Five items today:
1. Dole's not
the only one who is "harsh." So is Ross Perot....when he
criticizes Bill Clinton.
2. To Sam Donaldson, Jesse
Helms is "arch-conservative," but Senators
Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy aren't worth labeling.
3. A CBS reporter charges
that the presidential race was over in January:
"Republicans had just stumbled badly by shutting down the
government."
4. On Capital Gang, Time's
Margaret Carlson dubbed Republican Congressmen
"evil" as Al Hunt's "gut" tells him that 25
"Gingrich robots" will lose.
5. MTV's Tabitha
Soren says that for young people choosing between Clinton and Dole is
like "choosing between which Menendez brother do they like
better."
1) If you say something less than glowing about
President Clinton, then you are "harsh." On Monday (November 4)
night's World News Tonight, ABC anchor Peter Jennings told viewers:
"Some of
the harshest language about the President, again today coming from Ross
Perot. Mr. Perot made only one public appearance today, in his home
state of Texas."
And here's
Perot's harsh comment: "Would you allow a man with pending criminal
charges to babysit your children? It's a joke. You wouldn't think about
it."
2) In a short World News Tonight segment Monday night Sam Donaldson
explained some of the changes in committee chairmanships that would happen
if Democrats take control of the upper chamber. But only one Senator got
an extremist tag:
"At the
Armed Services Committee, you'll find Carl Levin, far less user friendly
to the armed services, would be the chairman. In Foreign Relations,
Jesse Helms, the arch-conservative would no longer be there. And in
Labor and Foreign Relations, Ted Kennedy would chair once again. If the
President wants to try for health care reform once more, he'd have a
friendly committee there."
Yes, he said
"Labor and Foreign Relations" when he meant Labor and Human
Resources.
3) MRC analyst Steve Kaminski caught CBS reporter Bill Plante adopting
liberal spin as fact on Monday's This Morning. Looking back at the 1996
campaign, Plante asserted at one point:
"You think
the campaign began here, at the Democrats' made for TV convention? No
way. It really began with this year's State of the Union address. The
President already knew he'd have no opponent in New Hampshire and the
Republicans had just stumbled badly by shutting down the
government."
4) On Saturday's Capital Gang on CNN both Margaret Carlson of Time and Al
Hunt of the Wall Street Journal put their liberal hearts ahead of their
political brains.
Margaret Carlson
offered this prediction on the House races, as transcribed by MRC intern
Joe Alfonsi: "Some of the Democrats are going to suffer from the down
draft from Clinton and the money. Some of these freshman are going to go
and that's great relief. Helen Chenoweth, her evil twin, Andrea Seastrand
in California, J.D. Hayworth, Steve Stockman, the painter from
Texas."
National Review's
Kate O'Beirne jumped in: "More women in Congress Margaret, what's
wrong with you?" Carlson countered: "You have to reach a certain
level of competence."
O'Beirne then
predicted the GOP would hold the House. Al Hunt agreed, but: "All the
reporting that I've done, suggests that Kate is absolutely right and I
think over 90 percent of the incumbents are going to be re-elected because
it's a good year for incumbents. But my gut tells me that two dozen of
those Gingrich robots, the freshmen, are going to bite the dust and the
Democrats are going to pick up 25 seats. Mark I'm not sure I believe it,
but it's my prediction and I'm sticking with it."
We'll soon know
if Hunt's dream of a Democratic House will come true.
5) Why are Generation Xers (those in their 20s) turned off by Campaign
'96? Here's the explanation of Tabitha Soren from MTV as espoused on
Monday's This Morning:
"This year
you have two known quantities so young people feel like they are dealing
with people who are political insiders and that generally turns younger
people off. They really feel, our polls show, that they are
disinterested and even the people who are voting are not really happy
with their choices. They feel like they're sort of choosing between
which Menendez brother do they like better. So, a lot of them also say
they'd love to turn to a third party if they thought they could win. But
I think that's keeping a lot of people away from the process."
Between watching all the election night coverage and going to an election
night party, I probably won't have time to do a CyberAlert for Wednesday
morning, so expect the next CyberAlert Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
--
Brent Baker
4
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