You have to love the continuing invention the American media is selling to us called Barack Obama. He is currently on his toy soldier tour designed to give him instant foreign policy cred. The Obama campaign is carefully staging every aspect of this tour through the Middle East. For whatever reason, the campaign decided that a majority of the troops he visited in Iraq and Afghanistan had to be African-American. This is very weird considering that the Obama campaign staffers were under strict orders throughout the Presidential Primary to do the opposite, to limit African-Americans in the crowd behind him during speeches, and make sure it was a majority white audience.

Looks like David Axelrod is taking more advice from the mainstream media:

Also, in the war zones where Obama might wear a protective helmet and flak jacket, there’s the danger that a wayward picture might make him look ill at ease, shades of Michael Dukakis taking his infamous tank ride. You’ll know the Obama team played it right if you see a limited number of photographs—or perhaps none at all—of the candidate in protective gear.

Axelrod made sure to have Obama holding his flak jacket and helmet upon exiting his airplane. That makes sense, if a wayward bullet or shrapnel were to descend upon Obama, his superhuman powers would allow him to quickly deflect it with his helmet.

Chris Matthews has assured MikeFrancesa.com that indeed Barack Obama has this kind of hand eye coordination.

Trust in Jesus Obama.

The above picture is via http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-obamatrip23-2008jul23,0,1471868.story

An unnamed military source has revealed to MikeFrancesa.com that Barack Obama actually missed four or five three point attempts in a row before making the basketball three point shot that Chris Matthews was fawning over and the media was showing on an endless loop all over the mainstream media spectrum. The video cuts out the misses and only shows Obama making the shot, it was edited to look as if Obama hit the three point shot on his first attempt.

The Revolutionary Political Blog is trying to get a second source to confirm this, given that the Obama campaign and the MSM has been doing everything in their power to further stoke this cult of personality named Barack Hussein Obama, we feel it is fair to run with this story based on one source.

So the question I throw out to the conservative bloggers and conservative talk radio is, can you provide proof that the Obama campaign staged this three point basketball shot??

Of course Barry Obama’s basketball skills are meaningless to his qualifications as a possible President of the United States, but it would show the level of trickery the Obama campaign is conducting in order to further enhance this media invention. It also would throw egg over Chris Matthews who was discussing the basketball shot as if Obama had given sight to a blind man.

This story has been out there for over a year. Of course the mainstream media covers all things in Obama’s past, it does not fit with his, “Obama as Messiah”, image:

Hendon told me, “He’s the one that got mad, because he said I embarrassed him on the Senate floor. That’s when he came over to my desk.” Before Nottage broke them up, Obama, who had learned to box from his Indonesian stepfather, supposedly told Hendon, “I’m going to kick your ass!” Hendon said, “He said something like that.” He added that more details will appear in a book that he’s written, entitled “Black Enough, White Enough: The Obama Dilemma.”

Barack Obama apparently does not realize that most of the 9/11 terrorists came from middle to upper middle class backgrounds, they had happy childhoods and stable families, many were enrolled in graduate school, most of them had never previously been convicted of a crime. In fact a study of all terrorist acts in the past ten years shows a similar pattern. The 9/11 terrorists had all of the advantages and chances to have a successful life, yet they chose to murder innocent people, fully aware of their actions and what it would cause. Barack Obama just does not get it:

The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

Barack Obama, his campaign, and his cultists all throughout the media world are crying foul over this New Yorker cover. Amazing, Barack Obama gets about 1,000 positive cover pieces in magazines all over the place and his supporters cry over one attempt at Mad magazine humor.

I can’t take it anymore. Either the mainstream media is utterly stupid or did not take a history class in college or did not go to college or just continue the idiotic echo chamber where once you gain access to the D.C. chattering class, you are in for life, anything you write is accepted, you are never challenged on your ideas no matter how stupid or non factual they are.

This is the case with Pat Buchanan. How on God’s earth is this man allowed to hawk his latest book, “Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War”, without one media robot questioning him on how the entire premise of the book is utterly false. No matter what pundit Buchanan talks with, it is the same dance, whether it is Matthews, Hannity, Colmes, the list goes on and on, not one of these self proclaimed geniuses questions Buchanan.

