HALF-FULL REPORT 09/21/12

In politics, the truth matters only to the extent to which it influences what people think is the truth.  Truth doesn’t matter much if people aren’t told it; have no means of learning it, or are unwilling to accept it.

President Barack Obama couldn’t run on his record, as incumbents customarily do, Team Obama decided early on. They had to make the campaign about Mitt Romney.  More than $240 million has been spent so far on ads attacking him.

If you believe the polls (for the last two weeks I’ve given you reasons why you should be skeptical), this strategy appears to be working – thanks to massive, unprecedented, mind-boggling media mendacity.

Journalists have been putting their fingers on the scales for a long time. This year, the major media have become a de facto part of Team Obama.

"Over the past several months, there hasn’t been one major political story line pushed by the mainstream press that hasn’t been perfectly in sync with the Obama campaign’s strategic messaging plan," said Investors Business Daily.

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In the past, journalists would slant and spin the news to help out the Dems.  But they’d report the news.  Now they suppress news harmful to Zero, and manufacture "news" harmful to Romney.  Compared to what’s happening to Mitt, Sarah Palin was treated gently and fairly.

Our toes are dangling over the edge of the fiscal cliff, say the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve.  It’s Obama’s fault there was no deal on deficit reduction, says liberal icon Bob Woodward.  But the television networks have devoted far more air time to Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

The president’s Mideast policy imploded last week.  He behaved erratically.  Despite massive evidence the attacks on our embassy in Cairo and our consulate in Benghazi were pre-planned, Zero’s spokespeople insisted they were a spontaneous response to an obscure video.  The State Department had been warned of the attack on the consulate, but did nothing, a British newspaper reported.  But for the bigfoot media, the week’s big story was Mitt Romney’s criticism of administration policy.

On Monday, the media’s narrative was that the Romney campaign is in disarray. "No less than three media outlets have scoops about the Mitt Romney campaign this morning that describe changes in strategy and direction," Ed Morrissey noted.  "The only problem is that all three contradict each other."

On Tuesday, the media meme was faux outrage over a video of Romney telling contributors that most Obama supporters are dependent upon the government. It’s a bombshell rocking the Romney campaign, said ABC’s Good Morning America. "Today, Mitt Romney lost the election," claims this reporter.

Whatever Mitt Romney says or does is criticized, and the criticism will be the focus of television newscasts.  The Obama campaign is being protected by a bodyguard of lies.

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The result has been an Obama lead (if you believe the Dems will have a turnout advantage this year greater than what they had in 2008), or a race within the margin of error. Conservatives have been taking out their frustration on Mitt Romney. When journalists declared his comments about welfare dependency a career ending gaffe, some conservatives joined in the criticism. But it isn’t Romney’s fault that liberal journalists have no integrity.

In the video unearthed by Mother Jones, Mitt stated the obvious. "A huge percentage of Obama’s voters are basically wards of the state," said Howie Carr.  "There are millions of them, and they have no intention of voting for anyone who might want them to ever go out and work for a living."

University of Wisconsin law Prof. Ann Althouse was an Obama voter in 2008.  After watching the video, she said: "I don’t see anything bad in there at all."  This despite the fact the tape had been doctored.

Romney responds to the Mother Jones’ "scoop" here. If Mitt doesn’t back down, he can turn this to his advantage.  Reagan did. According to Rasmussen, 64% of Adults think there are too many Americans dependent on the government for financial aid.  So far, so good.

"The only way Mitt can get any press is if he can convince them that he’s committed a gaffe," said law Prof Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit). "Since this is a story that actually helps him, but that the press is dumb enough to think looks like a gaffe, I suspect the campaign was behind it, somehow."

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Instead of blaming the victim, conservatives should focus on how we can help Mitt break through the bodyguard of liars.

*The debates are critically important, because they will be Mitt’s only chance to get his message to a large number of people without having it filtered through the media.  Zero will lie like a rug, and the journalist "moderators" will do all they can to help.  Romney will get chin high fastballs; Zero will get hanging curves.  Mitt better be prepared for this, ignore the questions from the moderators, be constantly on offense. 

*Since the news media won’t report the truth, Romney must do it in his ads.  Fortunately, he’s got the money to do it. Mitt is "about to open up the money floodgates in a way that Obama can’t match." Here and here and here are some recent Romney ads.  I think they’re pretty good. I really like this one.  But this one is kind of lame.

Here in Pittsburgh, I’ve seen dozens of Obama ads, but not yet one for Romney.  Curiously, I’m reassured by this.  Given Pennsylvania’s demographics, and how much more Zero’s policies hurt here than in most other states, Romney ought to be able to win here.  But Pennsylvania is lagniappe.  Romney can win without it.  Romney must win in Ohio, Florida and Virginia.   Until he’s in better shape in those states, I’d rather him spend his ad money there.  Obama has to win Pennsylvania. This may explain why he’s spent so much on ads here already.

