CNN

Yesterday Patrick Kennedy gave this fire speech on the House floor talking about the media’s attention deficit disorder, or how they can only focus on one story at a time:

Apparently the truth really hurts and it has put Candy Crowley on the defensive. Yesterday she suggested that Kennedy only did this to get rid of the Massa story:

No Candy – you are the problem. If you actually believe that this was some sort of staged performance, then you are more of a moron than I ever thought. Don’t worry though because you aren’t alone. The media is full of blowhards like you that can’t realize the reason your industry is suffering to bad is because it’s full of morons. You guys have destroyed the 4th estate, which in turn has helped destroy this country. Feel proud of yourself as there will be chapters about your failures written in the history books.

Take a look at this story on CNN:

Barely a month in office, Sen. Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, is putting some muscle behind his independent image by twice voting against his own party and questioning the use of the filibuster.

Brown took to the Senate floor Tuesday to announce he would vote for cloture, or to end a Republican filibuster, on a bill extending unemployment benefits and tax credits. This, despite the fact he opposes the bill and technically the filibuster helped his cause.

"I have very serious concerns about the overall cost of the bill," Brown told the chamber, "but my vote for cloture signals that I believe we need to keep the process moving." He also said, "there has been a week of debate and allowing this bill to receive an up-and-down vote, would be a step, I feel, in the right direction."

Nothing really bad in there, but then take a look at this part:

It is rare for a senator to vote for cloture, thus advancing a bill, while opposing the bill itself. Votes on filibusters are often defacto decisions on the content of the proposal.

Rare? Yes if we are talking about the past 2 years, but not when you look at the overall history of the Senate. Without saying it, the reporter is talking about a filibuster – a practice that’s use has risen exponentially these past couple of years. Before that it was common for Senators to allow a bill to proceed to a final vote, even if they disagreed with it. It’s called majority rule and something that is very common. Perhaps CNN should send their reporters back to 3rd grade social studies so that they can have a bit of a clue of how our government is supposed to work.

Ben Stein decided today to declare that more Republicans pay taxes than Democrats and that is the reason they are against the healthcare bill:

You asked one of the most brilliant questions I have ever heard anyone ask on TV, which is why are so many Republicans against more government interference in the health care system, and so many Democrats in favor of it? And the answer is much higher percentage of Republicans are taxpayers than Democrats and the Republicans are the people paying for it, and the Democrats are the people receiving it. So that has a lot to explain there.

There are a tremendous number of wealthy Democrats and wealthy Republicans, but as a general matter, Republicans as a group pay income tax at a much higher rate than Democrats, and I think that has a lot to do with everything. They also have a much higher rate, and are paying members of the insurance pools, and they realize that the insurance premiums are going up so that people who otherwise would not get insurance are going to get insurance and it has a lot to do with the fact that Republicans are a different group of people than Democrats.

I have heard some pretty ridiculous claims come from the right wings brain trust before, but this one has to take the cake.

Campbell Brown breaks down on the air after hearing the story of an 11 year old Haitian girl who died after being rescued from the rubble.

(h/t Aravosis)

And check out who it is:

This week, John's exclusive guests are Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) LIVE from Jerusalem. We'll get their insight on the foiled airline terror plot and President Obama's strategy on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Benen points out:

Hmm, McCain and Lieberman, talking together about foreign policy and national security. Now that's a balanced pairing.

CNN – The worst rated name in news! Keep this crap up and before long CNN will lose the ratings game to public access.

Oh for fuck sakes!

Honestly I’m in the boat of “who cares”. People are going to hear the word, so why keep trying to hide it. I’m sure we can except some outrage from the fundamentalists though. You know, the same people who just turned the other cheek when Cheney used the word.

 Greg Sargant points out that in a new CNN poll there is a 6 point uptick in support for the Senate bill. There are some other numbers in that poll that are very interesting:

Thinking about the health care and health insurance that is available to most Americans, do you think the proposals in the Senate bill would change things for the better, change things for the worse, or not make any real changes at all?
34% Change for the better, 38% Change for the worse, 26% No change

Thinking about the health care and health insurance that is available to you and your immediate family, do you think the proposals in the Senate bill would change things for the better, change things for the worse, or not make any real changes at all?
22% Change for the better, 37% Change for the worse, 39% No change

These two questions were rotated in the polling, so they each represent a 50% coverage of those polled. It’s interesting that while support for the bill has gone up (even though it is still widely opposed), the number of people who thinks the bill will do actual good remains low and out numbered by those who think it will do more harm than good. In all honesty I think we should look at change for the worse and no change as the same thing.

The Democrats are pissing away everything we all worked for these past few years:

Eleven months before crucial midterm elections, a national poll indicates that the public is divided over whether the country would be better off with Democrats or Republicans controlling Congress.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday, 40 percent of people questioned say the U.S. would be better off if Democrats ran Congress while 39 percent feel things would be better if Republicans took charge on Capitol Hill. The 1-point margin is a statistical tie.

Support for Democrats is down from a 10-point advantage in August and a 25-point margin in January.

I’m hearing more and more people I know who have been solid, very dedicated Democrats for years saying they are fed up. These aren’t bloggers or people who follow politics. These are the people who go out and knock on doors, put up signs and man the phone banks. The utter lack of leadership and constant caving to the right has pushed these people, and millions of others away from the Democratic Party. Great job dems!

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Anderson Cooper is seeing his ratings plummet:

The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year. His 10 p.m. show, "Anderson Cooper 360," has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures.

Last month, in Cooper's time slot, Fox News' "On the Record" attracted an average viewership of 1.9 million while "360" averaged 672,000; repeats of MSNBC's "Countdown" and HLN's Nancy Grace show averaged 655,000 and 458,000, respectively.