Any person with even a basic understanding of World War II history knows that every piece of factual evidence we have points to the fact that Hitler and the Third Reich were doing everything possible to mobilize for war from the beginning of his take over in 1932. Every aspect of Germany, the education system, the economy, medicine, religion, you name it, every aspect of life was pervaded with one central goal, the preparation for war. This is without dispute, yet Pat Buchanan would have you believe that war with Germany could have been prevented.

I don’t have the time to list all of the evidence, all I can say for anyone interested is to read Richard Evans’ book entitled, “The Third Reich in Power”. It totally obliterates any notion that war with Germany could have been prevented and it does so with facts:

Second, Evans insists that the underlying purpose of the regime in all that it did was war. Rearmament expanded until it dominated all economic management and planning. The dazzling deficit financing of Hjalmar Schacht was eventually pushed aside, as Goering and his four-year plan began to direct industry and labour recklessly towards building the war machine. Society was militarised, too, towards the same end. ‘War had been the objective of the Third Reich and its leaders from the moment they came to power in 1933. From that point … they had focused relentlessly on preparing the nation for a conflict that would bring European and, eventually, world domination by Germany.’

Barack Obama continues to display his lack of intelligence when not being guided by a teleprompter. It is true that children should at least be offered the chance to learn Spanish in elementary school. However when he insults Americans by saying that Europeans speak English while Americans don’t know French or Spanish, Obama does not understand one basic fact.

Europeans need to learn English because English is the dominant language in this world. English is the language one must learn if they are to succeed in whatever career they choose. It is imperative that Europeans learn English. There is no similar monetary motivation for Americans to learn French or Spanish.

This may be a sign of Obama growing up in Indonesia and not America. I would bet that this also contributes to his lack of knowledge in American history.

Here are the quotes:

“I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, we need to have English only. They want to pass a law, we just, we want English only,” Obama told supporters in Powder Springs, Georgia on Tuesday. “Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English, I agree with this. But understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they’ll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.”

…

He continued his thoughts by expressing embarrassment at Americans’ language skills compared to the Europeans. “You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual,” he said. “We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beacoup, right?”

Obama has consistently opposed making English the official language. As an Illinois senator, Obama voted against a measure to make English the official language of the United States in June 2007. He was one of 34 senators who voted against the measure.

Even Jesse Jackson thinks Barack Hussein Obama is a phony:

Radio host Sean Hannity just revealed that FOX News is in possession of an exclusive tape of Reverend Jesse Jackson, recorded after a recent interview when he thought the microphone was off, slamming Barack Hussein Obama for “talking down black people on matters of faith” (Hannity also has said it as “talking down to black people on matters of faith”) among other issues.

Hannity also intimated that Jackson says he wants to “rip Obama’s nuts off” on the tape. Hannity would not say “nuts,” but based on his description (portion of the male anatomy beginning with an “n”) I believe that’s the word he was going for.

Hannity says the tape will be played in its entirety on tonight’s Hannity and Colmes.

David Brooks is one of those rare pundits that speak with intellectual honesty:

Over the past few years, people from Goldman Sachs have assumed control over large parts of the federal government. Over the next few they might just take over the whole darn thing.

David Brooks was perhaps the only major pundit to give Michael Savage credit for stopping the Dubai port deal:

I think this started when Lou Dobbs on CNN and Michael Savage on talk radio whipped it up, because the — the deal had been floating around there for months and months and months. And I think they began to whip it up. And then it caught on.

And a lot of people heard “Arab ports.” They’re nervous. They think we’re in a war. A lot of them think we’re in a war against Arabs, apparently. And they were — they were concerned.

More from David Brooks on Savage:

DAVID BROOKS: Right, I think they now understand that was a mistake.

I think what happened was that you have these technocrats who don’t think like politicians going through a process, which was completely well reported in the financial press, much talked about, this was a big firm, it owns a lot of ports or operates a lot of port management in a lot of countries, none of whom are going through this nativist hysteria. And they thought, well, we do this all the time, we check it out; we have 12 agencies check it out. Technocratically it all checks out; this firm’s fine, Dubai is fine, so let it go through. So they’re thinking like technocrats, then all along - this really started and really got the biggest push from Michael Savage, who is a genius for understanding what’s going to –

JIM LEHRER: He’s a very conservative radio host.

