Tories drop back to "normal" levels - MSM spins story

Here we go again. The Conservatives are back in their normal range of about 34% and the pollsters and MSM are spinning this as a massive loss for the Tories and a gain for the Liberals.

Smart political watchers know that this see-saw affect is very normal for the Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals do/say something stupid like threaten an election or a coalition and the Liberals drop, and the Conservatives gain. This has happened many times over the past 4 years.

If I remember correctly, pollsters and pundits used to bash the Conservatives for not having a bigger lead (when at about 34%) over the Liberals back in 2006 during the Liberal leadership race. The rational being that the Liberals were rudderless/leaderless/whatever and they should be easy pickings.

But, the Conservatives tend to poll in the mid-thirties, and out campaign the opposition during an election.

While I am sure that the "prorogation effect" has had an affect on their poll numbers, I don't think the Conservatives would be in the high thirties or low forties right now as the Liberals haven't threatened to bring down the Government in a few months.

This is just the way it is.

I would say the Conservatives are doing OK considering the full-on assault many in the MSM have launched against them.

"and surely never lighted on this orb, which he hardly seemed to touch"

As many of us on the right side of the spectrum have mentioned, commented on, bemoaned for months, Obamamania is raging all around the world. In the eyes of many, Obamessiah can do no wrong, heck, he can walk on water, save the economy, and bring about world peace all with a smooth as silk speech. Really, Obamessiah's main good points are his impressive oratory skills and pearly whites.

We all know that the press is biased, either slanted to the right, or to the left depending on the editors (or owners). This is to be expected. However, it used to be that even biased reporters would still stop at nothing to dig the dirt, come up with the exclusive, now with most of the mainstream media decidedly left-wing the only targets gone after are right-wing politicians.

With Obamamania, all we get is utter claptrap, so slanted to the left that even molasses in January have no chance of sticking. We are left to the blogs to get other perspectives. Where is the objectivity in the media?

Now even Rex Murphy bemoans this trash. Read his latest column in the Globe and Main for some eye opening treatments of Obama.
The columnist wrote, gasped, thrilled, vibrated that Mr. Obama was “… that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health-care plans … but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve.” Rhapsody is too timid a word.

The seventh sign of the coming apocalypse

In what is surely a sign of the end of the world, the CBC has admitted its left-wing bias. Left. Wing. Bias. The CBC? Surely you jest.

Ombudsman Carlin makes another significant observation in his response to complainants: when it does choose to print opinion, CBCNews.ca displays a very narrow range on its pages.

In this, Carlin is also correct.

I guess that we should be glad for the CBC to finally admit what was painfully obvious to every honest person.

The CBC is funded by tax dollars, it needs to represent the full spectrum of opinions, not just the opinion of the so called elite.

Report news without spin, put commentary in its place, in editorials. As a public institution be sure to represent the values of ALL Canadians.

Complete, unadulterated media bias

Perhaps the mainstream media outlets should register as an authorized third-party advertiser in this election too.

Seriously, how soon we forget. Tim Powers (one of my favourite Conservative pundits) has an excellent post about this whole Ritz/Lannigan fiasco:

Glad to have you back, Rob. I was getting lonely. For the purposes of balance - and I know that matters to you - you might want to remind readers that the Liberal Party lost two candidates last week because of anti-aboriginal comments. Funny how quickly people forget.

Sadly, it was only a few weeks before the election when your senior health critic, Robert Thibault, was insulting the elderly and women. While Thibault did apologize, managed to keep his critic's spot.

And of course, who can forget your candidate in Whitby, Brent Fullard? Astoundingly, he kept his spot in that riding after making Nazi-like references about the Prime Minister.

Then your friends in the Green Party had to release a candidate last week for anti-Semitic remarks.

None of these comments are acceptable. So I'd guard against anybody getting to sanctimonious. None of this reflects well on any party; we all should be sorry we are having to say sorry.

Of course by people he means the media, they forget because they wish to make the controversy bigger then it is, and to show the Liberals in a more positive light. Thanks to these and other gaffes the Conservatives are losing ground in Ontario and Quebec. The media is influencing the election.

When a Liberal candidate gets caught not being forthcoming to CPAC or CBC I hear next to nothing in the mainstream media.

Liberal, Green, or NDP candidates get nailed for inappropriate comments there is barely a splash in the mainstream media. Perhaps understandable for the Greens, but for the grits or dippers? Puhlease.

Thibault makes ageist and sexist remarks and his is not forced to resign his critic post and his candidacy. Liberal and MSM double standards? Yes!

Elizabath May calls our soldiers "christian crusaders" and compares the government to Nazis, were there widespread calls in the media and Liberal ranks for her resignation? No!

Jean Chretien made multiple "jokes" about the use of pepper spray at the APEC summit. "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate.", and that the protesters should be happy it was pepper spray and not baseball bats. Yes I know these are old, but Stephane Dion wasn't calling for Chretien to resign then.

This is not to say what Ritz said was right, personally, I think he should resign. Not for his "cold cuts" crack, but for his comment regarding Mr Easter. That is completely unacceptable, someone's family member died, and you are wishing it was an opponent. However, the cold cut crack isn't very offensive.

Really, is this so bad?
Mr. Ritz joked during the call that the crisis was causing the government a death of a thousand cuts "or should I say the death of a thousand cold cuts."

It is a colloquialism. A saying, gallows humour maybe, tasteless yes. Something to be fired over no. Something to lose an election over? Hell no! He was not referring to people's deaths, not at all. Would we be having this conversation if he had said "the straw that broke the camels back"? I doubt it.

What Darlene Lannigan said also wasn't eloquent, but referring to past behavior from a protester group when agreeing to meeting them should not be construed as "racist".
“If you behave and you're sober and there's no problems and if you don't do a sit down and whatever, I don't care,” said Mr. Cannon's assistant Darlene Lannigan to Mr. Matchewan. She then added: “One of them showed up the other day and was drinking.”

“Are you calling me an alcoholic?” replied Mr. Matchewan.

“I'm not calling you an alcoholic. No. It was just to say that you're in a federal office. If you're coming in to negotiate, I expect, there's [decorum] that has to be respected,” said Ms. Lannigan.

Or maybe as Garth Turner would say, let's leave gutter politics and get back to talking about real issues. Oh wait, that is only valid to get Liberals out of hot water.