Seth R.,

I agree with what you are saying.

My wife tends to be a little more liberal than I am on issues. She picked up Obama’s biography, a book which I previously had no interest in even seeing (I typically am not too excited about political biographies). I picked it up and ended up reading quite a bit of it. I was impressed with the writing and with many of his life experiences.

I’m less concerned about Obama the man and more concerned about who will be around him. I think a charismatic, polished and intelligent figurehead can be very important – but often it’s the players on the team who end up influencing crucial policy decisions. So I’m wondering who Obama will have around/behind him.

Um, I think all spies sleep around. Don’t you watch James Bond? I think it’s pretty much in their job description.

And you know what? Call me a sexist if you want, but don’t equate it in any way with Mormons. I would be the same way if I were a Catholic. In this case religion has nothing to do with my opinions.

Seth, Daniel, this is exactly how I feel. I really really liked Bill Clinton and I’m so afraid the **** is going to hit the fan here and I’m going to be disappointed. It is just heartbreakingly sad that Americans are looking for genuine public servants.

Yes DKL, NPR is biased, just like all news outlets. But it does a far far better job of covering all the angles than the other news orgs. And you haven’t said anything that NPR’s news coverage hasn’t already pointed out and covered.

The difference is that NPR’s news coverage isn’t stupid. Whereas ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS are a never-ending parade of inane and worthless news coverage, punctuated by inane and worthless commercial messages.

And where exactly would YOU recommend I get my news each morning?

Obama’s site was selling “O’bama” shirts, in green, for St. Patrick’s Day, but unfortunately, I didn’t see them in time to order. Unfortunately, there’s still another St. Patrick’s Day before the election, so maybe next year….

I was extremely impressed with his speech at the 2004 convention, and then his biography just clinched the deal for me. I just want someone who’s intelligent and has a bit of intellectual curiosity and hasn’t been raised with a sense of entitlement for the next president.

Re: Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Romney.

Why not have a black, a woman, and a Mormon be president all at once? Write in Gladys Knight.

For two years, CBS news referred to Dan Quayle as J. Danforth Quayle, III. Thing is, he was the first Jay Danforth Quayle. Jay Danforth was a WWII buddy of Dan Quayle’s father who died in battle. Dan Quayle was named for him. That didn’t stop CBS from tagging “the third” onto his name to make him sound like a rich-kid.

Plame was not a spy, and she was not undercover, so there was no cover to be blown. Her employment there was classified, because all employment at the CIA is classified. My mother used to work for the CIA, and that was classified. Perhaps it still is. Maybe I just broke the law and discredited her spouse.

DKL

Ms. Plame herself testified exactly to the contrary, under oath, before the Congress yesterday.

I’m certain CBS has its indiscretions (though making Dan Quayle out to be rich is not one of them). You’re overall larger point about only the rich being able to afford political office in this country, is not only true; but, quite troubling as well. Long gone are the days of the citizen politician, and we are a more poorly governed nation as a result.

Regarding NPR as a news source, I was actually thinking of a Washington Post piece last fall, but whatever.

“Plame was not a spy, and she was not undercover, so there was no cover to be blown.”

So do you think she was lying under oath when she said (according to yesterday’s NYT) that her outing, “jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents, who in turn risk their own lives and those of their families to provide the United States with needed intelligence”?

“Um, I think all spies sleep around. Don’t you watch James Bond? I think it’s pretty much in their job description.”

I am sure you are trying to be funny, and I am taking this far too seriously, but it is not funny to me. My brother is serving in the Army in Iraq, and if anything happens to him, at least we will know, and get the body back. For the families of Americans who fight the war against terror by serving in intelligence agencies, the families may not get the body back, they won’t even know where their loved ones were serving, they may not even know what their job was.

And disproportionately, those families are likely to be LDS families. Those of our faith is over-represented in such agencies, because of the language skills that returned missionaries bring, and the clean background that simplifies security clearances.

We had a young man who was in our ward who spent a summer in the mideast practicing Arabic. While he is headed off to graduate school in international relations, he hopes to eventually do that kind of work. He sees it as a way to serve our nation and make a difference. I know his wife, and have met his parents, and I appreciate his sacrifice, and theirs. There is nothing funny about it.

It’s a sad reality that we need spies, but they are even mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

DKL,

Thanks for the endorsement of the CSM.

