And no, I am not going to say we should be directing it at John McCain, even though I have written close to a dozen diaries about him over the past 2 weeks.
No, what I mean is that we should remember things like this:
But once in a while, these silly online reader “polls” matter, if only to highlight the flaws of modern journalism. Ben Smith noted this question at CNN.com yesterday:“Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?”
As Ben noted, accurately, “I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen a reader poll like this on a mainstream media website (or, to be honest, a right-wing blog).”
We are not just fighting John McCain and the RNC. We are not just fighting against groups like Freedom’s Watch and their reported $250 million in backing to smear either Obama or Clinton (and whoever else that $250 million can smear).
We are fighting against the corporate media. Again.
We are fighting against bullshit nonsense distractions like this:
"Something much more important," began Alisyn Camerota, "which is the clothing schedule for Hillary Clinton and what she wears for her Garanimals -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday."
It seems that the reporters on Clinton's plane put up a gag memo listing Clinton's pantsuit rotation, which drew a laugh from the candidate. "'If it's Monday, she should be wearing electric blue,'" quoted Steve Doocy. "And look at this! There she is on a Monday, wearing electric blue."
"Tuesday is autumn brown," Doocy went on. "And there she is on a sample Tuesday, fresh out of the Sears catalog."
The Fox hosts then noted that the yellow pants suit with black trim which Clinton wore this weekend was a perfect match for the "caution" tape on the overhead luggage compartment of her plane.
Big f’ing deal, you might say. After all, it is from Fox News. OK, fair enough (even though this place was in a tizzy earlier because of something on Drudge). So what about this little nugget:
Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.
The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate, according to people involved. The secretive effort underscores the enormous risk senior GOP operatives see for a party often criticized for its insensitivity to minorities in campaigns dating back to the 1960s.
I’ll repeat the salient part of this for you. The RNC has invested quite a bit of money to see just how racist or sexist they can be before there is too much of a backlash. This is what we need to be aware of. THIS is what we need to watch for and fight against.
Want more? OK - here is the “Obama isn’t enough of a patriot" story being repeated over at ABC News:
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., defended himself from charges by conservatives that he isn't sufficiently patriotic, a theme developing in the Republican world that could tarnish the Democrat in the general election.
And there is BOTH the NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News repeating false accusations and charges by McCain against Obama without offering up any criticism of McCain’s false statements and distortions. There is Chris Matthews apologizing for the Obama/Osama “mistake”, and Matthews making sexist comments about Clinton (among other women at other times).
Or you can even look no further than yesterday’s episode of the McLaughin Group for more of the same crap levied, this time against Michelle Obama:
During the February 24 edition of the syndicated program The McLaughlin Group, referring to Michelle Obama, host John McLaughlin asked Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page: "Do you think Michelle -- do you think she leaves the impression -- not mine, but I've heard this -- that she has a chip on her shoulder?" Page responded: "I think that's BS. You know, people say that she's got a chip on her shoulder. That's like, well, she's been the B-word, which is a classic, you know, epithet against women whenever they sound aggressive or they really state their mind. ... Maybe I know her too well. She doesn't have a chip on her shoulder." McLaughlin then asked: "You don't think she's a black militant?"
Excuse me but are you fucking for real? Calling her a black militant??? And this after O’Reilly’s lynching comments.
And just so there is no threat of bias by me here, I’ll give you another one about Clinton:
On the February 22 edition of MSBNC Live, Dan Hill, author of Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds (Adams Business & Professional Publishing, 2007), claimed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is "often showing what I would call almost a 'crocodile smile.' It's a bit of a smirk. It's also a very tight expression." NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander replied: " 'Crocodile smile,' we will add that to our lexicon. Dan Hill, a facial decoding expert." Hill also claimed that during the February 21 Democratic presidential debate Clinton "had a true smile, which for Hillary Clinton, is about as rare as a lunar eclipse, I have to tell you."
Fake smiles, fake emotions. Dissecting her pantsuits or whether she (gasp) has cleavage.
But let’s go around forgetting that BOTH Clinton and Obama have been unfairly targeted on a consistent basis. Let’s forget the ridiculous crush that the media has on McCain. Let’s forget who we are fighting against, and who is fighting against us.
Hell, with everything stacked against us the way that it is, it is amazing that both Obama and Clinton have held up so well when it comes time to actually cast votes.
Let’s stay focused on getting one of them to the White House. And if there are things that are done by one campaign, let’s not make it out to be the biggest issue of the week. After all, there are still bombs going off in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are 35,000 families in FEMA trailers that have toxic fumes. There are many more important things going on with both Clinton’s and Obama’s campaigns then the “OMG!!!! Look what he/she said/didn’t say or did/didn’t do".
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