DAVID BROOKS: Beyond conservative, reactionary.

JIM LEHRER: Whatever. You use the word, I won’t use the word.

DAVID BROOKS: And so he had a sense this is going to seem weird to people who don’t know about it. And it does, UAE, Arabs, ports, ports are insecure, people have a sense that’s true. And it’s exploded on left and right. But the point for politicians is at some point you have to be a statesman, you have got to resist when you get this popular tide and nobody on Capitol Hill is doing, that except John McCain.

Of course Brooks is not in approval of everything Michael Savage says:

This Dubai port deal has unleashed a kind of collective mania we haven’t seen in decades. First seized by the radio hatemonger Michael Savage, it’s been embraced by reactionaries of left and right, exploited by Empire State panderers, and enabled by a bipartisan horde of politicians who don’t have the guts to stand in front of a xenophobic tsunami.

He obviously does not agree with Savage’s opinion on the Dubai port deal. At least though he was the only one in the media to give him credit for being a key player in preventing it from happening. That is rare in the pundit world, giving credit or acknowledging the genius or talent of somebody that you disagree with.

A great impersonation of Chris Mad Dog Russo.
Here Russo responds on air and discusses the Youtube video.

Via the second Mike and the Mad Dog Blog Spot

With the end possibly near, we’ve decided to compile The Mike and the Mad Dog Bucket List - all the things we would like to see Mike and Chris do before their show kicks the bucket. Here goes:

- Have Mike do the show open the way Chris does it
- Take a call from Jerome
- Show Mike on YES during the commercials
- Apologize to Tim Russert’s family for trivializing his death
- Ask Michael Strahan to cohost a show
- Let Chris predict the ratings
- Hug
- Do a fist pump at the end of a segment
- Go a week without Jon Heyman
- Invite Phil Mushnick into the studio for some tea
- Take picture in a booth with ‘Mike and Dog - BFFs forever’ written below
- Do a top 10 list of their least favorite guests ever
- Switch seats
- Do an over/Under predicting what age they will die
- Mike does Marquis de Sade wearing crotchless panties
- Sing the Mike and the Mad Dog theme
- Have John Sterling guest host a segment and let him play audio clips of all the incorrect things you have said over the last 19 years
- Treat people like human beings
- Admit that Tampa Bay just might be for real
- Come prepared
- Inform the audience that you are going to resolve your decades long dispute with a game of Rock Em Sock Em Robots. Winner stays at WFAN. Loser is out.
- Have Mike sing ‘If I Only Had a Heart’ from the Wizard of Oz
- Learn how to use the internet
- Mike admits everything he’s been wrong about
- Never talk horse racing again
- Car pool to work everyday and spend the first segment of the show discussing the ride
- Mike and Chris tell the audience that they have cut the caller off but are going to continue talking like he’s still there
- Reveal the special phone number that allows Bruce from Bayside to get on whenever he wants
- Admit that they should never talk about anything outside of sports because they don’t know enough about movies or the news or politics
- Mike eats a salad and drinks a bottle of water while on air
- They do an entire show with Chris sitting on Mikes lap
- Mike admits that Bronson Arroyo is not good

And to think you actually believed that Obama raised over 200 million dollars from $50 donations from average Americans. Don’t let Obama fool you, he uses just as many lobbyists as any other politician. He just uses a little pixie dust and a magic wand and transforms the word to “bundlers”. Here are some of these bundlers:

-A special group of FOBO’s–Friends of Barack Obama who are at the top of the Obama fund-raising pyramid–were on presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s plane to Minnesota on Tuesday, where Obama flew to clinch his nomination.

The FOBO manifest….

1. Valerie Jarrett….top Obama advisor without portfolio, which means she has a hand in all portfolios. In Obama history, her chapter starts when she hires Michelle, then Obama’s fiance, to be her deputy in Mayor Daley’s City Hall.

