Over at RGL, Liam thinks it is a good idea NDP Jack wants to take the country to the polls in February.
Let's put this in context:
1. The PM has already committed to an election 30 days after Gomery's final report. That puts us into a March/April time for the writ to drop.
2. The Opposition parties screamed bloody murder for 24 hours in the wake of the Gomery report release this month only to pull their horns in within 48 hours or so after that, once their polling started showing that the government support was quickly rebounding back up to where it was. Check the publicly available polls for confirmation.
They also saw how many people don't want an election.
3. Jack Layton makes the absolutely bizarre pronouncement that he plans to bring down the government (maybe he found left-over Harper speaking notes in his jacket from the last trip to the cleaners)
4. In a most unseemly haste, both the chief of the Blocheads and Steve Harper denounced Layton and said they had no plans to bring down the government.
5. Layton cooks up some procedural thingy so that the Opposition can force an election around the time we are going to have one anyways and try to make it look like they have:
a. some teensy bit of control over anything;
b. some way to charge into the next election looking like they actually brought down the government.
6. What they are all showing is their complete inability to read a poll and create sensible policy simultaneously - keep the gum away from them if there is any footwork involved.
7. What they are also showing is their complete lack of a grip on the agenda. It's pretty bad when they have to make up a procedural scam to claim credit for the election that everyone knows is coming anyways.
On an unrelated subject, Liam then takes a potshot at the leftie media based on a 1982 survey done at Western Ontario's J school.
Ok.
The media basically mirrors society as a whole, just like most institutions or organizations. I can make them all look like Commies or all look like Nazis, depending on how I structure the survey.
Besides, self-identification isn't really much of a clue as to what someone actually is in terms of their political affiliation or whether they are biased against conservatives in their reporting. Those sorts of assessments are best done by some objective measures like content analysis or long-term tracking.
So, Liam, as much as you might like to think that there is some sort of leftie bias in the media and therefore that's why Connies have trouble getting a fair shake, it really isn't the issue. That's a glorious excuse copied from the American right, which has, of course, been dominant in politics south of the border since 1979. Now at the same time, if the alternative is a sudden flowering of the likes of Rush "OxyBoy" Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to fan the flames of Connie persecution complexes, then lemme say that I'll just take my news from the people reporting it now thanks. I can find enough different perspectives to make up my own mind - just like everyone else.
and that's really the point: reporters don't control what I think.
The real Connie political problem is comms cock-ups like the one with Dingwall. And before you see red yet again, Liam, read this carefully: HOW the Connie machine tackled Dingwall made him look like a saint and the Connies look like dorks. That was the mistake.
Making Dingwall look good is a task no Liberal comms genius could manage during the guy's entire political life. But Brian Pallister managed to do that in spades.
Media relations is like a Field of Dreams - if you build it they will come. If you bitch about them, criticize them and attack them, on the other hand, they will report that too.
And you look like an asshole.
But all the media had to do was take a picture of the orifice you presented to the camera.
Forrest Gump's mom had it right when she mused about stupid.
For the record, media analysis like the stuff Liam points to is one of the reasons why comms people shouldn't be former journalists. Funny, but many of them can't seem to make the switch to my side of the street successfully. Many do, but the failures seem to outweigh the successes on a number of fronts.
As for Stevie Cameron and Linda McQuaig, I'd give Liam two pieces of free advice:
1. Look at the Gomery report itself in detail - without the blue shades on. It isn't what you think it is. It never was
2. Stop wasting time reading people whose work is, well, boring. Stevie had a couple of good years at Brian's expense - 15 friggin years ago. Get over it. Move on. Cycle through the stages of grief over Brian's political demise, now that denial is untenable as a concept any more.
Get over the anger - it's a nasty emotion and maybe, just maybe, it could be one of the reasons why so few people are warming up to the Connies generally - too much anger.
As for Linda, no one buys her stuff outside of NDP yard sales. And there's a clue - NDP yard sales. Those aren't the votes Stevie Harper needs anyway, even if he could get them.
As for rest of the post over at RGL, I'll offer these few notes.
The link from small dead animals, - as the author of a non-partisan blog, you are aware that sda is a BIG BLUE, hardwired to 101 Connie Drive. Readin' that blog you feel like Randy Quaid riding the beam up into the alien invader ship in Independence Day. You are heading for the core and payback is a bitch.
Just wanted to make sure you knew that.
He's a [whisper]... conservative.
Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.
The new anti-media blog you linked to, Liam. Did you notice? It has no comments section.
[dramatic organ music]
Does that mean the blogger is afraid of something? Does that mean the blogger is lacking in integrity? Isn't he worthy of being slagged for this greivous sin against the 10 commandments of bloggerdom?
Hmmm?
Quel horreur.
You should actually read the media comments this guy drags out, by the way - they don't point to media bias.
They point to some of the issues as they have been framed...
by the ineptness of the Connie comms organization.
Look at it this way, Liam: John Turner's favourite game was to blame the media for his loss in 1984.
Do you want to keep repeating his mantra?