Text of Obama speech:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/barack-obama-democratic-c_n_122224.html

georgia10@dkos: What I especially like about this speech is that it's a defense of liberalism, a full-throated rebuttal to the notion that government is bad and irreparably broken. The speech itself is stunning in how it wraps policy details around piercing rhetoric.

MissLaura@dkos: He's translated the rhetoric to a sense of immediate purpose, that there are concrete policy implications to our common humanity and unity.

http://dailykos.com/

Fournier, the Washington head of AP - and a McCain shill, Karl Rove friend, and the man who reported falsely about Al Gore "inventing" internet in 2000 -- who was recently criticized for posting two anti-Obama articles in the guise of reporting "news" regarding Biden as the VP pick, its seems has outsourced his attacks to Charles Babington.

Markos: Fournier outsources AP anti-Obama attack

This time, it's Charles Babington.

"AP- Barack Obama, whose campaign theme is "change we can believe in," promised Thursday to "spell out exactly what that change would mean."

But instead of dwelling on specifics, he laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer. The country saw a candidate confident in his existing campaign formula: tie McCain tightly to President Bush, and remind voters why they are unhappy with the incumbent.

Of course, no candidate can outline every initiative in a 35-minute speech - especially one that also must inspire voters, acknowledge key friends, and toss in some autobiography for the newly-interested. And Obama did touch on nitty-gritty subjects, such as the capital gains tax and biofuel investments.

He said he would "find ways to safely harness nuclear power," a somewhat more receptive phrase than he typically uses for that subject.

But most of his address echoed and amplified the theme that dominated the four-day Democratic nominating convention here: George Bush."

*****

Update: And more AP idiocy. You see, they know better than Barack.

"Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday night with a lofty vision for the nation's future that is far easier to articulate than to accomplish."

This piece is by wanker Jim Drinkard, up for a promotion by Fournier.

Meanwhile, Olbermann says on MSNBC: "Charles Babington, find new work."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/28/233458/705/651/578032

Funny, and not surprising at all, given Fournier's McCain agenda, Markos at Daily Kos says Babington wrote the AP piece before Obama's speech even finished!

"Obama's speech ended just shy of 11 p.m. ET. Babington's attack piece was posted at:

Aug 28, 11:26 PM EDT

The piece is 603 words. So we are to believe, that Babington watched the speech, gave it due consideration, wrote it, turned it in, went through editing, when through copyediting, was then posted online -- all in 26 minutes?"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/28/234732/092/611/578056

In response to the review by Charles Babington of the AP, Keith Olbermann just said that on MSNBC:

"Mr. Babington got the length of the speech wrong by at least 7 minutes. And this is analysis that will be printed in many, many newspapers, hundreds of them around the country. It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watch. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and websites is a remarkable failure of that news organization.

Charles Babington. Find. New. Work."

Markos says Buchanan stuns co-panelists...

"You guys see the panelists on MSNBC look at Buchanan as though he's crazy? Yup. He's praising Obama's speech. Called it the best convention speech ever.

He's stealing Rachel's[Maddow] schtick."

The Associated Press Keeps Up its War Against Barack Obama

by Jonathan Singer at MyDD

The Associated Press decides to double down in its attacks on Barack Obama.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CVN_CONVENTION_ANALYSIS

Here's the headline from Charles Babington's "analysis" of Obama's speech tonight:

"Analysis: Obama spares details, keeps up attacks"

Amazingly, it actually gets worse, reading almost exactly like Republican talking points (and in fact parroting that exact spin):

"Barack Obama, whose campaign theme is "change we can believe in," promised Thursday to "spell out exactly what that change would mean."

But instead of dwelling on specifics, he laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer. The country saw a candidate confident in his existing campaign formula: tie McCain tightly to President Bush, and remind voters why they are unhappy with the incumbent."

