Rockism 101 discussion

I switched back and forth between the 3 major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) plus PBS then two local stations. A local FOX channel and WGN channel 9.

FOX and WGN wre screwing up so that I just couldn't stay tuned. The image on the screen often was often in conflict with what the announcers were saying which just caused confusion. For instance the announcers would be talking about Florida, but the graphic on screen would be the vote count in Georgia. It was nt only disorienting but annoying.

Before Ohio was even called for Obama the local NBC and the local CBS teams took over the air waves from the parent broadcaster. So instead of Brian Williams or George Snuffalufagus, there were some lame self-important local Chicago dingbats on the screen.

CBS stayed with their parent broadcast team that had Bob Sheffer, who was really excellent, but also had some stiff, dry white haired dude named Scott who was about as interesting as watching a piece of cardboard. They also has some lady name Nora who was working very hard at trying to be taken seriously. Very lame.

Okay, and now I have to vent about NBC's Tom Brokam. Will somebody please take this baffoon out to a pasture somewhere and walk him off somewhere so that we will never have to see him again...ever? He makes the most bombastic, hyperbolic non-sensical comments. Its as though he is off in some news anchor fantasy camp waxing the poetic as if the entire nation clings to his every oh-so-insightful and on-the-mark musing because his oh-so-certain analysis is putting every single nuance into the most poignant perspective that every future generation of Americans will someday study in 8th grade history class as if nothing else ever mattered. STFU already Brokow!!! You're an old and irrelevent windbag!!!

Then there is ABC's Cookie Roberts. Not quite as bad as Brokaw, but still pretty frickin annoying, cluelees, out of touch, irrelevent... Thank God CBS didnt put Sam "Eyebrows" Donaldson on the program.

NBC's Richard Todd (is that his name?) is a midget, but he does keep my interest. He had the best telestrator toys by far.

Brian Williams was the best anchor. Dianne Sawyer for ABC is just unwatchable - she seems totally out of it. For PBS Gwen Awful Eye full is just as bad, except that she is arrogant as all hell on top of it for some uknown reason. Time after time she said things that were totally false and the co-hosts had to correct her. It was really bad. Like watching an 8th grade subsitute teacher who isnt prepared.

PBS did have the best format however. Mark Shields and David Brooks sat alongside Awful Ifull and some Woodruff lady. Shields and Brooks are really good, if you've never seen them. Then PBS would throw it to an anchor and two experts on the Congressional races from time to time - and they were both really on the ball. Plus PBS had their two Presidental historians, Richard and Michael who did a fine job of really broadening the perspective of what was happening throughout the night. Then last of all PBS had their token cut-aways to that Arab looking guy, Hari Something, who fashionably stood beside a laptop and tried looking international and relevent - so I basically tuned him out.

Overall though PBS's coverage was the best. NBC's was a distant second. David Gregory and Brian Williams were excellent, but that was cancelled out by Brokaw and some female they had (who also does their morning show). ABC and CBS were mediocre, non-descript for the most part. And the two local channels were really horrible.

I was in class so I had to watch the count via CNN.com. I spent the whole night hitting the refresh button. lol. I watched some of CNN today and it is also unbearable! I despise 24 hour news channels. They have to come up with ways to sensationalize the news because they are on ALL THE TIME. Why did they break out a virtual Senate Floor model and start color coding the seats to what it looked like in 1980! 1980, the year I was born! Why would you do that CNN? I had to cut it off after that and seriously considered writing Saturday Night Live to provide them a comedy skit based off that lunacy!

I dont have cable tv, but I think it would have been really entertaining to have watched the whole thing on FOX news. If you watched PBS you were able to tell pretty early in the night that Romney had kissed the pooch. David Brooks who is the Republican on PBS pretty much conceeded that ROmney was going to lose by about 8:30pm central time.

Ed Wagemann wrote: "I think it would have been really entertaining to have watched the whole thing on FOX news."

