John Ziegler is projecting
December 04, 2008 1:56 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
He's the former right-wing radio talker who claims the only reason Obama won the election is because the liberal media didn't tell the truth about the candidate's nasty background. Ziegler even posted a YouTube clip featuring interviews he did with Obama voters. Viewers are supposed to laugh at how ignorant the voters. It's sorta like Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" schtick, but with elections. (In his clip, Ziegler thinks it's a big deal that some Obama supporters didn't know who Congressional Dems Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were. Ziegler though, never bothered to poll random McCain voters to see if they could ID John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.)
Now Ziegler even has polling data to back up his claim about how the media cost McCain the election! Too bad the pro's think it's a joke.
Undeterred, Ziegler thinks is widely revealing that most Americans knew that the GOP spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin's campaign wardrobe, which was a national story just weeks ago, yet most Americans didn't know the circumstances of Obama's first local election win 12 years ago. You can see where this is all going. Pretty much nowhere. But again, the point seems to be for Ziegler and conservative to laugh at Obama's voters and blame the press for Obama's win. And hey, it's a free country so go at it.
I couldn't help chuckling though, while reading Ziegler's breathless introduction at his anti-Obama website [emphasis added]:
On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States.
I'm pretty sure when Ziegler wrote "millions of Americans" he really meant "me and my right-wing friends."
P.S. John, is it really necessary to refer to yourself in the third person on your blog? i.e. "John Ziegler has written what is sure to be a controversial..." It just seems creepy.
UPDATE: In a posted comment here, Ziegler writes:
Contrary to the garbage of lies above this post (the type of which are all too common from Media Matters), we DID do a poll of BOTH McCain and Obama voters and the results are extremely damming to numerous parties, especially the media and Obama voters. Check out the results at www.howobamagotelected.com
Of course, Ziegler's rebutting an allegation we never made. In our our post above we noted that in his YouTube video clip, Ziegler did not include interviews with McCain voters. We never made made that claim regarding his new polling data. So for those keeping score, our point stands and Ziegler's claim of "garbage" is, well, garbage.
John, you're an idiot my friend. The media didn't win this election for Obama (just read through this website), Obama won this election for Obama.
Just the same, I don't blame the media for Bush's wins in 2000, and 2004, and I'm sure that you don't either.
Thing is my friend, Obama ran a stellar campaign, McCain's was constantly in turmoil and trouble, mostly because he was running a campaign that was bad, negative, and well, just bad.
This wouldn't be the first time in the history of America that people didn't know who the Speaker of the House was, or the majority leader of the Senate (or minority leaders). This is not unusual. Hell, it's not even unusual for people from say Pelosi's homestate to not know who she is. There are more than enough folks in this country that don't even pay attention to politics, unless it affects them directly, and even then, most don't. The people who really pay attention to what's going on aren't that many. You might be one of them. I know that I am, but we're in the minority.
Why did Obama win? He was the best candidate, and had the best ideas. Get over it. He won. Your buddies lost. There is always another chance in 4 years. Stop making up fairy tales as to why he won, and start getting busy working on a plan to defeat him in 4 years.
It's funny, republicans, and conservatives such as yourself, like to speak about personal responsibility a lot of times, and then when it comes time to take up said responsibility, you go ahead and blame the media for your loss. It's nobody's fault but McCain's for the loss and beating that he took. And it's nobody's fault but McCain's and Bush's for the beating republicans took in the House and Senate as well.
And in the above article, can you specifically refute what was written there? Or do you just come here to spout off about "lies" but can't prove that they're, you know, lies...
Seems to be a common tactic. Attack the messenger, and not the information. Maybe you should try harder? I'm just saying...