NO POLITICAL ANGLE HERE: Newsweek: Working Moms Bad for Kids. “A new study finds that children of privileged families fare worse when the mother works outside the home.”
Archive for 2008
September 12, 2008
PUTTING THE GENE in genealogy.
RICK MORAN looks at the politics of 9/11.
HMM. HERE’S INTRADE’S CONTRACT on whether Joe Biden will withdraw from the Democratic VP slot. Don’t see it happening myself, but obviously some people do.
UPDATE: Reader James Beam writes:
Get ready for Obama to pull a Torrecelii/Lautenberg switcheroo. There are waaay too many rumors, trial balloons, and headfakes going around for this to not have substance behind it.
Have your responses prepared. Whatever “narrative” they concoct for the switch, it’s obvious that they’re doing it only because The Anointed One is behind in the polls. It destroys Obama’s claim of judgment being his prime qualification, trust of the voters and convention delegates, and his claim to experience in running a successful campaign.
I still doubt it. But hey, “Jim Beam” has never steered me wrong before. And I’ll be he’s sick of that line . . . . .
SO IS HOWARD KURTZ related to Charlie Gibson?
Anyone who said that Charlie Gibson might go easy on Sarah Palin might want to quickly delete those comments.
What the ABC newsman conducted yesterday was a serious, professional interview that went right at the heart of what we want and need to know about the governor: Could she be president? Does she understand the nuances of international affairs? Does she have a world view?
He was all business, respectful but persistent. . . .
Did she believe the Iraq war is a task from God? When Palin demurred, Gibson said those were her “exact words.” No fancy footwork, no long-winded setups, no gotchas. Just a solid, straight-ahead interview.
One that — as everybody who pays attention by now knows — got those “exact words” wrong. A “gotcha” based on a false report from the AP. Is this what passes for solid professionalism in big media today? Actually, it seems like it is. I’ve always liked Kurtz, but this — even though he mentions “controversy” further down — is just bringing new meaning to “covering” the news.
WHICH IS WHY I’VE BEEN SO ENTHUSIASTIC about this trend: “Mini-laptop computers, typified by the popular ASUS Eee PC, have been derided by some analysts as little but low-cost toys. But they are changing the shape of the PC business throughout the world, bringing computing power to many who could never have afforded it. . . . As small laptop sales increase, their popularity is redefining the nature of the computing experience, taking it off the desk and making it an integral part of peoples’ lives, wherever they are.”
9 BIG QUESTIONS on NASA infighting.
WHERE THE MEDIA ANGER is coming from. “Put yourself in the shoes of a reporter for the New York Times or The Washington Post. He or she has worked hard for many years to reach the top of a particular hill. And just when he gets there, he finds that the hill is a much less important one than it was before. Moreover, he suddenly finds that rogues and upstarts of whom he has never heard, and who have not put the years in, in the blogosphere, are getting more attention, and are more important than he. Combine that with the sad state of the news business, and there’s a real problem.”
Plus, playing “Who Wants To Be An Effete Condescending Media Snob?” More people have signed up than you’d expect . . . .
UPDATE: The not-so-grand Inquisitor.
PURPOSELY GETTING PREGNANT, so you can buy a minivan? Heh.
JUMBO SHRIMP: THE MINI COOPER S.U.V.
SPACE: Testing the Interplanetary Internet.
MORE ON IKE, from Brendan Loy. The storm surge is already starting.
GALLUP: Battle for Congress Suddenly Looks Competitive.
Is it blowback from media bias, or something else?
Plus, taking the gloves off for the third or fourth time. But Isotoners? Ouch.
UPDATE: ABC’s Bungles: Botching the Palin Interview. “The interview seemed to show a lack of good faith, with the blatant misrepresentation of comments she’s made about the Iraq war.” Of course, even Democratic critic Kirsten Powers gets the Bush Doctrine item wrong. Can’t escape all the talking points.
INSTA-POLL: Your take.
MY ADVICE TO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: Take your own camera to every interview, and post the raw video online. The news folks won’t like that, but, really, what principled basis is there for objection?
“A HUMAN VERBAL WRECKING CREW:” The New York Times on Joe Biden’s gaffes. And yet people seem to be hanging on Sarah Palin’s every word. Not sure if that’s good news or bad for the Obama campaign — Biden’s gaffes get discounted, but only because the entire ticket has been upstaged by McCain’s number two.
SOME KNOXVILLIANS want CostCo to come to Knoxville.
JOANNE JACOBS: “War in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the fragile economy, health insurance … Who knew the 2008 election would center on sex education?”
And yet the press is managing to get that story wrong, too.
A SLIP: “John Roberts interviewing Paul Begala on CNN just now slipped and said ‘we’ when asking how Democrats should respond to Republican attacks.” As Andrew Breitbart said on PJTV last night, it’s almost impossible to overstate the extent to which the Democratic Party and the Big Media are one and the same these days.
UPDATE: More evidence for that proposition from Tom Maguire.
A HURRICANE INDUCED GAS SHORTAGE in Knoxville, and elsewhere in the southeast.
RON ROSENBAUM: “I think it’s time the Obama team turns the stategy reins over to me. Ever since the misbegotten selection of the clownish Joe Biden, Obama and the entire Democratic party seem off their game. (Did I not predict Biden would be a continual embarrassment? What a lost opportunity!) They have no game. they have no line of attack. It’s either been conceding that George Bush was right about the surge (as Obama admitted to Bill O’Reilly, rather than focussing on the mismanagement of the war from about Day Three in a way that required the enormous unnecessary loss of life for five years). Or it’s gotten itself obsessed with their opponent’s vice presidential pick in exactly the snotty elitist way that seems to confirm what I believe to be a mistaken impression of Obama.”
And Mickey Kaus comments: “Not a crazy idea. Everybody hates the ‘hedge fund creeps.’ And the need for Obama to turn on his own party’s leaders (because both parties have effectively been bought by Wall Street) is a feature not a bug. . . . They “screwed up,” as Rosenbaum says. Yet they’re keeping the inflated paychecks, the lobbyists and (so far) their dominant place in the economic and social pecking order. Wouldn’t hurt to humble them.”
Plus this: “The biggest financial scandal in American history is going on entirely unacknowledged by both campaigns, but especially by the Democratic party which is supposed to be the guardian of the little people against Big Finance.”
OBAMA MAKES THE COVER OF POPULAR MECHANICS! Well, kinda sorta.
A BAD MORNING for the Washington Post. More here.