Day: 9/11/2012

Even MSNBC Gets A Convention Bounce: Still Beating Fox News

Posted by on September 11, 2012 at 4:25 pm. 3 Comments :

The Democratic National Convention last week provided an opportunity for MSNBC to introduce themselves to a wider audience. And that they did. The channel was viewed in primetime by more than nine million people during the three days of the convention. That’s nearly 10% higher than the RNC viewership. And for the first time ever they scored a ratings victory over top-rated Fox News for a full week.

With the conventions over MSNBC still has the glow of victory about it. On Monday September 10, Rachel Maddow beat Sean Hannity by 12% in the key 25-54 year old demographic. Lawrence O’Donnell had an even bigger margin of victory (29%) over Greta Van Susteren. And for good measure, the repeat of The Ed Show beat the repeat of the O’Reilly Factor, and Maddow’s repeat beat Hannity’s. That’s four solid hours on top for MSNBC.

These wins were achieved without the help of the convention. And the programs on Fox were stacked with guests that should have been big draws for them. Hannity featured Tea Party darling, Sen. Rand Paul. Van Susteren touted an exclusive with Rep. Darrell Issa who has been hammering the Obama administration over the salacious (and phony) Fast & Furious controversy.

If MSNBC can hold just a portion of these numbers over time, it could signal a turnaround in the cable news hierarchy. MSNBC has not been particularly successful in building their audience, while Fox has masterfully captured the glassy-eyed disciples of conservatism. Time will tell if this is a blip or a trend.

In related news, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released their post-convention survey of attitudes and opinions of the candidates and their events. The headline notes that President Obama was overshadowed by keynoter Bill Clinton. That provides a stark contrast for the RNC where Mitt Romney was similarly overshadowed by Clint Eastwood. Who would you rather be overshadowed by? And Fox News viewers affirm Pew’s findings:

Fox News Poll - Clint Eastwood

Mitt Romney Breaks Pledge to Refrain From Political Attacks On Anniversary Of 9/11

Posted by on September 11, 2012 at 12:35 pm. NO Comments :

On this eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., both presidential campaigns promised to hold their fire and not engage in partisan politics while Americans observed a day of remembrance. But it didn’t take long for Mitt Romney to break that promise.

Romney delivered a speech before the National Guard Association Conference that was mostly bland platitudes and predictable, but vacant, praise. But at one point he veered away from his pandering to say this:

“With less than two months to go before Election Day, I would normally speak to a gathering like this about the differences between my and my opponent’s plans for our military and for our national security. There is a time and a place for that, but this day is not it.”

If you are not going to talk about politics, you don’t do it by talking about how you are not going to talk about it. Romney inserted that segment into his speech to deliberately and covertly convey a message about the differences between his plans for the military and those of President Obama. Why else bring it up at an event that was supposed to be free of politics? He might just as well have said…

“With less than two months to go before Election Day, I would normally speak to a gathering like this about what a douchebag my opponent is and how his plans for our military are tantamount to surrendering to the enemy. There is a time and a place for that, but this day is not it. So just pretend I didn’t mention it.”

Romney’s machinations are particularly offensive because he thinks that he can get away with planting subliminal attacks in his speech on a day when the rest of the country is in mourning. His poorly disguised rhetoric is an insult to the Guardsmen in his audience, as well as to all Americans and the victims of 9/11. And this is coming from a man who didn’t think the troops were important enough to thank in his convention nomination speech. And that’s when he wasn’t reducing them to pawns in the military-industrial complex.

Mitt Romney

Rush Limbaugh’s Predictable Predictions

Posted by on September 11, 2012 at 9:49 am. 6 Comments :

Yesterday talk radio’s king of drug-addled asininity, Rush Limbaugh, settled into his paranoid dementia to dispense his predictions of a future wherein democracy is carried out and President Obama retains his residency of the White House. Limbaugh has a well known disgust for democracy if its results are not to his liking. But yesterday he let loose with a dire forecast that must surely have rattled the marbles inside his followers dittoheads.

9/10/2012: “If Obama’s re-elected, it will happen. There’s no IF about this. And it’s gonna be ugly. It’s gonna be gut-wrenching, but it will happen. The country’s economy is going to collapse if Obama is re-elected.”

Uh oh. What ever will we do now? Limbaugh has divined the course of our destruction and there appears to be no way out other than casting our votes for Mitt Romney, a man who will not tell us what his plans are for the economy; will not release his tax returns; will not disclose his wealthy campaign bundlers; will not stick with the same position for more than a couple of hours; and has a record of destroying jobs while bankrupting companies and stashing his ill-gotten gains in foreign banks. Yeah, that’ll save us.

And, as we know, Limbaugh’s predictions are so accurate that we absolutely must heed his every word. We know that his vision of certain doom is looming over us because his prior prognostications have been so on target. Two days after Obama was elected in 2008, Limbaugh said…

11/6/2008: “The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen. Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression. He hasn’t done anything yet but his ideas are killing the economy. His ideas are killing Wall Street.”

That was two days after the election. Obama was still two months from being inaugurated. And since then the stock market has died to the tune of more than doubling in value. The ideas that killed Wall Street worked so thoroughly that anyone who invested when Limbaugh made those remarks must feel like they’ve died and gone to heaven.

There is another prediction that Limbaugh made yesterday in the same rant. This one is more pointedly political but just as important to our nation’s well being going forward:

9/10/2012: “[Chris] Matthews was saying…if Obama wins it’s the end of conservatism. Nope. If Obama wins let me tell you what it’s the end of … the Republican Party.”

You promise? We can only hope and pray that you’re right about that one.

Rush Limbaugh