Cavuto, Megyn vs. Obama's Burton

Vote for McCain. Avoid 4 years of Obama spokespersons such as "National Press Secretary" Bill Burton.

Burton's consistent strategy is to pretend he is being mistreated by whichever FoxNews host he is speaking with, and that Obama is being mistreated by FoxNews overall.

Video of Burton refusing to answer Neil Cavuto's questions.

My shrunken text rendition:

Cavuto: Why would investors not get out of the stock market before Obama raises Capital Gains taxes from 15% to 20%?

Burton: What you are saying is a disgrace and doesn't make any sense. Also, Barack will be better for the economy, so they will want to stay in the market.

Cavuto: Your candidate's spending plans cannot be paid for by just hiking taxes on the upper income, right? They've already crunched those numbers and it doesn't add up. I've done the spreadsheet on this. It doesn't add up.

Burton: Go to our website and work the spreadsheet.

Cavuto: I have gone to your website. Your spreadsheet doesn't add up - I've gone through it line by line. I gave you the benefit of the doubt on your numbers, such as saving $10B a month via pulling out of Iraq. I've given you the benefit of the doubt on extracting oil, and it's not adding up Bill. I'm telling you, it doesn't add up.

Burton: Well, I encourage viewers to go the spreadsheet at BarackObama.com...

Cavuto: I'm telling you, I just did! It doesn't add up!

Burton: Well, you apparently don't believe the way we do the math.

(Aha! Burton is falling back on The End Zone's all time favorite assertion of higher truth:
"We don't believe the white man's math.")

Cavuto: I defy anyone to go to that site and make Obama's numbers add up.

Burton: People can go to the website and make get-out-the-vote phone calls for Obama.

Cavuto: You're incorrigible, Bill.

Burton: You are. I'm rubber, you're glue....

(I might've made up that bit about rubber and glue.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Understanding Megyn's attempted interview: she is referencing a just discovered 2001 radio interview in which Barack supported legislative branch action to redistribute wealth. Barack spoke circular Baracky-speak, but these were his points:

1. We should use community organizers such as ACORN to pressure legislators to change laws in order to redistribute wealth.
2. It's a shame there is likely no judicial branch method of redistributing wealth.
3. It's a shame the Constitution says only what the government may not do, yet does not also say what government must do for the people, such as redistribute wealth.

Burton blaming FoxNews and Megyn Kelly for playing audio of 2001 Barack radio comments about wealth redistribution..

My text version:

Megyn: Why are you blaming FoxNews for playing tape of Barack's own words?

Burton: This morning, you all said McCain was going to attack Obama, but McCain held a campaign event and did not attack Obama. FoxNews lied, as they have this entire election.

Megyn: Then, later today, McCain attacked Obama as we said he would. This is not a fake issue. Many Americans care very much about the question of whether Sen. Obama has Socialist policies.

Burton: This was indeed an issue that has been driven by FoxNews channel. The audio of Obama's interview points out that what McCain was saying about it was, by any fair reading, inaccurate.

Megyn: When I have you on, you avoid issues and blame FoxNews for reporting on the issues. You should know that, in Rasmussen Polling this month, a majority of Americans said FoxNews was the least biased network on air. Further, according to the latest Pew Poll, 70% of Americans believe Obama is being helped by favorable media coverage. And yet you have the nerve to complain when Fox confronts your candidate with his own words.

Burton: What my complaint is, and what any fair viewing of your channel would be, is that the Obama Campaign spends a lot of time talking about the issues, and about our key differences with John McCain, and John McCain gets free advertisement every day from FoxNews channel as you continually trump up these fake controversies and have folks on to talk about things that don't have anything to do with the issues.

Megyn: Center for Media and Public Affairs found that, since the conventions, Barack has received 65% positive media coverage, McCain has received 35% positive coverage.

More than a million people are watching you right now. Answer the substantive question. A lot of viewers have concerns about whether Barack Obama's past and present comments about "economic justice" should give them pause, should give them cause for concern about the redistribution of wealth.

Burton: Okay Megyn, I appreciate the political speech that you're making here that is obviously to help Fox News Channel...

