BuzzFlash Mailbag for July 16, 2008

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Subject: Re Julie In Pennsylvania

It was pretty obvious I was not saying I agreed with Obama's FISA vote.

My point is that Democrats need to grow up and realize that this is politics, not bean bag. There are only two people that have a shot at being President -- Obama and McCain. Those are the real choices for people who want their vote to actually count for president.

Also, not everyone agrees with your assessment of Obama's actions. That is your personal characterization of his actions, not all Democrats' views. I personally disagree with your assessment and think his position papers were consistent with many of his recent actions.

I read Obama's position papers during the primary. That is exactly why Edwards was my first choice. It was very evident to me that Obama was a pragmatic politician who made compromises, etc. How exactly did you expect Obama to be both a liberal lion AND reach across the aisle? It is not possible to reach across the aisle without compromise.

If you or others choose to vote for McCain or sit home because you're mad about Obama's recent actions, I can't stop you. But if you or others do that (or other things that hurt our nominee), don't whine when we end up with another Republican administration that is every bit as bad as the Bush administration. Democrats did that in 2000 and we got George Bush. They did it again in 2004 and we got more Bush. If they do it again, we get McCain. It's not rocket science.

I want Democrats to do what the Republicans do that lets them win the presidency -- accept the fact that Obama is our nominee and you can have a Democrat as president (and save the courts, save the environment, get out of Iraq, etc.) or you can have Republican John McCain (100 years of war, judges that will overturn Roe v Wade, and similar BS).

Continuing to attack our nominee only helps us get another Republican administration. I am personally tired of that result.

Frustrated Dem

Subject: Popular Support For Free Market Fading = Opportunity

"For what?"

"A mass uprising."

"Based on?"

"A collapsing economy."

"And then what sort of world?"

"It'll be up to us."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: NY Times And Their Polling Sham

Hi BuzzFlash,

Leave it to The New York Times to write an article about Barack Obama not being able to "close the sale" with the voters by having a sham of a poll.

These numbers should have been in bold print right at the start of the article.

Poll Finds Obama's Run Isn't Closing Divide on Race http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/us/politics...

Just wondering. What would have been the poll results and the headline/context of the article, if they asked only 297 WHITES - 1,338 BLACKS and 246 HISPANICS regarding Obama vs McCain, instead of the other way around?

Poll Statistics Used In Article
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf...

Would it make McCain look like the person who isn't able to "close the sale" with the voters and not Barack?

As a poll taker, I would think you would want numbers to be more equal among Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. It would be a more evenhanded poll but then again, this is the "Liberal Media" trying to keep the race close.

Tom Wieliczka
Windsor Locks, CT

Subject:Re New Yorker Editor Says Illustration Like A Stephen Colbert Routine -- Verse-Case Scenario By Tony Peyser

If a nudge with an elbow a nod or a wink
is needed to tell you how you're to think,

Then political satire is not what your needing
and Mad Magazine is more suitable reading.

Don't buy a New Yorker you'll only be puzzled
And call for freedom of speech to be muzzled.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Freedom Of Speech

So I take it that BuzzFlash doesn't like The New Yorker cover "The Politics of Fear."

So much so they have sent out emails urging us how to respond.

Wow.

It's called freedom of speech, guys. The great thing about freedom of speech is you can disagree with it. Or say something stupid on a national platform.

I must be one of the few left wingers who read BuzzFlash that saw nothing wrong with The New Yorker cover. It was funny. I was however deeply offended by BuzzFlash telling me that I should be offended.

Go figure.

So much time is spent worrying over the little things, the big things -- remember the war, the loss of rights? -- get overlooked. If you want to battle The New Yorker, then it's possible you have already lost the war.

Grant Schreiber signing off.

Grant Schreiber
Chicago/IL

[BuzzFlash Note: The Feminist Majority called for people to protest, not us. Views reported or expressed on BuzzFlash about the cover varied.]

Subject: It depends on what you define as success

Everybody is claiming that the surge has worked in Iraq and they are calling the surge a success. I suppose it all depends on what your definition of "success" is. If you start with a disaster and you throw more men and money at it and it becomes slightly less of a disaster, is that what you call success? That's how Bush, McCain, and the news media define success. But it's not how the American people define success.

Iraq is a failure. We are losing the war. We are just losing more slowly than we were a year ago. But to use the work "success" to describe the surge just isn't true.

I'm Marc Perkel - And I approved this message!

Marc Perkel
San Bruno, CA.

As a longtime reader and admirer of BuzzFlash, I suppose I owe it to you editors to offer you a warning. BuzzFlash has long derided humourless hysterical types who whip the media into moral frenzies over nothing. Instead of trashing The New Yorker, perhaps you could read up just a little on the history and theory of satire. Your editorial is absurdly ignorant, and, to be frank, is shamefully fear driven. You are so scared to protect Obama from racism that you are indulging in it, by deliberately confusing satire with its opposite. You have also attacked one of the few publications in America capable of real journalism. (Your apologies here are silly, self-important crap. Read yourselves for a minute.) As Chicagoans (a fact you have long admitted provides a key source of your affection for Obama), you show great hypocrisy in attacking The New Yorker for *its* alleged metropolitan arrogance.

So here's a reality check for you - courtesy of a non-American reader. The cartoon is a good one. I don't give a flying fish if most Americans are too stupid and racist to comprehend it (your assumption, not mine). YOU surely aren't so stupid. Don't lower yourselves.

The irony here is overwhelming: "The Politics of Fear" is the edition's title. Indeed!

BuzzFlash: This is your Terri Schiavo moment, and you should be ashamed. I am embarrassed for you.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: Barack Obama gave his response to the cartoon to Larry King.]

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG

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