pH Reading — Monday, September 8, 2008

By Patrick Henry 

 

When Barack’s berserkers lost the plot
The Guardian · Nick Cohen
My colleagues in the American liberal press had little to fear at the start of the week. Their charismatic candidate was ahead in virtually every poll. George W Bush was so unpopular that conservatives were scrambling around for reasons not to invite the Republican President to the Republican convention. Democrats had only to maintain their composure and the White House would be theirs. During the 1997 British general election, the late Lord Jenkins said that Tony Blair was like a man walking down a shiny corridor carrying a precious vase. He was the favourite and held his fate in his hands. If he could just reach the end of the hall without a slip, a Labour victory was assured. The same could have been said of the American Democrats last week. But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska…

pH: Europe’s fascination with Sarah Palin is palpable. And European newspapers have been considerably more impartial than their American brethren.

It’s little discussed, but Obama’s race may be decider
Philadelphia Inquirer · Dick Polman
Let us swing the door ajar and invite the elephant into the room. One big reason Barack Obama is locked in a tight race, rather than easily outdistancing his opponent, is because he is black…

pH: This is a fascinating article on several levels. First, with McCain’s improving prospects, the liberal media is already laying the groundwork to claim racism should Obama lose. Indeed, The Philadelphia Inquirer has been at the forefront of this argument. Expect many more of these stories in the days to come, especially if McCain secures a lead. Second, what does Obama’s over-polling during the primary say about the Democratic Party?

Barack Obama ‘wanted to join US military’
The Telegraph · Toby Harnden
Barack Obama has said he considered joining the United States military when he left school but decided not to because the Vietnam war was over and “we weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point”…

pH: Turnabout is fairplay, right? If McCain can co-opt change from Obama, then Obama should be able to co-opt military service from McCain… truth be damned. This smacks of desperation. Obama’s internal polling is undoubtedly showing movement toward McCain, and he’s determined to stop the bleeding.

Rallying The Right, Confounding The Left
Hartford Courant · Kevin Rennie
It took Ronald Reagan 14 years to create a confident, optimistic Republican Party. Gov. Sarah Palin did it in six fraught days. Her introductory odyssey concluded with the great exhale of Wednesday night when the vice presidential nominee joined the thin ranks of performers who possess the power to astound…

Palin Rises Above “Shrill” Media
RealClearPolitics · Ruben Navarrette
Anyone who heard Sarah Palin’s rousing speech at the GOP National Convention should now understand why Democrats have been trying to destroy her. And why, luckily for the country, they’ve failed. You mess with a hockey mom — and even go after her family — and you’re bound to lose some teeth…

A Class Act
TimesOnline Editorial Board
John McCain is 72 years old and represents a party that has grown unpopular in office. He showed on Thursday that he lacks even a quarter of the speaking ability of his opponent, he cannot approach the raw excitement of the Obama campaign and he has nominated as his running-mate a woman who advocates creationism in schools and who, for all her “Hockey Mom” qualities and her proven record with a rifle on the Alaskan tundra, is barely tested on the national stage and unready for the White House. Yet understanding America means realising that John McCain could yet be the next president of the United States…

McCain Finds the Right Wingman: And she’s a woman.
The Weekly Standard · Stephen Hayes
Last Tuesday, as the hordes of media that had begun to dissect every moment of her political career and personal life were distracted by speeches from Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman in nearby St. Paul, Sarah Palin sat quietly with her family for an hourlong dinner in the Skywater restaurant of the Minneapolis Hilton. It was a rare respite from the intense scrutiny she was subjected to over the first week of her new life in the national spotlight…

pH: Fascinating background to Palin’s convention speech.

Beware the Barracuda: Sarah Palin could be an elusive target for Democrats.
Newsweek · Howard Fineman
The plan for Sarah Palin—rock-star Republican—was to do a series of swing-state events with John McCain, record the campaign’s regular weekend radio address and then go home. “We kind of shanghaied her out of Alaska,” Steve Schmidt, the McCain-Palin campaign manager, told me. “She needs to go back for a few days.” There are personal reasons. Her son is shipping off for Iraq. With a newborn of her own, a pregnant daughter and a state to run, “Sarah Barracuda” has to get her affairs in order…

pH: Fineman’s piece is a perfect example of the media’s liberal bias, even as the reporter tries to appear neutral. Fineman cleverly presents many Democratic arguments without ever balancing them with Republican rebuttals. But what else would we expect from an MSNBC regular?

MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat
New York Times · Brian Stelter
MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election. That experiment appears to be over…

Obama’s verbal slip fuels his critics
Washington Times · Christina Bellantoni
Sen. Barack Obama’s foes seized Sunday upon a brief slip of the tongue, when the Democratic presidential nominee was outlining his Christianity but accidentally said, “my Muslim faith”…

pH: Obama’s misstatement is interesting for this reason: anyone can misspeak, whether they are 47 — or 72. But when it happens at 72, McCain’s opponents exploit it to suggest his age is an issue. Clearly, Obama is not Muslim… and McCain is not too old to be President.