Megyn: You attack, I'll defend!

Burton: ...and to help John McCain. The bottom line is that the American people know Barack Obama has been crystal clear about his economic plans for this country. The American people do not agree that giving a tax cut to 95% of Americans is socialist. And so this notion(Burton wrinkles his nose in disgust) that somehow FoxNews has been fair on these points does not hold up to the reality of the kind of coverage it has been giving this morning. The reason I put out this morning's campaign statement criticizing FoxNews is that it is rarely so crystal clear when FoxNews is driving it's own specific agenda helping John McCain frankly more than John McCain often helps himself.

Megyn: I'm sorry, Bill, but both your candidate and John McCain seem to think your candidate's exchange with Joe the Plumber was both relevant and newsworthy, and that was about spreading the wealth around. These comments from 2001 (Kelly and Burton begin talk/shouting over each other at this point, after the 4:45 mark.) also raise the issue of redistribution of wealth, and that is why ...
Burton: Right and that's a misreading of that...
Megyn: YOU CAN TRY TO TALK OVER ME, BUT I'M NOT ACTUALLY GOING TO STOP, I'M NOT GONNA STOP...
Burton: ...I was making a point there...
Megyn: ...NO NO DO NOT INTERRUPT ME...
Burton: ...and promote this myth that John McCain, WHAT YOU'RE ACTUALLY DOING IS TRYING TO TALK OVER ME...
Megyn: ...NO. NO. QUIET. QUIET BILL AND THEN I'LL LET YOU RESPOND...
Burton: ...about the fact that we have very specific economic policies...
Megyn: ... BILL, PIPE DOWN, LET ME MAKE MY POINT AND THEN YOU CAN RESPOND...
Burton: ...You've made your political speeches. Make another one, go to town.

Megyn: As you know, I don't appreciate the sarcasm...
Burton: (derisively) I know you hate it.
Megyn: ... you can save that for your friends on the other channels. We don't put up with that here. What I'm saying is that your candidate has made several comments about redistributing the wealth. I get the emails, Bill, from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike, who are concerned about that notion, who understand that right now in this country the top 25% already pay 67% of income taxes, and who are worried about shifting that balance even more.

Burton: We have tried these policies for the last 8 years - giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans - it's not working. That wealth is not trickling down. What we need to do is help the middle class: get tax cuts to the hard working men and women of this country so that they can deal with higher energy prices, higher health care costs. People are worried about losing their homes in this mortgage mess. That's what Barack Obama is focused on. And (Laughing derisively) I don't think that John McCain's similar comments in 2001 - that he couldn't stomach George Bush's tax cuts - nobody was accusing McCain of being Socialist then because he said there was an unfair amount of wealth being given to the wealthy. No one said he was Socialist - I don't hear you talking about that. But Barack Obama in an interview 7 years ago when he was making a point that has nothing to do with the point you're making, I think all of a sudden becomes banner news on FoxNews channel, and you know what, I understand: you've got an agenda here... (talking over each other now begins anew)
Megyn: WE DON'T HAVE AN AGENDA...
Burton: ...We just think the American people oughta know...
Megyn: ...OUR AGENDA IS TO REPORT THE NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED, BILL...
Burton: ...THAT WE VERY SPECIFICALLY HAVE A PLAN TO HELP THE MIDDLE CLASSES GROW THE ECONOMY...
Megyn: ...I UNDERSTAND YOU DON'T LIKE IT, AND SOMETIMES YOUR CANDIDATE HAS COMPLAINED ABOUT IT, BUT THAT'S WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO...
Burton: ...GO AHEAD. I UNDERSTAND YOU DON'T LIKE BEING INTERRUPTED BUT GO AHEAD AND INTERRUPT ME THATS FINE MEGYN...
Megyn: ...YOU MAY HAVE THE REST OF THE MEDIA IN THE TANK, BUT FOXNEWS REPORTS IT STRAIGHT. Fair and balanced, as always. Bill Burton, thanks for being here.

Burton: Alright Megyn.

Megan or Megyn?

Megan?



or Megyn?