2. Eric Whitaker, a doctor who is frequently on the Obama campaign plane is the executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama worked before she took a leave for the campaign. Before that, Whitake was the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health

3. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama’s best friends who is the treasurer of the Obama presidential campaign. Nesbitt is the CEO of the Parking Spot.

4. Billionaire real estate magnate Penny Pritzker –of Chicago’s Pritzker family–is the Obama National Finance Director. Pritzker has long been an Obama financial backer.

5. Ariel Investment founder John Rodgers is an Illinois Finance co-chair and longtime friend.

6. Industrial magnate Jim Crown– of Chicago’s Crown family is an Illinois Finance co-chair

Comments:Is this the same Rogers that Obama, from the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement system gave Ariel Capital $112.5 million to manage and added hundreds of millions mover over the next few years, while Obama was the chairman of the Health and Education committee in the Illinois house. In 2006, the teachers’ fund took its maoney back out, citing Ariel’s ‘under performance’. Who is not part of the ‘pay and play’ political group. http://abcnews.go.com

Everybody wants to know what kind of change Barack Obama has in store for America if he gets elected President of the United States. It is called, “Change Chicago Style”. Here is an illustration, a little portrait to show that Barack Obama is just your average Chicago politician.

So fast forward to an imaginary world, you wake up, it is November 6, 2008 and Barack Obama has just been elected President. We have two people who would like to work for the government. One of them (we shall label them Person A) is among the best and the brightest, top of his or her class, worked their tail off to make it, yet they have zero political connections. Person A believes now that the Bush administration is over with, the most qualified will be hired, not who is most connected. Person A would have no reason to think any different, that is all Person A has heard in the media, Person A believes that Obama is a new kind of politician.

Next in line is Person X, Person X has a decent resume, not as good as Person A but Person X went to school with Barack Obama and more importantly, played basketball with him. Person X knows he will get the job, he knows that Obama practiced politics, “The Chicago Way”, check out Sean Connery in “The Untouchables” to learn what that is all about.

Alas the above is not some imaginary world, Person X is real and his name is Dr. Eric Whitaker, a man who got a job in Chicago politics because he once played basketball with Barack Obama:

Whitaker was named director of the state department of Public Health after Obama recommended him to his friend Tony Rezko, who was screening applicants for top state posts for Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko was later convicted of mail fraud for influence-peddling in the Blagojevich administration. Whitaker and Obama were never implicated in the case.
Here’s what Obama told the Sun-Times when asked about people he recommended to Rezko for state posts:
“I think we submitted just a list of people that were mostly, you know, some of them were people who’d sent us resumes in the past or other people we thought we might be interested but they weren’t people who were connected to our political organization in any meaningful way. Or they weren’t people I knew particularly well. The one exception I do remember talking to Tony about was Dr. Eric Whitaker, who was a longtime friend of mine from Harvard. He and I played basketball together when he was getting his masters in public health at Harvard, while was at law school there. He had expressed an interest in that job. He did contact me, or Tony contacted me, and I gave him a glowing recommendation because I thought he was outstanding.”
After leaving the state post, Whitaker served as executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama was also a vice-president.

Of course to be fair the above Tony Rezko is not the Tony Rezko Obama thought he knew.

I just don’t get it, even detractors of President Bush should admit that the guy is tough and resolute. So if the following story is true, why in God’s name would his administration have resisted using special forces in Pakistan to kill Bin Laden:

Late last year, top Bush administration officials decided to take a step they had long resisted. They drafted a secret plan to authorize the Pentagon’s Special Operations forces to launch missions into the snow-capped mountains of Pakistan to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda.

Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terror network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies.

OK, so it is bad enough that they have resisted taking this action for so long, but it gets worse:

The new plan, outlined in a highly classified Pentagon order, was designed to eliminate some of those battles. And it was meant to pave an easier path into the tribal areas for American commandos, who for years have bristled at what they see as Washington’s risk-averse attitude toward Special Operations missions inside Pakistan. They also argue that catching Bin Laden will come only by capturing some of his senior lieutenants alive.

But more than six months later, the Special Operations forces are still waiting for the green light. The plan has been held up in Washington by the very disagreements it was meant to eliminate. A senior Defense Department official said there was “mounting frustration” in the Pentagon at the continued delay.

