Election night in 1980 I was hosting the election coverage for my radio stations. We had ABC news. The polls closed in the east at 6:30 EST. We carried the 5 minute newscast a 6:30. Abc said in that news cast it was too close to call.
I got the latest AP wire copy and started our coverage at 6:30 by going to each of our three local reporters.. two covering local races and one carrying state races. We were using ABC to cover the national race. After the last of the three had done 30 seconds each It was 6:38Pm. I started to read an AP story date and time stamped at 6:33Pm. It said the race was too close to call. I was in the middle of saying it might be a very long night when my producer told me in my earphones to join ABC at 6:40Pm. Jimmy Carter who was in Plains Georgia and was going to concede.
Jimmy Carter announced to the networks just as the polls closed at 6:30 that he was going to concede. They asked him to wait 10 minutes so all the network stations could be notified to join the network to cover his concession.
By the way Reagan won 489 electoral votes to Carters 49. But according to the media at 6:33PM.. the race was two close to call. That was 2 minutes after Carter told them he was going to concede.
A few months later I ran into Pat Buchanan and he said that he was at CBS at noon when the exit polls came in. The networks and AP all knew by noon EST that it was a Reagan landslide. Yet six and a half hours later they were still saying the Carter Reagan race was too close to call.
They were lying.
Nothing has changed. The media is lying... The president knows they are lying. Karl Rove knows they are lying. The Washington press corp knows they are lying. Most Senators and Congressmen know they are lying.
They hope to change public opinion by lying. They are failing. Each time they fail, they lose clout with politicians.
So the media like the Washington Post and CNN try ever more biased and outrageous attempts to destroy the president. They think the public is stupid. Some of them are.. But the middle class that make up the swing voters in the USA are not stupid.
The meida thinks people do not remember that they said that disasters are local business. That it was the Mayor in NEW YORK and not the president who was responsible for the good handling of 911. People saw the New Orleans mayor all over TV. He made an ass out of himself with his whinging.
They will draw their own conclusions. People who think the media thinks for the unknowing and ignorant, don't understand that the unkonwing and ignorant do not watch news on TV, listen to news on the radio or read papers.
Those activices are limited to those that can think.
The media thinks their audience is dumb. The audience is not. They see through the media.. That's why the media polls far worse nunbers than President Bush.
Golden Statement and it must be repeated every time we see a "knee jerk reaction" from a conservative.
"It will be the greatest election night in History". Terry McAuliff, DNC Chairman, 8:00 PM, November 2nd, 2004.
Enough said.
great post. 2nd the person who said this needs a separate thread.
Thanks for the historical perspective - Reagan v Carter and the election result reporting.
I keep my sanity when listening to "the media" by reminding myself that polls of the "people" are not polls of "voters." The lying media know this, as well.
Dear Common Tator,
I haven't argued that the lamestream media are founts of unbiased knowledge and eternal wisdom.
However, neither did Mr. Bush win in a landslide in either 2000 or 2004. He didn't begin his second term with the political capital of, say, Ronald Reagan in 1985. He managed a real, competent, if not quite entirely comfortable victory in 2004, but nothing like the mind-blowing achievement of Mr. Reagan in 1984.
But Supreme Court nominations aren't exactly election battles. If they were, Justice Bork would have been the deciding vote against the city of New London, CT in the last term. The fact is that even very popular presidents can lose on their Supreme Court nominations. My guess is that it's because the opposition can try (and perhaps succeed) to separate the popular president from the nominee.
However, President Bush doesn't have quite the political capital that President Reagan had, and unfortunately, whatever the actual facts of the situation, President Bush is currently leaking some of the political capital that he has as a result of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. And $3.50 per gallon gasoline. And sporadic gasoline shortages here and there.
As well, the task before him would be a difficult one even if he currently were currently flying high in public opinion. Unfortunately, the media HAVE done a good job of painting truly conservative judicial nominees in very poor lights, and the Party of Satan HAS NOT really suffered much (if at all) for harming these nominations.
The liberals and the media are going to adopt a campaign of, "One for you, one for us." At least, that's my theory. "You barbarian conservatives get John Roberts, but we civilized progressives get a 'moderate.'"
And if President Bush nominates a true conservative, the line of attack will be that it's all quite unfair.
Now, mind you, it won't quite matter whether their position gains majority support. It will only matter whether their position gains the overwhelming support of traditional Party of Satan constituencies. If it does, then the 45 recalcitrants can continue to be recalcitrant.
As well, a few of the squishy RINOs may take off for the hills, too.
It will be quite a battle.
With all that is on his plate, Mr. Bush may not want to take on this battle. And perhaps he will go squishy on us and nominate another servant of Satan Souter.
Mr. Bush sometimes stands strong, and sometimes goes limp. Sometimes he holds to principle, sometimes he doesn't.
He's a politician. He's better for what I believe and think is good for our country than, say, John Kerry, or Al Gore, or Hillary Clinton, but he's just a politician.
So, I will pray that he does what is right, not what is expedient. I will pray that he fights with all his strength for an excellent, conservative nominee. A nominee who understands that the right to life for ALL human beings undergirds our constitutional system. I will pray that this nominee will prevail and be confirmed, and will lead the court from imposing tyrannically the culture of death on my country to re-affirming the fundamental human rights that serve as the foundation of our national identity.
And, I don't believe that it will be a walk in the park.
sitetest