Megan Fox was the female lead in "Transformers", and is the female lead in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". I do like her photo above. However, why is she in front of bookshelves? Does she read a lot? What subjects? Why is she wearing that outfit for reading? Is it hot in that room - other than, you know, exactly in that chair? So many questions.

Though Megan is fetching, in a bookish "Is it hot in this room?" sort of way, Megyn(!) is the smart chick of my heart.

Megyn blogs for me

Here's the kind of Barack statement I would've considered blogging about, yet Megyn does it for me, and oh so winsomely:



Are we seeing Megyn the rising star? She is intellectually sharper, and intellectually more self-assured, than the typical blow dried looky-looky-at-me television poseur.

Megyn, sans eyeglasses, slices up an unsuspecting Us Weekly Magazine Editor

Oh babe-y! That's gotta hurt. Bradley was absolutely saved by the tight time constraints of cable news segments. If Megyn had had another two minutes, that would've been fun.

Almost Forgot: Megyn Wins!

Hooray! Megyn garnered a commanding 300% as many votes (3) as Megan (1).

Celebrating St. Patty's Day with Jim Kelly and NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.



In Dolce and Gabbana.



Do conservative chicks find Karl Rove hot? Fringe benefit of being an evil genius.

Megyn with glasses

Oh babe-y

h/t Drew M

14 within 48 hours; Instructive Bush coverage; Jon Stewart the coward

Megyn Kelly reported Joe the Plumber's Ohio State Records were checked by six different State of Ohio agencies in 18 separate instances - including 14 checks within 48 hours of the Presidential debate in which he starred in absentia.

At least some of the searchers have admitted searching out information "for the national media". This is implicit admission that these searchers valued political victory over morality, ethics, and duty.

Media, in their part of the sordid spectacle, aggressively went after a private citizen even as they avoided going after a candidate. Media abdicated neutrality and chose a side. Media were not Switzerland. They were France. They actively campaigned as La Resistance Pour Barack. Media were effective in this role, and they helped elect Barack. Had media done their duty and vetted Barack, Hillary would be President Elect today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of media, this is instructive: Bush unsnubbed.

One quibble: Jon Stewart did not merely play the "snub" angle during closing credits, but also prominently played up the "snub" angle during the opening comedy segment of his show.

No worries for Stewart. He doesn't do apologies. "It's comedy!" is his all-purpose excuse. Jon Stewart is a coward.

Stewart's staff researches gotcha questions for him to spring on his conservative guests. I have no problem with that. I have a problem with this: if guests flounder, Stewart pounces like a preening know it all; if guests riposte with intelligence and reason, Stewart does not tip his hat and acknowledge their superior reasoning. Instead, he retreats to jokeville. Cowardice. Stewart never acknowledges instances when his own reasoning - and that of his staff - is inferior.

This is typical of the left. They cannot acknowledge instances of their own inferior reasoning. Such would trash their self-conception as morally superior beings. Most of the left, when confronted by superior reasoning, quickly shift the field of play to a seemingly infinite supply of other gripes and strawmen. Stewart, however, has the perfect dodge: "I'm just a comic". He plays a morally superior being when he can, and a cynical comedian when he is trapped. Stewart is a coward who plays an intellectually brave person on TV. Lemmings cheer.

If you are unlike Jon Stewart, if your conversational purpose is to search for truth, then you can shift your opinion inside a conversation without feeling personally threatened or demeaned. Why would you? You self identify as an imperfect person who searches for truth. You are happy to find instances where your old thinking was misguided. Hooray! You can move forward in life unburdened by your former misguided reasoning. In conversations, you can be free and relaxed and open.

Conversely, if your conversational purpose is to celebrate your own virtue and superiority, you cannot ever admit error. You must move away from the superior logic - quickly! Divert the conversation to a different gripe or strawman. Repeat as necessary, ad infinitum. This is overwhelmingly what the left does in conversations.

Part of the changing and diverting of the subject comes from the left not really having thought through their assertions. They don't really know why they believe what they do. They just heard x and y were the correct things to believe, so they do. When they are challenged on x or y - even lightly - they have no reasoned response and they quickly divert the conversation away from x or y. I suspect they imagine - if only some better informed person from their tribe were around to explain things - x and y could be proven correct.

