Nice Try Frank Rich!

Red meat for the faithful.

In an opinion piece from the New York Times yesterday, February 19th, 2011, Frank Rich distracts his readers from the very serious demonstrations happening in Wisconsin. Because some very core liberal tenants are about to take a poignant shellacking, Frank chooses to wax fondly on the Tuscon tragedy, and his perception that politicizing a national tragedy was a brilliant political success. How evil is that?

The G.O.P.’s Post-Tucson Traumatic Stress Disorder

SIX weeks after that horrific day in Tucson, America has half-forgotten its violent debate over the power of violent speech to incite violence. 

No Frank. We have not forgotten. Talk about violent speech inciting violence is being suppressed by you and the rest of the lame stream media because of what is going on in Madison Wisconsin. Violent speech and imagery, and all the other things you whined about are being bandied about like the violence debate never happened. When the left is being violent, you don't want to talk about it. You would rather reminisce about that period of time when you were blaming the right for being violent, even though they weren't.

But all those arguments over political language did leave a discernible legacy. In the aftermath of President Obama’s Tucson sermon, civility has had a mini-restoration in Washington. And some of the most combative national figures in our politics have been losing altitude ever since, much as they did after Bill Clinton’s oratorical response to the inferno of Oklahoma City.

Arguments over political language that had nothing to do with Tuscon. Here is where he pats himself on the back and gives a warm hug to his fellow partisans over the success he's seen in politicizing the assassination attempt on Gabriel Giffords. Frank Rich continues to indulge in some escapism by spinning data to cheer those still mourning the one party rule system. Reporting on the impending doom for the lefts two favorite punching bags Rich writes:

Glenn Beck’s ratings at Fox News continued their steady decline, falling to an all-time low last month. He has lost 39 percent of his viewers in a year and 48 percent of the prime 25-to-54 age demographic. His strenuous recent efforts to portray the Egyptian revolution as an apocalyptic leftist-jihadist conspiracy have inspired more laughs than adherents.

ah, to not think of the hypocritical violence spewing angry mobs in Wisconsin and to be able to cackle over the eminent demise of the reviled Glen Beck! Truly chicken soup for the soul.

But wait a minute. There are some facts that Mr. Rich left out. As Samuel Clemons once said "There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics" (Paraphrased). The raw fact is that Glen Beck continues to beat the competition with an audience that is still 4 times larger than his closest competitor. When Beck's all time low is 4 times what the competition is doing, I am not sure it's time to gloat.

And then there is the favorite punching bag, Sarah Palin.  Frank almost appears to be doing a parody of the Glen Beck conspiracy theories that he scoffs at by insinuating that Sarah not speaking at CPAC and canceling a speaking engagement is proof that Ms Palin and the GOP are in an unstoppable death spiral. Whatever you say Carnac. However, I'm sure it helped his readers restore that tingle up their legs that they've been missing for a while now.

Sarah Palin’s tailspin is also pronounced. It can be seen in polls, certainly: the ABC News-Washington Post survey found that 30 percent of Americans approved of her response to the Tucson massacre and 46 percent did not. (Obama’s numbers in the same poll were 78 percent favorable, 12 percent negative.) But equally telling was the fate of a Palin speech scheduled for May at a so-called Patriots & Warriors Gala in Glendale, Colo.

More important than an ABC News - Washington Post poll is a Rasmussen poll. The Rasmussen polls are more relevant because they only poll people who vote, rather than those who believe their civic duties stop at watching John Stewart's Daily Show. In the Rasmussen daily tracking report of the president's approval index you can see that Mr. Obama is well into the the negative double digits.

He goes on to say:

If the right puts its rabid Obama hatred on the down-low, what will — or can — conservatism stand for instead? The only apparent agendas are repealing “Obamacare” and slashing federal spending

Well that would be because those are the most important issues to the majority of the electorate, you elitist dictatorial, know better than everyone else progressive!

I'm sure this little diversion from reality was a welcomed weekend getaway for the left who are staring down the barrel of a tax payer revolt over public sector unions living high off the hog on tax payer money, and unwilling to pitch in and help get through some hard times. The face of the greedy unions is now bare for all to see.

And while Frank Rich may have performed an illusionist act for his audience the automatic re-election of Obama for devout obambies, he's not scaring anyone who is paying attention.