Politics Blog

Lost in many reports and analyses of the Rathergate story is the incredible double standard on display when treatment of the Bush National Guard story is compared to the handling of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth story. The double standard applied to the Swifties was evident before the Rathergate story broke, but both the 60 Minutes story and the “Fortunate Son” campaign made the bias so blatantly obvious that even those who don’t regularly follow politics could not miss it. Ross Mackenzie takes a good look at the glaring double standard. (Link via Lucianne.com)

-- Lorie Byrd

A new Rasmussen poll in West Virginia has the President up 50%-44%. His job approval rating is 54%, so my guess is that the margin is currently even wider…

-- Alexander K. McClure

Florida. President Bush has a much better chance of winning it than he did in 2000. But we can improve his chances even more, make the state a lock, and replace a Democrat senator from Florida this year.

Mel Martinez is the Republican candidate for Senate from Florida. He’s a Cuban-American immigrant success story, who will help the president attract a larger share of the Hispanic vote. If Martinez wins, he’ll be replacing the notoriously nutty Democrat Senator Bob Graham, who’s retiring this year.

But he needs your help to make this happen. Every ad dollar counts in a large state like Florida. Your contribution could make the difference between a Democrat-controlled Senate that obstructs the president, and a Republican-controlled one that will help him move America forward.

Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican Senate campaign.

If you’re a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing me at wictory@blogsforbush.com. I’ll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. I’ll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explainingwhich Senate candidate to support that day.

Here’s the list of blogs currently participating in Wictory Wednesdays:

-- PoliPundit

Journalists avoided the most uncomfortable questions at Kerry’s “press conference”:

Many questions were asked, which at first glance may have seemed tough, but which were, in reality, softballs that any reporter for a high school paper could have asked. All the major questions about Senator Kerry’s Vietnam service and the charges of the Swift Boat Veterans that the candidate has been avoiding since July were scrupulously avoided.

Can you imagine, that in the first news conference in 51 days, not one single reporter stood up and asked Senator Kerry about whether he was or was not ordered to go on a “secret” mission to Cambodia? A question such as that would have opened up two different avenues of follow-ups. If he was, as he claims, ordered into Cambodia then how come no one in the Navy or the Pentagon, or even any of his so-called “band of brothers” will corroborate that story? If he was not ordered to go to Cambodia, then how does he square that with his speech in the United States Senate in 1986 that this particular memory of Christmas in Cambodia is SEARED in him?

It does not take a degree in rocket science to realize that one of the primary reasons Senator Kerry has been ducking reporters for so long is that he doesn’t want to answer that question or its follow-ups. Yet, did one reporter dare to ask him that question? Did one member of the press stand up to make the candidate accountable for stonewalling them about this for almost two months? Would anyone seize this moment to punish the candidate for ignoring their questions for so long and try to reverse the precedent set by Bill Clinton? You guessed it, not a single one. Does anyone think that they’d have allowed Bush to get away with that? Does anyone want to wager a bet that somehow some reporter will find a way to ask Bush about whether the bogus CBS story about his National Guard days is true?

Indeed. And given their RatherGate behavior, who knows how much collusion there is between the lying liberal media and the Kerry campaign.

-- PoliPundit

Is finally up. It’s a $1.3 million ad buy in battleground states and national cable. It could be bigger with your help.

-- PoliPundit

Says Patterico of RatherGate:

And I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: don’t fool yourself believing that this is the first time this has happened. Come on. If you have watched “60 Minutes” then you are familiar with that feeling you have at the end of a segment, when you think to yourself: “Wow, everything seems to point to one conclusion.” You thought that was because everything really did point to one conclusion?

Nope. It’s because everything else was left on the cutting room floor.

-- PoliPundit

This NY Post editorial does a good job describing the situation at the U.N. Here is the transcript of the President’s incredible speech. (Link via Real Clear Politics)

UPDATE: Gregory Djerejian points out the most relevant parts of Bush’s UN speech and explains why they are so effective.

-- Lorie Byrd

Michelle Malkin has a post on why keeping Cat Stevens out of the country is a good thing.

-- LorieByrd

Yesterday, I made it easy to use smilies in your comments. But you’ve been using way too many. So, in soup-Nazi fashion, no more smilies for you!

-- PoliPundit

Dan Rather: Democrat partisan.

-- PoliPundit