Fausta's Blog

Noah Pollak looks at CNN’s poll vs CNN’s spin:

point where anyone would read — is the following (emphasis added):

The results may be favoring Obama simply because more Democrats than Republicans tuned in to the debate. Of the debate-watchers questioned in this poll, 41 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats, 27 percent as Republicans and 30 percent as independents.

I’m far from being a polling expert, but this is obviously a slanted poll. A 14-point split between Republican and Democrat respondents? And what percentage of those “independents” were leaners for Obama?

That’s bad enough, but the really egregious part is CNN’s blatant reportage of opinion as fact, which allowed the creation of a news story announcing Obama’s victory.

“It can be reasonably concluded, especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey, that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight,” CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib said. “But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks, a tie translates to a win for Obama.”

Those of us fortunate enough to have paid attention during a couple of weeks of grade school math would not refer to a 41:27 ratio as “slight”. They had two Democrats for every Republican, for pity’s sake.

However, it’s CNN we’re talking about here. That kind of survey sample in favor of the Dems is their idea of “slight”.

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… since I went out last night, but saw this on cable TV a few minutes ago:

Jonah Goldberg proposed a SNL skit:

It’s hard to guess what, exactly, the SNL skit will look like. I think the press is congealing around the (erroneous) idea that Obama won precisely because that’s what the focus groups seem to be saying, or at least what the focus groups are saying allows the press to get away with claiming Obama won (for the record I think McCain won the parts I saw, but I’ve long argued that the press mostly cares what the polls say about these sorts of events). And SNL’s instincts are, lamentably, to go with liberal conventional wisdom.

But, if I were writing the SNL skit, I would have the two candidates engage in a sympathy-for-veteran-families-and-other-noble-causes “Jewelry-off” playing on the “I have a bracelet too” comment from Obama.

“Oh yeah? I have this earing and two bangles….”

“Well, my nipple ring proves I care more about ….”

More on the bracelet at Memeorandum.

In other YouTube news, John Hinderaker has Miss Wassilla; guys, here she is:

Apparently John found it at Andrew Sullivan’s. (No, I don’t link to Sully, thanks for asking.)

The McCain campaign has a new video (via Ed Driscoll) on the debate:

UPDATE
Yaacov watched the debate, and posts, The Hidden Radical Shows Himself

To me the single most interesting statement to come out of last night’s debate, and it was easy to overlook it because it was a little subtle, showed us a titillating glimpse of the true-believing, Progressive, pink underwear that he still has under his new Alpha Male suit. It shows that he is still the elitist, socialist Alinskyite organizer for which the far left forsook Hillary. It was really just a passing turn of phrase, but I think it a very telling one. You may recall, he referred to Putin as a real “twentieth century” tyrant (or was it dictator?). He went on to say something (if any one knows where I can find a transcript of these exact words, I would be very grateful!) about how he had to be made to become a twenty-first century leader.

Aside from the ridiculous image that it brings to mind of Obama calling up Putin on the red telephone and saying, “Whoa, Dude, hold the invasion up! That was, like, sooo last century!” – it was also a great throbbing tip-off that betrayed the intentional ignorance of human nature that is so characteristic of the socialist left.

It shows that he somehow believes that there is some magical process by which “the modern world” of the twenty-first century will somehow change and evolve human nature away from susceptibility to dictatorship, totalitarianism and conquest is a dead give away that he is one of those people who has little regard or respect for the achievement of the American system of government which by acknowledging human nature and building a system of checks and balances to channel the energy and grandeur of the human spirit while protecting against the venal aspects of it.

Go read it all.

Dan has more on the debate.

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My friend Jane asked for a Poetry Slam podcast, and I gladly agreed. You can listen to the podcast here.

Siggy and Richard Fernandez, and callers Zen and Shiva joined in.

Jane read To Be Invisible in the 21st Century, Siggy read The Soldier by Rupert Brooke (who, as Richard mentioned died of a mosquito bite), and Shiva and Zen read their own poetry. Richard recited Phillippine prison poetry in Tagalog and English,

Lumipas ang panahon
Unti-unting nalalagas and dahon ng kalendaryo
Ang limutin kita ay hindi ko magagawa
Ang limutin mo ako ikaw ang bahala

Time fleets by
The leaves of the calendar fall
You always will forget me
Though I cling to your ghost
Like a pall

We had such a good time that Jane asked for more, so we’ll be back next Friday at 7PM Eastern. Join us!