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None of President Obama’s big policies in the Middle East have worked out as he hoped, said . Walter Russell Mead.

Ya think?

"The notion that the United States can lead from behind is pitiful, the sorry concoction of an Obama administration that mistakes dulcet passivity for a foreign policy," said liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.

Cohen’s colleagues are frantically spinning, but it’s hard to spin away those photos of angry mobs, embassies under attack, Ambassador Stevens’ body being dragged through the streets.

 Media spin may not be having the effect the spinners imagine.  Salena Zito watched from a diner in Wisconsin the Romney news conference the bigfoot media said was so disastrous:

"People were just floored by the press," she said. "The group was pretty mixed between Obama supporters and Romney supporters, and even the Obama supporters were astonished by how they felt the press was driving the story. One guy said, ‘My God, six out of seven questions were the same question.’ Another guy said, ‘Why aren’t they asking him anything serious?’"

It seems so long ago now, but it’s only been a couple of weeks since Democrats were claiming

foreign policy would be an asset for them.

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The war in Afghanistan ended this week. We lost. U.S. troops in Afghanistan have been ordered to significantly scale back operations with Afghan military and police forces after a spike in fratricidal "insider attacks" that has seriously undermined U.S. trust in their local allies," said the Washington Post.

"The decision, officials said Tuesday, is also linked to concerns that American field troops have become more vulnerable to attacks because of Muslim outrage over a controversial anti-Islam video."

That second graf pissed off Bryan Preston."If our media and leaders fail to grapple with the truth behind attacks on us, what hope do we have of winning the war? None, I’d say."

But our troops are still in harm’s way.  The last U.S. "surge" troops have left Afghanistan.  How about the rest of them?

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Barack Obama has done so many despicable things it’s hard to be outraged by them all.  But I never thought I’d see the day when an American president would sic the cops on a film-maker on behalf of the murderous Islamist swine.  Bill Whittle speaks for me here. 

There was more security around Nakoula Basseley, a Coptic Christian émigré from Egypt, in Los Angeles than Ambassador Stevens had in Benghazi, Mark Steyn noted.

"Lefties are troubled by this photo for two reasons," Instapundit says. "One is that it’s bad for Obama, to whom they are, ahem, overly committed. But the other is that it’s just plain troubling. They don’t want to admit that the Messiah of 2008 is actually a somewhat thuggish Chicago Machine politician. But reality does seem to be creeping in."

The New York Times acknowledges Zero hassled Mr. Basseley to appease the Islamists.  Since it hasn’t worked, some Republicans fear he may release the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing as a gesture of "goodwill."

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The economy is stalling out, Fedex thinks.  James Pethokoukis has charts.

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The teacher strike in Chicago is over.  It isn’t clear who won.  The children and the taxpayers lost.

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The report of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice on Gunwalker/Fast and Furious  is finally out.  Release was delayed so Attorney General Eric Holder could review it.  A scapegoat’s head rolled, but to the surprise of no one, after Holder’s review, Holder’s employee exonerated Holder. Jim Geraghty is skeptical.  Coverup! Says  Bob Owens.

"The Inspector General’s report confirms findings by Congress’ investigation of a near total disregard for public safety in Operation Fast and Furious," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Cal, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Attorney General Holder has clearly known about these unacceptable failures yet has failed to take appropriate action for over a year and a half."

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Dinesh D’Souza’s Obama 2016 is already the 2nd highest grossing documentary of all time, despite very little advertising, and being ignored by most reviewers in the "mainstream" media.  It was doing well – even in New York City – before 9/11/2012.  It should do better now.  Spengler explains why it’s important. Here’s another flick you might want to catch, and check out this series in the Washington Examiner.  Some other straws in the wind:

Dissatisfied Black Clergy Urging Members To Stay At Home On Election Day.

A report prepared for NARAL Pro Choice America by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research indicates that 17 percent of women in battleground states who supported Obama in 2008 have defected.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia made it clear he can’t support President Barack Obama.

The rabbi who gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention said: "I will vote for whichever candidate seems likelier to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

President Obama got his first ever grilling from a journalist last night – in an interview with Univision.  They aren’t happy about Gunwalker.

Organizers from both parties report growing evidence that new voter-outreach programs funded by conservative groups could give GOP nominee Mitt Romney an edge if the race is close.

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But but but Obama is surging, Democrats are closing the intensity gap, Oceana has always been at war with Eastasia. 

Or maybe not. Unprecedented media mendacity will make this election closer than it should be.  But when you cut through the propaganda, the signs still point to a Romney win.  It will be harder to win, but victory will be all the sweeter, because in addition to defeating Zero and the Corruptocrats, we’ll be defeating the Lying Swine, aka the "mainstream" media.

Jack Wheeler should be back at his post next week.  Thanks for putting up with me while he was away.

Be safe.  Keep your spirits up.  As long as Zero is president, America’s glass will be much less than half full.  But America’s glass is never empty.