EVENING UPDATE:  MAY 14, 2008

Posted at 7:05 p.m. ET

THE POLLS

It's pretty clear the voters want to have their own say. 

For the Democratic nomination, Rasmussen has Obama up seven over Clinton, Gallup has him up six.  These are hardly spectacular numbers given the sales job the press has done for Obama in the last few weeks.

In the general, the picture is even more curious.  Rasmussen has Obama up one over McCain, as does Gallup. 

But look at this:  Rasmussen has Clinton up two over McCain, and Gallup has her up three.  Clinton and Obama essentially do the same against McCain, and neither is outside the margin of error. 

By every account, this is a Democratic year, yet the Dem candidates for president are locked in a tight race with John McCain, and can't seem to pull away, even though all the attention is on them.  The role of the press, and its obvious bias for Obama, is the wild card here.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink          

THE MOYERS MACHINE

I wish I could have seen Bill Moyers with Jon Stewart.  I often get insomnia, and I'm sure the segment would have cured it instantly.  Moyers has become a painfully boring man, and I see no hope for rehabilitation.  He defends the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.  His defense is silly, immature and anti-intellectual.  Other than that, it glows.  NewsBusters, a great site, reports:

PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and delivered a long-winded defense of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who he said was "assassinated by soundbites." Moyers regurgitated the original, discredited Obama line, that out of 200,000 minutes from the pulpit, "His whole life, his whole ministry, his whole career was being summed up in sound bites that added up to no more than 20 seconds endlessly played through the media grinder of our national press." Wright was just making a few errors, like most of us do, he argued: "All of us have made absurd statements. I know that Rev. Wright, whom I had never met before this, was no doubt, had misspoken and made some erratic statements and all that. Most of us do."

Yeah, most of us do.  In fact, the last time I made a mistake I accidentally said that the U.S. Government invented AIDS to destroy Jews.  I don't know how I made that mistake.  Oh, and please ignore the time I said "God damn America."  I had just gotten a paper cut, and it came out.  You know the feeling.

The Moyers defense sounds a little too close to "Mussolini made the trains run on time," or "Hitler had a great roads program."  Just ignore the rest.

Moyers doesn't understand that it isn't the quantity of the speech we're talking about when we examine Rev. Wright, it's the content.  A man can preach perfectly wonderful things for 20 years, but if he suddenly says, "I think all blacks should be sent back to Africa and made to pay for their trip," that statement will define him, and appropriately so.  If a person lives an ordinary life, then murders someone, it's no defense to say that, until the murder, he lived a perfectly ordinary life.

NewsBusters concludes:

It’s an emerging campaign theme that the electorate proves its sophistication by voting for Obama, just as it proves it’s not somehow racist by voting for Obama. The constant Moyers theme is that the fate of democracy and the fate of the Democrats are almost exactly the same thing. When conservatives win elections, democracy is in grave danger. Nuance is lost. Sophistication is missing. Only when liberals win are the voters impressive.

Perfectly said.

May 14, 2008.        Permalink          

WEDNESDAY:  MAY 14,  2008

Posted at 3:46 a.m. ET

AFTERMATH

Hillary Clinton's 41-point margin in West Virginia yesterday would normally be the blowout story of the year, and maybe it still is.  But we quote again Douglas MacArthur's adage that all defeats begin with two words:  Too late.  It is probably too late for her, barring some political earthquake.  If we found out that it was Barack Obama who gave Monica Lewinsky's phone number to Bill Clinton, that might do it.  Or, if we had photos of Obama in a double bed with Osama bin Laden, that could raise the right questions.  Other than that, watch for West Virginia to fade into memory in a few days.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink          

THE STANDARD LINE

The New York Times, in a preview of coming attractions, has an especially vulgar take on yesterday's primary.  The party line emerges:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided victory on Tuesday over Senator Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary, where racial considerations emerged as an unusually salient factor. Mrs. Clinton drew strong support from white, working-class voters, who have spurned Mr. Obama in recent contests.

