Obama’s Wide Open Strategy

A masterpiece by Obama at the Democratic Convention tonight.

Incredible as it was, Obama has probably left himself wide open to attack on a whole range of broad target liberal ideals gathered loosely under the banner of “activist government”.

The problem for the Republicans is that many of these ideas are well grounded in shared experience and common sense. So, as is often the case, the current right wing crew (apologies to real conservatives) will find itself denouncing and in opposition to reality and will likely turn to one form of belligerence or another to compensate and duck the argument.

In fact, I believe Obama is fully aware of the exposure that comes with the broadside of liberal cannon-balls he blasted at McCain and the right-wing tonight, wants the debates, and maybe even feels the one-note McCain campaign is not up to the task of effectively juggling and fighting on so many complex fronts at once.

This just got a whole lot more interesting.

CNN and Subtle Deceit

During a report from the Democratic Party convention in Denver, Hillary Rosen accused the hosts of the program and the rest of the  panel of conducting a” negative analysis” of the evening.

Well done Ms. Rosen, in calling out the hosts and the panel on the blatant and deceitful negative spin in their analysis.

Endless repetition of critical memes artlessly disguised as questions, hammering of down slope interpretations and views and the switching of the topic back to the “no red meat” complaint shortly after Mrs. Obama’s excellent speech are examples of standard underhanded communication techniques used by those who believe their audience is largely unaware of this sort of verbal trickery.

Wolf, Anderson and company – and the owners and advertisers - should be aware that every day more and more people are learning to recognize subtle deceit when they hear it.

Waterfront East

Waterfront East

 

Fortunately

I do not feel

The cranes are out to get me

Though possibly

The cars and trucks are

 

Shifting to any side

Of White and Yellow lines

If I were a touch more paranoid….

This wave would break over me

Like Love

Only Dripping Venom

Withholding Judgment

Words of wisdom, courtesy of Drew Westen in his Huffington Post article on the media’s handling of the John Edwards story, “Catching the Wrong John: Why Are the Media Talking about John Edwards’ Infidelity If They Aren’t Going to Talk about John McCain’s?”.

As someone who has practiced psychotherapy for 25 years, there’s one thing I’ve learned: that it’s a lot easier to judge than to withhold judgment. Life isn’t easy. Most people try to live good and decent lives, and most people fail at many points along the way. If fidelity over decades of marriage were so easy, I suspect more people would practice it. (Bold Added)

“It’s a lot easier to judge than to withhold judgment.”

As someone who is guilty of the occasional rush to judgment, yes, even in none survival judgment moments, these are words that I need to keep in mind.

These are words we all need to keep in mind.

 

CNN: Deceitful, Unprofessional and Damn Proud of it

Hey, CNN! I’ve got a great idea!

How about you focus almost exclusively on irrelevant stories like the Edwards affair, flag pins, idiotic analysis of idiotic campaign ads and hour upon hour of useless verbiage about possible and impossible Vice Presidents.

If you run out of nothingness to report on, perhaps you could show several hours of footage defining where the Olympic Torch is not, or perhaps some more video of the door of the house where Obama and Clinton are not meeting. That way, you can continue with your very pointed avoidance of anything important while going through the shallow motions of professionalism in order to not so subtlety disguise your blatent and dishonest Corporate agenda.

Great idea, eh?

Oh, sorry. I see you’re already doing that.

Update: Several months ago, CNN took the unprecedented step of including a Professor of Ethics on one of their political panels. His presence, in my opinion, made the usual cast of spin-meisters visibly uncomfortable, as he called several of them on their obvious distortions and caused others to watch their words.

Or in other words, he made it difficult for them to lie with impunity.

Clearly that did not go over well with the management and/or the pundits, as the good professor has not, to my knowledge, been seen since.

Hey, CNN. Here’s another great idea: Bring back the ethics professor.

Yeah, right.