New Florida Poll Shows Vindication of Clint Eastwood Strategy

HotAir.com:

Feel lucky, punk?  When Republicans chose Tampa as the site for the 2012 national convention, they didn’t do it for the weather, obviously.  They saw Florida as a key to their hopes of winning the presidential election and hoped to make an impact on voters with their week-long argument for Republican control of the White House.  According to a snap poll from Survey USA of 754 registered voters who watched the final night of the convention, they may have switched 10% of the vote with the effort:

1,211 adults were interviewed statewide 08/31/12, after Romney, Florida’s Marco Rubio and Clint Eastwood spoke to the convention 08/30/12. Of the adults, 1,100 were registered to vote in Florida. Of the registered voters, 754 heard the convention speeches. Of the convention speech watchers:
* 66% did not change their mind.
*  16% switched from “undecided” to Romney.
*  6% switched from Obama to Romney.
*  Adding those 2 together, that’s 22% who switched TO Romney.
*  10% switched from “undecided” to Obama.
*  2% switched from Romney to Obama.
*  Adding those 2 together, that’s 12% who switched TO Obama.
*  Comparing the 2 aggregate numbers: 22% switched TO Romney, 12% switched TO Obama.

There is, however, a big caveat in this figures, which is that the people who watched the convention on the final night were still more Republican than the general population.  The D/R/I of this sample was 24/48/27, and the D/R/I of the 2010 midterms was 36/36/29.  That’s still significantly less Republican than I would have thought for a convention audience, and this might well be the first datum of success for the Clint Eastwood strategy.  Another data point would be the saturation among registered voters in Florida for the final night; in this survey, nearly 69% of registered voters in Florida tuned in.  That’s a pretty remarkable reach, and if that’s the case around the country, I’d say that Team Romney and the RNC won big.

Here’s another data point, too: the split among Florida voters to Eastwood’s speech was 49% positive to only 24% negative by the next day — presumably even after the avalanche of criticism for it.  The overall split is positive in almost all demos except Democrats (30/45) and liberals (26/58).  Majorities of independents (51/26), seniors (54/20), men (54/24) approved of it, but the biggest positive response came from Hispanics, 62/21 — even better than Republicans (58/12).  Even women (44/25) and black voters (43/37) liked Eastwood’s extemporaneous riff on President Obama.

The ultimate question, though, is whose minds were changed — and that looks bad for Obama almost along the same lines.  The aggregate numbers are shown above, but here are some key breakdowns in the demos, which we’ll calculate by adding those switching from either undecided or Obama to Romney, and those switching from undecided or Romney to Obama, in that order:

• Men: 32/16 (Romney/Obama switchers)
• Women: 15/9
• 18-34YOs: 29/15
• Black: 38/19
• Hispanic: 25/17
• Independent: 37/23

One last caveat: those tuning in among those demos would tend to be a little self-selecting as having an open enough mind to be convinced to switch.  Still, it’s pretty clear that at least in Florida, Eastwood not only got people to tune in, he got them to enjoy the evening and perhaps open their mind to support Mitt Romney.  If I’m Mitt Romney, I’d say that this makes my day.

RELATED: Rush Limbaugh: ‘Eastwood Succeeded In Getting Under Obama’s Skin’

How MSNBC Became Fox’s Liberal Evil Twin

NYTimes.com:

You can agree with everything that Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz say on MSNBC and still oppose their right to say it. 

Especially when they and their hyped-up panelists shout that Republican claims are “lies,” or Chris Matthews says that Republicans view welfare recipients as “looters.” MSNBC panelists gave Mitt Romney his due on Thursday but mocked his audience. Mr. Matthews noted that when Mr. Romney called for Americans to give the poor a helping hand, Mr. Matthews said, “He got zero applause,” adding, “I think that’s so telling about tonight.” 

MSNBC has pumped up its ratings by recasting itself as a left-leaning riposte to Fox News, and that’s fine. Fox long ago proved that a lot of viewers like to hear cable anchors echo what they already think; MSNBC is just playing catch-up. Fox is still well ahead, especially during a Republican convention, but on Tuesday, there were times when MSNBC drew significantly more convention viewers than CNN. 