But you’ll have to do more to discredit NPR in my mind than sneer in a suitably dastardly fashion.

I can’t figure out why ya’ll are so worried about NPR and Dan Rather when you’re missing the real issue here. There are, like, ten 7-year-old kids on dirt bikes out on my sidewalk, and not a single hand-cuff slapping cop to drag them off to prison where they belong.

#10 Bookslinger: That is a really great idea.

#13 & #17 Guy: I think they’re all rich kids. Poor people don’t run for president. And yeah, those stupid girls are asking for trouble. But there’s always a creep around ready to take advantage of their stupidity.

I don’t know if Robert Kennedy would have made a good president or not. I don’t have an opinion. Well, I have mixed emotions.

But, I sure do wonder where our country would be if McGovern would have won. He was a good man.

Naismith, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I seriously wondered what she did as a spy–and I assume that female spies use sex to get information. It sort of makes sense to me.

Well, the second time I was jesting a bit with you. James Bond was a slut.

I appreciate your point, though. You are absolutely right and I never thought of it that way. I honestly had no idea that many of these people were LDS. We never think of those unsung heroes.

DKL, I’m going to check out the Christian Science Monitor.
Where can you listen to NPR? I don’t think we get it. I rarely watch TV news anymore, they’re all biased.

Okay, David, don’t wet your pants, but I actually like George Stephanopolous. I think he sees the flaws in his party and is vaguely unbiased. He’s sort of a nice Dick Morris, who I love to listen to. I don’t believe everything he says, but I enjoy him.

Bill O Reilly bothers me, Ann Coulter sort of makes me nauseous, Bill Maher has a filthy mind, Jon Stewart is pretty good. I know, I know, they’re comedians. So are all the rest of them.

But, I sure do wonder where our country would be if McGovern would have won. He was a good man.

Annegb: Yes, another excellent candidate. The country twice had an opportunity to avoid the nightmare of Richard Nixon; but like George Bush, was elected twice (well ok once anyway).

McGovern was unfairly painted as a pacifist because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, when in fact he was a war hero serving in WWII. His his patriotism was questioned just as those today who oppose the Iraq war. McGovern was as honest as the day was long, was a true war hero, and would have made an excellent president–much, much better than what America settled for. You have some good political insights Annegb (except for that George Bush thing you have going).

Yes, Guy. George McGovern was a real War Hero, and he had a lot of personal humility as well. So much so that he never so much as mentioned his valor in public. In fact, McGovern is my reference point in this regard, and he’s why I dismiss candidates out-of–hand when I see jockeying for the position of war-hero as a campaign tactic.

I do think that those who question the Iraq war get a pretty decent hearing. When Murtha proposed the pullout, there a debate set up on the resolution. The debate was mostly a sham, because it simply gave congressman somewhere to say things that they could use as pull-quotes in their re-election literature. But aside from that, they bent over backwards to say that they believed that Murtha wasn’t being disloyal.

annegb, I also use the Drudge Report as my primary touch point for what’s happening in the world (current events, pop culture happenings, and weird goings-on). You can find NPR stations here, though I advise against it.

I thought Ariana Huffington was a Republican.

Again, I don’t know if I am being too serious, but I have a great deal of respect for ABC News because the things I actually know about professionally–polling and science reporting–they do a very responsible job. All the networks having polling units which conduct polls for them, but ABC News also requires that any story reporting on polls or surveys or studies or basically anything with a “percent” must be vetted by their polling unit, which includes folks with a PhD in social science.

As a result, ABC News refuses to report quite a few stories that are picked up by other news outlets, or issues caveats along with the data, and they sometimes prompt researchers to issue a correction. You know that recent piece about so many more women not being married? They figured out that it included girls down to 15 years old, as well as widows. Remember the study a few years back about young people drinking so much alcohol? They figured out the problem with a study from John Hopkins.

I also appreciate that when their polling data is released, they always make the technical report available on their website by the time something is aired, so if you see numbers flash up and aren’t sure whether it was registered voters or likely voters or registered Republicans, you can flip to that immediately.

They also conducted the first representative poll of the Iraqi population, in Feb 2004.

I don’t know if they are as strong in other areas such as foreign affairs, but I would guess that if they go to that much trouble and expense for my areas, they invest in quality in other aspects as well.

“I used to read Drudge every day, I’m so busy now it’s sporadic. But it’s basically where I turn to for the news.”

this explains everything!