{"id":2447,"date":"2008-04-18T05:41:36","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T10:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2008-04-18T05:41:36","modified_gmt":"2008-04-18T10:41:36","slug":"oh-well-then-silly-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2447","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Well, Then. Silly Us."},"content":{"rendered":"

While Tom Shales at his best is an adequate (if past-his-shelf-date) TV critic, when he swerves into politics he distinguishes himself by being an even balder-faced flak than Lori Sturdevant or Frank Rich.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His “review<\/a>” of the Pennsylvania debate focuses – like the rest of the nutroots – on the shock and awe they feel over actually seeing Democrats questioned.<\/p>\n

But this bit here caught my attention:<\/p>\n

Obama was right on the money when he complained about the campaign being bogged down in media-driven inanities and obsessiveness over any misstatement a candidate might make along the way, whether in a speech or while being eavesdropped upon by the opposition. The tactic has been to “take one statement and beat it to death,” he said.<\/p>\n

No sooner was that said than Gibson brought up, yet again, the controversial ravings of the pastor at a church attended by Obama. “Charlie, I’ve discussed this,” he said, and indeed he has, ad infinitum.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh.<\/p>\n

Well, then.<\/p>\n

Never mind!\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Note to all you anti-war people; Bush “has discussed” the war, “ad infinitum”.\u00a0 Just shut up and speak when spoken to!)<\/p>\n

This is precisely what has happened with widely reported comments that Obama made about working-class people “clinging” to religion and guns during these times of cynicism about their federal government.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the first time I made a misstatement that was mangled up, and it won’t be the last,” said Obama, with refreshing candor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah.\u00a0 Well,\u00a0that’s that, then!\u00a0 He\u00a0“misstated” his contempt for the vast majority of the American people!<\/p>\n

Sorry to impose, Tom!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The networks’ trick is covering an election with as little emphasis on issues as possible, then blaming everyone else for failing to focus on “the issues.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Contempt for over half the voters – including, I hasted to add, me, a gun-toting Christian from a small rural town – is <\/em>an issue.<\/p>\n

By your leave, anyway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Tom Shales at his best is an adequate (if past-his-shelf-date) TV critic, when he swerves into politics he distinguishes himself by being an even balder-faced flak than Lori Sturdevant or Frank Rich. His “review” of the Pennsylvania debate focuses – like the rest of the nutroots – on the shock and awe they feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-stupid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}