Media bias is real and pervasive. Otherwise bright people ignore it and it makes them look foolish. Sadly the media, as a check and balance no longer exists and hasn’t since about 1994. It got much worse since 2002 or so.
President Palinâ??s First 100 Days
A near disaster.
By Victor Davis Hanson
WASHINGTON (AP) â?? The first 100 days of the Palin presidency,
according to a consensus of media commentators, have proven a near
disaster. Perhaps it was Palinâ??s scant two yearsâ?? experience in a
major government position that has eroded her gravitas, or maybe it
was her flirty reliance on looks and informal chit-chat. In any case,
the press has had a field day, and it is hard to see how President
Palin can ever recover from the Quayle/potatoe syndrome. Here is a
roundup of this weekâ??s pundit mockery.
LET THEM EAT MOOSE
â??Ted Stevens may have gotten off,â?? wrote Bob Herbert in the New York
Times, â??but he taught our Sarah something first â?? like using $100-a-
pound beef for her state dinners. And whatâ??s this $50 mil for her
inauguration gala? Since when do you fly in your favorite pizza-maker
from across the country on our dime? Or send the presidential 747 for
a spin over the Big Apple for a third-of-a-million-dollar joyride?
Does Palin think sheâ??s still in Alaska and has to have everything
flown in from the South 48 by jumbo jet?â??
WASILLA CHIC
Also in the Times, Gail Collins weighed in on the already-tired
yokelism of the new commander in chief. â??What weâ??re getting is Wasilla
chic. Thatâ??s what weâ??re getting. She arrives in the Oval Office, and
first thing sends back Blairâ??s gift of the Churchill bust as if itâ??s a
once-worn Penneyâ??s outfit. Then she gives the Brits some unwatchable
DVDs as a booby prize â?? as if she idled the old Yukon and ran into
Targetâ??s sale aisle. Did Sarah send Bristol into Wal-Mart back in
Anchorage for that â??engravedâ?? iPod for the queen? And whatâ??s this
donâ??t-bow-to-the-queen stuff, but curtsy for a Saudi sheik? Maybe that
explains why she brags to Stephanopoulos about her â??Muslim faith.â?? So
far, the best things going for her are Toddâ??s biceps.â??
IT’S THE MATH, STUPID!
â??Well,â?? lectured Paul Krugman, again in the Times, â??we were worried
that they didnâ??t teach math at Idaho U., and now we know for sure they
donâ??t. Is it $1.6 trillion, $1.7 trillion, or $2 trillion in red ink
this year? Are we supposed to be impressed that she offers â??fiscal
sobrietyâ?? by cutting 0.003 percent of the budget? She gives out money
to those who donâ??t pay taxes and calls it a tax cut. And now Queen
Sarah tells us that in four years sheâ??ll â??halveâ?? the deficit, as if
she hasnâ??t borrowed another $5 trillion in the meantime. Does she
think weâ??re morons? How many â??Drill, baby, drill!â?? oil wells can she
tap into up there in Alaska to pay for the extra $11 trillion in debt
sheâ??s saddling us with?â??
WORSE THAN ‘NUCULAR’
ABCâ??s Katie Couric summed up the general disappointment with the
presidentâ??s communication skills. â??I tried to warn the American people
in that interview a few years back what they would get if they voted
for her. Letâ??s face it: Sheâ??s a walking embarrassment. I mean just
count â??em up: The mayor of Wasilla thinks Austrians speak some lingo
called â??Austrian.â?? Then she tries her hand at Spanish and comes up
with some concoction, â??Cinco de Cuatro.â?? Next thing sheâ??ll walk into
the window of the Oval Office and expect it to open â?? oops, sheâ??s
already done that. No wonder that when her Teleprompter stalls, she
shuts her mouth until it catches up. Iâ??m surprised she managed to get
sworn in. And did she think that tasteless â??Special Olympicsâ?? slur was
funny? Or making fun of octogenarian Nancy Reaganâ??s séances? No wonder
Wanda Sykes feels at home.â??
ANCHORAGE STYLE
A â??dragon lady in heelsâ?? is what President Palin is, according to the
NYTâ??s Frank Rich. â??Donâ??t fall for this pageant nice-girl stuff. Our
former beauty queen is a ward hack. Look at her nominations. Canâ??t
Palin find anyone who has paid his taxes â?? or do they simply ignore
that stuff in no-tax Alaska? Does â??No more lobbyistsâ?? mean â??More
lobbyists than everâ??? Her chief performance overseer doesnâ??t perform
too well herself â?? and, like Daschle, Geithner, and the rest, skips
out on her taxes. When Palin brags about fiscal sobriety, it really
means record deficits. In Sarahland, not wanting to take over banks
and car companies translates into, â??She already has.â?? Highest ethical
standards equates to â??There are none.â?? Calling herself the VA
president means sheâ??s just told vets to use their own health
insurance.â??
GUTTER TRASH
â??Pretty crude, pretty petty,â?? Sally Quinn sighed in the Washington
Post. â??No manners at all. Does our new mom in chief think itâ??s neat to
laugh when her court jester at the correspondentsâ?? dinner calls
Michael Moore a traitor and a terrorist â?? and hopes he dies of kidney
failure? Is that funny? Ask those on dialysis. Is that what Alaskan
hockey moms do â?? scream out at every talk-show host who hurts their
itty-bitty feelings? Limbaugh, Hannity â?? who will it will be next?
Poor old Jim Cramer?â??
NEOCON CON
â??Sheâ??s a Bush clone,â?? the Timesâ??s Maureen Dowd chimed in. â??Bush is
out, Palin is in â?? but we keep getting renditions, military tribunals,
wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, Predator drone executions over Pakistan,
the same in Iraq, and even more of the same in Afghanistan â?? all
retrofitted with new â??hope and changeâ?? banalities. I mean, whoâ??s
putting Mommy Dearest up to this â?? Wolfie, Perlie, Cheney?â??
TINGLE FOR HUGO?
â??There is no foreign policy,â?? Chris Matthews said on Hardball, his
voice dripping with scorn. â??She just tours the world and nods, as if
her good looks and serial apologies are going to win us a collective
tingle abroad. I donâ??t think Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad care
much that sheâ??s got great legs and a nice wink. How many times can Ms.
Vapid say, â??Weâ??re sorryâ?? and â??Hit that old reset buttonâ?? and expect
thugs to make nice?â??
RACE, ALL THE TIME
Eugene Robinson worried in the Washington Post about Palinâ??s emphasis
on race. â??Look, she gets 95 percent of the working-class white vote.
She promises next month to talk to the â??Christian worldâ?? from Estonia,
of all places. Hello? She goes to the Summit of the Americas and
immediately puts race on the table â?? as if we are supposed to separate
those with European heritage from those without. Then she tells al
Arabiyya that she hopes to heal the rift with Europe â??because of my
own shared European heritage that seems to resonate in ways I hadnâ??t
imagined throughout the EU.â?? I guess weâ??re learning that those
â??gaffesâ?? last year on the campaign trail, like her â??typical black
personâ?? remark and Toddâ??s â??I am finally proud of my country againâ??
nonsense were not gaffes at all.â??
WHERE IS THE PRESS?
Howard Kurtz summed up the press cynicism the best in his Washington
Post column. â??How long does she think she can keep picking on her
right-wing plants in the audience for these softball Q-and-A sessions?
I mean, there are only so many pukey â??What has surprised you the most
about this office? What has enchanted you the most about serving in
this office?â?? questions you can lob.â??
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