That’s because MSNBC offers counterprogramming, not coverage. All that arch sarcasm and partisan brio may rev up the cable channel’s fans, but it constrains — and stains — NBC News, its corporate sibling, which is still the country’s No. 1 source in the evening. 

NBC and the other broadcast networks cut their live convention coverage to an hour during prime time this year, which leaves barely time to show the main speeches, let alone analyze them. Yet NBC’s chief anchor, Brian Williams, has conspicuously avoided the most fractious MSNBC discussion panels. Those anchors who do make dutiful appearances, like David Gregory and Tom Brokaw, are badly needed but don’t stay long or join the fray — like piano players in a brothel, they don’t go upstairs. 

And that leaves fewer choices for viewers who like their election coverage with informed commentary without a twist of bias. They have to D.I.Y. either on the Internet or C-Span, or turn to PBS or CNN. And, unfortunately, because CNN’s ratings are so low, there is a danger it will disappear or turn to a more marketable model. 

Fox News doesn’t have a network news division, and its star anchors can be as defiantly partisan as they like. They favor Republicans, but even more they like to goad Republican candidates into criticizing the liberal media and President Obama. 

Both Fox News and MSNBC have experienced reporters in the field who stay neutral even when their anchors let loose. The NBC network’s anchors keep their opinions to themselves, and so do its star reporters, like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd, who appear on both cable and network shows, and somehow skillfully navigate past the rockier shoals. 

Ms. Maddow made her mark by breaking with the mindless Ping-Pong between two opposing views that sometimes passes for objectivity — and that is routinely mocked by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show.” MSNBC’s stridency is certainly a reaction to the ratings success of Fox News. But it’s also inspired by Mr. Stewart’s satirical commentary. 

The smugness is easier to copy than the wit. MSNBC has a growing cast of anchor-bloviators — hosts like Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall and, of course, Al Sharpton, who rant and then invite like-minded guest commentators to assure them that they are right. 

Chris Matthews, who hosts a Sunday talk show syndicated by NBC and a daily MSNBC show, seemed determined during this convention to outflank his most outspoken rivals, including Mr. Sharpton. 

He started with a bruising harangue against Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee Chairman, that made even his hosts on “Morning Joe” wince. Mr. Matthews looked almost thuggish on Wednesday night when the Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, 67, speaking from the din of the convention floor, complained she couldn’t hear his question. 

“You can’t hear me?” he said. “Well, that’s convenient.” 

On Thursday, Mr. Matthews fulminated against Paul Ryan’s — admittedly misleading — assertion that Mr. Obama did nothing to prevent the closing of a GM plant in 2008. Then Fox News attacked media figures who attacked Mr. Ryan. CNN took the harder course of parsing the entire issue: The correspondent Tom Foreman gave a long, industrious analysis that explained where and how Mr. Ryan finessed the facts. 

MSNBC talk shows are to network newscasts what blogs are to newspaper columns, shaggier and often less considered. And increasingly, viewers, like readers, have a hard time distinguishing one from the other. But it’s all that attitude on MSNBC that raises eyebrows. 

Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, who backed, then rescinded, a state bill that would require women seeking an abortion to first have an invasive ultrasound, is a favorite target. After his convention speech, the MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said sarcastically that Republicans might be nervous “standing next to a governor who represents a vision of small government that is small enough to put on the end of a transvaginal probe.” 

No wonder Brian Williams stays away.

RELATED: MSNBC ups the ante on race as a factor in Obama opposition

Paul Ryan Delivers Powerful Speech To RNC, Hits Obama For Failing To Deliver The Presidency He Promised

Mediaite.com:

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan delivered his much-anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night where he formally accepted his party’s nomination for the vice presidency. 

“I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old,” said Ryan. He praised Mitt Romney immediately, saying that the Republican presidential nominee’s whole life has led up to this moment. “American needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is governor Mitt Romney.”

