It was a UNANIMOUS finding from a BI-PARTISAN commission.  Good luck trying to spin that as "Obama's people are trying to get us!"

Now that McCain has realized that the angry mob mentality of his rally crowds is hurting him, when he tries to tame the crowds, he actually got booed for stating that Obama is a "decent person" and booed again for saying they need to be respectful.

Yep, we in Australia are fairly well informed, particularly with regard to this US Presidential election.  Like Jafo said earlier, if the American people see fit to inflict themselves with John McCain and he turns out to be an arsehole (to which there seems very little doubt he is/will be), we get the same piles... as does the rest of the world. So yeah, it is relevant to me/us.

I must state, however, that I am not a fan of Fox or any other highly commercialised news service... think it might have something to do with over-sensationalising. over-dramatising and agenda driven biased reporting.  No, if I want more factual, unsensationalised news reporting which tends to be unbiased/'more fair/balanced, I turn to the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commision) news service.  While the ABC news presenters tend to be more dour, even boring to some, I find the presentation of news to be more factual, credible and certainly more palatable.  One thing that really pisses me off with commercialised TV news presentation is when one presenter will start a story and another chimes in part way through to add 'that' element of drama and sensationalism - our commercial TV news services do it all the time/far too frequently - thus my preference for ABC news/current affair programs.

Ah yes, the good old ABC... owned by the people and run by the people for the people, not by corporate entities with vested interests.  Oh, and the talkback program that discussed the McCain tour bus - C word incident was on ABC radio, which tends to attract a more intelligent and reasoning audience than (most) commecial stations... and thus, callers tend to be less inclined to entertain sensationalisms and/or bullshit, less likely spew forth bullshit just to be heard on national radio.

Oh how very sad it is, that vested interests have turned our medis outlets into virtual circuses, with every type of clown imaginable seeking his/her few moments of fame and glory.  Take for instance the clip Night train posted earlier @ #83 (sorry FF won't let me copy/paste it)... while it may have been amusing it did very little to lend itself to the facts behind Sarah Palin's dubious record.  Um, perhaps this sensationalist journalism is the reason many foreigners are more/better informed on the US Presidential race/election than much of North America's voting public... they're hearing fragments of truth all raveled up with some miguided idea that news items should be edge of the seat, soap opera-like entertainment.

McCain should have begun his campain with his latter thinking... a lot of nastiness all round would have been avoided.

Sadly, though, he did not and the damage is done

McCain's constant media bombardment of lies.

Sending Palin to do all the "pitbull" attacks of fomenting the ignorant into lynch mob frenzy.

These actions under the personal direction of McCain vastly outweight his slight "mea culpa" today.  If he wants to impress me, he needs to go back to the campaign he said he would run, by actions as well as words.

It's no coincidence that his numbers are falling the nastier his attack dogs get.

and for more laughs

Bill Kristol is the Man Behind Genius "Sarah Palin as VP" Concept. . .

George Packer knows Bill Kristol only too well. In a recent article, Packer sets out the Republican analyst and NYT writer's agenda in this election in three easy steps :

There's no doubt that the Alaskan pitbull has brought an interesting element to the election (as well as giving SNL their allotted year's worth of funnies. But how much can Kristol, who after all, is a commentator and political analyst, not a politician, sway the course of the election so much as to "handpick" the VP candidate for the GOP?

Bill Kristol is the best opponent of Bill Kristol: he makes sure that his ties and accomplishments are always underplayed. Remember that Kristol is the same guy who praised President Bush's inaugural speech without revealing that he helped right it. Cramazing.

So essentially, Kristol is Keyser Söze: and the best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he was just a politics commentator, not politics-maker.

it amazes me how some of my best friends on this site and i are at polar opposites of the political spectrum. it's a good thing we live in america where we can have such views and not risk jail time.

I see the personal attacks are back ... and from WC'ers no less.

*sigh* used to be rules against this sort of thing. Great job guys

I'm pretty educated and a professional and look at Fox News as a pretty good news source with an conservative tilt to its commentary.

It is similar to CNN except CNN's commentary is liberal. 

MSNBC, by contrast, has left-wing tilted news and commentary.

Most people who hate Fox News I suspect don't watch it. It's a boogieman.

In a thread where people are talking about how awful McCain supporters are, it's amazing that no one sees the irony of a Obama supporter calling Palin a "hockey mom bitch". I think it demonstrates how people allow their ideologies to color their impressions of people they barely know.

The media's obsession with Palin consisted of blind hatred of her without even knowing anything. Within the first week of her nomination, she was subjected to press insuations that her child was actually her daughter's. We got plenty of coverage that her daughter is pregnant. She has been ridiculed on SNL multiple times (despite Biden saying equally to more ridiculous things in interviews at the same time and his son being indicted).

By contrast, the media's obsession with Obama has been a total love fest. His visit on the View included questions on how come he was so "sexy" (when McCain went on, he was asked if he might legalize slavery). Obama's ties to Acorn, his various gaffes and his history have been largely ignored by the media.

So yes, there have been media obsessions with both but the way those obsessessions have manifested themselves differs greatly.

Are yu

Untrue. I've heard the Muslim/terrorist connotation . the pastor at Obama's church , that whole Weather Underground crap even before Obama finished the Democratic primaries. Only now am I hearing about Palin's ties with Alaskin sepratists , her own church pastor .... Wow that big bad liberal media is on top of things as usual

Oh and Palin's inability to construct sentances when asked relatively softball questions by Katie Curic does not equal blind hatred. Her being a bitch on the campaign with her Obama rhetoric does not equal blind hatred. She's out of her depth , and the way I see it , she's simply a tool being used by the McCain camp to allow the campaign to be dirty without McCain himself actually having to do any of it, sort of a good cop bad cop. Only they're both bad cops

Quoted for irony.

 You and I may or may not share idelogies , do I hate you , no. 

I understand this is probably a JU cross-post , but seriously , do we have to be called idiots when we *don't* agree with the right wing's call on the relative merit's of Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin's respective personalities and campaigns?