May 14, 2008
What Was Fox Thinking? … AGAIN (Peter Fenn)
As I sat over at XM’s POTUS channel going over the election results last night, I couldn’t help but stare at the bank of television sets.
There was CNN, carrying Hillary Clinton’s West Virginia speech live … and MSNBC and C-SPAN doing the same. From start to finish, the cable channels were all tuned in to her speech.
And what about Fox? Funny — the “UnFair and Out-of-Balance” channel was the only one not to carry audio of the Clinton speech. The “We Distort, You Decide” network was content with Dick Morris doing the talking, with a visual of Clinton giving her speech. Maybe he was channeling her … what do you think? > Read More
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What's This April 17, 2008
Here We Go Again … (Peter Fenn)
Last night’s debate was a real shame. Prime-time. Big audience. A lot at stake. And ABC decides to take us to commercials before the candidates even get to smile?! What were they thinking? And the questions were demeaning, not just to the candidates, but to the voters.
Why must we parse the off-the-cuff remarks and misstatements and go over and over irrelevant relationships that have nothing to do with the candidates’ qualifications, values or stands on the issues? Beats me. When so much is at stake for so many Americans, when they are more engaged and concerned about this election that they have been in decades, when they are faced with an economy which is taking them down and a war that seems to know no end, ABC is spending time on more games of “gotcha.” > Read More
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What's This April 8, 2008
A REAL Economic Prescription for What Ails Us (Peter Fenn)
Both the Democratic and Republican parties need to wake up and smell the — well, not roses — of America’s economic crisis. The New York Times reports that 81 percent of Americans believe we are seriously off on the wrong track, a record in the history of polling. Consumer confidence is reaching all-time lows over the last 50 years. Wall Street and Main Street are jittery, teetering on the edge of what can only be described as a nervous breakdown.
And what did Congress and the president do to alleviate this disaster? They appropriated $150 billion to send checks for up to $600 to the bulk of Americans who qualify … hoping they will spend it. Right. When the average family has credit card debt of $9,600, maybe they need to pay off some of that debt instead of putting a down payment on another electronic device. The fundamental question, of course, is whether or not that huge outlay (adding more to the national debt) will really help the economy. > Read More
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What's This April 7, 2008
Martin Luther King Jr. (Peter Fenn)
When Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis I was a college student, active in the 1968 campaign for president, protesting the Vietnam War and engaged in civil rights. The fact that 40 years have gone by since that weekend does not make those events any less fresh in my mind.
I remember the American flag and the United Nations flag at Macalester College in St. Paul being lowered to half-mast and the prayers that were said as students gathered in front of the chapel. I remember the shock that another hero could be taken from us less than five years after John Kennedy was assassinated. I remember calling home to my family in Washington, D.C., who told me that they could see the smoke and fires from the downtown riots. And I remember the footage of Robert Kennedy in Indiana as he spoke to an African-American crowd who had not yet heard the news and his quoting Aeschylus: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." > Read More
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What's This March 21, 2008
Clinton Let Down by Campaign (Peter Fenn)
Hillary Clinton can’t escape her campaign. She gets better and better, despite the problems inside her campaign operation. Clearly, changes have been made in the past weeks that may help right the ship, but we will see.
Can you imagine blowing through $100 million before Super Tuesday and running out of money in a Clinton campaign? Can you comprehend a strategy based on “inevitability” — telling voters in Iowa and New Hampshire that you have their votes because you are running the juggernaut campaign? Can you even remotely believe that a campaign with such seasoned pros would virtually ignore the caucus states, losing almost all of them? Can you see Obama netting more delegates in Idaho than Clinton netted in New Jersey? > Read More
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What's This March 10, 2008
Time for Campaign 'Advisers' to Zip It! (Peter Fenn)
With 24/7 news channels, bloggers who are on top of all things political and the highest level of interest in a presidential campaign in decades, the mistakes and misstatements by policy advisers to candidates are becoming a serious problem.
Whether it has been private NAFTA discussions with the Canadian consulate, calling Hillary Clinton a “monster,” or stating that neither Clinton nor Obama were ready to answer the “3 a.m. call,” these are comments that should not come from “advisers.” > Read More
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What's This February 18, 2008
John McCain: Hardest to Beat? (Peter Fenn)
Conventional wisdom has done so well this past year, why not keep it front and center!?
Giuliani was the clear front-runner, Fred Thompson was going to take off and capture the conservatives, Hillary Clinton was inevitable, Mike Huckabee was just a one-percenter, Romney was going to fill the void and succeed with his $40 million-plus infusion. You name it, pollsters and pundits got it wrong.
There is no question that John McCain has flipped conventional wisdom on its head by starting near the top of the heap and falling faster than a teenager on a water slide, then staging a comeback with little money or institutional support.
So now we are back in conventional wisdom mode once again. McCain is the 800-pound gorilla and, even though he has those pesky right-wingers like Coulter and Limbaugh after him, he is the man to capture the center and win in November.
Maybe. Maybe not. > Read More
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What's This February 4, 2008
'W': Mr. Tough Guy (Peter Fenn)
OK, so it was his last State of the Union speech. OK, so he wanted to have those cameras scan the floor and watch as his Republicans would stand and cheer and the Democrats sat and stared.
But over earmarks? “W” the fiscal conservative? What was he thinking? After seven years and not vetoing a single earmark and not even saying a darn thing about them! Now he is Mr. Tough Guy? Now he puts himself forth as the “cut spending president”?
“W” will win a place in the annals of history and the Guinness Book of World Records as the president who took us from the greatest surpluses in American history to the greatest deficits in less than five years. > Read More
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What's This January 21, 2008
Why is Rudy Still in This? (Peter Fenn)
The fact that the press is even buying into Rudy’s “Florida Strategy” is unbelievable.
Have we looked at his “performance” so far? He has spent millions in the early states, campaigned in them, been before the voters for a year and just how has he done?
Here is how he has placed: sixth in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire, sixth in Michigan, sixth in Nevada and sixth in South Carolina. I totaled up the percentage of the vote he was able to garner in these five states — a grand total of 18.9 percent (respectively, 3.5, 8.5, 2.8, 4 and 2.1 percent). Ron Paul has beaten the pants off Rudy Giuliani, let alone McCain, Huckabee, Romney, even Thompson. > Read More
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What's This January 16, 2008
Primaries Prove Republican Disarray (Peter Fenn)
And the Republican primary contest is still wide open!
After Mike Huckabee won Iowa, John McCain won New Hampshire. And now, after John McCain won New Hampshire, Mitt Romney wins Michigan. That makes the Republican contest a three-way tie, with no clear front-runner — and the next primary, South Carolina, only three days away.
Of course, there’s no clear front-runner in the Democratic primary, either. But the wide-open nature of the Republican primary, and the lack of enthusiasm and turnout on the Republican side, is especially significant — because of what it tells us. > Read More
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