The excitement gap & the status quo of incompetence

Drudge, with his usual heavy upper case breathing, headlined mega-neeners at MSNBC:

FLASH: FOXNEWS O'REILLY TOPS MSNBC GOP DEBATE FOR NIGHT... O'REILLY PULLS 2,314,000 VIEWERS... DEBATE SCORES 1,762,000...

His point was that Fox News beat out bitter rival, MSNBC despite their big-deal presidential debate with all the promo NBC brought to bear.

MSNBC scored both party's first presidential debates, while Fox's plans for one in August in Nevada was cancelled after some embarrassing remarks Roger Ailes, Fox News' chief executive made about Barack Obama and pressure by the liberal blogosphere. 

O'Reilly in particular is in a nasty, but amusing mano a mano with Keith Olbermann for gotchas and ratings. While Olbermann still trails Billo, he's trending upward in a trajectory that many in TV believe will bring him in range of the Big Fat Head in the next year. (Olbermann leads substantially in the bemused irony dep't. Billo's sense of humor, unfortunately, has been stunted by his intense involvement with himself).

But the numbers that La Drudge gives but doesn't bother to spin are these:

Democratic debate: 2.2 million viewers
Republican debate: 1.76 million viewers

Nobody but us wonks bothered watch these debates; true- it's early- but we'd posit that these numbers mean that Democrats' are attracting more Republican wonks than the Republicans are.

That's because they're so boring, and because they're so going to lose. Few, now at least, bother to take the time to can take them seriously.

The GOP used to scare hell out of us, but at least they kept us awake. Their candidate "field of dreams" may threaten sales of Ambien® next year.

Democrats have the first viable female candidate in history to be as well as the first African-American with a real shot at the presidency. John Edwards is also viable enough to add to the sizzle.

The public at large hasn't yet been caught up in the history we all can make in 2008. When they do, they'll scance regard the bland suits on the right dragging the dead albatrosses of George W. Bush, his war, and the status quo of incompetence.

Comments

[sparky]

yes, as I said to "Grace" who posted that headline, not even the republicans wanted to watch the faux debates.

The GOP forgets that a large block of voters was not alive when Reagan was President, or were very very young. Its going to be hard to rally them behind a "Reagan Golden Days" memory blitz as much as it would be to harness JFK on the Dem side...

[joanie]

Yes, they are trying to exchange the "dead albatross" for Reagan charm. As RobinZ said, nobody under forty remembers him except for old reruns of Death Valley Days.

[Tommy008]

STAR AND THE GIRLS WERE PEERING IN DISAPPROVINGLY AT MONTROSE FROM THE LIVING ROOM DOORWAY as he sat slumped in his bathrobe at the kitchen table. It was a Monday, but a teacher's meeting day at the school district, so they had it off. The trio turned from the doorway and left the house, on their way to the park. Montrose lookd down at the front page of the P-I, spread out on the table. There he was right on the front page, in the photo Deeter Skorpios had taken of him brandishing the handgun at the homeless man with "lobsterclaw" hands. Star and the girls were standing behind him, with looks of absolute mortification and shock on their faces. KROW Talkjock Arrested for Threatening Homeless Man with Gun, the headline read......"He was deformed but not dangerous", the article quoted Esther Rabinowitz, the same Brooklyn tourist that Skorpios had quoted in the Blabbertown blog, on the internet. Now Dillard Montrose knew how Monty Markham had felt last fall. Montrose had been ordered into the radio station at about 8 a.m. , 12 hours after beeing bailed out of jail, and summarily fired by station general manager Russ Rivers.........

[seattlejew]

Reagan in O8.

Why shouldn't a dead man be President? Nowhere in the constitution do the founders require that a citizen be alive to serve in this role and, after all the Gipper was nearly brain dead for a long time while still serving in office!

Some would cavil that the Constitution limits the President to two terms, but that refers to this life only! Nowhere does it say that a reincarnated person or a person in the afterlife is limited to two terms.

