Media Malpractice

The MSM's coverage of the Republican National Convention last night was completely ridiculous. 

Morning Coffee Reading for October 10, 2011

Today, we have a special "Häagen-Dazs" edition of morning coffee reading for you, serving up a nice generous scoop of stories and videos featuring THE Herman Cain that you may have missed last week:

Palm Beach Post | George Bennett | Cain no mere flavor of month; says 'I am Hagen Dazs black walnut with substance'

THE VILLAGES - The Republican presidential race has already seen the rise and fall in the polls of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. But the latest polling phenom, Herman Cain, insisted Wednesday that he has staying power.

"Unlike some of the other flavors of the week, I am Hagen-Dazs black walnut with substance," Cain said as he kicked off a national book tour here.

"That's the difference -- substance in terms of my economic growth and jobs plan, substance in terms of how I want to fix Social Security. Many of the other candidates are just talking generically about 'We need to fix it.' I am talking specifically about how we fix it, and that's what's resonating."

Last Night's Debate at the Reagan Library

Here we go again. The Republican presidential candidates squared off last night at the Reagan Library, so once again, I did an analysis of the trending topics on Twitter immediately after the debate ended. (Don't miss my previous posts on the New Hampshire debate and Ames debate.)

The only debate-related topic that was trending nationwide was "Did Ron Paul." Yes, you read that correctly. Unfortunately for Paul, the vast majority of the tweets for that topic were along the lines of "Did Ron Paul really just say that crazy thing?" Many of these tweets centered on Paul's comments that a border fence could also be used to keep Americans in, and that we should save money by taking away the air conditioning units from our troops in Afghanistan. Huh?

Ed Schultz Calls Rubio "Stupid" - Seriously?!

Just in case there was any doubt that liberal and conservative brains are different, here comes MSNBC's Ed Schultz to remind you.

As you may have heard, my Senator, Marco Rubio, gave an incredibly moving speech at the Reagan Library about a week and a half ago. (If you haven't seen it yet, click here.) Normal people and journalists watched that speech and felt that it was an excellent followup to his maiden speech on the Senate Floor, and the speculation about Rubio being the GOP's Vice Presidential nominee became nearly deafening.

Well, Ed Schultz watched the same speech that you and I did, but had a much different reaction. Here's a two-part YouTube video where Schultz calls Rubio "stupid," "offensive," and "psycho talk", among other pleasantries:

[Video and discussion after the jump]

Thanks, Charlie!

What an interesting week this has been!

I happened to catch the world premiere of Charlie Crist's first ad for Morgan & Morgan, and my YouTube video of the ad has, as of this morning, now been viewed over 40,000 times.

The video got a few laughs when I originally posted it here and sent out a few comments on Twitter, but the tipping point was when Ben Smith posted it at Politico at 8:53 a.m.

From Politico, it spread across the internet like the proverbial wildfire. (I have to say, the best headline goes to New York Magazine: "Look What Marco Rubio Did To Charlie Crist.") I had figured the ad would be funny to a few political people here in Florida, but I never expected that the entire blogosphere would be interested.

What originally struck me about the ad was that Crist seemed a little off his game. The energy and charm of the happy-go-lucky former "People's Governor" was missing, and all that was left was a sad Oompa Loompa in a suit. To compare, see the video of Crist's "Best of Both" ad from his failed Senate campaign.

The ad also lacks the usual high-quality production values of other Morgan & Morgan ads (I especially like the one where Ultima Morgan, John Morgan's wife, talks about the name of the firm). There is something very sad about Crist's performance here. It seems very clear that he just does not want to be there.

If you missed it, here's my original post, along with updates of some of the many, many places the video was linked this week:

Sunshine State Sarah | It was only a matter of time

Finally, last night, Sunshine State Sarah made its prime time debut. MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews featured my video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

First up...whiplash specialist! Just one year ago Charlie Crist was  of course Governor of Florida and a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Now Crist has turned from public service to public pitchman...I thought trial lawyers were all Democrats!

Well, Chris, there's a lot of us who think Charlie is a Democrat, so you may not be that far off. Thanks for playing the video. It was great to see my website up on the screen for all 37 of your viewers to see. ;)

Anyway, I've enjoyed my 12 seconds of internet fame. Thanks to everyone who helped pass this video on, and hello to my new readers. It's nice to have you.

UPDATE: Robert Stacy McCain, who blogs at The Other McCain and I had the pleasure of meeting at CPAC, posted this today:

The Other McCain | VIDEO: Charlie Crist Helps Sarah Rumpf (Finally) Get Her 15 Minutes of Fame

McCain also posted on Twitter his campaign to get me invited on RedEye...thank you!

"How could someone with the Twitter handle '@Rumpfshaker' not be famous?" http://bit.ly/jgQMda [] @GregGutfeld @AndyLevy #LegChairSat May 07 16:18:52 via webRobert Stacy McCain
rsmccain

@rumpfshaker for #RedEye #LegChair CAMPAIGN HQ http://bit.ly/jgQMda [] Tell @GregGutfeld @AndyLevy you want some RUMPF! #tcotSat May 07 17:49:56 via webRobert Stacy McCain
rsmccain

Condi Rice puts the smack down on Lawrence O'Donnell

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell made an attempt to interview former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by tossing wildly inaccurate and illogical liberal talking points at her. Rice repeatedly smacks him down so many times, I'm surprised he wasn't bleeding from the ears by the end of the interview.

The carnage starts almost immediately, when Rice openly mocks O'Donnell for not understanding that September 11th was, well, kind of a big deal:

O'Donnell: [Bush is] clearly saying that September 11th is the reason he looked at Iraq differently and saw a threat there.

Rice: Yeah. Are you surprised by that?

O'Donnell: Yes.

Rice: After September 11th...

O'Donnell: Yes, because Iraq had nothing to do with September 11th.

Rice [grinning and shaking her head]: After September 11th, of course you look at threats differently...

O'Donnell keeps interrupting her to repeat the tired bit about "Iraq had nothing to do with September 11th!" and Rice stops him...

Lawrence, we can end this interview right now if you don’t want me to finish my point.

 ...and calmly gets back to the point that it's not that Iraq caused September 11th, but that Iraq was presenting its own threat, and golly gee, what we learned on September 11th is that we should take threats seriously.

The beat down continues from there. Enjoy:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hat tip to Moe Lane, who humorously labeled his RedState post "MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell *had* 32 teeth." Newsbusters and The Daily Caller have some great commentary on this interview as well.

That was too easy. Next victim...uh...I mean interviewer!

[Cross-posted at The Minority Report]