Thursday Things

Thursday Things

Slacking through spring break on the writing, so let's go right to the cutting and pasting:

Looks like I was right on no Chairmen Chet; word is Ted Strickland's the guy.

Here's what'll keep the caucuses first: "Lawmakers and elections officials in at least six cash-strapped states are hoping to move or replace their stand-alone 2012 presidential primaries, sacrificing some influence over who wins the nominations in favor of saving millions of dollars."

Does the president actually get to make spur of the moment where to go eat decisions? Here's how it works.

NPR's "real" problem:

No matter how mainstream your audience is in truth, or how balanced you are in substance, or how many opinions you solicit from average red-state Joes, the prevailing feeling is that your style is unmistakably liberal.

It's the folksy music between segments (never mind that it's often jazzy or electronic or classical; the effect is folksy). It's the warm, earnest quality of the hosts' and reporters' voices. It's their exotic names — Mandalit del Barco, Lakshmi Singh, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Daniel Zwerdling. Are these tea party names? No, they're soy chai latte names. It's obvious.

Face it, NPR, you could go content-free, relying only on those quirky music snippets and reporters saying their names, and you'd still come across as a granola bar disguised as a radio network.

And no, this is not The Onion, it's an actual poll that interviewed people and everything: "A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Sarah Palin trails Charlie Sheen by five points among independent voters in a highly unlikely match up for president, 41% to 36%." They lost the opportunity to flip the names and say Sheen was, duh, WINNING! I think it's all because Charlie's dad was president.