The number of white Democratic voters who said race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. More than 8 in 10 who said it factored in their votes backed Mrs. Clinton, according to exit polls.

And...

The surveys showing a strong racial component in the West Virginia voting suggest that Mr. Obama would face pockets of Democratic resistance if he becomes the first black nominee of the party.

I have no doubt that some voters vote on a racial basis.  But in earlier primaries Mr. Obama was doing better among whites than he is now.  Obviously, his skin color didn't change.  What did change was the emergence of Rev. Wright and the nasty comments about America by Obama's wife, Michelle.  Both raised questions about Mr. Obama's commitment to a "post-racial" America.  I have no use for the bigot.  I also have no use for journalism that refuses to look at the totality of the story.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink          

McCAIN'S ROUTE

The Politico runs a story on what it says are McCain's seven steps to victory in November:

Sometimes you don't need the secret memo, a Deep Throat source, or the combination to the safe to get the story. Sometimes it's lying right there in front of you, a series of fragments ready to be pieced together.  

Such is the case when it comes to John McCain's general election strategy for defeating Barack Obama. For weeks now, the Arizona Senator's campaign has been laying its cards on the table, spelling out a strategy for November. Here's a look at seven of their key strategies.

The seven are:  1)  Paint Obama as a False Messiah; 2) Work, Woo and Win the Referees (the press); 3) Meet With the People, and Force Obama to Follow; 4) Claim the High Road Without Leaving the Low Road; 5) Use A Vice President to Temper The Age Issue; 6) Make Inroads Among Traditional Democratic Voters; 7) Rely on the Historic RNC Advantage.

Okay, John, go at it.  At least it's a thought-out strategy, but I wouldn't depend on that second point.  The press may smile, and laugh at your jokes, but the editors who frequent health-food stores will make sure Obama is the star.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink          

HAGEE APOLOGIZES

Now here is a contrast.  Barack Obama has the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. wrapped around his neck.  One reason for the snug wrapping is that Wright has never apologized for the ugliness of his remarks about the United States and whites in general.

But John McCain has come close to having a similar problem.  He's been endorsed by John Hagee, a major Texas evangelist who has made some pretty vicious comments about the Catholic Church.  Now, though, Hagee has issued an abject apology.  While it may not wash away some of the remarks he's made, it eases McCain's Hagee problem:

John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having ''emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews.''

Hagee's support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee's endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments, but did not reject his support.

In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: ''Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.''

Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York.

I expect the Rev. Wright issue to surface again during the general-election campaign.  Wright might examine what Hagee has done and use it as an example.  Don't hold your breath.  Please note:

Campaigning in North Bend, Wash., McCain on Tuesday said Hagee's apology was ''very helpful.''

I'll bet.  You can almost feel the relief.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink          

BUY TICKETS NOW!

Do not be disappointed.  There will be huge crowds, and some will unfairly try to see it twice.  It has been announced from the bunker of liberalism in Hollywood that Michael Moore is making a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11.  The sense of excitement is electric:

Michael Moore is making a sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Overture Films and Paramount Vantage, which will shop the project to international buyers when the Cannes Film Festival and market get under way today.

The two companies are co-financing and co-producing the untitled doc, which will be released next year. Overture will distribute the film domestically, while Vantage will handle international.

Moore may be leaving the Weinstein Co. -- where he made his last two films, including "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- but Overture and Vantage are no strangers to the filmmaker. Overture CEO Chris McGurk and chief operating officer Danny Rosett were both at MGM and United Artists, home of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

I just can't wait.  Who needs elections when we can have this?

Sequel will pick up where "Fahrenheit 9/11" left off. In the time since, Bush's popularity has plummeted, while the Iraq war continues and the economy falters.

"It's a vote of confidence on Michael's part and a great partnership for all of us," Rosett said. "There is a voracious appetite for this kind of commentary."

Remember when Hollywood made films like "Casablanca" and "Gone With the Wind"?

But that takes talent.

Be back later.

May 14, 2008.      Permalink