How Sour Was Your Grape?

Here at "the high school" we're certain we're the best; "if WE lose, there is something wrong with the game! " Every defeat is splattered with sour grapes to mask the bitter taste. I'm not a sports fan, though I once rooted for the debate team. I was, however, looking forward to reading "HOW HE DID IT", the special Newsweek edition on the election. I was sure I would be reading a play-by-play on my favorite game of all time, but Newsweek is not on my team. Instead of finally presenting George Bush's successes, foreign and domestic; explaining how the voters recognized our nation's economic strength and the successes of the War on Terror; Newsweek published a "Greek Tragedy", the tale of Kerry the Good destroyed by Fate and Carl Rove.

In their battle to deliver fifteen points to Kerry, Newsweek has become so used to their spin that they can't feel it; they have drunk so long from the bitter cup, they cannot tast the sour grapes.

In Newsweek's "On Line Expert" section (pg 4), Jimmy Carter begins the spin and splatter. His paragraph makes three sour claims that are so fictional I conclude he is either either lying or senile.

1. "I don't remember any time in my lifetime when there was this much antagonism between the political parties." This from a man who clawed his way to power solely on the vitriol of Watergate? Where was Carter during the Clinton impeachment? Oh ya - In Korea pretending.

2. He then claims that "during slavery times . . . it [politics] didn't carry over to all the ancillary bills ..." NO comment - just teeth on edge.

3. He writes that there is a new development - negative advertising and implies that it was Bush that used it as " -- a very effective ploy, I might add. " Well, how about an example of this negative advertizing Jimmy? Are you talking Mike Moore, or moveon.org?

Carter's baseless blather would be laughable if it didn't foretell the theme of the entire magazine. Here are some "more pickings from the Newsweek sour grape vine."

Under Conventional Wisdom Watch (pg 9): (The section with the up and down arrows)

Up "BUSH - In another cliffhanger, 9/11 and "moral clarity" on things like gay marriage and abortion ultimately trumped Iraq and the economy." Not only a sour grape by a false claim. On page 19 Newsweek reports, Ohio which gave 140,000 more votes to Bush than Kerry, passed its "anti-gay-marriage" measure by only 302 votes. It would seem that 139, 698 fanatical Bushies were driven to the polls to defend gay marriage!

Down KERRY - As the numbers came in, it was as if Americans voted for him before they voted against him. But he showed class and grit in his run." This sounds like the Monday morning annoucement at my high school - when our team was "cheated out of victory" at the Friday game.

Up ROVE - "Base Strategy" pays off big, even if it turns the country into a battle zone, and validates smash-mouth politics for a generation. Thanks." I'm too puckered to speak!

Down DASCHLE - Minority leader loses his seat, victim of well-executed hit job by GOP. The Senate loses a decent man who may have stayed too long." So sad - I guess the people of his state should have been too dumb to notice all that obstructionism.

Here are some more telling tart ones from the remainder of the article. Again Newsweek can't even feel the spin. But I can taste it!

Pg 50 - "The capture of Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13 made Democrats despondent. Iraq was looking like a worthy cause after all: the violence seemed to be abating there." Yes, America's success brought despair to her enemies everywhere.

pg 56 - Newsweek defines the Republican base: "the vast Red State army of evangelicals; flag-waving small-t0wn and rural American Dreamers; '60s-hating. pro-death-penalty, anti-gay-marriage social conservatives; ..." Nice of Newsweek to tell us what we are!

Pg 64 - "Kerry would offer his solutions to the pressing problems of the day: getting the economy going again and restoring international faith in American foreign poloicy." Kerry never told us these things. He never once offered a plan - he just claimed to have them.

Pg 77 - "... at a fund-raiser in New York, he [Kerry] went on stage after some Hollywood stars had made vulgar jokes about the president and proclaimed, "Every single performer" in the program "conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country." Well that's what Kerry was hoping for; neither Kerry nor the media got what the majority of American voters did, just saying it doesn't make it true.

Pg 85 - "In his familiar role of Dr. Doom, the designated hit man, Vice President Cheney suggested, outrageously, that by voting for Kerry, Americans could be inviting another terrorist attack. Yet Bush and Cheney seemd to waltz away from their clumsy or embarrassing moments." What is so bogus here is that Cheney was right. Show these terrorist dogs weakness and they will attack. Kerry was weakness embodied and most American voters recognized this, why can't Newsweek.

Pgs 90 - 91 "The Swift Boat Ads - a first round charging that Kerry had lied to win his medals, then a second batch accusing him of betraying his mates by calling them war criminals - were misleading, but they were very effective. " Newsweek perpetuates the position that theSwift Vets were misleading but neither here nor anywhere do they give evidence to support this claim. That is because their claim isn't true. Although Newsweek may feel otherwise most voting Americans understand this inspite of the medias spin!

Pg 92 - "Douglas Brinkley, author of a wartime biography of Kerry, cautioned that Kerry's diary inculded mention of a meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris. Edwards was flabbergasted. "Let me get this straight." the senator said. "He met with terrorists? Oh, that's good." Ya! It was good that we knew this and for this knowlege we can thank the honest and honorable Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - not Newsweek or the rest of the spinning media.

Pg 96 - "The story quickly turned from Bush's war record to Dan Rather's carelessness and overzealousness - even to the question of whether CBS had been secretly working with the Democrats to smear Bush ... the whole flap diverted attention away from questions, never entirely resolved, about whether Bush had skipped out on his guard service." First Dan Rather was a liar, secondly even after the Bush victory, Newsweek is still spinning not reporting.

Newsweek, and I might add the rest of the "old media", have spoken. Their team lost - something must be wrong and they will never see or report it otherwise. Copernicus explained that we cannot feel the movement of the earth because it is our natural state - we have become so used to it we are not aware. The media is so used to spinning they are not aware of what they are doing, not even when all they have to spin is sour grapes.