CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in A sticky wicket

Re: A sticky wicket

wordslinger — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:07:51 -0000

Chicago's American, if you do the reading, you might have a different opinion. I suggest Ambrose and "Breach of Faith" by Teddy White.

The July 24 Supreme Court ruling on the tapes, the July 27 House Judiciary votes on impeachment and the Aug. 5 release of the Smoking Gun tape were the knockout punches. But the earlier Tribune editorial was viewed as a loss of support among Main Street Republicans.

Re: A sticky wicket

Eric Zorn — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:38 -0000

I'm just now catching up on this. And without even checking with anyone I can pretty well assure you that if this story is true (unless I'm missing something there is one source, one witness, "Leo" and a partial image of a shirt that looks like it might spell out "Obama") it was not a company authorized promotion. There is no history or tradition at the Tribune or any American newspaper that I'm aware of of using partisan political souvenirs as subscription incentives, and if you thought about it for five seconds you'd realize why. But even if somehow I'm wrong about that and this WAS an official promotion, sanctioned from on high, that wouldn't have anything to do with the reporters, editors and columnists who are writing about the campaign. Nor would it influence the Tribune's editorial positions or endorsements which, as some have noted, tend to run Republican.

Re: A sticky wicket

Lynn S. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:15:16 -0000

I want to know when that vendor is coming here to Champaign so I can get a cheap subscription to the Trib and a few of those Obama shirts!!

Re: A sticky wicket

Chicago's American — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:50:15 -0000

Wordslinger: I highly doubt that Nixon worried about what the Chicago Tribune had to say about him or that that was instumental or even incremental in his decision to resign.

Re: A sticky wicket

VanillaMan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:09:10 -0000

Regarding the Obama t-shirt story; someone isn't thinking, but someone else in charge will start to think and do something before this day is through. That is - if the story is true.

Tying Obama to Blagojevich is a rudimentary political strategy. And why not? Obama, and Blagojevich both have long political ties to Tony Rezko, Chicago political circles and winning Illinois elections. Emanuel already told us that he and Barack met with then-US Rep Blagojevich in bull sessions to help him become governor. Why should we allow Obama to go unquestioned when his governor and their money-buddy-Rezko end up in hot water?

Obama is running on his judgement since he has no experience, remember? So, what kind of judgement does his dealings with Blagojevich and Rezko show us about Barack Obama?

New politics? From Chicago? Since when Mr. Obama? Oh, and I love how you will be the first presidential candidate since 1973 to go unaccountable regarding your presidential financing? How Nixonian of you!

Re: A sticky wicket

phocion — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:39:12 -0000

You did read it differently than my intended message, which was full of qualifiers, and was a throwaway reference to a goofy internet rumor that everyone had already heard about.

Re: A sticky wicket

Rich Miller — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:30:32 -0000

===I made no such claims about the authenticity of such tapes. I did allude to the tapes being alleged to exist===

And you wrote the other day...

===even if the alleged â€œMichelle tapeâ€ is the October Surprise this year.===

I read that differently than you, apparently.

Re: A sticky wicket

phocion — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:23:33 -0000

Er, no I made no such claims about the authenticity of such tapes. I did allude to the tapes being alleged to exist, which is a truism. As have the Tribune and Sun-Times, I may add. I'm not a right-winger at all. I just find the media's fawning over Obama to be inappropriate.

Re: A sticky wicket

piper — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:06:47 -0000

The questions posed by the Illinois Republican Party are quite interesting.

IMHO, they provide Obama an opportunity to disconnect completely himself from Blagojevich, should he choose to respond to them. He might even rebuke the Governor.

We'll see..............

Re: A sticky wicket

Rich Miller — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:12:55 -0000

lol. Wrong Rick.

Re: A sticky wicket

Anon — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:10:29 -0000

"Rich. My name is Rich. Rick is that other guy."

But both you and Rick stick your neck out for no man, right?

Re: A sticky wicket

Rich Miller — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:09:44 -0000

phocion, you were here recently making claims about that bogus Michelle tape, so I doubt any coverage by any outlet that isn't far to the ultra-right is going to satisfy you.

