First a quick bit of housekeeping for my P90X readers. I am going to start over with P90X after the New Year. Between travel and work (security in a casino over New Year's is nuts), I'm putting my P90X training and reporting on hold. I will start with Week #1 again when my schedule settles into a pattern.
Mike Huckabee has had a "shocking" surge in the polls in Iowa lately. I haven't figured out who was shocked by the surge but they said it on TV so it must be true.
Understand that when I discuss politics and the Old Media, it's with the assumption that they are aiming for a showdown between Rudy and Hillary. I have no scientific backing of this other than that's what most people believe will happen. Where did they get this belief? Well, yeah, from the TV.
If you ask people why they believe it's going to come down to these two people, they don't really have an answer. The one answer you get on the Republican side is that Rudy is "the only one that can beat Hillary." This answer implies that Hillary is going to be the Democratic nominee but again, you have to ask, why do they believe this? What is it about Rudy that makes him able to beat Hillary?
I've already discussed Huckabee's rise to fame and its reason from my viewpoint and said that the Old Media would be working very hard before the Iowa Caucus to destroy the preacher's good name (did he have a good name?).
Here's a nice little piece that has been done on Huckabee in the Christmas spirit:
For thinking people, this story has some problems.
The first problem is that he hasn't done anything illegal. Unethical, sure. Letting people buy spots on committees probably isn't the best policy but it's not illegal and not surprising. Creating a bridal registry was a little surprising and comes off as very needy to me so there might be more to the story than meets the eye. I'm sure that the pretend journalists aren't going to bother to dig much deeper so we may never know the true story behind all these gifts.
The second problem of course is that you just know that Rudy and Hillary have gotten their fair share of gifts. It goes without saying. They aren't reporting on those though because we don't want to tear them down any further than they have torn themselves down already. Those two are involved in so many scandals that Old Media is constantly in damage control to keep Rudy and Hillary as front runners. It's a full time job trying to build criminals up to be the best candidates for President.
So poor Mike hasn't done anything illegal, hasn't done anything that most other politicians have done, and is now being put in the spotlight with questions about how ethical he is. I haven't searched around but I'm sure that if you did, you'd find several spots on how he actually raised taxes (against his claim of lowering taxes) and how soft he is on immigration (a key factor in Iowa).
Can you say bye-bye Mike?
I said that he would have to capitalize on the fake numbers quickly because the tear-down was going to start soon. He hired a high-power campaign manager (and he has Chuck Norris) but does he have the support to challenge Old Media? I believe the answer is no. He doesn't have the people, the money, or the track record to fight back against the accusations. He can't fight back because the accusations are true and were just overlooked while the obsomedia built him up. Now, using the excuse that once you rise to the top the media looks at your record closer, they are bringing these stories to the public view in force.
On a smaller scale, a similar thing is going on with Ron Paul. Two months ago, a White Supremest gave Ron Paul's campaign $500 which was spent on the campaign. Old Media is now trying to sensationalize the story because, I suppose, they have nothing else to go on. So they have this 2 month old story, which they reported on 2 months ago, and they are beating it for all it's worth.
The same two problems hold for this story. Ron Paul hasn't done anything illegal and you just know that Rudy and Hillary have gotten some very shady money. Ron Paul has had over 100,000 people donate money to his campaign. Someone searched through all the names and found one that could be controversial and made a story out of it. The story died but since Ron Paul is now the Six Million Dollar Man, the story has been resurrected in the hopes that this $500 will be his undoing.
The difference is that Ron Paul has the support, money, and track record to fight back against the Old Media. I'm not saying that I know he will beat them. Old Media is big and powerful. I'm just saying that he has the ability to fight back against them.
And since most of his supporters don't learn about him from TV, Old Media might be talking to empty couches where Ron Paul is concerned. In many cases, they are probably talking to people who believe that the race is going to come down to Rudy and Hillary so stories about Ron Paul don't mean much.
In creating hype about Huckabee, they can create hype about his demise. In dismissing Ron Paul from the beginning, any stories they do about him have less impact.
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