Tim Knight - Mr.Powers, over the past several months, the power of the Conservative blogosphere has been well demonstrated, could this new found power relate to better congressional campaigns in 2010 as bloggers start directing focus towards the 2010 elections?
Doug Powers - Better campaigns? Doubtful -- if anything it's having the opposite effect in that the blogosphere is simply yet another demographic for the politician to appease. Some are better at it than others.
The savvy politician worth his or her salt already realizes the positive power of the blogosphere -- as well as the danger of it. The increased influence of the blogosphere and the waning power of the mainstream media has forced politicians to pay more attention to bloggers, and that's a trend that is only going to accelerate, but that attention doesn't necessarily lead to better campaigns.
The blogosphere can contribute to better candidates for conservatives -- the Tea Parties are essentially blog-borne movements, and they have begun to spawn more viable conservative candidates entering politics. Doug Hoffman is an example of that.
TK - Mr.Powers, Obama has embarrassed the United States across the world, and he has even bowed to royalty from another Nation, how long before a major backlash from the American people occurs?
DP - A glance at Obama's approval ratings -- that are dropping daily -- tells us that a bit of a backlash is already underway. Well, it's a combination of backlash (from the right), and huge letdown (from the left). For now I think this is more of an economic indicator than a backlash caused by the bowing, although Obama is at risk of becoming the first U.S. president to suffer from genuflection-induced osteoperosis.
My take on the bows is that Obama is running with the time-honored conventional wisdom of "Treat other world leaders the way you'd like the peasants to treat you."
TK - Mr.Powers, What is the chance of Obama being impeached over the next few years? I am being serious, even though I believe the movement is a waste of time.
DP - Virtually zero. And I say "virtually" because I can envision certain scenarios where Democrats (who would be the ones who would have to initiate any successful impeachment for the forseeable future) would move for removal.
A colossal public relations embarrassment and cataclysmic Hope & Change backfire for Obama and the Democrat party -- such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being acquitted by the civil court Obama insisted on trying him in, and then Mohammed leaves the courtroom, looks into the camera and says "Thank you Obama!" -- might be enough to begin a proceeding. But even then I doubt it.
If Obama continues his downward skid, the most severe action that might be taken by Dems is that they start looking for a challenger to him for the 2012 Democrat nomination. Even then, who would they get? Reid? Pelosi? Kerry again? Most prominent Dems at the moment have favorability ratings just barely above "genital herpes," so I think they're stuck with Obama.
TK - Mr.Powers, the Jumping in Pools blog has been attacked for being a "satire website" when you, yourself a fine respected blogger, believes those claims to be false, please elaborate.
DP - I tend to write in a very satirical fashion, and as such sometimes that can get you labeled as a "satire site." It's also a label that people who don't agree with you sometimes use to try and tell readers that they shouldn't believe anything they read there, but it kind of goes with the territory if you're like me an tend to joke around a bit.
In the case of Jumping in Pools, I believe the widespread notion that it was a "satire site" started when Rush Limbaugh called it that very thing on the air. If somebody was going to falsely label my blog, I guess Rush would be the one I'd want to do it. Like the saying goes, "Say what you want about me, just make sure to spell my name correctly."
TK - Mr.Powers, given your unfortunate location of Michigan, do you believe Republicans could take back Michigan, and perhaps one day win Presidential elections in the state?
DP - Michigan does have a history of voting for Republicans for president, but only up to 1988. The last Republican presidential candidate to win Michigan was George HW Bush, but that was against Dukakis. All indicators are that as long as Obama doesn't decide to put on an oversized tank helmet, he'll win Michigan in 2012.
To put the state back in play for the Republicans would require help from the Democrats who run the state, which is unlikely. Our state politicians have chased off businesses -- and since entrepreneurs and business management tend to lean right (as do the dollars they donate to politicians), Democrats may be lacking true incentive to bring them back (though they'd never admit it).
Instead of thinking dynamically as far as bringing business to the state and addressing the wildly unpredictable and stupid tax policies we have that are keeping away investment, our government instead purchased ads featuring Jeff Daniels begging businesses to come here. I'm sure lots of business owners enjoyed Dumb and Dumber, but I doubt they want to have a lead role in the sequel.
Here's just a quick example of the kind of mindset we have in this state. A couple of years ago, Governor Granholm put a petition on the state's website and urged state workers to sign it. The petition demanded a reduction in "obscene" oil company profits. What Granholm didn't mention was that the state held about $860 million of their pension fund money in Exxon/Mobil stock. So, essentially Granholm was asking state workers to sign a petition to devalue their own pensions -- and many of them did!
That's what we're up against here -- it'll be quite a while before a Republican presidential candidate wins the state. There are large conservative pockets in the state, but they're shrinking due to the business exodus.
TK - Mr.Powers, it has been reported Tucker Carlson is in the process of developing a Huffington Post like version rooted in Conservatism, your thoughts?
DP - I wish Tucker all the best, but he'll have to ditch the bow tie if I'm ever going to take him seriously at all, let alone as a conservative. I look at a conservative with a bow tie the way PETA looks at a liberal carrying a chinchilla purse. To this day I'm waiting for George Will to yank off a mask and show us that we've really been watching Pee Wee Herman on "This Week" all these years. Bow ties just aren't for conservatives. Karl Marx wore a bow tie. Louis Farrakhan wears a bow tie. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. wore a bow tie. Should I go on? Sure, Churchill wore a bow tie, but the British don't count because they're born wearing one.
One thing conservatives need to shy away from is that they need "their version of the Huffington Post." I hear that a lot, and it's bunk. Conservatives don't need their version of the Huffington Post. For starters, to do so, we'd need our version of Arianna Huffington. No thanks.
Conservatives need their version of their version. Besides, from what I understand, the Huffington Post bleeds cash like Charles Barkley playing high-stakes roulette. That might make it a good representation of the kind of government they push, but it's certainly nothing to model a business after. Conservatives will need to build something more, pardon the Goreish expression, "self-sustaining."
I have to hand the HuffPo management credit though for being able to find so many large-scale investors who don't seem to remember something called the dot-com crash.
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Jumping in Pools would like to thank Mr.Powers for this exclusive interview, you an catch up on Mr.Powers non-exclusive articles on www.dougpowers.com
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1 comment:
Nice interview.
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