It has been my experience over 18 years that partisans see what they want to see and remember what they want to remember. What you may consider "good, hard-hitting" reporting, others might consider lunatic fringe goofiness.

Re: A sticky wicket

Rich Miller — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:06:44 -0000

The pic didn't come from the National Review.

Re: A sticky wicket

Willie Stark — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:05:35 -0000

Wow. Some person, probably an independent vendor who gets some kind of commission, has the difficult task of trying to sell Trib subscriptions in the present environment of declining interest in newspapers, and decides s/he may have better luck if s/he offers a t-shirt with Obama's name on it because he's a popular guy and people don't have much interest in t-shirts with Trib on it. Suddenly, it's a grand conspiracy by the Trib to promote Obama's candidacy. What a joke. And, are you so sure that the picture is even genuine? Not to question the integrity of an august publication like the National Review, certainly.

Re: A sticky wicket

phocion — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:02:21 -0000

Rich, please..."extensively?" A story about the house, with John Kass following up (and Zorn defending) is hardly extensive. Especially in light of how brutal the Tribune is to any of Obama's opponents - and considering the local paper completely ignored Rev. Wright until national media forced the Trib to mention it. If you can really say with a straight face that the Tribune staff (minus Kass) hasn't absolutely been bitten in the neck by Obama, you're much more observant than me. I stand by my earlier snarky observation.

Re: A sticky wicket

Rich Miller — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:29:03 -0000

phocion, try to be a little fair. The Trib wrote extensively about the Rezko lot next to Obama's house.

Re: A sticky wicket

phocion — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:28:20 -0000

Tribune in the tank for Obama? Naaah. I mean, just look at their utterly objective, unbiased, unflattering coverage of Senator Obama for the past 13 years.

Re: A sticky wicket

wordslinger — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:20:11 -0000

How the Blago issue plays out will be quite revealing. If he's not there, it's a major smackdown by Obama. No matter how it's spun, governors can find time in their schedules to share the podium and tv cameras with their wildly popular favorite son presidential candidate.

The Illinois GOP might ask some pointed questions of its GA members and their current relationships with the governor.

Re: A sticky wicket

Bill — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:18:32 -0000

I'd rather just buy my Obama shirt and not support the Scabune. I hear that they are going broke. What goes around comes around.

Re: A sticky wicket

wordslinger — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:15:17 -0000

Medill and the Trib were instrumental in founding the GOP and in elevating Lincoln. Col. McCormick was many things, including bedrock, isolationist, anti-New Deal, Midwestern GOP. When the Trib called on Nixon to resign, he knew he was done.

Besides the politics, what about the modern era's supposed objective journalism? Are they back to the 19th Century openly partisan model? Gnashing of teeth in the newsroom, I assure you.

Re: A sticky wicket

Steve — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:14:12 -0000

We wonder if the Chicago Tribune is violating McCain-Feingold? Anyway,what better proof than this that the Trib is a partisan supporter of Obama? No word yet from former Trib reporter David Axelrod on this story.

Re: A sticky wicket

paddyrollingstone — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:52:57 -0000

Martin O'Malley is a pretty sharp guy. He is someone to be on the lookout for on the national level someday.

Re: A sticky wicket

reasonable 1 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:47:14 -0000

They're obviously trying to increase sales, but is the Obama campaign ok with this?

Re: A sticky wicket

Maggie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:41:00 -0000

Thanks for the info. I just canceled my Tribune.

Re: A sticky wicket

dupage progressive — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:33:07 -0000

Interesting about the Dem. Governors rallying around BO -- I guess they had to.
In O'Malley's case, seems to me he was full-force behind Clinton & rallied all sorts of folks in maryland to back her.
In fact, I just googled him & he was named Hillary's campaign chairman in maryland, so he better get himself to chicago to make nice-nice...

He's a young, up & coming governor from Maryland who is talked about for bigger & better things down the road... (although perhaps he made a big mistake backing hillary in such a big way).
He was a very young mayor of baltimore & then became governor recently -- a pretty good guy.