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Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

I still believe Hillary has got this. And even if the polls may have tightened some in the last few weeks, Nate Cohn still gives her a 75 percent chance to win. As he puts it, the odds of making a free throw.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html

What I do worry about though is the media. When I grouse about the media on Twitter a lot of liberals tell me they don't watch anymore. Ok. But my worry is not those who don't watch. My worry is those who do watch.

If you personally turn off CNN or MSNBC because of their biased, misleading coverage, ok. But my worry is not what I'm watching, it's what other folks are watching-who may not be as well informed.

What do casual voters think? I don't think the media is all powerful by any stretch but if you think about normal people-not like me for instance-for whom politics is not fun but rather a somewhat unpleasant chore, what do they see?

When they see everyone on CNN and MSNBC attack Hillary's emails relentlessly, my worry is that many such viewers-who are sort of lazy anyway-assume that while they don't know what all the process talk really is about-it often ends up so fraught as the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin-there must be something here. Hillary must be corrupt as this is the tenor of what everyone in tv seems to say.

I'm not so sure so many voters would buy the idea that Hillary is corrupt if you didn't have such a feeding frenzy over it. I don't mean don't cover it, but cover it how you would for another politician.

The media might report on Trump U but they aren't obsessed over it by any means. They don't see it as outrageous evidently that the GOP nominee is accused of scamming 40, 000 regular Americans.

I will always believe that the media had a hand in W's 2000 win; ok, the Supreme Court also had a hand, but that's another conversation.

Basically the media graded W on a curve. Because he didn't seem very qualified, if he did anything short of trip over his own shoelaces and drool, then he was Presidential.

I think Gore beat him in that first debate but the media graded W on a curve.

Now with Trump, we heard the media cooing last night because Trump's own kids love him. That just makes them similar to most kids.

And let's face it, they, unlike us, have good reason to. It's not hard for them with that trust fund.

One of the most absurd lines was when Donald Jr. attacked an 'aristocracy.'

"At dinner w our greenskeeper who missed his sister's wedding 2 work (luv loyalty 2 us) "No big deal hopefully she'll have another someday";)

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/216238179022413825

Can you imagine the media reaction if the whole Dem argument for Hillary were: 'Vote for her, because her daughter loves her?'

Speaking of Trump being graded on a curve, an interesting piece by the Daily News' Josh Greenan on how Trump's  disingenuousness has proved to be his greatest campaign asset. 

Meanwhile Donald Jr. has his own Melania moment. 

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-conventions/donald-trump-jr-s-speechwriter-defends-recycling-lines-rnc-n612976

Plagiarism runs in the family. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/19/a-brief-history-of-donald-trump-and-plagiarism/

Remember, even The Art of the Deal is plagiarism to the extent that Trump pretends he wrote it himself. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/us/politics/trump-book-tony-schwartz.html

2 comments:

  1. Mike, this video is pretty funny (Melania Trump impersonation):
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/20/laura-benanti-s-melania-trump-defends-herself-on-colbert.html

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