News Roundup, 4/28/2008: To a TV Near You

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest news items of the last few days are the new ads by the DNC about Senator John McCain.

The first one to drop out of the DNC's media shop concerned McCain's assertion that everything is fine economically, and that he thinks American families are better off now than they were several years ago. It is worth watching and I have no doubt you'll be seeing it over the next few months.

The idea that everything is fine economically is so divorced from reality I don't know where to begin. You can look out the window as you drive through your neighborhood and know things aren't okay, and this is assuming you can afford to drive anywhere.

Another take on things that seems divorced from reality is McCain's assertion that staying in Iraq for 100 years would be fine with him. That is the subject of the other new ad from the DNC. It is highly dramatic and it brings the Iraq War back into sharp focus for an electorate that some days seems to have forgotten that we're at war or how we got there.

These ads are negative ads, to be sure, and they no doubt will contribute to the continuing idea among the American people that the presidential campaign is too negative. With fundraising deals on the horizon between the Democratic candidates and the DNC, it seems as if there will be plenty of money for the Democratic Party to make its case on TV, no matter who the nominee is. When both campaigns are fundraising juggernauts, that transfers and sustains.

There's been a lot of news lately about religion in politics, especially concerning Jeremiah Wright. But I was interested to see this article about the rise of liberalism among the young and religious. I'm not surprised to see that, because the religious right became so hardened and divisive in the political realm that there was little room for diversion, by design.

Even Fred Thompson saw that for what it was, when he was awake. Most conservative / evangelical candidates have changed their tune. Not all of them, mind you, but I'm comfortable saying most.

On a personal note, last week I discovered Twitter. It is sort of like the Facebook status app, but a social network built entirely around that idea - a constant update of what one is doing. This engenders an argument over what is and is not tweetworthy, but I'm giving it a shot. I've also rolled TexasBlue updates into my tweetfeed (twiitterfeed? TSS?), so if you want to be alerted when we update on your mobile phone or by IM, they have you covered.

I was initially drawn to some political tweetfeeds like those of the Democratic candidates. I was further entertained by some dispatches from Joe Trippi and Time.com's Ana Marie Cox from this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner. I'm not entirely sure of the total utility of Twitter, but I'm still exploring it.

Lastly, we pointed you to some poll data on how the young crowd breaks between Colbert and Stewart, which had some surprising results. And Grace Stevens has an interview with Erath County Chair Tillman Chaplin in Sunday's edition of On The Record.

Thanks for reading.