Knoxville paper endorses bush* and is getting skewered by readers in

[tnlefty]

the on-line edition!!

The paper seemed to reluctantly endorse bush* and the questions on the page are: Choice 1 - agree Choice 2 - disagree and then the readers can write comments.

I counted 60 who DISAGREED with the paper to 23 who agreed.

The comments are skewering the editors for their decision and I think it's hilarious. Some of my favs:

"NO will have to do, since you don't have a "HELL NO" button".

"God, what a sad and moronic editorial. Bush authorized TORTURE, is that a christian value now?"

"If you are serious about spreading the politics of fear why not discuss Bush's dismal record. That's scary. We need a fresh start."

"The Knoxville News Sentinel was never considered a top-notch paper. Your endorsement of Bush, given his poor leadership and ignorant, arrogant ways, is evidence of the backwoods mentality of your editorial staff. In the words of Teresa..."

Reading things like this gives me some hope.

www.knoxnews.com/kns/comment/0,1406,KNS-362-55236,00 is where I found this, but I think that you have to register to read it!

:toast:

GOTV!!!

[Philosophy]

1. I used to live in Knoxville

It's a mostly Republican city in solidly Republican east Tennessee, but it's a college town too so there are a lot of outspoken Democratic activists. I liked living there a lot. I still own a condo in Knoxville, and I'm thinking of moving back up there if I can find a better job. Ultra-conservative south Alabama is starting to wear on my nerves.

[tnlefty]

2. mostly repub in solidly repub E. TN is exactly why I was excited at the

number of folks disagreeing with the endorsement of bush* and the skewering comments of those who are disagreeing.

c'mon back there may be hope yet and we need all of the help that we can get!!!

[Mr Switters]

3. You'd be surprised...

The suburban areas are always Republican strongholds. The CITY of Knoxville is heavily democratic. The university supports this base nicely. You only see the Republicans when there is a football game or a Greek event on campus. Even still, we need more open minded liberals in town, come on back!

I was a bit surprised by the News Sent.'s endorsement of Bush. If anything I figured they'd take that road of "We can't endorse Bush, but we can't endorse Kerry." (Similar to what the Tampa Tribune did last week). But their justification for the endorsement is the most ridiculous I've seen yet. They seem to suggest that Bush isn't to blame for the long list of problems he created and then suggest that he's the best man to fix it.

I guess if I ever run for political office I'll just fuck everything up my first 4 years and then try and convince everyone that because I broke it I need to fix it in my next 4 years...

Login to the News Sent. site, it's a quick registration. Then vote against this endorsement and leave a nice comment as to why.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/todays_editorial/article/0,1406,KNS_362_3271507,00.html

[ktowntennesseedem]

4. Crap like this is one of the reasons I don't take the Sentinel anymore.

All in all a decent paper, but with a naturally rightward slant in a heavily right-leaning area. I missed the endorsement, but it doesn't surprise me. Generally, except for a few peeks at the sports section during football season, I skip the paper; I can get my news elsewhere

[Mr Switters]

5. Endorsement published same day front page story, poll showing

something like a 17 point lead for Bush in Tennessee. It was what we call a "bad paper" day. This poll is conducted each election by some professor at UT, Dr. Michael Gant in the Political Science dept.

How is it possible? I hope he takes some SERIOUS professional slack when the real returns come in and show that his methodology was VERY flawed. There is NO way TN is even close to a 17 point favor for Bush. Zogby puts us constantly within 1-2 points, and even outfits like Mason-Dixon or Survey USA put it withing 9-11 points!

The really crappy part of the whole ordeal is the headline said the election in TN is approaching a "Blowout" and the lead suggested it had passed the point of "no contest."

This, on the front page, 1rst column 4 deck headline, on the SAME DAY the paper endorses Bush for the convoluted reasons it presented.

I really hope Dr. Gant has some students that will stick it to him on Wednesday!!!

Here is a little snip it:

The results indicate "for all intents and purposes, the presidential election is all but over in Tennessee," said Dr. Michael Gant, a UT political science professor and director of the institute who designed the poll.

"It is hard to imagine what sequence of events would need to occur for Kerry to carry Tennessee," Gant wrote in a summary analyzing the data.

PLEASE!

To read the full thing:

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/election/article/0,1406,KNS_630_3277058,00.html

[PylesMalfunction]

6. Poll that showed Bush 17 points ahead was skewed

Go to http://www.southknoxbubba.net/skblog/

Scroll all the way down to the bottom for the information. I think Bush may take Tennessee but it's going to be a lot closer than people think. I've actually been shocked at the number of Kerry signs and bumper stickers out in West Knoxville.