From time to time, I listen to conservative talk radio. I do it because someone has to, and I want to know what direction they are taking against Obama each day.
Yesterday, I spent lots of time in my car, and listened to some idiot who was sitting in for Limbaugh, and later in the day, I tuned into Hannity.
It is no surprise, the talking points are the same where ever you tune in.
They are echoed all throughout the day, over and over, and over. Sort of a form of brainwashing, peppered, of course, with other ridiculous bullshit, but the main theme remains the same on each show.
One would think they all get together and coordinate these programs. Do you think?

Longggtime lurker here, posting my first diary.  I've often wanted to add my input, but so many people here do it so much better.  

Today I received one of those right wing ha-ha-but-not-really-funny emails that we all find in our inbox.  I get more than my share as a Wall Street worker.  I couldn't resist this time and had to send a response.  Below is the "original" from the self described "dittohead".

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

-------------------------------------------

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

Today's AP story about 550 metric tons of yellowcake being shipped from Iraq to Canada is winging its way through the GOPer crowd. I say, bring it on!

Sitting here and waiting for what ever the new Swift Boaters come up with has got me thinking, - what would be an easy way to counter attack? I read how the GOP is desperately trying to re-brand itself, and I think of silly images, like putting lipstick on an elephant. National polls confirm that the GOP brand is way out of touch with the American people, so why not just attack the GOP Brand?

The GOP is Bush, Cheney, Foley, Larry Craig, Ted Stevens, Jack Abramoff, the Bug Man (hammered), Irving Lewis Libby Jr, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, and every member of congress that supported the government of the last 7½ years.

If you watched Countdown with Keith Olbermann, you got to see Markos interviewed.  

(I tried to embed the video, but it didn't work)

You can see it at Countdown's website.

Unfortunately, as I have previously brought out, there is an art to fighting, even in the press.

As may of you are no doubt aware, John McCain has a useful list of talking points for discussion on sites such ask http://dailykos.com.  Tired of stumping for the liberal point of view, how about try stumping with a challenge, take a page from John McCain's stump page.  Yes you too can get your very own marching orders!  Not only can you parrot for the McCainster, but you also win points!  Yes you heard me POINTS!

She spouted the phrase: "Cut and Run" today speaking of Barack Obama vis-a-vis McCain on Iraq. This morning I saw a clip with CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr on the differences between Obama and McCain in view of things going so much better now in Iraq. She actually said that Obama knows "that now is not the time to be sounding like a cut-and-run commander in chief." I haven't seen any reference to it here, in Media Matters or anywhere else online.

Here's the link to the piece.

UPDATE: Transcript below the fold

In case you have not heard, Former House Republican Leader Tom Delay has said, "And if McCain does not define him [Obama] as what he is — hey, I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist." Delay made these remarks on the Mike Gallagher radio show yesterday (Thursday, June 5, 2008).

Perusing the responses to this story on The Hill's blog, it seems that many Americans need a primer on how it is the wealthy who have already created a "Marxist" state, draining money from the working poor and middle-class and funneling it UPWARD to the wealthy.

Dear DailyKos family, I need your help in winning a debate against a republican friend.  I play on an adult soccer league in my town, and for the past 5 years have played alongside a man who professes his conservatism at every opportunity, usually over beers after our weekly game with the rest of the team.  Last night we got into a "discussion" when he stated, out of nowhere, "you guys better all pray Obama doesn't become President, or this economy is going to go down the tubes".

My inadequate response below the fold......

We had dinner with my parents, who are devout believers in Hillary. It's a matter of faith, like abortion rights. All their logic proceeds from the axiom that Hillary should be the candidate, after which they look for arguments to support that, rather than trying to weigh arguments for and against. They get angry when they're contradicted. So generally we try to stay away from Hillary vs. Obama.

But two old canards came up. One, the only reason Hillary isn't the nominee is sexism. Two, Barack Obama can't win because he's black.

What if we were to turn that on its head?

As the primary season winds down, there will be increasing talk about two items: #1 - the popular vote count in the Democratic primary and #2 the seating of MI/FL delegations.   As for the #1, you will see more and more articles like this from the Washington Post that talk about Clinton's goal of claiming the "moral victory" of a popular vote win.