“I have never seen opponents so silent about their record and so desperate to keep their power,” Ryan said. “They’ve ran out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division is all they’ve got left.”

Ryan drew laughs when he said that President Barack Obama‘s campaign was throwing away money by airing attack ads, “and he’s pretty experienced at that.”

Ryan introduced his family and became emotional when he introduced his mother, Betty. The emotions continued to run high as Ryan spoke of his father who passed away when he was 15-years-old. 

Ryan spoke about his hometown in Wisconsin, where he said he still lives today. “The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I’ve tried to live up to their trust. And now, I ask those hardworking men and women to join our cause and get this country working again,” Ryan said to applause. 

Ryan outlined the perilous state of the economy and how many Americans are hurting amid the stalled economic recovery:

Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can’t find the work they studied for, or any work at all.

Ryan turned to taking on President Obama’s record – he took him on for breaking the promises he made in 2008, the stimulus and for his health care reform law. 

“You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business,” Ryan said. “But this president didn’t do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.”

Ryan slammed Obama for taking funds out of Medicare to fund the Affordable Care Act, noting that Obama’s “biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.”

He said that they intend to tackle the problem of Medicare’s looming insolvency head on. “Our nation needs this debate, we want this debate and we will win this debate,” said Ryan. 

He spent much of the speech, not attacking Obama for failing fixing the economic mess he inherited, but for implementing programs which were never intended to address that crisis.

It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed.

Ryan praised Obama’s 2008 campaign rhetoric which he called “serious talk from a what looked to be a serious reformer.” But, today, “they have no answer to this simple reality: we need to stop spending money we don’t have.”

In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less. That is enough. The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.

Ryan closed by saying that he knew “the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration.” He said that the Romney/Ryan ticket would need to make their case to the American people. He promised that the coming campaign would make the choice in this election clear to all voters.

“We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles,” said Ryan. “Whatever your political party, let’s come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. Let’s give this effort everything we have. Let’s see this through all the way. Let’s get this done.”

RELATED: Analysis: Ryan puts down calculator, picks up bullhorn

Ann Coulter: New York Times Fact Checkers: Bed Rest is Work

Townhall.com:

Poor Mickey Kaus. He's the liberal intellectual (not an oxymoron -- he's the last known living "liberal intellectual") lefties on TV are usually stealing from, but now that this welfare reform maven has concluded that Romney's welfare ad is basically correct, liberals refuse to acknowledge his existence.

The non-Fox media have formed a solid front in denouncing Romney's welfare ad for daring to point out that Obama has gutted the work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform bill.

The New York Times claims that Romney's ad "falsely" charges Obama with eliminating work requirements. CNN rates the ad "false." Underemployed hack Howard Fineman says Romney's ad "is just flat out wrong on the facts" and "that every fair analyst, every fact checker" has said it's "just factually wrong."

When a campaign ad induces this much hysteria, you know Romney has struck gold. On closer examination, it turns out that by "every fair analyst," Fineman means a bunch of liberals quoting one another.

This is how the media's "fact checkers" operate when it comes to a Republican campaign ad. One not very well-informed person (or a heavily biased person) announces that Romney's welfare ad is false, and the rest of the herd quote him, without anyone ever bothering to examine the facts, much less citing anyone who knows what he's talking about.

It is striking that everyone who actually knows something about the 1996 welfare reform law says that Romney's ad is accurate.

One of the principal authors of the 1996 welfare reform, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, and Douglas Besharov, who advised Hillary Clinton on the 1996 welfare reform law, say Romney's ad is accurate.

Andrew Grossman, also of Heritage, produced something the MSM "fact checkers" avoid: a specific and detailed explanation of how the new waivers will allow states to evade the work requirements.

RELATED: Outgoing Public Editor: Progressivism 'Bleeds Through the Fabric of the New York Times'

Juan Williams Calls Ann Romney A "Corporate Wfie"

Funny how this guy gets consistently slammed by extremists on the Left and the Right:

Responding to Ann Romney‘s Tuesday night RNC speech, Fox News analyst Juan Williams said that the wife of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney looked “like a corporate wife … whose husband takes care of her.”