I've been chasing down clips of it on YouTube. I think some of them actually managed a semblance of Grace, until I realised that they were congratulating the Obama campaign on their 'campaign', be prepared for more Obama=Hitler posts.

This gave me a giggle http://www.businessinsider.com/donald...

I am waiting to see if the Republican party turns on itself like a pack of wolves, in the end the only thing that seemed to unite them was hatred of Obama. The evangelists hate him as a progressive, the fiscal conservatives hate him for his social policies, the libertarians hate him for his support of government... well... governing.

I could practically see each group rolling their eyes at each other everytime one group made a statement that would alienate the other group's base.

Also the Republicans seemed to stake their policy on obstructionism so that they could sabotage Obama at every turn, regardless of consequence to the American people, just so they could make the case that he failed and he'd be a one term President.

Will the Republicans start to co-operate in order to re-establish their bipartisan credentials, or has the "Obama is the worst President ever" dialogue become an article of faith?

You are totally on-the-mark about the obstructionism of the Republicans and that the only thing that unites them seems to be their hatred of Obama.

All of which only goes to highlight how amazing Obama has been at staying above it all.

I haven't seen it, but I heard from the radio that Karl Rove nearly had a break down on Fox News, fighting with the Fox producer who wanted to call Ohio for Obama. From what I heard Rove nearly stormed off the set.

Rove knew that he had been outdone in Ohio - which must have really stung because in 2004 against Kerry, he was able to get a gay marriage iniative on the ballot in Ohio which brought conservative christians to the polls in droves and ultimately was responsible for giving Ohio (which meant the white house) to Bush.

But this year Obama's campaign just smeared Romney's campaign's ass. They had over 200 offices in Ohio that had basicaly remained in place since the 2008 election. Obama's campaign did a great job of recognizing what they needed to do to get out the vote there and they did it.

Ed Wagemann wrote: "I haven't seen it, but I heard from the radio that Karl Rove nearly had a break down on Fox News, fighting with the Fox producer who wanted to call Ohio for Obama. From what I heard Rove nearly stormed off the set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TwuR0...

Not sure it's the same video I saw earlier, I seem to remember Rove telling the anchors that the race was still open, when suddenly the monitors were changed to declare an Obama victory while they were talking to him.

From my distant point of view the Republican campaign was a shambles to start with. The only reason Romney got picked was that he was the least offensive to each branch of the party. The Tea Party types wanted Paul, the social conservatives wanted Santorum, left wing satirists and comedians wanted Cain and who knows who the hell wanted Gingrich or Bachmann.

To be honest the Obama campaign could be considered a narrowly avoided disaster considering the rich (heh pun) pickings the primaries gave them, and the subsequent complete ballsups, scandals and leaked honesty.

Did Romney ever release the rest of his tax returns? Why didn't the campaign sink their teeth in on that legitimate concern when the right can give so much airtime to birthers?

Will the IRS now have a quiet word with Romney about his tax returns and his claim to have not been working for Bain?

Good questions. Time will tell. I seriously hope that Romney will run again in 2016 though.

Obama's campaign spent a huge sum of money attacking Romney prior to the Republican convention. Once Romney got the nomination they spent the summer defining him. 80% of voters admit to having made up their mind on who they were voting for before the Repub Convention. Most likely the number was actually 90%.

I think this attack by the Obama campaign during the summer was good enough to protect Obama from his lackluster first debate and the Libya embassy non-scandal that the Right tried to whip up.

If you look at the projected electoral count prior to the Repub convention, it is basically the same as how it acutally ended up. All the swing states with the possible exception of N.Carolina were projected for Obama.

The Republican Party is going to try to court the Hispanic vote now - which should be very entertaining!

Its actually very possible that a larege number of Hispanics could be courted into the Republican Party. As more Hispancis become assimilated into our corporate culture some will certainly become beholden to some of the Republican values. Less taxes for small business owners is an issue the Repubs could take hold of and run with.