As for #2, you will see posts like this one from TPM's Greg Sargent that discusses the MI/FL situation in the context of what Obama wants - posing it as a Hillary vs. Obama conflict.

I would like everyone to memorize the following talking points, repeat them in comments on blogs left-and-right, and email them to every possible media outlets repeatedly.  These are simple and basic ideas that the pundits continue to ignore in mind-boggling-ly inane fashion.   These are essential, simple, and clear:

Today DailyKos is a features blog on McCain's "Spread The Word" news and blog action scheme!  

Today we've seen two pretty significant examples of Republicans being challenged on their use of the kind of rhetoric that's become predictably commonplace lately.

The first instance took place on the floor of the House, when Rep. Culberson (R-TX) accused the supplemental spending bill for Iraq of being laden with pork.  Rep. Obey (D-WI) pushed back and asked for a specific instance of pork in the bill.  Culberson had no response.

The second instance was the subject of two recommended diaries: Chris Matthews challenged right wing radio host Kevin James on his assertion that Obama was "an appeaser", like Neville Chamberlain.  Matthews asked James exactly what it was that Chamberlain did that was wrong.  And Kevin James simply couldn't tell him. It was clear that he didn't know the answer.

I think these episodes reveal a fundamental weakness of our opponents that can be key to winning the election this year. Follow me beneath the fold.

My fellow Americans. As a young boy, I dreamed of being a baseball, but
tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward,
and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.

-- Kodos, Simpson's "Treehouse of Horror VII" (3:25 from the end)

This is the first of what I plan to make a recurring feature - (hopefully) effective talking points to address the issues of the moment. I am writing this because of what I see as a gap between the few talking points coming from the campaign itself, and the immensity of supporter advocates for the Democratic nominee. This often leads to really bad spin, and sometimes outright harmful spin. So this is just me doing my part - disagreements, corrections (this is supposed to be spin, not blatant lying) or refinements welcome.

Follow me below the fold and twirl into the future!

Ima Notherhoare slipped into her Manolo Blahniks, looked in the mirror and smiled.  Admiring herself in the mirror was the closest she got to self-reflection.  Self-reflection was an occupational hazard in her line of work.  That way led madness...

One of the latest Clinton campaign talking points making the rounds is that if the Democratic primary had been run using Republican delegate allocation rules, she would be winning.  However, I had never seen the campaign produce an actual attempt to break this down by state and analyze it.  And considering her campaign's track record with understanding the rules (California winner-take-all?  Crying over the Texas prima-caucus?), well, color me skeptical.  A few diaries have been floated here with state breakdowns, but all that I have seen have committed egregious errors, such as counting every state as winner-take-all (very few truly are), or failing to understand the very different district-level rules used by the Republicans.  

So, I decided to crunch some numbers and do it myself.  The details are below the fold, but the final tally is that Obama would be holding an 82-delegate lead going into the West Virginia primary.  Another Clinton talking point shot down by the cold hard sniper fire of truth.  

Tonight's expected split decision will effectively end the primary campaign.  As our guy "Chucky T" has pointed out, there will be more undeclared superdelegates than elected delegates left.  (As an aside, Chuck Todd is my favorite analyst because he doesn't look like he got into this to be on TV.  It's like they had to drag him out in front of the camera because no one else could really explain what he had to say, but I digress)

In tonight's victory speach, Obama must wrest the narrative back from the Clinton's.  He must be presidential and offer an alternative narrative to the Clinton talking points and ever shifting endgame the media so readily adopts in order to selfishly drag on the campaign.

Declare victory and send them all home.

Advice to democratic strategists is easy to come by. I almost wince when I see someone try – even when the advice is good –  and, except for some knowledge of dubious merit – marketing and broadcasting experience, having been raised and lived most of my life in a Southern conservative environment, and being a compulsive reader of political books, blogs, and magazine articles – I have no more qualifications or insights than the average person.

But I’m going to do it anyway.

Here are two short ideas. One is the McCain commercial. The other is a themed list of talking points.

Here’s the TV ad: