Let me preface by saying I’m a Canadian working in the States. I started getting interested in American politics a few months leading up to the last elections.
The first time I turned on AM radio and heard the conservative pundits, I was amazed at the stuff they said. I used to listen to a lot of talk radio in Canada but it never reaches the level of discourse it reaches here.
On my way home from work I tune in to the NY ABC station and we have Hannity, followed by Levin. I don’t get many chances to listen to Rush. I get a few minutes of Beck in the morning.
They go apeshit over Obama. I have never heard any of them say a single good thing about the president. This Levin guy really dumps on the man.
Is their strategy to dump on everything the man does? or have they perhaps said something good but I just haven’t heard?
Sorry, no linky, but I do know that at turns Pat Robertson, (R-Racist Jackass) has praised Obama’s Afghanistan strategy when it was the common wisdom that more troops were going to be sent.
The Lib talk pundits are all on Air America. I recommend them highly, in particular, Stephanie Miller for the laughs, Mike Malloy for righteous anger, and Ron Reagan for practical, reasoned discourse.
If they ever say anything good it’s either backhanded (“he’s good at reading off a teleprompter”), or it’s on the rare occasion that he takes a conservative stance on something.
Even if they thought something good, they couldn’t say it. Their job is not to give honest opinions, their job is to trash Obama and shill for the GOP.
Well certainly they’re not going to praise him when he does policy things they agree with. But I’ve seen plenty of them praise him personally – his oratorical skills or that they think he’s a good family man, etc.
On policy, obviously, they’re only going to praise him when he does things they agree with – specifically, I’ve heard them praise him for not bailing on Iraq precipitously, or releasing gitmo inmates. But no partisan commenters are going to spend a lot of time praising the opponent; otherwise they wouldn’t be partisans. I don’t recall the liberals finding much good to say about Bush.
Hannity is, IMO, the worst of the hyperpartisans; worse than Limbaugh. Levin, I can’t stand the voice and the shouting. Beck’s radio show, IMO, strikes a different tone than his TV show. I catch a couple hours of radio a week with him, and find him listenable … the TV show really surprised me. If you’re looking for reasonable conservative pundritry on the radio, I’d suggest Michel Medved or Hugh Hewitt.
A number of people praised him when he was caught on tape saying thet Kanye West was a jackass after the MTV Music Awards. It was usually prefaced by “I can’t believe I’m going to say this…”
Thank you for the “reasonable conservative” suggestion. My next question actually was going to be if there was an off “Centre” pundit (I guess then, it wouldn’t be considered punditry?). From the left, I like to listen to The Young Turks online. Cenk can be a bit bombastic at times and he certainly doesn’t pull punches when it comes to critiquing the right. I don’t know if I get Air America on the radio dial here in Central NJ.
You’re right about Hannity. He is very effective at what he does because he’s methodical about what he says. I’m ashamed to hear the Libs that call in his radio show because they don’t have the fortitude to debate him. Mind you he engages in a number of logical fallacies and he often cuts them off. Levin is just an arrogant cock who yells and insults a lot.
Beck is an interesting character. I don’t think he’s as nuts as people seem to think he is. As you mentioned, his radio show has a different tone than the TV show, here he gets weepy and looks like he’s about to go on a “Falling Down” type of breakdown at any moment.
The other day I heard this Levin character whining about wanting to debate Obama on a certain whatever. I’ve seen Levin in TV interviews where he drops the hard-ass routine. I’d love to see him in a real debate with an intelligent reasonable Lib. Say what you will about Michael Moore but I thought he handled Hannity pretty well.
A lot of conservative commentators have praised Obama for pushing charter schools. They’ve praised him for being willing to tell poor people to shape up and raise their kids right. They’ve praised him for carrying on most of Bush’s war on terror policies (Patriot act, gitmo, rendition, wiretapping, etc). Some of them agreed with his stimulus plan (David Brooks, for example). If Obama pulls out of Afghanistan he’ll have George Will and Patrick Buchanan defending him.
Frankly, I see a lot more willingness on the right to praise Obama when he does something they agree with than I ever saw on the left with Bush. For example, there was largely a deafening silence about Bush’s policies in Africa, even though just a few years earlier the plight of poor Africans and AIDS was one of the biggest causes on the left, and Bush embraced it wholeheartedly and did more for that continent than any president in history. In fact, other than the war in Iraq Bush presided over a fairly centrist Presidency, raising education funding dramatically, increasing seniors’ entitlements, increasing regulations on a host of industries, etc. Very little of it got him any credit from the left.
Now there’s a sentiment I never thought I’d agree with. I guess sometimes the apple falls from the tree, sprouts legs and goes to college to actually study.
