As I looked at some reviews of this documentary on the web, I was shocked by the amount of detractors who suggested that Ziegler was your typical, aggravated conservative who was frustrated with his party’s candidate and is now lashing out. Well, that’s a ton of a bullshit if there ever was some! Ziegler is a committed libertarian and has only ever donated money to democratic politicians. Sounds like a regular Rush Limbaugh, right?

Thought not.

From my view, the documentary really dives into two major issues in the 2008 campaign. First, it looks at how the media deliberately paid no serious attention to the various three alarm fires associated with Senator Obama. For example, the audiotape that came out a few days before the election where Obama specifically cited that previous supposedly-liberal Supreme Courts had not gone far enough into redistributing wealth and addressing issues of economic justice. Second, the documentary looks at how the media absolutely destroyed Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. When you watch the various attacks played in succession, it’s enough to turn your stomach.

People like Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric twisted and bent Palin’s previous statements and then asked her to respond. And when Palin questioned their phrasing of the questions, they lashed out at her like she was a dummy! The thing that always got me about Palin is that she’s just a regular Mom who rose up the political ranks. When she suggested that she was your typical “hockey Mom,” I can see that being true! And it shows you the vast disconnect between the media and regular Americans that they didn’t “get it.”

Understanding Palin boils down to one of the major issues that Bill O’Reilly has been going on about for years now – class warfare; the “elites” versus regular citizens. I put “elite” in quotations because most of the people who fall into this category may not even realize it. For example, I have friends (conservative, liberal, and independent) who have no idea that think in terms of class warfare and their “class” being better than those “below” them. It’s frustrating and a topic for another entry at another time.

There were some portions of Ziegler’s that will stick with me. Maybe the most glaring is how completely biased Katie Couric was in her interview with Palin. And, specifically, how Katie took Senator John McCain’s two major regulatory battles in the realm of the housing meltdown (his relentless pursuit of tighter oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) off of the table when she asked Palin to explain what McCain had done to help stave off the mortgage meltdown. That’s the equivalent of asking someone, “Other than red, white, and blue, what other colors are there on the flag of the United States of America?”

What?

And the documentary also does a good job of talking about how certain issues were blown up to mean much more than they actually did (i.e. race). If you look at the exit polls, race meant nothing to the voters. By and large, the voters went for Obama because they found what the media suggested that he stood for as a good thing (the nebulous concept of “change”). I have no issues with the voters voting anyway they choose, but to constantly use race as a battering ram against anyone who would even think to mention it (such as former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) is absurd. Sure, if a pundit tried to use it as a negative, then they should have been criticized, but over and again that was not the case.

Watching Media Malpractice gives you a plethora of such aggravating and disgusting examples of the media’s bias. But, as has been reported on this blog by both my entries and my readers via their comments – the American mass media is a complete joke. It is an empire that has forgotten what unbiased reporting is supposed to be about and is, instead, dominated by profits and ratings. Just like now is the perfect time for a third party to rise at the national level, now is the perfect time for us as a nation to turn our backs on the biased media and support independent sources of news and citizen-led media.

In any event, if you have an interest in this stuff, then I suggest that you check out Media Malpractice. You’ll be as disgusted with the mainstream media as I am.

Speaking of the long contest, here are some of my thoughts about the election now that it is over.

The Campaign was Too Long!
America is exhausted. I know that Obama ran as a reformer and a healer, but the best thing that could ever happen to this country is the election being over! Campaigns and candidates have become too partisan. Americans need to reject politicians who begin their Presidential campaigns YEARS in advance of the election. We can’t take this amount of bullshit for this amount of time. The election of 2008 will go down in the history books for a variety of reasons, but as long as I continue to teach American government, I will teach students about the negative effects of an 18 to 24 month Presidential campaign.

Fix the F*&$^% Voting System Already
How in God’s name can we have a two year Presidential campaign AND be eight years out from the 2000 debacle and NOT have a better voting system yet? How is it that college campuses can manage to run their entire operations via secure databases, yet we can’t run local elections on similar systems? Some colleges use an online voting system that absolutely cannot be cracked for stupid elections like Homecoming King and Queen. And we can’t figure out a local, regional, and/or national system for harnessing the power of the internet in our voting? Give me a break.

Sarah Palin Destroyed by the Media
Once again – as long as I continue to teach American government to college students, I will be sure to talk about how vile the media coverage was of Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin. The bias in the media when covering these two women is that worst type of bias – the type where neither the media nor the public even recognize it on its face. For example, how can you ask a female candidate how she’ll be able to raise her children if she’s elected? What type of bullshit is that?! Not one reporter asked that question to Barack Obama, John McCain, or Joe Biden. And the whole flap about Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe (which wasn’t really hers) was just about as biased and outlandish as you can get.

