"A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, ’government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem.’" This may explain why Republicans aren’t doing so well. Note the McCain (!) comment at the end of the piece.
This current administration is the least Reganesque we’ve had since Regan. By the way, if CNN has such a liberal bias why didn’t they deep-six this survey? Anyone?
So people like you could say "if CNN has such a liberal bias why didn’t they deep-six this survey?"
I’ve actually noticed this pattern...the MSM gets nicer to us when it’s clear we losing, badly. Under such circumstances, they can afford the odd bit of truth here and there...cover for the hard times when they have to tip their hands.
Okay, you’re onto us. The left, while appearing to be completely ineffectual and disorganized, has in fact been quietly manipulating our big media cabal for the past 10 years to make the right look bad. In fact, that’s why we pushed voters into eliminating the democratic majorities in the house and senate - so that Republicans wouldn’t have us to blame when Clinton’s plan to destroy the new century economy and hide WMDs in Iraq reached fruition.
We thought we’d get away with it because it makes no sense, but you saw through our plan. You kids and your dog! Curse you!
Dain, so going by your theory we might expect to see CNN hire a right-wing pundit/gasbag and give them their own show if the GOP doesn’t fare well in a few days?? So, they might hire, say, upcoming-Ashbrook-speaker Glenn Beck? Oh wait, they already have. I wonder if he was flirting with Ann Coulter when he said this:
"...I wonder if I’m alone in this -- you know, it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year."
I do hope that some eager young Ashbrook Scholar inquires with Mr. Beck as to how that has been grossly misinterpreted by the liberally-biased MSM (that he now works for) and how he really meant that in the most compassionate and conservative way.
And the idea that "government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem" is anything "bedrock" is laughable. It’s so vague, amorphous, and all-things-to-all-people as to be nearly meaningless. More like jello than bedrock. And I do wonder if conservatives would retire their principled, bedrock premise if they ever achieved their one-party dream of a (cue the Halloween organ) Permanent Republican Majority? I’d bet my "Rush is Right" bumper sticker that the history would THEN show that Republicans have always insisted and continue to insist that government is the ANSWER.
Craig, you are correct -- the GOP hasn’t been acting very conservative, which is why they are in trouble. They reverted to their old Rockefeller-wing philosophy, which was always a loser.
Dannyboy, I knew when I posted that you would use sarcasm to counter my point. Fine, but it doesn’t take much of a conspiracy to note that media converage gets very hostile when the GOP is in firm control but balances out (just a very tiny bit) when the GOP is on the skids. If it was so one-sided all the time, they would have nothing to point to in defending themselves against the charge of liberal bias. But they are liberally-biased, and EVERYONE (including you) knows it.
When (besides now) has the right been on the skids? You guys have been gloating and dancing on the graves of the Democrats since Gingrich and his buddies took over. What pattern have you been able to discern, with all of Bush’s mandates, and such?
When (besides now) has the right been on the skids?
Apparently your memory doesn’t go back very far. How about the 1960s and 1970s? For nearly the entire period 1957-1981 Democrats outnumbered Republicans in both houses of Congress by huge majorities--often by as much as 2-1.
Dain (first of all sorry about the sarcasm, but it’s my best thing) the pattern you’re seeing happens in reverse too. If Democrats are ever on top again, the press will turn on them. It’s not ideological bias, it’s bias towards a twist in the narrative. If everything is fine, no one buys newspapers.
I read blogs on both sides of the political street, and believe me, EVERYONE thinks the press is biased against them. Individual pundits or shows may have a slant, but a whole MSM bias is a myth.
"Apparently your memory doesn’t go back very far. How about the 1960s and 1970s? For nearly the entire period 1957-1981 Democrats outnumbered Republicans in both houses of Congress by huge majorities--often by as much as 2-1."
Thank you, Dain.
I’ll grant you the party distributions as you’ve described, although, as far as memory is concerned, I was more concerned with learning how to ride a bike in the 1960’s than I was with politics. But, are you suggesting that there was a phenomenon known as the MSM back then, and that it operated as your friend Dain has said? Did Walter Cronkite beat up on Barry Goldwater? What was the 1960’s version of the blogosphere? Short-wave radio?
I noticed it because I noticed the only kind things the MSM said about conservatives tended to be when they were either out of power or about to be. Check out the media treatment of "homelessness" if you don’t believe me...Heather MacDonald had a nice piece on that a few years back.
Debating whether the MSM has a liberal bias is a waste of my time...akin to arguing about whether or not the sun rises in the east (it does, but it has to do with the spinning earth, blah blah blah). Things that are this obvious don’t require a great deal of debate.
Thank you, John. I didn’t even see your lips move!