Via Hip Hop Republican,

Read also The Anchoress’ Financial Crisis: Is this an illusion?

She was once a sweet little girl with a unibrow, obedient and devout, but after she grew up, got married and divorced, she went bad.

How bad, you ask?

She became a welfare mother, shacked up with some guy, got some tats, and became a pole dancer willing to drop her kinky gear,

a police uniform, a French maid’s outfit and various office clothes

saying she’s ‘willing to go topless if the venue is right.’ She even works a fire-eating routine into her act.

As Jeff Foxworthy would say, “You must be a redneck!”

Not so. Well, at least not an American redneck.

Radical cleric’s message to Britain after his daughter is exposed as a pole-dancer: ‘You will pay a heavy price’

Maybe.

She looks like a really tough chickie, though. That’s her on the right:

Firebrand dad, fire-eating daughter.

UPDATE
Jim has the photo that’s sure to get her a fatwa. Or a big tip. Or both.

(h/t the Baron)

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It’s starting to become a habit.

Prior to McCain selecting Palin as his running mate, you almost never saw his name in the newspaper headlines – and if you did, it was on stories like this one, casting aspersions. But on his birthday, the day after Obama’s Temple of Denver speech, where The One thought the papers would regard him as The Only, Mac pulled the headline rug right under The One’s feet (not that Obama’s feet really touch the ground, but still) and nominated the gun-tottin’, married-to-(hot!) champion dog sledding Eskimo, mother of five, good-looking, high-heeled, motorcycle riding FEMALE governor of Alaska.

While apprasing his followers from the heights of the Mile-High City’s Temple, Obama was surely counting on two old Republican fogeys sitting on the balcony like Statler and Waldorf,

which his followers would never even look at, especially since he had an old fogey of his own for VP. Well, it wasn’t going to be Statler and Waldorf. Obama sidetracked himself into talking about lipstick on pigs:

That little remark got The One some attention, but not the right kind. The attention shifted from Obama’s halo

to Palin’s shoes.

The One was displeased. His campaign resorted to truth squads and downright thuggishness.

Along came the financial crisis, fully enabled by the Democrats and Obama’s trying to keep the media focused on him but not on the Dem’s blame; McCain in turn gives a press conference (getting valuable air time no ad campaign can buy) in all the broadcast, cable TV and radio networks and heads to Washington.

Again, the spotlight moved away from The One.

But, resourceful as he is, he bravely held stedfast in saying that he’d be at the debate tonight, no matter what. (And hoped Palin wouldn’t show up instead of McCain.) He would have that spotlight all for himself.

Not so fast.

Mac is back, shooting Obama out of the sky (again).

Here are a few links from friends:
What If We Don’t Get a Bailout?

Via Sean Hackbarth, The director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag‘s testimony. What worries me about this is that the politicians will use any revenues for more pork.

South Cackalacky: It’s not just a place, it’s a state of mind. We might end up with real estate right there.

Four Pinocchios for Biden’s Tax Fabrication.

Via Maria, Fixing what politics broke.

How Paulson Just Picked the 2012 GOP Nominee

Mad Jad’s Night on the Town

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My latest post at LadyBlog, Remote Control, is up at LadyBlog. Read it and comment, if you please.

More blogging later.

My friend Jane asked for a poetry slam, and poetry slam we’ll have! Siggy will be smokin’ and you can call in and join us with your favorite poem.

Chat opens at 7:45PM and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!

Two must-read posts:

First, Doug Ross has the visuals: Legacy
Go there and follow the links. Don’t worry, I’ll still be here.

Then there’s the Fox News videos:

The videos came from Sister Toldjah’s How Democrats helped enable the current economic crisis

I’ve also written about McCain versus Obama on the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae issue, which you can read here. Essentially, McCain acted while Obama continued to take money from the FMs, alongside Senator Chris Dodd (D), who today is trying to act like a damned hero in spite of his role in the enabling of this crisis in the first place. Barack Obama himself praised McCain on his over all reform record back in early 2006 – but that was before he started running for president. As the videos noted, not only did McCain co-sponsor a bill in 2005 that might have helped prevent the situation we find ourselves in now, but the Bush administration led the way on the issue as well – as early as 2001.