What is the best part about the media’s bias against women? For me, it’s the fact that Palin will likely run for the Republican Presidential nomination at some point in the near future and (depending on who she runs against) she’s likely to win it. And you know what happens next? Well, let’s just say that I think a Palin Presidential ticket has a better chance to succeed than a McCain Presidential ticket ever had – and you see how many votes McCain got this time around. Same story for Hillary, too. Take THAT biased media!

More on the Media – In the Tank for Obama
The right wing has been beating up the New York Times and MSNBC (among others) for being what they call “in the tank” for the Obama campaign. Guess what? The right wing is correct on this issue. The way that biased commentators like Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman swooned over Obama during a time when they were supposed to be unbiased newscasters (Democratic National Convention coverage) was horrible. Yes, Barack Obama won the election, but did you know that there were newspapers and magazines that called the election in his favor as early as November 1st? America’s print and broadcast media are dead. Thank God for the internet.

The New York Times commented on the vast ideological differences between the FOX News Channel and MSNBC on Sunday. And to that biased paper’s credit, they included the following paragraph:

But within that universe, the study found, the share of positive reports on Mr. McCain at Fox News was above the average of the news media at large, and the share of negative reports about Mr. Obama was higher, too. (The study found that the mix of positive and negative was roughly equal for them on Fox.)

That paragraph deserves more than the quick drive-by that author gives it. In fact this is a study by the Pew Research Center and – to further prove how the New York Times is biased and FOX News reports the facts – I’m going to use a blurb from a FOX News online article to help explain Pew’s results:

The independent Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at coverage in the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate and found on FOX News 40 percent of stories on John McCain were negative, while 40 percent of stories on Obama were also negative.

In contrast, on MSNBC the study found that 73 percent of stories on McCain were negative while Obama received just 14 percent negative coverage on that channel.

Why didn’t the New York Times article cite those numbers specifically? I give them credit for briefly mentioning the results, but when FOX News gives an equal percentage of time to negative stories for each candidate, can you really trust the New York Times when they call this, “the share of positive reports on Mr. McCain at Fox News was above the average?” Above the average? So in the New York Times’ mind if you’re not consistently bashing McCain and the Republicans, you’re “above the average?”

Once again – America’s print and broadcast media are dead.

Those are some preliminary post-election thoughts. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Senator John McCain gave one of the noblest, most honorable concession speeches that I’ve ever heard and congratulations go to him for running a tough campaign. The awesome nature of Obama’s win will overshadow the rest of the 2008 results, but it is worth mentioning that while Obama/Biden dominated in the Electoral College, McCain/Palin received approximately 48% of the vote. That’s no small potatoes. In previous years, liberal extremists would have been picketing all over the country calling for recounts. I guess we’ll see if conservative extremists push the same buttons, though I doubt it.

I’m glad that the Presidential contest is now over and I’m glad that the candidates both addressed the nation tonight was in nonpartisan tones. President-Elect Obama has a huge job ahead of him (as all Presidents-Elect do) and I agree with Senator McCain when he says that all Americans should be ready to help.

The election is in the hands on the media now, so we’ll likely see a build-up in Obama’s numbers heading into November. The media has anointed Senator Obama as the next President and that’s fine so long as America understands that we have a biased media and unless there are drastic changes (like the increasingly influence of an independent media through online channels), then we’re doomed. A news channel that would simply report factual news or even both sides of the same issues would be a huge success in this country. Oh wait, we already have FOX News and the brainwashed extremists think that it’s biased in favor of Republicans.

Isn’t weird how some Americans will ask for something, get it, and then condemn it?

Does that make any sense?

Yet another reason why you can’t trust a damn thing you read or hear from the media these days. I had a different view of the debate altogether.

First, I think that each candidate won, but in different areas. For example, Palin was much more likable while Biden was much more of a diplomat. Palin was more down to earth while Biden was more or less the typical Washington insider. Yet Biden appeared to know more on the issues while Palin appeared to only look at the big picture stance on them. What the biased media cannot understand is how each of these stances is a win for the respective candidates.

Palin needed to appear informed on the issues in order to rally the Republican base. She did that. Biden needed to stay away from him common gaffes to energize the Obama campaign. Mission accomplished. That’s not to say that everything Senator Biden put out there was fact, because it certainly wasn’t, but he did manage to stay away from sticking his foot in his mouth.

All in all, I thought the debate was oddly reserved and yet pleasantly collegial. There were no severe barbs thrown between the two candidates as each was carefully treading historic ground. A bit too bland for my liking. Hey, did you know that nearly 70 million people watched the debate the other night? Amazing. Now the stage is set for McCain vs. Obama 2 on Tuesday night. McCain won the first debate and he needs to hit a homerun in order to move the polls in his direction.