Debate Aftermath

Dick Morris to Alan Colmes:

"Is it that you can't think, or that you only know how to read those talking points?"

I have waited, so long, for someone to say that to Alan Colmes. I try to never watch his show (Hannity, also, on air with Colmes, is better avoided). Yet, sometimes, I skim through it - as if touching something hot. Colmes on-air, rote readings of Dem Natl Committee pap do not cease to amaze. Why is he on the air? He is a reader of fiction - and boring fiction at that. Kirsten Powers, for instance, is liberal, demonstrates reason, and is beautiful. Put her in the chair. And put Megyn Kelly in Hannity's chair. Exile both Hannity and Colmes to radio. Let them be apart from each other, and therefore regain their bearings.

Or, if the show is merely about on-air readings of Dem and Repub talking points: bring in professional readers who are more beautiful and euphonious. I suggest anyone who ever played a Harrison Ford love interest:












Except:


















In real life, none of those women would sleep with Harrison Ford, except:


















Update: longer and better Dick Morris video. The good stuff is between 2:00 and 3:15.




If you missed it, Peggy Noonan describing Palin: "She killed."



Final 5 seconds:

Noonan: "She killed."
Brian Williams: "On the other hand...."

Brian Williams' response personifies the sickness of media. It was commonsense obvious Palin killed - especially during the first half hour, which is also when viewership was highest. Williams could've taken a moment to acknowledge and comment on that. But: no. Williams' worldview, his skewed perception, his heart all conspired in favor of a fantasy result. Williams could not see what every plumber and electrician in America saw. Instead, Williams rushed into: "On the other hand...."

Debate stuff:

I thought Biden did about as well as Biden could've done. It wasn't that Sen. Biden was bad, but rather that Gov. Palin connected with Americans in exceptional fashion. Again: "Reaganesque" best captures what she did. Noonan, in today's WSJ:

The whole debate was about Sarah Palin. She is not a person of thought but of action. Interviews are about thinking, about reflecting, marshaling data and integrating it into an answer. Debates are more active, more propelled—they are thrust and parry. They are for campaigners. She is a campaigner. Her syntax did not hold, but her magnetism did. At one point she literally winked at the nation.

As far as Mrs. Palin was concerned, Gwen Ifill was not there, and Joe Biden was not there. Sarah and the camera were there. This was classic "talk over the heads of the media straight to the people," and it is a long time since I've seen it done so well, though so transparently. There were moments when she seemed to be doing an infomercial pitch for charm in politics. But it was an effective infomercial.

Joe Biden seems to have walked in thinking that she was an idiot and that he only had to patiently wait for this fact to reveal itself. This was a miscalculation.

Exactly so. She is not Sarah the cerebral and contemplative. She is Sarahcuda.

When Sarahcuda gets in a rhythm: she's got a touch of arrogance. She's like an athlete who knows things are going well, and who unconsciously demonstrates that with an extra bit of strut in his stalk. It's a man-at-his-best kind of thing, and it's actually wonderful to see in anyone who is performing and accomplishing. Thank God for it. Without it, Governor Palin would never have accomplished what she has. She knows she has a certain special something that not everyone has. She knows it. That knowledge is what carries her through to great things.

When you have a certain special something: to deny it, to hide it, is false. Be who you truly are.

Back to Debate:

I've read opinions that Biden won on technical points. I respect those opinions, yet I disagree, and here's why: Biden blatantly lied maybe 10 times. Blatantly. Not even arguable. Most public discourse "lies" are at least arguable as truth. Biden's were not. I don't believe blatant lies should be counted as part of a "victory based on technical points".

As an example - and this was maybe the least of Biden's blatant lies: Palin pointed to Barack's public promise to vote to fund troops in Iraq; to Barack's subsequent breaking of that promise; and to Biden's own Dem Debate criticism of Barack for breaking his promise. This is undeniable historic record.

Biden then energetically stated McCain also voted against funding troops in Iraq. When Palin reemphasized Barack's breaking of his public promise, Biden restated his McCain assertion with even more energy.