Still waiting for the green light, what the hell is President Bush waiting for. Even if you think most of the Bush administration’s decisions were poor over the two terms, the one thing you might be confident in is that Bush will be aggressive on terrorism. If he is failing to be strong in this area then what is the point of his entire tenure as President.

I think President Bush needs to go out strong. There are about seven months left, the entire media has written off his Presidency, what does he have to lose, take out Iran, and take out the Al Qaeda safe haven in Northwest Pakistan.

Now we know why the Newsweek and LA Times Polls were so different than the majority:

Some Democrats claim new polls by Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times showing Sen. McCain trailing by 15 points in each seal the deal on an Obama presidency. But both polls appear to be outliers. Other polls show the race to be close.

Both surveys polled registered, not likely, voters. Normally, only two-thirds of those end up casting ballots, and nonvoters lean Democratic. Second, Democrats had a 14-point advantage in Newsweek’s sample, and a 17-point advantage in the Times poll, with Republicans making up only 22% of respondents. That’s an unusually low number. Most other polls have the party ID gap with a significantly smaller Democratic edge.

Interesting how all of the Obama-bots in the media did not break down the differences in the Newsweek poll.

Courtesy of Neil Best:

All right, let me get this out of the way, quickly, because if we’re going to dwell on this for the next 5½ hours, we can’t do that. Not enough people care. It’s not that important. In the middle of making sure a 2-year-old doesn’t walk into the deep end of the New Canaan Field Club pool and trying to make sure [my son] ate his chicken nuggets and [my daughter] had her grilled cheese, and I try to lament me losing a tennis match 3-3 in the third set, missing overhead after overhead against [my opponent], Neil Best gives me a call on Saturday night, quarter to six.

First thing he tells me, “I hear the show is breaking up, can you comment?” It was the first I’ve ever heard of that, and Neil, who I like, nice guy, although he did trash my book, which drives me nuts, the “Mad Dog Hall of Fame” book, killed it, killed it, after he didn’t praise the first one. Killed it. But that’s neither here nor there.

I said, “Neil, that’s news to me,” and I basically gave Neil Best of Newsday the quote that you’ve read and it still sticks, and that’s the basis of these four or five minutes here, and that’s the fact that I have a contract here at WFAN that runs for an extended period of time. It’s not up on July 2. It’s not up on Labor Day. And it’s not up on my birthday, it’s not up Christmas time, it’s not up at the Super Bowl. It’s not even up at the Final Four.

So this idea that somehow our program that we’ve had fun having done it for 19, 20 years, is on the verge of being dismantled caught me totally by surprise, totally by surprise. Now obviously when you are in this position you have negotiations that have to take place for both sides, Mike included, and sometimes there’s always a hiccup along the way, so people start to think, oh, boy, Chris isn’t rushing to do this or Mike’s not rushing to do that, and then everybody jumps to conclusions, looking to find issues between the two of us as the trigger point of why the show no longer will be the case.

And in this case that trigger point happens to be the quote unquote deteriorating relationship that supposedly Mike and I have been undergoing here for the better part of three or four months, which is not entirely accurate, and let me set the record straight on that. From Easter through May 9, Friday, Molly Russo’s birthday, Easter, right around that period, to May 9, Mike and I were having a lot of issues. If you’re a listener, I don’t have to tell you. Whether it’s Yankee Stadium, good or bad, whether it was David Ortiz-Manny Ramirez, whether it was Don Nelson Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, Shaq with Phoenix, Yunel Escobar with the Braves, you name it, we were fighting like cats and dogs.

Hey, our show, I have to take a good part of that responsibility. We were fighting like cats and dogs. The tolerance level of each other, Mike to me, me to Mike, was low. When that tolerance level is low like it is with your wife or your kids, you’re going to have some issues. So from that period to May 9, issues. After I took Sal LaCotta to Lake Compounce on that Sunday, Mother’s Day, with four little kids, Mark Chernoff, our program director calls me up and says, “Listen, can we talk tomorrow? Let’s get this straightened out.”

