Debate

Plenty of debate commentary out there by people quicker than me at the keyboard. I found this commentary at Weekly Standard despicable:

The media will probably award a win to Mike Huckabee, the easy listening music candidate at home in any crowd, fluent in simpleton speak and the one man on the stage tonight who led the audience to roaring cheers by boasting that he had a special qualification to be president that none of the second-raters on the stage could match: A degree in Bible Studies from Ouachita Baptist University of Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Snobbery against Christians from the South never really goes out of style, does it?

I Came, I Thaw

Normally I don't promote my employer's work, but given the time of the year, it seems OK to promote Butterball, a long-time Edelman client for whom I do zero work.

Anyway, every year, Butterball helps educate millions about how to best get that bird right. So here's a link. And yes, mainly this was an excuse to put a pun in the blog. It's been a while.

Enjoy.

Rubutting the NRO

Joe Carter of the Evangelical Outpost provides a generally solid fact-based rebuttal of the National Review Online's editorial on Mike Huckabee. I think it's a little too strong on questioning motives for the editorial, but very relevant when at least raising the question about how National Review apparently didn't apply the same standards for judging Gov. Huckabee as it did for some of the other candidates. NRO also notes today that Joe will take a leave of absence from the Family Research Council to help out the Huckabee campaign. This is major good news for a campaign in need of more "direct combatants" in the media spehere, especially with the elite conservative press.

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Christianity Defended -- A Reader's Digest Version

I find this version of a defense of Christianity most compelling. The whole (brief) item is worth reading, but two parts struck me most. One I'll paraphrase: if the Bible were truly a complete flight of fancy, then why does it portray the deep faults and failures of so many of its heroes? A good editor of fiction surely would have excised that stuff about Jesus being tempted ('Hey, we're writing about a guy we're calling perfect here!'). And what about David-- the kid with the rock? Surely we can take out that adultery part with Bathsheba, right? But the Bible is not mere propaganda, but a guide, a lengthy love letter from God to us.

My other favorite part, I'll just quote:

The trilemma: C.S. Lewis, commenting on Christ's claim to divinity, said: "You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Is this blog Chuck Norris-approved?

I'm not sure ... but at least Mike Huckabee is.

When names don't work

You would think a magazine called Prosper would be able to succeed, wouldn't you? Guess not.

"Are You Guys Nuts?"

My old friend Ron Fournier writes a brilliant piece on the Iowa waitress who did or did not get a tip after Senator Clinton visited. Scores of inquiries about the alleged snub probably only proved what this woman thought all along:

"I don't get it," Esterday said. "There's a war going on and the price of oil is going crazy. Look at all the toys being recalled right now. Just look at the news! Isn't there something else you can be writing about?"

I am no fan of Senator Clinton, but it's impossible not to relate to this woman's lament. There is so much meaningless about political coverage -- stories written essentially for insiders, by insiders, read by insiders. It's interesting if you love it, and meaningless if you don't.

And if you want to get a better sense of Ron's passion for learning how real Americans are connected -- or not -- with their elected leaders, check out his book, "Applebee's America."

Huckabee at 21 percent in Iowa

In any race, political reporters are always assessing who might win and who can win. The latest CBS/NYT poll from Iowa easily adds Mike Huckabee as a potential caucus winner -- or at least someone who might shake up the race. Iowa polls are always volatile, but it's better to be where Huckabee is now than where Fred Thompson is.

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Trojan Pride ... and Sadness

The Heismans and the national football championships mean nothing in comparison to the story of Army Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri. The L.A. Times' USC blog All Things Trojan linked to Curreri's Nov. 4 obituary yesterday in honor of Veteran's Day. The entire obit is worth reading, but no part is better than the reference to his essay on why he decided to become a Green Beret:

"When my children ask me what I did to avenge the assault of September 11th, I shall be able to look them in the eye, without a hint of hesitation, and respond that I answered the call of our nation," he wrote.

Fight on, Joseph Curreri. Fight On.

Christian bloggers

I'd love to go to GodBlog, but it's kind of funny that it's in Vegas, isn't it?

Waterboarding

This from Human Events is just not tolerable. "Three cheers for waterboarding," the headline blares. No, not from me. Count me with Joe Carter: a Christian cannot be proud of this technique. It sure sounds like torture to me. There have to be better ways to get information.

Up to speed in the digital age

Catching up on some blog reading after NewsGator let me down for several days, I run across a fascinating post from Doug Fisher.

Emedded in the post is one key comment: "I’ve heard from more than one fellow executive the tale of promising young reporters taking jobs in PR because that somehow seemed more palatable doing this online stuff."

The attitude seems silly and self-defeating, especially considering the latest news on newspaper circulation.

But as for public relations and journalism, "this online stuff" is important in both. Doug's students will fare better in either world, because they are learning how to communicate with an audience in ways that audience wants to receive information. Being a reporter is difficult enough as it is, so it's hard to understand why a young person would want to tie his or her hands down because they had some romantic view of "The Front Page" days.

For those who end up going into PR, or migrating there as I did, good public relations today also requires a knowledge of how people receive information, and where they get it, and how to effectively use the online world to communicate with them.

I will add that I think it's not surprising to run across intransigence among some young people. I was much more sure of what I knew then than what I know now. And I think that's a country song title, somewhere.