New Media Drives Politics Rightward?

The Washington Post quotes several hard-to-interview politicos on the new media---talk radio, blogs, and Drudge.

While the Foley and Allen episodes burned Republicans, Clinton said in an interview earlier this year that he thinks the proliferation of media outlets, as well as the breakdown of old restraints in both media and politics, on balance has favored Republicans. Without mentioning Gore or Kerry by name, he complained that many Democrats have allowed themselves to become unnerved and even paralyzed in response.

Yes, the first clue that Kerry was an insufferable narcissistic fop came in the green room when a Republican consultant waiting to go on air noticed the Mass Senator utterly absorbed in grooming his hair for about fifteen minutes while not even noticing anyone else was in the room. From there, his haircuts at Christophe's were outted, and all sorts of details on his proclivities to Eurotrash snobbitchery emerged. And then the actual Swift Boat Commanders who had served their full tour rather than con a bogus three Purple Hearts after three months to score an early trip stateside as Kerry did, erupted into national consciousness outing the self-absorbed fop as a phony war hero. Then on, it was the slippery slope as his inane, "I voted for the war before I voted against it" reminded every concerned voter of his backing and forthing on every issue at least a half-dozen times over the decades of his public life, exposing him as a weathervane without principle, much like his witless predecessor Lyin' Al Gore, who completely imploded on an election that was his to lose.

Clinton also outs the not-so-secret reality that the MSM media is driven by left-wing agendas:

Each time a similar episode occurs, it is often covered as an isolated and even eccentric event. But Clinton, in an earlier interview, said his party should understand that the ideological and financial incentives among politicians and media organizations mean that every election cycle will feature such episodes -- and it should plan accordingly.

But he said Democrats of his generation tend to be naive about new media realities. There is an expectation among Democrats that establishment old media organizations are de facto allies -- and will rebut political accusations and serve as referees on new-media excesses.

"We're all that way, and I think a part of it is we grew up in the '60s and the press led us against the war and the press led us on civil rights and the press led us on Watergate," Clinton said. "Those of us of a certain age grew up with this almost unrealistic set of expectations."

And only the most delirious self-delusional ultra-left hysterics would disagree---although the Comintern-holdovers like Eric Alterman and MediaMatters actually make money from ultra-daft loon-brigades on the outermost edge of clinical despair touting the media as biased toward Repubs. But the Real-Reality-based Community based on facts knew better:

Few conservatives would make a similar miscalculation. Many of the first generation of new media platforms, including Limbaugh's show and Drudge's Web site, first flourished because of a conviction among conservatives that old media were unfair.

All this has given Republicans a comfort and skill at using new media to political advantage that most Democrats have not matched. At the Republican National Committee, leaking items to the Drudge Report is an official part of communications strategy.

Actually, the prospect of an airhead ditz like Pelosi replacing nearly inert Hastert should fill the Right-Wing Radio and DrudgeReport devotees with rapt delight. She has an inability to discern the real world out there that living in the Gomorrah on the Bay engenders.

So Granny's going to drain the swamps? Hoo-boy, won't that be fun frisking and fisking Granny day in and day out as she, the Deaniac and Girlie-Man Reid are the troika pulling the Dems to the lemming cliffs of the left.