After some initial balking by yours truly, I said, you know what, absolutely. We came down the next day, Mark brought us into his office, Mike and I. I apologized for acting like an idiot at times, Mike did the same thing. Next thing you know we’re back on the same page. So, although we had the occasional skirmish since, I can think of that show at the Belmont with the Manny Ramirez-Youkilis fight, and all those kinds of things, although we’ve had the occasional skirmishes – Spurs, we had a lot of fights on the Spurs – although we had occasional skirmishes, from May 11 or 12 to last Wednesday, I don’t think there was really any problem.

Now was it as good as it may have been in the heyday as far as relationships are concerned? No, because we were killing each other for six weeks. It’s going to take a little while to get back to the same page. So that’s No. 1. Deteriorating relationship? I don’t feel that. Maybe before May 12 I did, but I certainly didn’t feel that from May 12 on. So this theory that, ah, now I know why! They’re leaving! They hate each other! I don’t buy that. Nineteen, 20 years, you’re going to have your issues occasionally. You have to get through those issues.

Now listen, I mean, does that mean Mike’s going to sign a 20-year contract extension with WFAN? Probably not. Does that mean that Christopher Russo is going to sign a 20-year contract extension with WFAN? Probably not. Do I want to work 20 more years doing this? Probably not, probably not. But does that mean that last Wednesday was our last ever show together? That’s a little strong. That’s a little strong. That’s taking a big leap.

And, you know, Neil Best thinks he has something and he’s a good reporter and I like Neil. Again, I would never talk to him about anything like this because for whatever the reason, this is a guy who killed my book. That’s sensitive to authors, and don’t forget, I’m John Grisham. That’s sensitive.

I’ve talked to him about it, but I don’t forget that. He went out of his way to bury that book, same day I was on the Today show. C’mon. But listen, Neil thinks he has something, so he’s going to track me down in the middle of a weekend and he’s going to track Mike down in the middle of a weekend and he’s going to write something. But unless WFAN is going to pull the plug on yours truly, and that’s their right, you are renting their equipment, I don’t see how in the world this show is up by July 10. What’s the date I’m hearing now? July 11 or 12? I don’t see where that’s coming from.

Again, we are under contract. WFAN and Mike and Chris are not stupid. WFAN needs us. You know, everyone is replaceable. We’ve learned that. But they’d like to have us on. We have been doing it for 19, 20 years, and I’m not stupid. This is a great job. I need FAN. Again, that doesn’t mean tomorrow or the next day or whenever that I’m going to put my signature or Mike on a 20-year contract extension. You play it out and see what happens. But I have been here for 20 years. Twenty years. I’ve signed a million contracts with the radio station and I’ve never had an issue of walking out before one was completed.

And this one has a long way to go on it. OK. Can I get my parking spot back now, please? Can I get that back? And Neil is in a tough spot now because Neil is trying to come up with something and he’s put himself out there and I don’t know what he’s going to come up with exactly. He can write all the stories he wants, he can call me 30,000 times. And again, I like him. Good man. Good worker. Works hard. But I don’t know what he’s got exactly. What? That Mike and I are splitting up. Says who? Tell FAN that.

Contracts. Contracts. Contracts. You abide by contracts. Mine’s got a long, long way to go, not to mention that quote unquote non-compete clause following it. You’re never going to get rid of me here. OK, we get that out of the way.

Courtesy of the Mike and the Mad Dog blogspot:

Mike Francesa addressed the Neil Best report that Mike and the Mad Dog could soon be history:

