Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Edwards Doesn't Want My Vote - Not a Problem

Presidential hopeful John Edwards told Bill Maher recently, "Well, that is the best endorsement a Democrat can get, to have Bill O'Reilly against you."

The Democratic candidates avoid Fox like the plague, and criticize the network and its commentators every chance they get.

The whole thing seems really stupid on their part. With the size of Fox's audience, wouldn't it make sense to go after those votes?

I mean, all they seem to be doing is spouting the same rhetoric, to the same people -- the people that already support them.

It's as if they don't even want to tell me why I should vote for them -- they figure that because I'm watching Fox News that they shouldn't bother trying.

It's ridiculous. At the same time they piss and moan about how others are "divisive," and how the country needs "unity," they have no problem discounting a huge number of voters based purely on what channel their TV is on.

It's easy to pander to the people who already support you -- the challenge, and the test of a true "candidate," is to make an effort to convince other people to vote for you, too.

I was reading some of the posts on John Edwards' campaign Web site, and I really wanted to puke -- post after post after post of people talking about all the "hate" that gets spewed on FNC, and how, if he had "any guts," O'Reilly would do his show from Iraq.

Here's the laugh -- if they had every actually watched the show they would know he already has -- more than once. And they were good shows, where he interviewed soldiers at the heart of the war.

But they wouldn't know, because their opinions are based not on personal knowledge, but on the regurgitation of other uninformed people's spouting.

How do the lefties do it? They criticize FNC, but haven't ever seen it; they condemn Ann Coulter, without ever having read one of her books ...

You know, it's OK to disagree with something, but for Pete's sake, at least go and watch it and form your own opinion, instead of just repeating whatever Tim Robbins or Sean Penn or Susan Sarandon or Rosie said about it on TV.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I say that I am a democrat and I do watch Fox on regular basis just to see what sort of nonsense they are spewing. I also watch Hannity & Colmes, and I have seen Ann Coulter more times that I want to remember. I don't know how you came to the conclusion that democrats dislike FOX because of Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, etc., because that is ludicrous. I guess you also agree with O'Reilly in saying that African-Americans are finally thinking for themselves, instead of listening to the likes of Jackson and Sharpton. For your information, African-Americans can think for themselves and have been doing so for a long time. The reason it seems the majority of African-Americans vote for the democrats is because the republicans such as Romney, McCain,
Guiliani and Thompson cannot be so bothered to even go to a debate that's audience was mainly black.

Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, etc. make no bones about the fact that they feels blacks are inferior. I make no bones about the fact that I believe FOX is inferior.

Al said...

I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? I read my original post over again and couldn't find any reference to race.

But, at any rate, I'm a pretty avid FOX viewer and don't recall ever hearing any commentators say that blacks are inferior.

If O'Reilly did make a reference to blacks thinking for themselves rather than blindly following "black leaders" like Sharpton and Jackson, I still don't see how you would preceive that as meaning blacks are inferior in some way.

Please, show me an example of Hannity, O'Reilly, or Coulter expressing "the fact that they feels blacks are inferior" -- because I don't think you can.

And, Robbins, Sarandon, Penn, etc., have all criticized Fox news, to great reception from the left.

Unknown said...

If you don't think what was said by Bill O'Reilly about blacks was racist, I can see why you watch Fox. Fox is a racist network, so I cannot speak about that network without mentioning race. Remember, O'Reilly was shocked to see that blacks knew how to behave in a restaurant.

Unknown said...

O'Reilly intimated that Blacks could not think for themselves and had to follow people like Jackson and Sharpton. Any race that cannot think for itself would have to be inferior.

Unknown said...

Have you ever seen how Bill O'Reilly treats guests who do not agree with him? He cuts off their microphones. How fair and balanced is that? Hannity talks over people who do not agree with him. They love Coulter because she acts like an idiot. I have listened to the hatred she spews. Does she like anyone? Jews should be perfected? All muslims should become Christians. This is the United States of America. It was founded on religious freedom the people were denied and now the "Christians" like Coulter want to take us back to King George's era.When I was a kid, people didn't go around saying they were Christian. We were Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Episcopalians, etc. Now you have to say you are "Christian". It should not matter, as long as you treat everyone the way you want to be treated.

David Terrenoire said...

I admit I don't normally watch Fox. When I do I just end up hollering at the TV when they do things like run Harry Reid's quote "...this war is lost" without the contextual beginning of that sentence, "If we continue to follow the president's policies..."

They do this all the time, setting up a straw man that they can then knock over with ease.

I think the Democratic candidates should go on Fox. But I can see why they wouldn't. They spend 20 minutes answering slanted questions and then for the next two news cycles (or more), their words are taken apart and attacked for things they never said, like Reid.

I try to make up my own mind about things like Fox, but once you've proven yourself to be a dishonest flack, it'll be a very long time before you get me to watch again without a great deal of skepticism, even cynicism.

Al said...

In response to David Terrenoire ...

People should watch EVERYTHING with a "great deal of skepticism" ...

The "slanted question" idea -- which I don't necessarily agree with -- is still no reason for Dem candidates to not debate on the network -- These people want to preside over America, but they're worried about a TV debate? How can they deal with fanatical Islam if they can't handle Brit Hume?

David Terrenoire said...

How can they deal with fanatical Islam if they can't handle Brit Hume?

I couldn't agree more, al.

And yes, you should read everything skeptically, but when I hear someone say "the Democrat party" I assume they're right wing tools and will not enter a debate honestly.