Barkley on ‘Brown’

By Jennifer J. Foster

Former NBA and Auburn University basketball star Charles Barkley appeared on CNN’s “Campbell Brown: No bias, No bull” program Monday to discuss his thoughts on the presidential race and his plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2014.

Charles being Charles, the interview was chock full of—um, interesting quotes, both on the state of this state and the presidential campaign.

On the presidential race, Barkley said he supports Barack Obama. But apparently, Barkley doesn’t believe it really matters who’s president.

“Realistically, whoever the president is doesn’t have a huge effect on anybody’s life, to be honest with you ... he doesn’t have an effect on people’s everyday lives. He does not,“ Barkley said. “I mean that sincerely. Whoever the president is does not have an effect upon people’s everyday life.“

I guess Barkley has never talked to a military family whose son or daughter or husband or wife or mom or dad was sent into war by a president, and he isn’t all that familiar with that whole head-of-the-executive-branch-so-he-helps-make-laws-and-stuff thing.

Barkley also said Republicans have used race as an issue in the campaign because “that’s the only way they can win.“

“I wrote a chapter in one of my books about what happens in a race, when things are going bad, everybody kind of goes with their own tribe and the only way the Republican party can make this thing work is they get their tribe to get together and of course they use racial innuendo.“

Hmm ... I guess he’s not counting on any crossover votes in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

But he’s already got his campaign slogan all worked out: “I can’t screw up Alabama,“ he told Brown.

She asked him, “There is no place to go but up in your view?“ Barkley responded, “We are number 48 in everything and Arkansas and Mississippi aren’t going anywhere.“

Whoo hoo! Good relationships with neighbors! I’m sure Mississippians are thrilled by the prospect of a Barkley administration!

From a political perspective, Barkley is making a lot of assumptions about the 2014 race—not the least of which are that U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (D-Birmingham), who has all but announced for governor himself in 2010, either 1) won’t be governor, or 2) won’t be running again for governor.

But Barkley probably won’t need to worry about any campaigning, given the one-liner bonanza he produced in the Brown interview:

“(This presidential election) is really about rich people versus poor people.“

“I am a big pro-choice guy.“

“I am a big gay marriage guy.“

Wow. I don’t envy at all the unfortunate campaign consultant who will eventually be tapped by Sir Charles to manage that mouth. Talk about your losing battles.

Read the full transcript of the interview here.

Wade’s haiku

By Jennifer J. Foster

Speaking of Wade on Birmingham, Wade has a great haiku that probably resonates with many of you.

To read “Death to pundits and attack ads,“ click here.

P.S. I officially no longer call myself a pundit.

O-A News endorses McCain

By Jennifer J. Foster

The Opelika-Auburn News has endorsed John McCain for president.

For a rundown of other (pre-News) newspaper editorial endorsements from around the state, check out Wade on Birmingham. (Thanks to Danny at Doc’s for the tip.)

In addition to rounding up the endorsements so far, Wade opines thoughtfully and intelligently about the role and importance of newspapers’ editorial endorsements. I would add to his comments that endorsements that are properly done—i.e., based on strong reporting and an unvarnished view of the facts surrounding a race—provide clarity to campaigns that are increasingly becoming cluttered with non-issues. They provide leadership to their communities on who is truly best suited to serve.

With that said, like all things, not all editorial endorsements are properly done—and that’s a shame. Because newspapers that produce substandard endorsements further reinforce readers’ creeping feelings that their paper just isn’t as useful to them as it used to be.

Election Day trick-or-treat

By Jennifer J. Foster

I guess it’s a coincidence that Election Day falls so close to Halloween.

But the children’s occasion sure seems to fit the dirty tricks some of the grown-ups pull a few days later.

From the left, we have a first-person account from a former ACORN staffer of how he and some of his colleagues in Seattle, with help from baby name books, telephone books, newspapers and other things, registered nearly 2,000 imaginary voters.

The story is quick to point out that this staffer, who went to prison for voter registration fraud, committed their actions “without consulting their supervisors.“

I’m sure it’s coincidental that ACORN is now under investigation in 10 states for voter registration fraud.

Inexplicably, one university professor says people are overreacting to registration fraud, and that ACORN is actually THE VICTIM in these schemes.

“There are no known instances of fictitious people actually voting,“ (he) said. “You look at some of the names: Mickey Mouse. Dr. Seuss. Mickey Mouse only votes in Disneyland. He’s not going to show up at a critical precinct in West Virginia or North Carolina ...

“The victims of this are the people who paid these workers $8 an hour to go out and find legitimate voters, and ... they didn’t get their $8 worth; they put down phony names.“

CNN reports that ACORN said it has registered well more than 1 million voters, most of them Democrats.

But I’m sure that’s coincidental, too.

Then from the right, we have the story of a former Republican political operative who went to federal prison for phone harassment.

He jammed the phone lines of New Hampshire’s Democratic Party and a firefighter’s union hall in Manchester on Election Day six years ago, disrupting the party’s and volunteers’ communications with each other and voters they were ferrying to the polls.

This guy, CNN says, is “living proof that political dirty tricksters do exist.“

I wasn’t aware that we were in doubt.

Over the next seven days, there will assuredly be plenty of tricks to go around. And lawyers are lined up all over the country, from the presidential campaigns on down. Here in Lee County, the state parties have even arranged for us to have helpful lawyers standing by in case we have any need for their services.

So much for the treat of a quiet, free and fair election.

Palin ‘going rogue’

By Jennifer J. Foster

CNN also breathlessly reported this weekend that GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin is, in the words of one adviser to John McCain, “going rogue.“

Not surprisingly, there is NOT A SINGLE NAMED SOURCE for these statements. CNN contines the accelerating downward spiral of traditional media credibility with YET ANOTHER article that is pinned on faceless voices.

These unnamed sources charge that Palin is looking out for No. 1 in going off message.

Palin’s advisers (who are also unnamed)—

SIDEBAR: Come to think of it, the only sources identified in the article are McCain and Palin officials who came out to address the statements made by these unnamed sources, and a Democratic pollster who is COMPLETELY UNRELATED to anything in the story. Hey, CNN: Why even bother with any names at all? They’re do detail-oriented and cumbersome.

Note to McCain and Obama campaigns: From now on, if a so-called journalist comes to you with information they attribute only to “well-placed sources” or some other such tommyrot, treat him as if he is inquiring about the weekly specials at the local pizzeria. If he isn’t going to take his job seriously, then you shouldn’t, either. END SIDEBAR

—defended her, saying that she was “trying to take more control of her message.“

You know, if I had been mismanaged and muzzled the way Sarah Palin was when she was introduced to the national stage, I would want more control my message, too.

The McCain campaign, as I have pointed out here before, has been one of the most inept in history. Seven days before the election, it’s still searching for a central theme.

McCain staffers have had nearly EIGHT MONTHS to create and hone a comprehensive message to sell their candidate, a guy with 25 years of experience in Washington, in the general election.

They have failed miserably.

So is their failure to sell Palin—a Washington neophyte who’s been on the national scene for only eight weeks—really any surprise?

And one more thing: There’s something that just doesn’t ring true about this feigned shock from McCain advisers. Let me take a stab at explaining why.

They say she’s “going rogue” because she’s splitting with the powers that be.

But when McCain split with the powers that be in the Senate, they called him a “maverick.“

I guess there’s a fine line between “rogue” and “maverick”—and it all depends on whether you’re one of the powers that be.