But in the ad-friendly 25-54 demo, those same repeats won out over Cooper with 224,000 (MSNBC) and 214,000 (HLN).

CNN really needs to make some big changes and make them quick. Cooper is at the point that he’s getting beat by reruns. That is really sad in the news industry.

A familiar face from CNN has a new gig with the RNC:

Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant, will take over as a senior communications adviser to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, according to a source familiar with the move. The announcement of Castellanos' role comes hours after communications director Trevor Francis announced he was leaving the committee. But, Castellanos is taking on the strategic role on a permanent -- not interim -- basis, according to the source.

This follows the news that Trevor Francis is vacating the post, a kind of odd departure mid-cycle. I just hope CNN informs their viewers of Alex’s position every time they have him on.

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We knew that it was only a matter of time before the public shifted the blame of the economic mess from Republicans to Democrats and that time has come:

Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. That's down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May. Twenty-seven percent now say both parties are responsible for the economic mess.

The problem is that America isn’t seeing any improvement in the economy. Sure Congress and the White House can point to Wall Street, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing to the average citizen, who is out of work. It’s the common disconnect that occurs between Washington and Main Street USA.

What President Obama needs to do is hold one of his prime time pressers, which he seems to have abandoned, and tell the people who he plans on creating new jobs. Sure he is doing things like this “job summit”, but when you look at who’s attending you quickly realize that Obama isn’t looking for any new ideas. Some of the country’s greatest economic minds aren’t on the list, and that is not only a crime, but a waste of some great talent.

The White House needs to show America that they are serious about turning the economy around for Main Street and they need to do it now. If they wait until 2010 then they can watch their support in Congress really dwindle. As matter of fact it will be like 1994 all over again.

CNN has ran a very interesting poll that gives us a lot to think about:

The poll indicates that a slight majority, 51 percent, of Republicans would prefer to see the GOP in their area nominate candidates who agree with them on all the major the issues even if they have a poor chance of beating the Democratic candidate. Forty-three percent of Republicans say they would rather have candidates with whom they don't agree on all the important issues but who can beat the Democrats.

Democrats polled seemed to place a slightly higher priority on electoral victory: 58 percent say that they would like their party to nominate candidates who can beat Republicans, even if they don't agree with those candidates on all the issues. Fewer than 4 in 10 Democrats say they would rather see their party nominate candidates who agree with them on all major issues, but have a poor chance of beating the Republican candidate.

When you first read this you would assume that the Republicans put issues ahead of party, which seems like a great thing. Actually it isn’t. What the poll shows is that the Republicans have an 8 point deficit in self-identified Republicans believing in the party, while Democrats are +20. Here’s the reason given for this:

"One reason for the difference between the parties: the Democrats have a relatively even split on ideological grounds. Thirty-four percent of Democrats are liberal, 40 percent are moderates and less than one in four call themselves conservatives," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

By contrast, 73 percent of Republicans questioned in the poll say they are conservatives, with only 26 percent describing themselves as liberal or moderate Republicans.

At the beginning of the decade hearing things like “the liberal Republican” wasn’t all that uncommon. They may hold a very conservative fiscal view, but a liberal social view. The Republican party has declared war on those individuals and forced them out of office, leaving them with a very small tent. Somehow the brain trust of the GOP believes it is easier to change a countries ideology than it is to be more accepting of varying ideologies – a suicidal move indeed.

Now the conservatives are certain to rally behind that 73% number, where Republicans identify themselves as conservative, but we need to remember that only 20% of this country identifies themselves as Republican, so in the larger scale that is a very dismal number. As more Republicans start feeling pushed out by the GOP, like Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins, then we will see that 20% shrink even more. Of course that 73% may become more like 80%, but given the nature of our political system and the difficulty in a 3rd party candidate winning, it becomes more likely that the few remaining Republicans that chose to leave the party will become Democrats – a place where they can be embraced.

Greg Sargent believes so:

Whatever you think of Media Matters, there’s no denying that the group led a campaign against Dobbs that had to have played some kind of role in his departure. CNN president Jonathan Klein reportedly told Dobbs months ago that he wanted Dobbs to tone down his opinions. It’s hard to imagine that the constant drumbeat of attention paid by Media Matters, Think Progress, HuffPo, TPM and other sites to Dobbs’ more outlandish opinions — and the damage they were doing to CNN’s news brand — didn’t put Klein and CNN on edge.

There has been a vigorous campaign from the blogosphere to get CNN to dump Dobbs. Given the fact that Dobbs up and quit with no warning in the middle of his contract implies that CNN was rather willing to let him go. I wouldn’t doubt if the rapid decline of CNN ratings coupled with outside pressure contributed to CNN agreeing to his departure so easily.

That’s right – Lou Dobbs has announced that he is resigning from CNN effective immediately. Here is a clip of him announcing it on CNN tonight:

What the future for Dobbs is, I don’t know. Perhaps a gig at Fox News? Maybe we could even see a Palin-Dobbs ‘12 ticket? Oh now that one would be way too much fun, and Christmas is still over a month away.

This tidbit from a new CNN poll shows that Obama actually has more support down south than the very Republican George Bush did:

Fifty-seven percent say Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush; only a third say Bush’s track record was better.

“Compared to Obama, Bush does fairly well among southerners and rural voters. But even in those categories, a majority still says Obama has done a better job than Bush,” says Holland.

That should make the Beck type people out there stop and pause for a second. A black “liberal” is rated higher than a white “conservative” in the south.

(h/t Plumline)