When It Rains, It Pours
John McCain's campaign calendar for today showed a trip to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to trumpet McCain's plan for more offshore drilling. Coincidentally, Hurricane Dolly was roaring ashore in Texas. Hurricanes have been known to damage oil rigs. Not a good companion story when you're promoting offshore drilling. Also in the news, an oil tanker in Louisiana collided with a fuel barge, spilling oil into the Mississippi River and shutting down the waterway near New Orleans. The McCain campaign cancelled the photo op. Good call.
Obama: Style and Substance
William McKenzie, in The Dallas Morning News, perpetuates a canard when he asks, "Barack can give a good speech, but what about his policies?"
In fact, it's Obama's policies, not his speeches, that are his strongest asset. Recently, we've seen President Bush and Senator John McCain both move towards positions that Barack Obama has been advocating for months or years.
On Iraq, Obama has pushed for a timeline for withdrawal of US forces. Last week, President Bush agreed with Iraqi President al-Maliki on a "time horizon." On Afghanistan, Obama has pushed for more attention from the US on this central front on the war on terror. Obama said he'd send two more brigades. McCain countered by saying he'd send three. On Iran, Obama has pushed for tough diplomacy, whereas President Bush said you don't negotiate with terrorists. This week, President Bush dispatched the State Department's No. 3 diplomat to a negotiating session between Europe and Iran.
Those in the Republican-leaning press like William McKenzie continue to pretend that Obama is a smooth talker with no substance. Either McKenzie is deliberately lying or he hasn't been listening to the words in those good speeches Obama delivers. Take your pick.
When Mud Is Flung, Everybody Ends Up Dirty
Steve Blow, in The Dallas Morning News Metro blog, and Jim Schutze, in Unfair Park, are going at each other over a column Blow wrote about Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt's field trips to Mexico and Tennessee to investigate plans by the Dallas Zoo to send Jenny the elephant to a new home.
Angela Hunt complained that Steve Blow did not bother to contact her for comment before filing his column. In it, he accused Hunt of "meddling" in Zoo affairs and "falling under the sway" of PETA. The first charge is odd, given that the zoo is owned by the city. The latter charge is journalistic malpractive, given that Blow presented no evidence of any association between PETA and Hunt. Overall, not a good showing by Blow.
Jim Schutze accused Blow of shoddy journalism by not contacting Hunt and including Hunt's position in his column. But Blow deftly deflected that charge by pointing out that Schutze himself failed to contact Blow before blasting him in Unfair Park. Touche. Worse, Schutze accused Blow of following the dictates of The Dallas Morning News management in writing a critical column about Angela Hunt because "the News hates Hunt because she opposed them on Trinity River project." It's safe to surmise that the News and Hunt are not allies, but Schutze shouldn't assume that every critical story out of The Dallas Morning News is coordinated for evil purpose. Overall, not a good showing by Schutze.
Call this exchange, not a draw, but a loss by all sides. Blow, Schutze, and the reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment