Kerry Campaign Snubs One of Biggest Radio Stations on Earth

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLVII

Midwest Conservative Journal tells the story, yesterday. (Ellipses and emphasis in original.)

Nice work, John. Blow off one of the most important radio stations in the Midwest:

The John Kerry campaign came to St. Louis Saturday evening... and seemed a bit confused. The Democratic hopeful appeared at a tightly-guarded rally in Forest Park to talk about his plan to create jobs. KMOX Reporter Molly Hyland was on the scene but found Kerry campaign aides had decided that only television reporters could interview the candidate. Kerry's campaign aide said she had never heard of KMOX and would not allow an interview. The Kerry campaign did arrange for the senator to call KMOX by phone earlier in the day... but that, too, fell through. The call never came. Saturday night, the Kerry campaign phone lines were closed; its spokesmen out of reach.

Stephen Green explains what KMOX is and why this may be a whole lot more than a mere gaffe:

Summer of '88, I was privileged enough to nab an internship at KMOX-1120. For three months, I played unpaid radio reporter, from 6pm-3am, Thursday through Sunday — in addition to my 9-5 weekday job. A union shop, I couldn't go on the air, but I did everything else a reporter does.

Why was I willing to work such dreadful hours for no pay? Because KMOX is a CBS-owned, 50,000 watt clear channel AM news/sports/talk station. "Clear channel" in KMOX's case doesn't mean the dreaded conglomerate. It means that nobody else in the country shares their position on the dial — and 50,000 watts means they have listeners from Canada to Texas, and from Indiana to Colorado.

There aren't many stations like KMOX in the country, and an internship there is quite an honor. The next year, when I moved to California, just having their call letters on my otherwise unimpressive resume was enough to land me my first paid radio job.

KMOX was home of Jack Buck, the fabled sportscaster, "the voice of the Cardinals." It's where Harry Carey got his start. KMOX has been around for 70 years, and will be around for at least 70 more.

Jeffersonian comments:

I just came home from work listening to KMOX and the host, McGraw Milhaven, was all over Kerry for this gaffe. To make matters even worse, the reporter Kerry's droids snubbed was Bob Hyland's daughter.

Bob Hyland, for those who don't know, ran KMOX for many years and is a legend around St. Louis. And Brian Noggle reports that KMOX and a good many people around here let John have it:

KMOX also mentioned on the air that the audience jeered the aides and the Secret Service whenever they asked who KMOX was and what kind of radio station it is. It's the biggest radio station in the market. It has been for decades. Thanks for stopping by in your layover between real work.

Great staff you've got there, John. Really on top of things.

UPDATE: And it isn't just prominent Midwestern radio stations:

I attended the March 27 John Kerry rally at the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park, where I found the only place in the U.S. where there was no awareness of the Americans With Disabilities law.

Since the event was sponsored by the Missouri Democratic Party, I assumed I would be welcomed in my wheelchair. What I found was a hostile environment from the event organizers toward people in wheelchairs.

I arrived one hour before the event was scheduled to be open. We were not allowed to pass through the security screening on the level entrance to the pavilion, but rather had to negotiate our chairs down five steps to get in line. Then all 300 pounds of me had to be carried up more than ten steps into the event area, where I was able to hear Kerry speak but could not see him because of all the people standing in front of me.

I also found no curb cuts approaching the pavilion from Hampton Avenue, and found all the sidewalks had potholes. Several times, I had to get out of the chair before proceeding. Why did everyone in wheelchairs have this same experience at a park with such historic value and which is supposedly a source of pride to residents?

David Depker
St. Louis

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Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 08:35:42 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & John Kerry.

Scarecrow Advises Cadaver to "Loosen Up"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLVI

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Ralph Nader has some campaign advice for Democrat John Kerry: Loosen up.

The consumer advocate and independent presidential candidate said Tuesday that Kerry comes across as stiff and coached on the campaign trail.

"John Kerry has got to get loose," Nader said. "He cannot allow political consultants to put handcuffs on his mind and his imagination. He's got to stop talking Senate-ese and be the old John Kerry I knew 23 years ago."

Appearing on CNN's "Crossfire," Nader defended his decision to run as an independent despite a torrent of criticism from Democrats who claim he will siphon votes from Kerry and help re-elect Bush. Many Democrats blame Nader for taking votes from Al Gore in 2000 and ensuring Bush's narrow electoral victory.

"The Democrats should just stop whining and go to work," Nader said. "They should be landsliding Bush."

Nader said his campaign will help Democrats by opening a "second front" against Bush. He also repeated his claim that he would appeal to many disgruntled conservatives angry at Bush for increasing the deficit, signing the Patriot Act and favoring international trade agreements that compromise national sovereignty.

"They are either going to stay home or look for an independent," he said.

As for liberals who call him vindictive or egomaniacal, Nader said, "That means they're out of arguments."

Nader said he plans to meet with Kerry and former presidential candidate Howard Dean to discuss his strategy.

"I'm going to say 'Look, we have one thing in common. We want to send the Bush corporation back to Crawford, Texas."'

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Nader said his campaign will help Democrats by opening a "second front" against Bush. Somebody, please, help me up off the floor.

Nader said he plans to meet with Kerry and former presidential candidate Howard Dean to discuss his strategy. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room........

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 07:34:59 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

Blammo!

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLV

I think that's what will happen — to the Democrats — when NSA Condoleezza Rice testifies publicly before the 9-11 Commission next week. Anybody who thinks anybody is gonna make a fool of Condi is just plain stupid. She's gonna take Richard Clarke, chew him up, and spit him out. Shortly thereafter, mainstream media coverage of the issue will wither and vanish, though some bitter partisans, such as those at Moron Moveon.org, will probably make some risible ad or two out of it before it's all over but the shouting.

Man, that Karl Rove is a genius.

P.S. Michael Novak agrees with me.

P.P.S. The folks at the Boston Herald are thinking along similar lines:

The White House has just given Democratic partisans, on and off the Sept. 11 commission, enough rope with which to hang themselves. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice will testify publicly under oath before the national Sept. 11 commission, and the whole commission will meet, without time constraints, with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. But the public will only tolerate so much political posturing related to the Sept. 11 attacks. If Democrats take advantage of the administration's cooperation to score political points in this election year, it's John Kerry's, not Bush's, campaign which will be harmed.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 06:25:33 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

For a Really Big Change of Pace

As you know, Faithful Reader, The Blog from the Core pays scant attention to the wide world of sports. Unlike many another member of St. Blog's. I think I'd be remiss, though, if I didn't call to your attention that the women's basketball team of my collegiate alma mater — which is just a few miles up river from where I live — won the national championship:

There's nothing like a little drama in a national championship game.

Megan Storck's 3-pointer with 28.6 seconds left in the ballgame gave the California University of Pennsylvania Lady Vulcans their first ever national title — a 75-72 thriller over Drury (Mo.) University on Saturday in front of 2,681 people, a significant majority of whom were Drury faithful....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 05:53:48 PM
Categorized as Other.

CCC @ His Mercy

A very attractive and useful edition of The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Vide.

It's also available as an equally attractive and useful Ebook.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 07:22:58 AM
Categorized as Religious.

Terrorism and the Democrats

Two stories looking at the failure of the Democratic Party to face up to the threat of terrorism.

First, Melana Zyla Vickers looks at what's really coming out of the 9-11 commission investigation, at TCS yesterday:

Until a few days ago, presidential candidate John Kerry was able to take all the shots he wanted at President Bush's record in the war on terror, while remaining out of critical range himself. But last week's 9/11 commission hearings changed all that.

The hearings presented a Democratic record on terrorism that is marred by fundamental policy fumbles and ultimately fatal misjudgments. Of course, some of the errors in fighting terrorism in the 1990s could have been — and were — made or repeated by the Republican administration of George W. Bush. But a top-five list drawn from the testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and the reports prepared by commission staff, reveals errors that stemmed from what might be described as the post Cold War, Democratic world-view....

Second, J. Michael Waller looks at one all-too-real aspect of the Clinton legacy, at WND yesterday:

Many of former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke's friends are saying his anti-Bush diatribe has cost him his credibility.

When Clarke fingered President Bush for having "botched the response to 9-11," he and other critics left out a major point: Until just two months before the attack, nearly all the senior counterterrorism and intelligence officials on duty at the time were holdovers from the Clinton administration.

From the CIA to the Pentagon to the National Security Council, Clinton holdovers populated the Bush administration's intelligence and counterterrorism community....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 07:17:51 AM
Categorized as Political.

"Old Habits Die Hard For Verbose Kerry"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCXLIV

"Stemwinders"? How quaint.

In today's NYT. Yes, that's right: the New York Times.

On his return from vacation in Idaho, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts announced what might be called a Spring Resolution: "No more long answers."

Mr. Kerry, whose stemwinders have provided fodder for both critics and humorists, did manage to dispatch with six questions in about as many minutes during a brief news conference on Saturday afternoon in Kansas City. But on Monday morning in Sacramento, he was back to his long-winded self as he tried to respond to an attack by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said Senator Kerry was a very reliable legislator: Republicans counted on him to vote for tax increases every time.

Speaking to students at a skills center, Mr. Kerry started out tersely enough: "They found Dick Cheney in an undisclosed location and brought him out to attack me," he said. "That seems to be his designated role, not to create jobs but to attack John Kerry."

Then came the red meat, though it was sandwiched between some thick slabs of wordy bread.

"What's really interesting is that with each attack, this administration is building up the truth deficit to go along with the jobs deficit, and the fiscal deficit, and their international intelligence-gathering credibility deficit," Mr. Kerry said. "This administration has one economic policy for America, 3 million jobs lost and driving gas policies towards $3 a gallon. That's their policy. And they're now running a campaign of untruths, of misleading America. They're running a campaign in March of mid-October desperation."

He went on: "They cannot seem to find the truth and tell the truth, or if they find the truth they don't like it so much because it's a truth of 3 million jobs lost, it's a truth of millions of children being left behind because of the broken promise of No Child Left Behind. It's the truth of no health-care plan for Americans as health-care costs go up and up, it's the truth of going backwards on the environment and pretending that they're doing something with fancy names like healthy forests and clear skies, even as they deliver a worse product to Americans.

"If I were them I suppose I'd understand why they are not telling the truth," he continued. "It's because they don't have a record to run on, they have a record to run away from. So they distort." Nice sound bite. But not done yet.

"Latest distortion: Dick Cheney goes out and tells Americans that John Kerry is going to raise your taxes and he voted against — get this — because I voted against the Bush tax cut, that we couldn't afford at the high end, the wealthiest Americans, but I did vote for, indeed proposed, an alternative that gave the middle class a tax cut, that didn't take all that money and transfer it from the average American to the wealthiest people — they're trying to mislead Americans.

"So let's say it once loudly and clearly," Mr. Kerry continued, "and I hope the vice president and the president hear it, and I hope they will for once stop misleading Americans to tell Americans the truth. Here's the truth: Under my plan, 98 percent of Americans will get a tax cut at the federal level from John Kerry's administration. Ninety-eight percent of Americans."

There's more.

"The only people, the only people, who will be asked to help share in building a strong America are those at the very, very top who are earning more than $200,000 a year who are getting yet another tax cut at the expense of almost all the priorities we have in this country. And I'm offering America not one of those phony 30-second advertisement kind of campaigns, I'm offering you a real choice, which is what elections for the presidency of the United States are supposed to be about. The choice is you can either have a tax cut for people earning more than $200,000 a year on top of each of the tax cuts they've already had, or we can invest in health care and education and in the creation of jobs in the United States."

In all, Mr. Kerry's riff stretched to six minutes, a rambling 755 words, more than five times the 136 his aides had jotted down for him.

The original statement included the crack about the "truth deficit" but not the one about the undisclosed location. It did not include numbers of jobs lost in Ohio and Michigan, or a mention of No Child Left Behind, or outsourcing.

But does it count as a long answer if there was no question?

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I suppose one could look at this is an unusual way to take some swipes at the Bush administration. But, they could have done it without the swipes at Kerry, no?

In the New York Times!

One really does get the feeling sometimes that even Democrats aren't happy with their Nominee Presumptive.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/31/04 07:04:11 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & John Kerry.