“Dog got it in his lap on Monday. I made sure I was near a TV at 1 o clock when he came on. I thought he handled it well. Everything he said, as far as the relationship was true You know we’ve been together 19 years. That’s a long time and a very visible position for 19 years, so you know, we’ve kind of carried on this relationship in a very public way, so that when we’ve had fights, they’ve been made public, when we’ve had battles, they’ve been made public and there haven’t been many in recent years. The last bad one before this was probably 8 years ago, I think it was in 2000, we had a bad one. And I’d say in the last 19 years, we’ve probably had 4 or 5 bad ones. This one was pretty bad. And I’d say he gave you the timetable, I would say we did have a meeting in May, that we had decided that maybe we had carried it on the air and that we were not being very professional so we apologized. He apologized. I apologized. I thought I had handled myself terribly. I apologized for that. I thought I had carried it on the air, was very unprofessional, which was something I don’t ever try to be. When you do this this long, you are going to have problems. I think we’ve patched it up on the air. Have we patched it up off the air? Not really. Not to any real extent. I’ll give you an example, we haven’t spoken this week, so that should give you an indication, of everything that’s going on, we haven’t spoke this week. So I think that’s a pretty good indication of where we are right now. Umm, about everything else and all the conjecture, I haven’t spoken to anybody about that, I haven’t spoken to anybody about the story. I’ve had requests about it this week. I would just say this, in 20 years of being here, I came to the station in ‘87, I’ve been with Dog since ‘89, I have never, not once, discussed my contractual relationship with FAN publicly. Not on the air, not in the newspapers. I’ve never negotiated publicly. I’ve never negotiated on the air, I’ve never negotiated in the newspapers. I’ve had a great relationship with the station. I haven’t had any contract battle in 20 years. I’ve had 4 or 5 contracts. They’ve all been handled very, very well. I’ve never had a bad day with them in 20 years, so I’ve never discussed that and I never will. So I mean I have no interest in discussing my contractual situation and where it is or would I do that publicly. And as far as the Mike and the Mad Dog program and where everybody thinks it may be going or, I will say this, we have done 19 years together, which is a very long time. We’ve had a lot of different things happen in our lives, we’ve had 7 kids in recent years. You go through a lot of changes, a lot of things happen. A lot of things are said. You don’t know everything that’s going to happen day to day, life’s not that predictable. Nothing’s that predictable that you know there’s any certainty to what’s gonna happen day to day. I would say this, I think our relationship will never be a sole reason that we would ever part. I don’t think it would ever reach that level. I think we could always work well together. I think we’ve worked well together. I think even our most severe critic would say that we have produced something pretty special over the last 19 years. Pretty successful and pretty special, and I think it’s something that I’m proud of and I hope he’s proud of. Where it goes from here, I’m not sure. You know I think to be fair with the audience, I think we have reached a crossroads, I think we’re at a crossroad. I think this will play out over the summer and we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to sit here and say that something couldn’t change. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know that yet. So if it does, I will be very proud of everything we’ve accomplished here. If it doesn’t, we’ll be back and hopefully do 19 or 20 more years together. I don’t know. You know I don’t know how long is long enough. You know, you wait and see how it happens. Would I guarantee anything? No. Would I make any declarations today? No. Eventually all things have to pass. If we’re at the time, I’m not sure. We’ll see what happens. It’ll be an interesting summer. Next, Met Baseball.”

Via Gawker.com

Wonder if the Obama cultists will splash this poll all over the place, much like they did the Newsweek poll:

From fresh TIME poll:
Obama 43, McCain 38

These numbers should be troubling to the Obama campaign, this is the time that Obama should be enjoying a big bounce. If he is struggling to maintain a 5 point national lead now, before the Republican machine has started the attacks, he will lose Dukakis style in November.

Only a few honest journalists left in the world, John Kass is one of them:

They feel betrayed. But just where did they think he comes from, their once-and-future young king, who wields the magical sword Axelrod, the singing blade solemnly handed to him by Richard “Shortshanks” Daley under the Michigan Avenue Bridge, as he rides forth to transform our cynicism into something good and pure?

If you’re a parent, you’ve seen young children tell stories at night, perhaps after making s’mores around a campfire, just as the fireflies come out. Their eyes get big and they begin to believe the words coming out of their mouths, like that time they pulled the sword from the stone.

It must have been like that with many journalists about Obama, believing, as kids often do, that they too could safely wield the great sword Axelrod, channeling the thrumming blade to smite cynicism across the land.

Or perhaps not.Either way, Obama stressed the need for public funding of presidential campaigns—to limit the dark forces on candidates tempted to trade ideals for cash. So the Chicago guys ran it through the City Hall calculator:

Either accept $85 million in public financing like that old pro-campaign-finance-reform Republican geezer John McCain, or break the promise and raise at least $500 million in private financing and use it for TV commercials to smash McCain in the name of reform.