Conservative pundit, columnist, and Bush #41 veteran Michael Smerconish’s Sunday Inquirer piece advocates for Tom Ridge as McCain’s Choice for Vice President.
Posts Tagged: Michael Smerconish
14
Apr 08
Obama was right, next question is how to save the ‘bitter’ from their ignorance (and should we)…
Having spent Sunday with ‘typical white people’, I had to listen to more McCain-man-love, minority-hatin’, and general whiny cry-baby white-people victimhood. Note that I’m not from Pennsultucky, I’m from the city proper, the so-called liberal oasis.
I’m getting increasingly aggravated by fools who only pay attention to identity and dog whistle politics, who then vote against their own economic self-interests. I initially was concerned with saving them, but I’ve given up. They don’t want to be saved – they want to wallow in their own ignorance, vote on the basis of who has the best bowling score or has gone hunting, and then cry and bitch when they suffer the bad consequences of the voting decisions. Cry when the unions are weakened, when social security evaporates, or when Medicaid and Medicare benefits are cut. I’m sure you can blame the gays, liberals, or immigrants, but for god’s sake, don’t take any personal responsibility.
I try to think of it in terms that the best policy outcomes result in better conditions for everyone, and as such should cost less tax money. But these divisive know-nothings would rather stick to their own pitiful knowledge and stubbornly insist that they are the only ones who know the truth, and if you try to present them alternate explanations, well, you’re just being a snobby elitist who looks down on them. Whatever. I’m done trying to save you from your ignorance. You deserve Hillary and/or John McCain.
No matter the future, odds are things will be fine for me, and for others like me – realists who want to understand our problems and tackle them, not ideologues or reactionaries who want to believe that faith-based intervention will solve all ills.
I’m done trying to save the ignorant from their ignorance. I’m done warning about the stove, the fire, the hot pot, and the boiling water. Go ahead frogs, keep going, jump in the hot tub, all is well. You guys know everything. We’ll see how it ‘pans’ out for you – there will be less and less sympathy for you as time goes by, as you will be more and more responsible for your own bad outcomes.
Update: Along the lines of the up-is-down nature of these campaigns, where things that might be negative-actually-turn -out-positive, these people who are offended at being called bitter were never going to vote for Obama (or Hillary) for that matter anyway. But, as Conservative columnist Michael Smerconish wrote on Sunday in the Inquirer, the suburbs are turning blue not because conservatives are not conservative enough, but because they are too conservative, at the cost of pragmatic action to what truly ills this country. With the majority of America tired of the far-right, hearing their shrill cries of victimhood will actually reinforce the feeling that they have chosen the wrong way, and that it’s time to start talking about dollars and cents.
23
Dec 07
Rewarding Bad Behavior [Philadelphia Inquirer]
This post was prompted by Tom Ferrick’s whining and Mark Bowden’s attempt at outrageousness. I’m not going to bother parsing their statements (Ferrick’s on Casinos aren’t bad for Philadelphia’s waterfront followed by the usual journalists’ waaaaahumbulance cries that he gets hatemail, and Bowden’s Waterboarding isn’t torture and it’s A-OK with him if it works) in current and recent columns.
Brian Tierney, in a Philly Mag interview called Press Lords 2.0 laid out his vision for Philly.com, one where it became a MySpace with User Generated Content (UCG) including those wacky Mentos-and-Coke videos, along with online content created by those in his employ in the analog properties (ie. the papers).
6
Dec 07
Daily Links
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Despite the popularity of the rule, few people seem to understand it. [...] Some of these errors are due to not understanding what the rule means. Others are just my opinion of unfair attacks on an otherwise useful principle.
5
Mar 07
Thoughts on the Tierney-owned Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com
Full disclosure: I have friends who currently work for Tierney, have worked in the past (and were layed off and subsequently "temped" to avoid paying benefits). and know others who have worked there in the past.
I put a poll up PhillyFuture inquiring as to whether the collective Inky-Daily News/philly.com (hereafter referred to as the "Philly Press") have improved since Brian Tierney has taken ownership.
Personally, my feelings are mixed.
