2012 Republicans

"The Fix," a political blog from The Washington Post, has chosen its top 10 picks for Republican nominee in 2012. Noticably absent from the list was Sarah Palin. Is it possible she'll stay in Alaska? Probably not.

Here's the list of the top ten:

10. Steve Poizner
9. Haley Barbour
8. Jon Huntsman Jr.
7. Eric Cantor
6. Mark Sanford
5. Bob McDonnell
4. Mitch Daniels
3. Mitt Romney
2. John Thune
1. Bobby Jindal

So far, it seems like the media loves Jindal even though he's a (gasp) Republican. To read a profile on each of the picks that "The Fix" came up with, check out this article on the 10 Republicans to watch.

What Happened?

Check out this vintage McCain SNL skit HERE (embedding was disabled, so you have to go to the site).

It definitely made me start to wonder... where did McCain's personality go? He lacked any real personal attributes all the way up until the very end of campaign season, but every once in a while we get a little glimmer of what might be a kinda, sorta, maybe just a little bit... likable guy. It seems he might actually be funny and... personable?

So it left me asking, what happened?

Obama - "Whatever I Like"

Remember back when we were talking about humor in the election and wondering how we would ever be able to turn Obama into something funny? Here's the answer:

FOX News Promo Ad

The people over at News Hounds are outraged by the new promo ad for FOX News. Using the line, "As your world changes, stay with FOX" along with a series of extremely negative images definitely gives off the wrong message as we approach the presidency of someone who ran on a campaign of hope. Check it out for yourselves here:


If you ask me, I think they were just trying to grab people's attention using the same techniques they use in previews for shows like 24. It definitely could have been a little better thought out though.

McCain in 2012?

Apparently the idea of running for president again is not in McCain's four-year plan. At least not according to this video where he laughs hysterically at the very idea:


I started to wonder, though, what if he did run in 2012? Since losing... well, since a few days before losing when he appeared on Saturday Night Live making fun of himself, McCain has somehow become so much more likable. He made us laugh on SNL, he gave a gracious concession speech, and he has gone out of his way to support Obama in his soon-to-be presidency. Hasn't he already started winning over America?

According to the article, "The Real McCain" in The Huffington Post, no he hasn't. As I read this article that tears down every single endearing thing McCain has done since the election, it made me think of the way we have criticized the conservative media for trying to rile people up, and I think that Robert J. Elisberg, the author of this article, did very much the same thing but from a liberal standpoint. In fact, while I agreed with some of Elisberg's points, I found his article a little off-putting in the same way I find some of the things I see on FOX News off-putting.

Just thought I'd try to be fair....

Back from the Dead

So first of all, I'd like to explain my recent disappearance from the blog world. I've had an extremely unlucky Fall with my computer dying and then me getting the flu not once but twice, all in under a month! Having been extremely sick recently, I'll be perfectly honest and say that I've been living a "media-free" life these past few days. I haven't been on the internet, I haven't listened to the radio, and I haven't watched the news. In fact, I don't think I've really even been out of my house. I think it should therefore go without saying that I am fairly "out of the loop."

That being said, I thought this was an interesting poll on what TV news source people trust most. Brace yourselves.... it's FOX.

I really didn't want to believe it, so I checked it out on a few more websites, and apparently it really is true. This reminded me of election night just a few weeks ago when I tried to watch the election coverage with my dad (a die-hard Republican). We had to separate and watch on different TVs after about 10 minutes because my dad would not change the channel from FOX. Why? Because, "It's the only network you can trust not to be biased." Those were his exact words. At first I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. Not even sort of.... He went on to call some of the other news anchors communists, then left the room to watch FOX by himself.

Do Americans really trust FOX over the other networks? I really don't care if people are Republicans or Democrats, but doesn't everyone know FOX is biased? If you're out there reading this, wondering what I'm talking about, check this out:

No Communion for Unrepentent Obama Voters

A priest in South Carolina wrote a letter to his parishioners advising them not to receive communion if they voted for "Barack Hussein Obama" and are unwilling to ask forgiveness for their "material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

To read the article and the letter, click HERE.

I find it really disturbing how much God has come into play in this election. First he asked Sarah Palin to be Vice President (and now to run for Senate), and now he's apparently withholding communion from Obama voters! What happened to the separation of church and state?

If God Says So...

Apparently, God may be calling upon Sarah Palin to run for Senate after she completes her term as Alaska Governor. Click HERE to read the article.

Didn't God also call upon her to be Vice President? Doesn't God usually get his way?