Think of the many advantages:

1. No need to fear assassins.
2. No possibii8ty of taking bribes.
3. No question about intimacy with the Deity.
4. No issues of mental health or threat of cancer.

Reagan, his time has come again!

[drack]

right, Mr. Jew guy--no security, healthcare, or White House chef. Elect the dead! No state of the union speech, warm bodies need not apply. You might not like the Deity he's intimate with, though...

[Tommy008]

Remember folks- 6 out of 10 of your fellow Americans don't believe in evolution. We'd LIKE to think it's at least 6 evolutionists to 4 nonbelievers in the Seatle area. We'd like to think so. (Rod Serling steps to the mike, inside the spotlight on the darkened stage)-"Imagine, if you will, you're in one of the reddest of the Bush states, where 8 or 9 of each ten neighbors are nonbelievers in evolution"(cue Twilight Zone theme).

[joanie]

That's a chilling thought, Tommie . . .

[Andrew]

Would you be surprised if I said that TMZ.com is way more popular than SciAm.com?

[robinz]

Remember folks- 6 out of 10 of your fellow Americans don't believe in evolution.

Tommy, is it really that high? Really? I know that there are people out there that want to drag us back to the dark ages but 6 our of 10???

If we are going to elect The Dead I want a chance to vote for Jerry Garcia. :)

Robinz

[Tommy008]

yes, Phil VANDEVOORE LAST HOUR ON kiro710 READ THE RESULTS OF A POLL which polled the top 30 most populous countries in the world. USA wsa no 29 on the list, with 40 % believers in evolution, just ahead of Turkey.

[seattlejew]

drack

ReallY? I think we would still have a S of the Union speech. Speachwriters and computer graphics!

Reagan Again, Ron in 08!

[Tommy008]

bwahahaaha Remember "paid attention in math class" the arrogant Republican who took me on and tried to defend the ridiculous real estate prices in Seattle,and thought he had a huge "gotcha' because I got the terms mean and median mixed up ? Bob Brinker the syndicated financial expert just replayed his talk show this morning on KIRO710 and he had a national real estate expert on. Some guy called in from the Ukraine complaining about real estate prices there that were way out of whack with the paltry local yearly income there. The real estate guy said that if that was true, it was violating basic real estate principles and relationships of local income to local house prices , and added that "that can only happen where you have a small group of very wealthy buyers, in a unique city like Manhattan or San Francisco." If he had went on he would have added Seattle to the list of unique cities. The real estate expert merely repeated the exact point I was making to "math class"- a situation where a small, anomalous group of elite, super wealthy people are buyers in this city and driving the house prices to absurd levels. Thank you, real estate guy, for validating my point bigtime.

[Tommy008]

GOTCHA!!! bwahahaahahahahaahh

[Duffman]

Posted by: Tommy008 | May 06, 2007 at 05:13 PM
Just read your last installment T008...Ooooooh wonder where it will go from here???

[Nigel Tufnel - Lead Guitar]

Let's see...Drudge regularly posts about such fabulous pop culture shows such as "America Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" but his page hardly ever contains a reference to sports news. Hmmm...

[sparky]

Are you saying that Drudge is a "poofer"?

[Nigel Tufnel - Lead Guitar]

To quote the hotel desk clerk in "Spinal Tap, "He's just as god made him."

[mercifurious]

..Drudge regularly posts about such fabulous pop culture shows such as "America Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" but his page hardly ever contains a reference to sports news.

Staying in character, I think we're saying that Matt Drudge is Corky St. Clair with more self-hatred
Not that there's anything wrong with that

"I just HATE you... and I hate your... ass... FACE!"

[Duffman]

Shame on you is that a true progressive liberal stance; read this and mend your ways Proud Gay Athlete

[joanie]

And are you a progressive liberal Duff?

[Duffman]

not quite, joanie but slowly movin in that direction.

[joanie]

Then you better get caught up on the science of global warming! ;)