Wingnut blogs obsessed by non-policy issues in re: Obama

May 8, 2008 in Political Animals | 7 comments

This is pretty much what I’ve been saying for some time, but Simon at Bloggasm has taken the time to quantify the phenomenon. Right-wing blogs by and large avoid discussing Obama in terms of policy, and hammer instead on trivia:

Approximately 77% of posts dealing with Barack Obama in four major conservative blogs focused on non-policy issues. The blogs I surveyed include michellemalkin.com, powerlineblog.com, redstate.com, and littlegreenfootballs.com.

The four blogs published a total of 311 posts in April prominently featuring Obama. Of those, 71 posts (23%) focused on policy issues. The remaining 240 posts (77%) focused on non-policy issues.

Policy issues the blogs covered include Obama’s views on Iraq, the economic slowdown, the housing crisis, the gas tax, immigration, and the war on terror.

Non-policy issues the blogs covered include Rev.Jeremiah Wright, Weathermen founder Bill Ayers, “bitter” comments about rural voters, his decision to wear a flag pin, and his alleged elitism.

The wingnuts don’t talk about policy because (A) they can’t — they don’t have the necessary chops to understand or even find Obama’s policy statements, and (B) they do not understand why doing so is important. They have so thoroughly bought into the politics of personal destruction that the right has employed lo these many years that the very idea of discussing policy is foreign to them.

(hat tip: shakesville)

  1. Protest Warrior on May 11, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    And yet again you have taken an opportunity to promote Obamas policies and instead used it to attack conservative bloggers

    Pot calling the kettle black?

  2. meatbrain on May 11, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    Nope. Nothing I do or don’t do changes that fact that wingnut blogs largely avoid any discussion of policy. If you would care to discuss the reasons why, feel free.

  3. Protest Warrior on May 11, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    I thought you may take the opportunity to espouse your views as to why you think that Obamas policies are valid discussion.

    But yet again you fail to do so

    The reason is that you are a bloviating libtard who fails to actually discuss things and instead reacts emotionally by thinking you are better than everyone else and only your opinion matters.

    Now…make a post that discusses why you think Obama is the best candidate then see where that leads you.

    But the truth is you have nothing, do you? Except white guilt.

    Libtard playbook, page 39 paragraph 1…your a good sheep meathead

  4. meatbrain on May 11, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Nothing I do or don’t do changes that fact that wingnut blogs largely avoid any discussion of policy. If you would care to discuss the reasons why, feel free.

    Apparently, however, you are also incapable of such discussion. No surprise there.

  5. Protest Warrior on May 11, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    Intereseting how you deleted my original comment

  6. meatbrain on May 12, 2008 at 9:46 am

    None of Protest Warrior’s comments have been deleted. There are some ongoing problems with the spam blocker software used on this site.

    I have whitelisted Protest Warrior’s domain and IP address.

  7. Protest Warrior on May 12, 2008 at 7:36 pm

    Ok, thank you, I appreciate the clarification