All of these efforts were stymied by Democrats.

With all that in mind, it is mindboggling to me that during the course of the last week and a half that Barack Obama’s poll numbers have risen. But I’m not exactly astonished, because he is being portrayed by the mainstream mediots as someone who can better handle the economic issues and challenges in front of us. Their belief, and portrayal of him in such a light, in turn influences the average Joe Citizen who doesn’t follow this stuff closely to believe Obama and the Democrats have the answers needed to pull us through the murky waters … yet the politicos who are portrayed and viewed as the heroes and potential “saviors” of our economy are many of the same politicos who helped put us in this situation in the first place.

In times like these, I lose a little faith in the American electorate on a general level. Heck, I don’t know everything but when it comes to this issue I know enough to be able to assert confidently that Barack Obama and the other Democrats who are attempting to “lead” on this issue are the last people in DC who I want to see get credit for “fixing it” – damnit, they need to be held responsible via intense media scrutiny and questioning for turning a blind eye years ago to the problems many others on the Republican side saw coming miles away and tried to warn their colleagues on the left about. But no, outside of Fox and maybe ABC News, most of the major nets and news outlets are not going to devote any significant amount of time investigating the background on this crisis because it would involve painting The One and his surrogates and many of his prominent Congressional supporters in an unfavorable, unleaderlike light and with less than 40 days before the election, hell will freeze over before they pin any aspect of this crisis on him – or them.

Absolutely infuriating.

Please, do what you can to get the word out. Email this post to friends and family. Spread the word. People need to know about this.

Please do.

The media’s on its knees worshiping at Obama. The public is misled.

Just this afternoon I was at the supermarket. Now, outside of this blog I loathe to discuss politics in this town since I’m treated as a pariah by most because of my politics. But this gentleman I know and I were on the line waiting for our semolina boules (yes, I buy semolina boules instead of Wonder Bread. I am a bread snob. Or just an all-around snob) to be machine-sliced and of course he thought it necessary after uttering the usual niceties to ask me, “When something happens to McCain, if he’s elected”…Because he knows that something is going to happen to McCain? I felt like asking, but decided to let him finish his absurd statement…”What will Sarah Palin’s handlers do? Because she can’t do anything without her handlers.”

Oh, I admit it. I was bored of the arrogance and contemptuous of the ignorance, but I also had some salmon to buy and was running short on time. So I grabbed my semolina boule and asked, “How about Obama’s bagmen? How about their money?” He replied, “Obama doesn’t have bagmen!” as I walked away.

Trust me guys, the media’s NOT going to tell the story on Auchi, on Rezko, on ACORN, on CAC, on Ayers, on Jodie Evans.

And now the economy will fall totally in the hands of those who brought this upon us.

I am tired.

UPDATE

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It’s been an unexpectedly busy day and even when I heard that

Top House and Senate Democratic and Republican lawmakers have reached a tentative agreement on a $700 billion plan to bail out U.S. financial markets, with some predicting the measure would pass both chambers of Congress

I don’t have a chance to sit down and read through the details.

Betsy sees McCain’s decision as a gamble:

McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and jet into Washington to try to negotiate a compromise bailout plan is a risky gamble.
…
The risk is that he will either succeed or not succeed in negotiating a compromise bailout. If he does, he will then be forever linked to the success or failure of the plan.

The Anchoress thought McCain had made a mistake in suspending his campaigning but now thinks he was correct, mature and statesmanlike, particularly since McCain has a key part.

Will McCain be done on time to go to the debate tomorrow? Shouldn’t the debate subject be the economy? Should McCain send Palin?

So many questions, so little time.

Matt Lewis has been studying past presidential debates for what works and what doesn’t, and he’s come up with several important points:

• Obviously, the big lesson of 1960 was to be well-rested and wear make-up
• McCain and Obama may take two things from 1976: First: have the facts straight, and second: avoid cheap-shots.
• Being too cute can make it look like you’re not being serious.
• The best lines win
• Sometimes the best way to disarm an opponent is to kill them with kindness.
• The 2000 debates proved two things: the power of one-liners and the effect of nonverbal communication.

Matt has specific advice for the candidates, and they should listen to him.

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