While analyzing her speech, which focused on her relationship with Mitt and her own personal struggles, Williams said that “the stories she told about struggles, it’s hard for me to believe. I mean, she’s a very rich woman.”

“Wow, okay,” co-host Bret Baier said.

When asked what he meant by “corporate wife,” Williams clarified that it’s a woman “whose husband takes care of her.”

“She’s not speaking for the tremendous number of single women in this country,” he concluded. “She did not convince me that she understands the struggles of American women in general.”

This morning, Fox’s Chris Wallace responded to Williams, saying he found it to be a “dumb remark.”

RELATED:  7 facts about Fox’s Juan Williams

Yahoo News Fires White, Liberal Reporter David Chalian, Apologizes to Romney Over 'Black People Drowning' Remark

FOXNews.com:

Yahoo News' Washington bureau chief was fired Wednesday after he was caught on a hot mic joking that Republicans are "happy to have a party" while black people drown. 

The comment was made by David Chalian during live coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and was an apparent reference to the convention getting underway while a tropical storm-turned-hurricane barreled toward the Gulf Coast. 

"They are happy to have a party with black people drowning," said a voice off-camera, later identified as Chalian, as video of the Romneys played on screen. Other people could be heard laughing at the comment. 

A Yahoo! spokesperson confirmed to FoxNews.com that Chalian was let go, and said the company has apologized to Romney and his staff. 

"David Chalian's statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Chalian posted his own apology later Wednedsay on Twitter: "I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke."

Chalian used to work for ABC before moving on to serve as the political director at "PBS NewsHour" and eventually work for Yahoo News. 

RELATED: Gwen Ifill Expresses Support For Fired Yahoo! News’ David Chalian: ‘God’s Gift To Political Journalism’

Reince Priebus Calls Obama Stan Chris Matthews ‘The Biggest Jerk In The Room’

Mediaite.com:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was on the receiving end of thurough grilling from MSNBC host Chris Matthews while the two appeared on Monday’s Morning Joe. Matthews accused Priebus, his party and their presidential nominee of knowingly employing coded racism in their campaign against President Barack Obama. Priebus kept his cool during that segment, but in an interview with National Review’s Jim Geraghty, the RNC chairman responded to Matthews by calling him “the biggest jerk in the room.”

Priebus responded to criticism that he was too deferential to Matthews while his party and their presidential nominee were being defamed on cable news. Priebus replied to that charge saying that, when someone is being “the biggest jerk,” it is sometimes best to “just let them go.”

When someone wants to grab the flag and try to be the biggest jerk in the room, sometimes you just let them go…. We shook hands, but I will tell ya that someone from MSNBC, I don’t know if it’s a producer or somebody, has been trying to call us all day – I’m sure it’s to make amends, but there’s nothing to make amends [about]. When somebody wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room… I mean, he made the case for us. This is the Barack Obama surrogate of 2012. This is what they’re all about. They’re going to be about division, they’re going to be about distraction. And I’ve got to tell you, the brand of Barack Obama, hope and change and bringing us all together, it’s completely broken. When people come to realize that you’re not real anymore, you’re not who you said you were, that’s a big problem for Barack Obama.

Asked if he would go on MSNBC again, he said, “I’m happy to go on MSNBC. Joe and Mika, they weren’t too happy about it. The feeling in the room was clearly there was a lot of happiness directed at Chris. I don’t really care. If more than 10 people actually watched his show, I would actually care, but they don’t, so, whatever.

