrackers.org/2012/08/30/pants-on-fire-politifact-florida-rulings-show-clear-bias-in-favor-of-democrats-against-republicans/

Recent posts of mine on media bias in its various guises include my April 16, 2012 blog post, titled, Despite self-congratulatory declarations, Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact's bias in analyzing "facts" over past few years is becoming increasingly apparent to everyone, and Breitbart's Big Journalism's Tony Lee points out some recent examples re Romney.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/despite-self-congratulatory.html

as well as my January 1, 2012 post, Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise! 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/florida-voters-shake-their-heads-in.html