Yet at this point with Obama up in all of the polls one has to wonder whether or not it even matters how well Senator McCain performs in the final two debates. He can knock it out of the park both nights and the media will still crown Obama the winner and the popular support will still go in his direction. Is this race still a winnable one for McCain?

Still, his speech would rank fourth of the speeches listed above. But not a generic fourth, more like an Olympic fourth – you know, where everyone finishes the event within the same half-second.

Both the RNC and the DNC were good events. However, aside from the tradition of holding these events every four years, I think we’d all agree that there isn’t anything really “big” decided at Conventions any more. In fact, one of the biggest highlights of these events is that they signal the impending end of the Presidential campaigns!

America is tired from a far too long Presidential campaign. We had people putting themselves into the exploratory committee process as far as two years ago. Yuck! Whether we get McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, I do not think we are getting the best that America has to offer. That said, let’s hope that we get the best this campaign has to offer and that this campaign is out of our heads soon!

I would equate the Huckabee and Romney speeches to the brilliance of Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech at the DNC. They were powerful, effective, and served their respective purposes.

The talking heads on television kept repeating that “a star was born” during Palin’s speech. One of the channels had Howard Wolfson (former leader in the Hillary Clinton campaign) who suggested that Barack Obama bring his A-game to combat the McCain-Palin ticket. In fact, Wolfson had nothing but positive words to say about Palin to the extent that it was almost awkward.

Palin’s line of the night: “Some people use change to advance their careers, others use their careers to advance change.” WOW! Talk about knocking home a grand slam! That line will probably be the best line to come out of the entire convention and possibly this entire campaign (on both sides). Amazing – absolutely gorgeous speech writing.

Now, whether you agree with that ideology or not is up to you, but I thought Governor Palin’s speech was perfect. And I’m glad that those stupid Greek columns were bashed – man, I hated those things!

But let’s not overlook Rudy and his contribution tonight. He made such a great speech that I was very concerned about anyone’s ability to follow him. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand and even his off-the-cuff comments were dead on accurate. The most memorable part of his speech had to be when he mentioned that Senator Barack Obama was a community organizer and he giggled afterwards – drawing a similar reaction from the crowd. His comment of, “What?” was the perfect accent to the crowd’s reaction.

However, I’m not very comfortable with people bashing the concept of being a community organizer. I actually DO know what a community organizer is and what they do on a daily basis and it’s a much-needed occupation in many of the downtrodden places of our nation. That said, I’ve seen and worked with a large number of community organizers in my current and previous careers and organizing communities is NOT a good foundation to build a Presidential campaign on. Granted, the Obama folks have never made this claim, but the Republicans have masterfully made his previous occupation an issue. Good move.

All in all I think the Republicans have had a great convention even though it got off to a slow start. And I can’t reiterate enough how showstopping Governor Palin was in her speech. Brilliant.

Barack Obama’s campaign is blasting John McCain for putting “the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

The scathing description of Sarah Palin, from Obama spokesman Bill Burton, comes as Democrats scramble to gather a response to a selection that nobody in the political world expected.

Whoa!

Senator Obama needs to really re-evaluate having someone on his staff that is going to immediately attack Palin – even before her selection is official! And talk about the dumbest man on earth – does Burton realize that if he wants to start a battle over Palin’s experience that he immediately justifies all of the Republican comments about Obama’s gratuitous lack of experience?

Dumb, dumb move on behalf of the Obama campaign. Their best bet at this point is to retract that stupid statement from Burton and run a video similar to McCain’s video from last night with a simple, “Congratulations” message to Governor Palin.

It’s amazing how you can go from supporting the Obama campaign one night to hearing a ridiculous comment like Burton’s and be completely disgusted with them.

• The obvious – she’s a woman. Palin might be able to bring in even more of the Clinton voters that have been disenfranchised by a biased media and a sexist primary campaign. Side note – welcome to all of those disenfranchised Democrats who now (finally) see how biased the major media networks can be!
• Palin is a hardcore conservative. She’s a supporter of the NRA and a pro-life candidate. This will help shore up the far-right votes which have been elusive for John McCain.
• She’s the epitome of a Washington outsider. You can’t really get much further from Washington, DC than the state of Alaska!
• Choosing Palin immediately gives the McCain campaign the mantle of “change.” I’m a huge supporter of Joe Biden, but he (like McCain) has been in Washington for quite some time. The choice of a young, female Governor from thousands of miles away represents true change.

There are some other good things that can be said about the Palin pick, but I’m sure you will all be reviewing the many comments all over the internet today!