About TV and MSNBC and Fox News

I listen to MSNBC for my political news. They are supporting Obama. It would seem that I am not informing myself thoroughly. Not so. Their morning host is Joe Scarborough, a conservative and they give plenty of air space to Pat Buchanan and other conservatives. Yesterday I was entertained by an entire speech lasting as long as 30 minutes from John McCain. The same is happening this morning. Ditto Sarah Palin. I listened also to Schwarzenegger lauding McCain’s virtues. They are preaching to deaf ears. I voted three weeks ago, as did my husband, a registered Republican who voted for Obama. In any case, nothing I hear persuades me, quite the opposite.

No such “give the other side a voice” programming exists on Fox News.

McCain talks in broadly exaggerated tones as if he was explaining Santa Claus (this BIG sled comes down out of the sky, chuckle) to a toddler. He has co-opted patriotism. If you haven’t been in a prison camp, you don’t deserve to run for president. Incidentally, this would include George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and the older Bush and, actually, many people in political life. I am tired of hearing about McCain’s service growing out of surviving. He should go on the TV show “Survivor” and leave leadership to calmer heads. I hope we will not be treated to four years of facial grimace, let alone macho military decisions. McCain’s greatest achievement, it would seem, is not that that he led, not that he saved others, not that he came away with a lasting integrity if his campaign in 2008 is any barometer, but that he survived.

One of McCain’s virtues as a senator is that he reached across the aisle. He isn’t reaching any more. Obama is a textbook case of how to behave like a statesman. McCain’s textbook is how to adopt every ad gimmick he ever saw and stick it into a speech.

A story in the Los Angeles Times recently says Bush is deliberately instituting foreign actions designed to alienate countries we have to deal with in solving the Mideast crisis. Syria has just broken off hard-won diplomatic relations. According to the story, Bush’s intent is to sabotage an Obama presidency. The little twerp is still president and can create a lot of mischief before he steps down. The same happened with Bill Clinton. He got into office and nothing went his way. So much for putting country first.

And my b.i.l. tried to sandbag me the other day when I went to visit my sis. He put on a 60 Minutes tape when I got there (one that supposedly would “prove” that the Democratics were responsible for the financial meltdown) even though he knows I will not discuss politics with him. He insisted (you vill vatch dis, or else). Tu and I refused. I'll watch it, I said, but not with you. You can't, he said, it's a tape. I said I could google it at home. This is a sore point with him because he thinks google is the sound a baby makes. He screamed at me to get out and not come back. I’ll go back of course. My sis lives there. Don’t ask her to defend me. She has enough trouble trying to find a judges program on a Saturday.

xx, Teal