It is not until after the lede that Babington admits that 35-minute speeches are rarely chock full of details -- particularly those that are enthralling to a crowd. (By the way, it is also below the lede that Babington admits that the Obama speech did actually include specifics.) But this admission misses a key point. Babington, and the Republicans pushing this line of spin to him, set up a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for Obama -- either he delivers a compelling speech, which they deride as rhetoric, or he delivers an excessively policy-laden speech, prompting calls that he is too professorial.

What a true journalist would do would be to analyze the speech without using the crutch of opposition talking points, without resorting to the easiest "he said, she said" type of stenography. But apparently this is no longer the policy of the Associated Press under Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier -- a man, by the way, who spent months in talks with the McCain campaign about possibly accepting a senior level position. No, what we get out of Fournier's AP is pure and unadulterated talking points that are as non-germane as they are simply incorrect.

************************

Update by Jonathan Singer: Chris Cillizza shoots down the AP's nonesense...

"Obama's speech was more substance than style; more specifics than rhetorical flourish."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/the_speech_how_did_he_do.html

****************************

Update by Jonathan Singer: The Boston Globe agrees with Cillizza: "Analysis: Obama gets specific, and tough"

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/08/analysis_obama_3.html

It's time, then, once again to contact Fournier's boss, Kathleen Carroll at kcarroll@ap.org or (212) 621-1500 to let her know that you do not want the AP to serve as a stenographer and amplifier for pure spin from the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee. You can also participate in the direct action by MoveOn.org or FireDogLake.com. Be POLITE, but be FIRM, and above all speak your mind.

****************************

Update by Jonathan Singer: Oy vey. Really?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080828/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_obama_promises_and_problems

More attacks on Obama from the Associated Press? How long can this organization countenance Fournier sullying its more than century and a half of good reputation?

*******************************

Update by Jonathan Singer: Wow, just wow. Babington apparently wrote his article before Obama was finished giving his speech.

http://mydd.com/story/2008/8/28/234539/905#commenttop

Minneapolis Star-Tribune gives notice to AP
by Markos Moulitsas -- a.k.a. "kos"

Two years notice. That's how long the AP requires papers to give to ditch its increasingly crappy product.

"The Star Tribune of Minneapolis has become the latest, and so far the largest, daily newspaper to inform the Associated Press that it plans to drop the service in two years.

MinnPost.com reports that the paper informed AP that it will no longer use the service as of the fall of 2010. AP requires that member newspapers give two years' notice before dropping the service [...]

The Star Tribune joins a string of other daily papers who have either given notice or revealed plans to cut the service in recent months. Those include The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.; The Post Register of Idaho Falls; The Bakersfield Californian; and The Yakima Herald-Republic and Wenatchee World, both in Washington."

::::::::::::::;;;;

Keith Olbermann, chatting here yesterday, noted that the AP's model is dying:

"This is an outmoded business model, and I speak as somebody who broke in at what used to be the other half of the AP duopoly, United Press International. When we lost our fifth or sixth best writer to a newspaper in Asbury Park, NJ (nothing against the town or the paper), I told my boss there wouldn't be a UPI in ten years. He was genuinely taken aback. This was in 1980.

The hardware - the ticker machines - made the AP viable. Only they had invested in the infrastructure. You and I now, with the internet, have infrastructure virtually equivalent to the AP.

Wait them out. They do not have long to live."

#4

WATCH: Olbermann Rips AP Reporter's Analysis Of Obama Speech

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/29/olbermann-rips-ap-reporte_n_122290.html

Like Mallika ...Michael Moore was Speechless.

He writes in a blog entry titles "A Note I Sent to You -- Three Years Ago ...from Michael Moore" he posted at Daily Kos...

"I'm am speechless after listening to Barack Obama's speech last night. So I'm sending you something I wrote to you two weeks after Hurricane Katrina. It remains every bit as relevant today, on Katrina's 3rd anniversary, as when I wrote it on September 11, 2005. Please give it another look. Here it is in full:

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush... from Michael Moore

Dear Friends,

[...]"

http://dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/55313/1074/401/578266

Go Obama!!!