Jack Cafferty cuts loose — with a vengeance

7 comments August 19th, 2008

CNN’s resident curmudgeon Jack Cafferty fired both barrels today, one aimed at John McCain and the other at George W. Bush.

I’ll try to find a video clip. Meanwhile, HERE’s the story.

UPDATE: I guess there is no video.  Cafferty’s tirade was a commentary posted on the CNN Web site.  READ IT ALL.

There is no such thing as “the Catholic vote”

Add comment August 18th, 2008

More than a few political pundits have an unfortunate tendency to lump certain demographic groups into monoliths for purposes of crafting neat and tidy explanations of election results or forecasts.

They’ll say “women voted for…”  or “evangelicals favored…” or “rural voters were not convinced that…”

Most of this stuff is nonsense, since many demographic groups are sharply divided on political choices among their ranks. If 55 percent of women voters mark their ballots for Candidate A, it’s inaccurate to say women rejected Candidate B.

And so it is with Catholic voters, an important demographic group comprising roughly 20 percent of the American electorate. It’s silly to think of Catholic voters as a political monolith. They’re not even of one mind on some of the teachings of their church — on birth control, for example, or on the ban against women in the priesthood, or priestly celibacy.

Still, I frequently run across punditry that seeks to place Catholic voters in an air-tight basket. To wit, CNN correspondent Ed Henry recently declared that Catholic voters “can tip the balance in a close contest.” That’s rubbish. In a close contest, who’s to say which voters tipped the balance? If Catholic voters are often sharply divided politically, who’s to say they made the difference in a given election? It could have been gays or NASCAR fans or dope-smokers.

The tendency to regard Catholic voters as a monolith is most common with respect to the issue of abortion.  After all, some of the most militant activists in the so-called pro-life movement are Catholics. But that’s misleading.

In a PEW SURVEY conducted last year, 51 percent of American Catholics favored keeping abortion legal in all or most cases.  (A Pew Survey conducted three years earlier SHOWED an even larger majority among young Catholics.) This despite the fact that the Vatican vehemently opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

Clearly, abortion is not necessarily the deciding issue in how the majority of Catholics mark their ballots. Nor can either party claim ownership of the Catholic majority. Eight years ago, Catholics went for Democrat Al Gore over Republican George W. Bush by about 3 percentage points. In 2004, they went for Bush by about 7 percentage points over John Kerry (who, by the way, is himself a Catholic).

So, pay no mind to analysts who tell you that the Catholic vote will make the difference in the November election – especially with regard to the abortion issue.

The Catholic vote doesn’t exist.

In one important category, McCain’s rating keeps going up and up

7 comments August 17th, 2008

What would Fox News do with a video of Barack Obama treating an American flag like this?

26 comments August 10th, 2008

Ah, yes! The wonders of fiscal conservatism!

5 comments August 8th, 2008

Cartoon by Steve Greenberg of the Venutura County (Calif.) Star.

Obama doesn’t seem sufficiently presidential — especially compared to you-know-who

Add comment August 5th, 2008

A satirical look at the Bush legacy

1 comment August 3rd, 2008

Earlier today (three posts down from this one), we shared with you a few serious assessments of George W. Bush’s presidency from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum.

Here’s a look at the Bush legacy from an entirely satirical perspective:

A mini-debate on the Bush legacy

2 comments August 3rd, 2008

In one convenient little package, we have HERE two sides of the argument over George W. Bush’s place in history.

Flash! McCain to pick Britney Spears for veep

7 comments July 31st, 2008

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who’s recently shown a great interest in the pop chanteuse, likely will choose her as his running mate.

And why not? After all, they’re both big fans of President Bush:

The sleazemeisters have taken over

12 comments July 31st, 2008

Steve Schmidt (above), a protege of the infamous Karl Rove, is NOW IN CHARGE  of the garbage-slinging detail at John McCain’s campaign. Consequently, we’ve begun to see such irrelevancies as comparisons of Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

I doubt, however, that Schmidt & Co. are going to have as much success this time around as they previously did selling George W. Bush and his ill-advised war to an unsuspecting nation.

Americans aren’t that stupid. They’re not likely to buy more stuff from an outfit that already has peddled them shoddy goods under false pretenses.

UPDATE: According to THIS PIECE: “For McCain, the new and sharply negative tone toward Obama could damage the Republican’s image as a maverick who rejects the attack-dog politics of traditional Washington.”

UPDATE II: McCain’s handlers have trouble keeping him “on message,” as he sometimes WANDERS OFF into contradictory ramblings.