Cynical and gimmicky
All the national blogs are running this, but I think this is a story that works at every level: earlier on MSNBC, noted Republican Peggy Noonan said of McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin that “It’s over…The most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me– political bullshit about narratives.” To which her fellow Republican and former McCain associate Mike Murphy said “You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.” Analyst Chuck Todd agreed saying “This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.”
Needless to say, they didn’t know they were on the air. No one in our press corps would ever knowingly tell the public what they really think.
Here’s what Noonan said in her recent column on Palin:
because she is conservative, and pro-2nd Amendment and pro-life; and because conservatives can smell this sort of thing — who is really one of them and who is not — and will fight to the death for one of their beleaguered own; because of all of this she is a real and present danger to the American left, and to the Obama candidacy.
What purpose do our pundits serve when they knowingly lie?
Who’s being cynical, Kay?
Mike Murphy is on MSNBC right now, and David Gregory is being toolish in feeding Murphy softballs to help Mike regain a shred of Repub cred. Its hysterical to watch Rachel Maddow smack Murphy with this in the background.
Republicans always go for the narrative and they usually win with it. It is much easier for voters to digest a simple, compelling story, than to wade into policy, voting record, or qualifications. It makes the talking points for surrogates easier and it also makes things much easier on the media.
Whereas Democrats stumble and get bogged down in the nuance of “I voted for it before I voted against it” or what the definition of the word “is” is, Republicans stay on message with whatever bullshit thing they can think of and refuse to concede.
What purpose do pundits serve when they knowingly lie? If they stick to the script they know they may be successful in framing debate to their liking, even if they are don’t agree with the details of the substance. They too are suckers for a good narrative, and aren’t going to contradict they story of their own making.
You might want to read her column in the WSJ yesterday. Only part of that convesrsation is being spread about and the point she was making was totally missed.
“In our off-air conversation, I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. I made the case that this is no longer true, that party leaders seem to me stuck in the assumptions of 1988 and 1994, the assumptions that reigned when they were young and coming up. “The first lesson they learned is the one they remember,” I said to Todd — and I’m pretty certain that is a direct quote. But, I argued, that’s over, those assumptions are yesterday, the party can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people. And when I said, “It’s over!” — and I said it more than once — that is what I was referring to. I am pretty certain that is exactly what Todd and Murphy understood I was referring to. In the truncated version of the conversation, on the Web, it appears I am saying the McCain campaign is over. I did not say it, and do not think it. In fact, at an on-the-record press symposium on the campaign on Monday, when all of those on the panel were pressed to predict who would win, I said that I didn’t know, but that we just might find “This IS a country for old men.” That is, McCain may well win. I do not think the campaign is over, I do not think this is settled, and did not suggest, back to the Todd-Murphy conversation, that “It’s over.”
Nuance.
[...] Well, this week we were moving from Sarah Who? to Sarah Palin?. Owner of extreme views and **gasp** in possession of a record that isn’t all that it seems. Remember this post is simple about the week just passed - so Sarah Palin was announced on Friday August 29th and over Labor day weekend and intot he RNC convention all of this information came out about Ms Palin. We has a mini Palin round up, More Palin, Palin on earmarks (she was for them before she was against them), and how did this post generate all these comments? Her speech at the convention got her base all excited even as conservative Pundits call the Palin nomination cynical and gimmicky. [...]