Category Archives: Media Criticism

A Divorce From Obama

That’s what millions of voters have finally decided they want:

For the sake of metaphor, think of any friend who has called you and, after a tumultuous, but passionate, relationship, finally, finally, come to the realization that her husband isn’t the man she thought he was—at all.

It isn’t that her husband hasn’t failed her before; he has. But something happens to crystallize her intent to move on—a particularly harsh comment from him, a single and obvious lie (one too many). And when she announces she is leaving, and you hear resolve, rather than wistfulness, in her voice, you know she is not turning back. She isn’t making a show of packing her bags; she’s moving out.

Finally.

Well, millions of voters may now have packed their bags and moved out, after a whirlwind romance with President Obama and a relatively short marriage marred by unemployment, constant arguing, name-calling, signs he never much liked them, anyhow (at least not the patriotic ones), and one of those terrible nights (debate night) when (in those words that any man who has gravely disappointed a woman has heard) he “had nothing to say for himself.”

I never saw what they saw in him in the first place.

The Big Bird Ad

…is turning into a disaster:

This is something we see very rarely in our corrupt media, a backlash against an obvious attempt by the Obama campaign to create a distraction away from the big issues of the day. Obviously, in the face of falling poll numbers and Romney’s well-received foreign policy speech yesterday, Obama’s Media Palace Guards just don’t see “absurd” distractions as good strategy at the exact time Romney is looking more and more presidential.

Meanwhile, the people who run Sesame Street have demanded that the ad come down.

The Obama campaign seems to be in meltdown mode.

[Update a few minutes later]

What does the media call a candidate who slams his opponent for dissing Big Bird and not appearing on Nickelodeon? ‘The adult in the room.’

nothing says “I’ve completely lost control of this narrative” like embracing…a seven-foot-tall yellow-feathered multi-millionaire.”

[Update mid afternoon]

National Review editors:

Those who point out that eliminating mere small-fry outlays like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting won’t balance the budget are undeniably correct — but it is also undeniably correct that we will not balance the budget without eliminating a lot of small-fry outlays like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We have to do the big-ticket items and the little ones as well, lest we spare the taxpayer the guillotine only to abandon him to a death by a thousand forgone cuts. While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are rolling out big ideas on taxes, entitlements, and deficits, Barack Obama is clinging to his toys like a frightened child, which very well may be what he is feeling like after his recent trip to the woodshed.

And Obama had it right four years ago:

“…if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.”

It’s hard to get much smaller than this.

[Bumped]

Sesame Obama

Big Bird But Not Libya

For Fools Who Think Cutting Government Spending Hurts Economies

Here’s an old, but still valid post:

Lots and lots of papers* have now studied this question and the evidence is rather clear: the types of austerity that are most-likely to a) cut the debt and b) not kill the economy are those that are heavily weighted toward spending reductions and not tax increases. I am aware of not one study that found the opposite. In fact, we know more. The most successful reforms are those that go after the most politically sensitive items: government employment and entitlement programs. Lastly, there is evidence that markets react positively when politicians signal their seriousness by going against their partisan inclinations. In other words, the most credible spending reductions are those that are undertaken by left-of-center governments. So slash away, Mr. Obama!

My emphasis. But don’t hold your breath on that one.