Sunday

It's Sunday. It's a nice day out; the sun keeps playing with the clouds, which is as it should be. Two days until the election starts. Hopefully, it will end soon thereafter, but I don't hold out much hope, given that the DNC has already sent out teams of lawyers and mapped out preliminary strategies.

This isn't likely to be a strongly political blog. To use Steven den Beste's categorization, I'm more thinker than linker, because I just don't have the time to stay up to date on everything that's going on to the point that I can do a better job than [your choice of pundit/news/whatever]. And frankly, though I do have some strong opinions, I'm just not into doing that thing here - this should be fun, not work, and not a place that I vent.

I am human, however, and this is one of the times that it will get the better of me. If you don't like politics, or you don't like my politics, consider yourself warned. Charming stories return later.

I sort-of understand the Bush hatred. Sort of. As in, I know that he pushes all the wrong buttons on some people, and they just can't bear the thought that he's still sucking up their oxygen. But why that justifies the kind of stuff that's happened over the past year or so - the suave sleight-of-hand of F9/11, 60 Minutes airing a story based on blisteringly obvious fakes, the idiotic Lancet story estimating 100k deaths in Iraq, and all the other ones that aren't coming to mind right now - that I just don't get. It's as if the traditional media had a death wish.

In the past, I always assumed that the liberal bias of the traditional media (no comments about this, please, folks; the existence of Fox News doesn't mean that CNN isn't liberal) was limited primarily to op-ed's and the choice of which stories to cover. I always thought that, when the story was being researched, they were quite honest about the process. Boy, was I wrong. I now generally assume that anything reported in certain sectors of the press (NY Times and CBS being the most prominent, but by no means alone) that's more sophisticated than "x killed y last night, and police have arrested x" is likely to be a politically motivated hit piece on somebody. Maybe not GWB. Maybe not even a Republican. But definitely someone.

Why? It's televised seppuku. It will, at best, warm the hearts of those who can't stand the guy already. It will confirm the opposition's belief that the news is biased against them and can't be trusted. And it will drive away swing voters. That's a lesson the Republicans learned in the aftermath of 1996.

Actually, it's a great time for one of my favorite political sayings: despite eight years of inestimably valuable education from William J. Clinton, the Democratic Party didn't learn a damned thing. The Republicans did. Bush, in particular, did, and in spades. Why? I'm not sure we'll ever know. I remain convinced that I will never see another person with the raw political acumen of Bill Clinton. If I do, I'll lay a huge chunk of money down at Tradesports that he (or she) gets elected.

Anyway, it's infuriating, patently obvious, and counterproductive. (And there you have it folks. Pure, unadulterated wisdom. I mean, I couldn't possibly be wrong. It wouldn't be me.)