In keeping with my philosophy of what makes a lede story, and other obsessive, esoteric, anachronistic stuff that probably wouldn’t interest you (so don’t follow the blasted link, then!), here is what would be my front page if I had a newspaper:
- North Korea ‘severs all ties’ with Seoul (BBC) — Of course, the most ominous and meaningful development from our perspective is that the United States of America has sworn “unequivocal” military support for Seoul. Reminds me of a conversation we were having on another thread about WWI, which had all these international agreements automatically triggering a world war after the Archduke was shot…
- Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border (WashPost) — As mentioned previously today, for those of you with a far, far pettier and more parochial notion of national security.
- BP Faces Bleaker Prospects If ‘Top Kill’ Fails to Stanch Spill (WSJ) — Meanwhile, politicians at various levels compete to see who can be the most shrill in yelling at the company.
- Jamaica drug raid toll reaches 27 (BBC) — Just a wild and alien story going on down Bob Marley way. It involves an island nation all twisted up over a druglord named, of all things, Coke.
- Pollster: Haley likely to make runoff despite affair rumor (thestate.com) — Believe me, if I had anything else local, anything important at all, I wouldn’t run this on the front.
- Polar bears face ‘tipping point’ due to climate change (BBC) — Could this be the end for the cuddly maneaters?
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Re: number 5– You don’t think poll results in the governor’s race, regardless of what the triggering issue was, are relevant? (I don’t find them overly interesting, btw–I don’t care much for the horse race aspects of politics—the substance is what is truly important, not how many people say they might vote for a candidate, but in the general news biz, aren’t polls important?) The fact that a candidate seem to be weathering a hit is news.
I agree with you on almost everything we’ve ever discussed, but I frankly don’t understand your condescending aversion to the Haley story. I think it’s important.
Forget the outrage at right-wing hypocrisy — whatever. You have spent the past year lamenting Sanford’s poor judgment, the time wasted trying to figure out how to deal with his indiscretions, the loss of effective leadership at the executive level.
Why is it not relevant that if we elect Nikki Haley, we’re not just looking at the same ideological troubles, but the same moral troubles as well?
Kathryn, that headline is based on the expression of an opinion by the pollster, not on hard data. I think he’s right — that she had such an advantage going into this week that she’ll be in a runoff — but it’s still thin stuff. I mean, did you not figure that out already? I mean, basically the only new development was that this pollster expressed this opinion…
KP, I just find it all disgusting. It’s stuff I really, REALLY don’t want to know.
I want us, as the voters of South Carolina, to reject Nikki and what she stands for because these ideas are facile, weak and WRONG and will cause further harm to our state. Not because of a dirty story that came to our attention in this sordid manner.
I want us to do the right thing for the right reason, not because the candidate of the wrong thing got personally embarrassed and humiliated.
As the years go by, I detest gossip more and more, even as more people in our society accept it as legitimate news.
At this point, I’d like to go back in time and give medals to the White House press corps in JFK’s day for NOT telling us about his fooling around: “Thanks, guys, for sparing us that.”
THAT’s how fed up I am with tawdriness.
THAT’s how fed up I am with tawdriness.
-Brad
Then why do you keep writing and talking about it? It’s your blog, you can ignore it.
So Brad, what’s your blogging buddy Will doing today? Besides scrambling to find this “proof” he and his lawyers say they have? How can you attend one of these political events without smacking that smug idiot? Hopefully this will bury him and his future. Maybe he’ll do us all a favor and have an inappropriate physical relationship with the business end of a shotgun.
Here is an absolutely fantastic article concerning the huge subsidies to the oil companies that are depriving the treasury of valuable funding at a time when many people are having fits about the size of the national debt. Seems like the least we can do with an industry that pollutes the planet in it’s relentless pursuit of the almight dollar is to recover some of the cost of doing business. The senate needs to act on legislation already passed by the House to cut off these loopholes.
http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/1052
Some emails have been released in the Folks/Haley story. Looks like there may be a little smoke coming out of the gun barrel.
If it is true, I would vote for the most radical leftist running before I would vote for Haley. Why? Not because she had an affair. It would be because she exercised amazingly poor judgement in who she slept with.
Will Folks? C’mon man! The sleaze of all sleazes on the internet? How could anyone in their right mind vote for someone who would allow this guy to, pardon my language, screw her? He is truly trailer park trash with a blog site. And if the story is true, she is worse.
Brad, have you/will you give a run down on your endorsements for statewide candidates in the primaries?
Jim, I don’t plan to endorse. I offer opinions as we go along (for instance, you might gather that Nikki Haley is my LEAST favorite GOP candidate for governor — although that might be because I haven’t written about Andre Bauer lately), but after some consideration, and some feedback from advisers, I decided not to formally dub any candidates as my preferred ones.