See It Now

That's the e-mail alert that I got from Fox News a few minutes ago, above, alerting me to Jeremiah Wright's appearance at the National Press Club. Last night I speculated that the cable nets would cover Wright live. And, indeed, they are--I love the cable game! And I see that CNN and MSNBC are running Wright, too.

Wright is offering a ringing defense of black liberation theology. Just heard him refer to "sick systems"--I think that he means America; God wants "a radical change in the social order." And said that he's been seeking big change for 36 years, which, of course, covers the entire time that Barack Obama has been a member of his church. And on, and on, about crack, Iraq, etc.

You're for "liberation and transformation," right? Sure you are. Unless, of course, you pathetic prole, you're bitterly clinging to your God and your gun!

The Obama campaign must be going nuts, while Hillary Clinton must be cheering. And oh yes, John McCain.

And we're all watching it at the speed of live.

UPDATE: In the Q+A, Wright is defending Farrakhan, and even dumping on Obama. He is destroying Obama's campaign, right here, right now. And he is loving it--I guarantee he will do this again, and again, and again.

In the wrap-up, FNC's Megyn Kelly just called him "incendiary," and while that's accurate, that's almost an understatement. And Bill Hemmer made a good point: Wright doesn't care about Obama.

Mau Mau-ing the MSM: Bringing ABC News To Heel --Watch Out, John McCain!

The New York Times's Jacques Steinberg reports today that George Stephanopoulos "sounded somewhat taken aback" by the storm of criticism that has descended on Stephanopoulos and his fellow ABC-er, Charles Gibson. What did GS and CG do wrong? What caused them to get a headline, in Steinberg's Timesstory, that read, "Who Lost the Debate? Moderators, Many Say." Well, of course, they asked Barack Obama too many hard questions at Wednesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia. You know, questions to Obama about his background, his various comments, and his associations.

One might think that questions about all aspects of a would-be president's life are perfectly legit. After all, plenty of presidential hopefuls have seen their hopes dashed when various sordid--or merely unfortunate--facts came to light. Everybody agreed, for example, that former Georgia Senator Richard Russell (D-GA), was a good guy personally, and well qualified, intellectually and tempermentally, to be president, but by the 60s, his segregationist past in Southern Democratic politics disqualified him from national office--that is, his background, his various comments, and his associations. And think of others who were smart enough, but who got bounced from their ambitions--or even their incumbent position--because of personal foibles: George Romney, Tom Eagleton, and Gary Hart, to name just three.

But of course, all those guys were white, and none of them had the MSM in love with them, the way that everybody in the MSM loves Obama. And so, for example, The Washington Post's TV critic, Tom Shales--who I suspect has more of a crush on Obama than most, if you get my drift--described Stephanopoulos and Gibson's performance as "shoddy and despicable." Indeed, Jim Romenesko's media gossip site is brimming with anti-ABC opinion pieces similar to Shales' poisoned-penning.

Ouch! Nobody in the media wants pain like that, especially when the MSM mau-mau-ers clearly have the angry support of the lefty blogosphere. So you can bet your bottom Nielsen that Stephanopoulos and Gibson both have mental notes to self: "Avoid such pain in the future, be nice to Obama. And to further help recovery, make a point of being mean to George W. Bush or, better yet, John McCain."

OK, so that explains why the MSM will be brought further into pro-Obama orthodoxy. Liberal reporters and their liberal readers will reach a harmonic convergence of Obamatry.

But there is one catch: Just because liberals can all agree on the greatness of Obama--and the awfulness of reporters, or Democratic presidential rivals, who cause their hero any heartburn--that doesn't mean that the country as a whole shares their Obamaphilia. Indeed, it doesn't even seem that most Democrats are swept off their feet by Obama. The screen grab above, from the agenda-setting liberal blog TalkingPointsMemo.com this afternoon, shows two items: first, the news* that lefty journalists wrote a nasty letter to ABC; and second, that Obama's lead among Democrats nationally, according to Gallup, is shrinking. Which is to say, most Americans aren't drinking the Obama Koolaid.

But of course, the MSNBC crew, in particular, seems to be Jonestown-like in its thirst for Obama-aid. Keith Olbermann, Dan Abrams, Chris Matthews, David Gregory, can do what they like, of course. But they should remember that everybody at Jonestown ended up dead.

But in the meantime, expect ABC News to try to make it up to Obama and the liberals. If I were Bush or McCain, I wouldn't agree to any interviews with ABC, because they will be bruisers, alternating with beanballs.

*Strictly speaking "news" is supposed to be surprising. It's not news that liberals love Obama, but a liberal blog such as TPM is happy to pile on ABC, and then pile on some more.

"This Isn't Dignified, Congressman."

Cong. Duncan Hunter seems like a perfectly nice man--except, of course, when he's angry. And that might be a little too often.

A decorated Vietnam combat veteran, a Congressman for nearly three decades, Hunter is a strong proponent of our national defense, and a fierce proponent of homeland security. So that's all to the good.

Having said all that, though, Hunter is NOT going to be the next President of the United States, nor is he even going to be the Republican nominee. The expert data-crunchers and chart-keepers at RealClearPolitics.com,for example, no longer bother to tally his percentage in their running polling tallies.

So as his campaign fades away, who does Hunter choose to get mad at? The Republican primary voters who don't support him? No! He gets mad at the media! Sometimes that's OK: The media, including the cable newsers, deserve their lumps--why do you think I started this blog?

But there's a lot to be said for accuracy, too. And an accurate account of recent events on the campaign hustings holds that Hunter simply did not click with the voters. That's just the way it goes. Shooting the messenger might seem satisfying for Hunter, but it doesn't reflect the true state of play in presidential politics: Plenty of other candidates, including another hawkish Republican war hero, Sen. John McCain, have played well on the media.

So in the interest of keeping the record straight, The Cable Gamer will give the last wordto National Review Online's Jim Geraghty, who wrote a sharp piece entitled, "Duncan Hunter Plays the Chickenhawk Card on 'Corporate Media Executives.'"

Geraghty's article is worth posting in full:

XM POTUS08 just played audio of Duncan Hunter's press conference from earlier today, and it didn't sound pretty. He sounded angry and bitter over being left out of this weekend's debates, and appeared to argue that he should have been included because of his military service, and/or his son's.

He lashed out at "corporate media executives" who work "ten stories above Central Park in New York City" for excluding him from the debate. He asked how many of them had worn the uniform, how they served their country, or how many had children serving in the military today.

Yes, Congressman, play the "chickenhawk" card. Because that always works.

Duncan Hunter hasn't hit 3 percent in any recent New Hampshire poll. If he's ever hit three percent nationally, I haven't seen it. ABC News, as well as Fox, had every right to start establishing a minimum threshold to participate in a televised debate. (Otherwise, we might as well bring in Alan Keyes and John Cox.)

UPDATE: Leon Wolf has some wise words for Congressman Hunter.

This video of Hunter walking onto the set of a live broadcast MSNBC's "Morning Joe" earlier today is a little disturbing, as he repeats, "I got a delegate in Wyoming!"

Running for president can make a man do some strange things, but one of the things that was most appealing about Hunter was that he seemed like such a grownup about all of this. This isn't dignified, Congressman.