Thursday Mashup (2/25/10)

I know I’m a bit late with some of this stuff, but here it is anyway.

Did you know, by the way, that President Obama has “topped Bush at ducking reporters,” according to Joseph Curl of the Moonie Times (here)?

Well, I must say that that was news to me also, until you read further and discover that sessions such as Obama’s five-question, 33-minute exchange with reporters on a day earlier this month marked by a snowstorm didn’t count to Julie Mason, a longtime White House reporter and board member of the White House Correspondents' Association (and here is another occasion where Mason was less than spot-on with her analysis).

Also, when you get all the way to the bottom of Curl’s opinion column, this is what you find out…

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama tops his predecessor in total output. He has given 43 press conferences of various degrees, six of which were solo White House sessions, (Mark) Knoller (of CBS Radio) said. During the same period, Mr. Bush gave 24 press conferences, of which four were formal, solo White House sessions.

Here, by the way, is more from Eric Boehlert of Media Matters about how our august corporate, somnambulant media revived itself as soon as a Democrat took over An Oval Office after Commander Codpiece departed.

And all of this concerning a president who has “topped Bush at ducking reporters” (and here is an episode of journalistic malpractice by Curl that has to be read to be believed).

And oh noes – it looks like the support enjoyed by “BHO” among younger voters is experiencing a “quick cooling” based on this…

While young adults remain decidedly more liberal, the survey found the Democratic advantage among 18-to-29 year olds has substantially narrowed _ from a record 62 percent identifying as Democrat vs. 30 percent for the GOP in 2008, down to 54 percent vs. 40 percent last December. It was the largest percentage point jump in those who identified or leaned Republican among all the voting age groups.

For the millionth time, I know of no organization called the “Democrat” Party, but clownhall.com isn’t going to mend its ways purely because I wish it to, I know.

And on the subject of younger voters, this story tells us the following…

Michael Dimock, associate director for research for the Pew Research Center, said some Democrats confused young peoples' attraction to President Obama and their distaste for Bush administration policies with lasting loyalty to the Democratic Party.

"The plurality of young people are independent," Dimock said. "Democrats never really closed the deal with young people through this period."

…

Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said Obama's dropping approval level among the youngest generation of voters was probably tied to the high unemployment rate, which has hit younger workers even harder than older populations.

Yep, as opposed to some newfound supposed love for the Repugs, that would explain a thing or two to me also, though Eli Pariser of Moveon.org notes that the Repugs have succeeded somewhat in “(moving) themselves away from George Bush.”

I will accept the point that the Dems have some work to do with this demographic among all others, but I think this needs to be pointed out concerning Obama’s predecessor as a measuring point (no need for a “quick cooling” here for a number that’s pretty “glacial” to begin with).

And finally, former Laura Bush employee Andrew Malcolm concocted the following dreck here (on the subject of women serving on U.S. submarines)…

Now that the Navy has made its command military decision to broaden seaborne career opportunities for females, land-based Congress, which itself has woefully few career women, has 30 days -- no, make that 28 now -- to interfere. After all, cramming 118 young male sailors in a long metal tube driven by nuclear fission armed with warheads that could end humanity and submerging all that in 400 feet of deep ocean for 90 straight days with two women, what could possibly go wrong there? They're professionals first.

I’m surprised that Malcolm didn’t try some Curl-esque idiocy here about a “seaman.”

Meanwhile, this Wikipedia article tells us that Norway, Canada, Australia and Spain all allow women to serve on submarines.

I will now await an apology from Malcolm for his unprofessional sarcasm directed at our service members (funny how they claim to “support” those who are apparently such easy targets of ridicule), though I’m sure that none will be forthcoming.