- I'm indifferent as to the rightward-tilt of the new talent and the Sunday Currents section. As far as national politics are concerned, we've seen how well a Republican Majority has influenced public opinion (as being firmly against having a Republican Majority). It remains to be seen as to how this will play out in the 2007 Philadelphia Mayors race as well as the 2008 State and Federal Election.
- The constant pimping of condos to the wealthy (endemic of all the media, telling us how wonderfull things are for the creme of society, implying that we should aspire to their lives) seems culturaly irresponsible and ignores the majority of the Philadelphia and greater regions residents in lieu of the economically priviledged.
- My perception is that "bought" wired stories are up as a percentage of content, and original reporting is down. Again, this seems like an artifact of my second point. Philadelphia is a 1/10th scale New York – the perspective of the Philly Press seems to be one that focuses on Manhattan and ignores the other boroughs, unless murders are involved.
- The back-page-front-page seems like a good idea, but sources indicate that there are strong opinions that it may compromise some journalistic integrity – How likely would the Inky investigate an advertisers role in loan-making with local politicians and municipalities if they're a major advertiser. This runs parallel to thoughts that the current Philly Press would NEVER have covered the Priest Abuse Scandal (as Tiernney flacked for the Archdiocese throughout that affair).
- I'll be honest – aside from Will Bunch (online), I haven't read the DN in ages.
- I try to link to Philly.com sources whenever appropriate, even if it's a wire story from McClatchy or the NYTimes, in the hopes of helping a local publication. It's a shame that the reporting isn't originating here.
- The suburbs – yeah, how about that? Art galleries and feel good stories? I could get that from the local paper of record, the Delco Times. I suspect that it's the same for the other suburban counties as well.
- Flash ads on Philly.com. You DO realize that they annoy the crap out of people, right?
- I'm not even upset by the rumors of the reappearance of Rick Santorum as a columnist – he'll fit in perfectly with Jonathan Last and Michael Smerconish. I look forward to more insanity, cheerleading, and water-carrying throughout 2007-2008.
- Web 2.0 stuff – where's the comments? The trackbacks to the story on Technorati? The social bookmarking links (add to reddit, digg, del.icio.us, etc.)? How about automatically ranking stories based on those criteria?
What are your thoughts? Do stop by the poll and vote.
13
Feb 07
Smerconish: Head Strong, Apply Directly to Forehead.
Having never made an effort to either listen to or read Michael Smerconish, I foolishly tossed him aside with all the other Right-Wing Radio flunkies. After reading his inaugural Inquirer column, I came away suprisingly indifferent. He comes across as someone I largely agree with on a majority of issues, but I suspect if pushed for clarification, the differences would be more apparent.
In his "Suburban Manifesto" column in this Sunday's Inky (amusingly filed under Philly Women), he starts off predictably, stating that the editorial page is "[too] liberal too often", and that he is in not a "Kool-Aid drinker".
7
Feb 07
Smerconish in the Inky
I've noticed that the "Currents" section of the Philadelphia Inquirer has moved to the right lately, and frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing. The remaining readers of the Inquirer are likely "learned" enough to separate the wheat from the chaff, and if CEO Brian Tierney squelches his promise to not interfere with editorial content (other than changing the editors and staff), there would likely be a further exodus of readers and a loss of profits. No, I expect the Inky and many "moderate" conservatives to follow the Lou Dobbs script of xenophobia and protectionism, targeting the middle-class.
Furthermore, Attytood reports that Michael Smerconish is now writing weekly columns for both the Daily News and the Inquirer. I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea. I commented the following on his post:
Good. There needs to be conversation and debate over conservative ideas (and ideals). I suspect that once we get past the sloganeering and into the guts of what it means to me a modern Republican, who it helps, and who it hurts, and what is the cost of their policies are to the nation, the American people will choose the right thing. We have to stop spoon-feeding people, give them facts, and let them decide, and let them (and us) live with the consequences.
To be clear, I'm a "fiscal conservative, social liberal" – I don't believe the government should be in your bedroom at all, and in your wallet as little as possible, and more importantly, government should add value to your life when it takes away income, and there is nothing in the Republican Party plank for me.
