Weak Dollar Equals Weak Attack

Reuters has a story about how Republicans have broken a once sacred taboo by attacking Obama for the weak dollar.  But the main take I get from it: Republicans are still floundering and haven't a clue as to what to do about it.  So they're reaching for any attack they can find, in hopes that something will finally stick.

And geez, how stupid do you have to be?  Honestly, how many non-partisans could possibly know what a weak dollar means to them?  Tell them the debt's bad and they'll kind of know what you mean.  Tell them the debt is weakening the dollar and they'll get a slightly confused look on their face, before they mention something about the growing debt.  Perhaps things have changed since I was in the workplace, but this doesn't strike me as water cooler talk.

Hell, I bet most partisans don't really care much.about this stuff.  And at best, your typical Obama-lover or Obama-hater will merely repeat what their favorite source told them, and they'll agree to it completely, as it reaffirmed their love or hate of Obama.  And since most non-partisans don't have preconceived ideas of who to listen to regarding dollar policies, they won't listen to anyone.  As has been noted before, "independents" are generally people who don't care about politics or are ignorant of policy; while the rest are partisans who merely pretend to be "independents" for political expediency.

In other words, this attack will have zero traction.  Instead, it will just be more background noise added to the noise heap.  For as much as the wingnut base demands to be sated with their daily meat, none of it can possibly gain any traction with anyone else, as none of the attacks last long enough to sink-in.  And too much of it is inside pool which outsiders just can't be interested in.  Weak dollar, indeed.

Facebook to Front Page

And to follow up on my earlier post on the media-created phenomenom of Sarah Palin's "social" media success, I read this non sequitur from Reuters:

Palin still has star power. Her comments resonate with a good segment of the conservative Republican base and with Americans who view her as talking "common sense" in the face of the country's elites, analysts said.


Her written comments on the dollar made the front-page lead story of the Financial Times on Thursday.

Palin has successfully used Facebook to rally supporters of her viewpoint. The "death panels" term that rocked the healthcare debate during raucous summer town hall meetings sprung from a Palin Facebook post.

Yes, this has everything to do with Facebook, and nothing to do with, say, Reuters, the Financial Times, and the rest of the media breathlessly reprinting everything she writes.  No follow-up questions.  No proof that she even wrote this.  Just a quote from Facebook, and now it's a national news story worthy of the front page.  Geez, you'd think this was a Twitter from Newt Gingrich, with all the attention it's getting.

And yeah, there are tons of Americans who support Palin who aren't Republican.  Sure, a Bloomberg poll in September showed that only 34% of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, while Marist put the number at 37% in August.  And in an odd bit of coincidence, that pretty much mirrors Obama's unfavorability ratings; just as the number of folks who don't like Palin happens to approximate the number of those who like Obama. 

And a cynic might suggest that this means that Palin is only popular with the people who hate Obama, but I'm sure that can't be the case, or the media would stop pretending she has some wide popularity; rather than one tied to their hatred of Obama.

Moron Quote of the Day

And finally, the moron quote of the day, from Ethan Siegal of The Washington Exchange:

She was the vice presidential candidate in the last election, that's marquee status right there. There are no other Republicans who can say that who want to be the next president of the United States.  So she gets a seat at the table just because of that.

Yes, because losing VP candidates with no name recognition before the election always have "marquee status" and get to sit at the table.  I remember Jack Kemp ruling our world in 1997, as well as the media following every post Quayle made in Usenet, back in '94.  But in reality, even presidential failures are generally ignored after their loss, while Palin is given far more media attention than the guy that got the job she was seeking, Vice President Biden. 

But of course, none of these people can be properly compared to Palin, as they were all more credible both before and after their elections; with Palin standing alone as the Country Pop star of American politics.  And so the media keeps telling us how influential she is, while reprinting her every Facebook word.  Yeah guys, it's Facebook that's giving her all the attention.  You're just reporting the news.