Post-Election Interviews

One of the ways in which the media is holding on to the last threads of the election frenzy is by scoring the first post-election interviews from the candidates. John McCain chose to give his first post-election interview to Jay Leno from NBC. Check out some highlights here:


Sarah Palin gave her first interview to Greta Van Susteren from FOX News. To read some of the highlights, click HERE.

As for our president-elect, Barack Obama, the press is all over him and his family, covering topics from his meeting with George and Laura Bush, to what breed of dog he will choose to take to the White House and why.

My guess is that as we move farther and farther away from the election, the media will start covering increasingly ridiculous stories just to keep up the hype. Case in point: BBC News - Choosing the First Puppy.

Barack Obama - World Leader

It has been interesting in these past couple days to read about the international response to Obama's election win. The overall response has been extremely positive, with newspaper headlines across the world declaring Barack Obama the bringer of peace and prosperity to the globe. According to The Boston Globe's article "Much of the world exults in Obama", "...the reaction of US friends and foes alike suggests that Obama will receive a level of international good will not seen by a US president since John F. Kennedy."

Also in that same article was a quote from Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University, who said "No president of a country as powerful as the United States has ever been seen as such a unifying figure.... Most of the world sees Barack Obama as their leader. . . . It's a gigantic burden on his shoulders."

These are some pretty enormous responsibilities being put on Obama! Can you imagine if the entire world was expecting you to lead them? I hate to be a downer, but if everyone has expectations this high, isn't that likely to lead to unwarranted disappointment? It's like the opposite of what happened with Sarah Palin in the vice presidential debate. She made it through without completely humiliating herself, so we were all impressed.

I am confident that Obama will be a great president, but with the entire world putting him up an an enormous pedestal, I have to admit that I'm a little worried. We're involved in two wars and the worst economic crisis most of us have ever seen... and we're all expecting a miracle on January 20th.

Now that the election is over....

Now that the election is over, McCain insiders can start leaking details about what went wrong, specifically with Sarah Palin. Check out this video from Fox News:


Apparently, even McCain campaigners felt that the questions asked by Katie Couric were fair, it was Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge that proved her inexperience, not unfair "gotcha" journalism. I think it will be interesting to hear more of this story now that insiders don't have to continue keeping quiet about Palin.

"He'll sail past 300"

CNN, which has been really conservative with its reporting tonight, has just predicted that Obama will "sail past 300" electoral votes, winning the race by a large margin.

Is Fox almost ready to admit defeat?

"McCain deserves a lot of credit [but] he's not going to be the president, it looks like." -Rick Santorum on FOX News

Confusion in New Mexico

CBS just gave New Mexico to Obama about 5 or 10 minutes ago, but now CNN is saying they think it's going to McCain. I really want to know more about their criteria for calling a state.

Totally Superficial

On a completely superficial note, entirely unrelated to the actual outcome of the election, I think CNN's holograms are really cool.

Not a great video, but all I could find so far:

Also, I really like FOX News' interactive map that you can check out HERE.

Young Voters

I figured that as I watch the election coverage, I'd write a few quick posts about what I'm seeing.

I just saw Katie Couric on CBS talking to Kelly Cobiella who was reporting from Florida State University, where a lot of students showed up to vote today. They talked about how many students voted because of things like Facebook (which provided an easy link to online voter registration forms). I registered to vote four years ago when I turned 18, but I know that a number of my friends who didn't vote in the last election registered through Facebook. At first this seemed a little weird to me, but social networking sites are such an enormous part of many young peoples' daily lives that it's amazing how big of an impact a Facebook ad could have on something as important as voter turnout.

"The most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment...."

Conservatives Help Create the Liberal Media Bias

I was scanning through some news headlines on elections and came across an article entitled "Liberal media bias is the fault of conservatives." I thought this would be an interesting article to read, for the sole purpose of seeing how Liberals were going to paint Conservatives as the engines of their own demise (this being the bias). After reading the brief article though, I think it's not entirely off the mark. There have been plenty of conservative news sources saying "negative" things about McCain's campaign. These remarks get recorded as negative media coverage for McCain/Palin, and then the same people who said them in the first place quote the very study they contributed to as evidence of a "liberal media bias."

I don't know if I would go as far as to say that the liberal media bias is the fault of the conservatives, but they certainly do play a role in it themselves that they often fail to acknowledge.

Just Got Back...

Sorry for disappearing for so long. I've been away for the past week and a half and thought I would have internet access during my trip but did not. Anyway, I'm completely out of the loop of what's going on with the election, so I'm going to get myself caught up and start posting again ASAP.