McCain -- as war-funding bills containing non-war-related riders were procedurally shaped on the Senate floor -- did cast votes this way or that way. However, on the final vote of every funding bill: McCain voted yea. Barack cast - in the middle of an election cycle, with all eyes on him - a notable nay vote. Commonsense Americans, given that evidence, would certainly say Biden lied. We ought not award technical debate points for lies.

To me, Biden's most blatant lie was "the U.S. and France threw Hezbollah out of Lebanon." And this came in his supposed area of expertise: foreign policy. Hezbollah never budged from Lebanon, and is stockpiling missiles as we speak. This is an example of Washington D.C. experience not amounting to either wisdom or forthrightness. Ed Morrissey: "The Mother of All Gaffes". Michael Totten:

Biden said the strangest and most ill-informed thing I have ever heard about Lebanon in my life. [...] Nobody – nobody – has ever kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. Not the United States. Not France. Not Israel. And not the Lebanese. Nobody.

Another point about claims of technical victory for Biden: technical victory wasn't the point. Winning votes was the point. To do so, Palin had to overcome Gwen Ifill. Ifill never asked a question in Palin's strongest area: energy policy. Palin had to take the conversation to energy policy on her own - and while there she scored good points with voters - which never would've happened if Palin had strictly adhered to Ifill's preferred topics.

Ifill never asked about gun control - a weak and touchy topic for Barack.

Ifill never asked about abortion - a weak topic for Barack, due to
1) his support for partial birth abortion and
2) his one time opposition to mandating medical care for babies who survive the abortion process.

Ifill never asked about earmarks - a weak and touchy topic for both Barack and Biden.

Ifill's second question: "How would you reduce polarization in Washington?" came straight from Barack's campaign theme: "Yes We Can ... bring this nation together!" You'd think the sheer stupidity of the trope would dissuade a professional from wasting a question on the subject. Palin rightly ignored the question. The nation
1) will not come together through the magic of Barack's mediation
2) would not be better off rallying around Barack's same old liberal policies.


neoneocon: Palin clutch under pressure due to heritage of athletic competition

Viva Title IX!

Komodo Dragon Thursday

because I am horrified by Komodo Dragons. They are vicious car wrecks which I stare at.

New species info: Komodo Dragons shoot venom from glands which run along the jawline on the insides of their mouths. The venom is an anticoagulant. Their victims suffer lowered blood pressure, eventually going into shock (whereupon the Komodo Dragon and his Komodo friends eat them alive). Via Instapunk:

Scientists always believed that because Komodos also fed on carrion, their mouths must teem with bacteria and that the germs infected their victims, killing them slowly.

Magnetic resonance imaging scans have shown, however, that Komodos have glands in their mouths that produce venom similar to that of many snakes.

The lizard’s sharp, serrated teeth open up wounds into which the venom flows from the gland that runs along the jawline. The venom acts as an anticoagulant, increasing the blood flow and reducing blood pressure, sending the victim into shock. The victim’s blood cannot clot and it bleeds to death....

Despite the dragon’s venom gland running visibly along its jawline, scientists had not realised until now that it was poisonous.

“That’s because no one bothered to look,” said Dr Fry, who noted the gland during his work with captive Komodos at Singapore zoo.

I can't tell you how many nature shows I've watched over the decades in which highly credentialed zoologists stared straight into the camera and informed me that Komodo dragons kill by infecting their prey with the godawful bacteria in their mouths. A whole new dimension in halitosis. I believed them. Why wouldn't I? But they were wrong.

The End Zone is clearly about:

• Happy Slip videos (1, 2) 
• Fort Worth cartoon videos about my parents
• Cousin Tate
• Texas Rangers baseball 
• future POTUS Piper Palin
• Megyn Kelly, and 
• horrifying Komodo Dragon info (1, 2)
  

There you go:  all the insight you will ever need into my personality.

Megyn blushes(!) through heavy make-up; rebounds to propose foursome

which we ALL know will end up a twosome...



Dang John Mayer. Does he have to monopolize every woman in America?