 RELATED: Chris Matthews Accuses Reince Priebus, GOP Of Playing Race Card: ‘It’s Your Garbage’

Liberal Actress (And Resident Idiot) Ellen Barkin Slams Mormon TV Station Over Refusal to Air Comedy About Gay Adoption

If you haven't been paying attention the new white, far-Left mantra is to tag anyone a "bigot" if they dare to be against "gay marriage". Of course, it's yet another ploy by the socially-bankrupt souls on the Left to steal from the civil rights era and play the race card, and leave it dumb actresses like Ellen Barkin to pick up the baton. Yes, she's really that stupid:

Actress Ellen Barkin started a fire on Twitter over the weekend when she blasted a Utah TV station decision not to air NBC’s upcoming comedy “The New Normal,” about a gay couple who adopts a baby.

“Shame on u @kslcom,” read the first in a series of angry tweets, for “not airing @NBCTheNewNormal.

“So L&O SVU (rape & child murder) is ok? But loving gay couple having a baby is inappropriate?,” it read.

KSL is the NBC station in Salt Lake City that said last Friday it was dropping the new show from its primetime schedule.

“After viewing the pilot episode of ‘The New Normal,’ we have made the decision to keep it off our fall schedule,” the station said in a prepared statement.

The outspoken actress started a wave of protest with the hashtag #KSLBigots for a series of tweets that ended with Barkin urging protesters in Utah to “please clog up @ksl5tv feed 4 their blatantly [homophobic] decision 2 not air the show.”

In the series, a gay couple in LA enlists a surrogate mother — who already has an 8-year-old daughter — to have a baby for them. The two families become enmeshed in the process.

Barkin plays the surrogate mom’s buttinsky mother in the series.

RELATED: Samuel L. Jackson: ‘Unfair Sh*t’ That ‘GOP Spared By Isaac’ While New Orleans Likely ‘F*cked Again’

Awful: "Kill Mitt Romney" Page Left Up on Facebook for 17 Days

Just when you thought social media was non-partisan:

For the sake of the political system, one hopes that this Facebook page is a joke:

It’s difficult to tell which is more terrifying – the fact that this page exists at all, or that it had “27 Likes” at the time this picture was taken (that number has since grown to 28).

Fortunately, even if 28 very troubled people do “Like” this page, the reactions from practically everyone else have been stunned and disturbed, and that’s true of both parties.

Full Metal Jacket Actor R. Lee Ermey Claims Geico Canned Him For Anti-Obama Views

Mediaite.com:

R. Lee Ermey, the actor perhaps best known for his iconic role in Stanely Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, recently told celebrity gossip site TMZ that he was fired by Geico after doing a commercial (Remember? He played a tough-as-nails therapist who chided a guy for being “namby-pamby.”) for the insurance company because he’d been openly critical of Barack Obama.

Appearing at a Toys 4 Tots fundraiser in 2010, Ermey made his thoughts on the President known, urging others to “rise up” against Obama in a rant for which he would later offer a public apology:

The economy really sucks. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees.

We should rise up and stop this administration from what they are doing, because what they are doing is destroying this county. They’re driving us into bankruptcy so that they can impose socialism on us, and that’s exactly what they are doing and I am sick and damn tired of it.

The actor told TMZ that, “Yeah, I got fired,” adding that “Geico fired me because I wasn’t too kind about speaking about the present administration. If you’re a conservative in this town, you better watch out.”

RELATED: Video: Did GEICO fire spokesman for criticizing Obama?

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/27/12

A Look At Janna Ryan: 'She's Going To Bloom Where She's Planted'

Gritty N.J. City Of Camden To Scrap Police Department Amid Budget Woes

Should The NYPD Even Be Issued Firearms?

UPDATE: RNC Announces Modified Three-Day Convention Schedule

The Quest For A Reason To Re-Elect The President

Liberals Look To End Marriage Going 'Forward,' But There's Still Time To Turn Back

Spate of Documentaries Offers Ammunition To Conservatives

Oh Brother, I Mean Mother: Dem Mom and Daughter Pose as 'Republican Women for Obama,' Get Caught

Former Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist Endorses Obama

The Naked Truth About Nudity On TV

Immigration Agents Sue To Stop Obama’s Non-Deportation Policy 

Has Racism, Not Incompetence, Hobbled The Obama Presidency?