Lucianne.com’s home page subhead probably caught the attitude of most conservatives best when Pat Robertson said the U.S. ought to assassinate Venezualan President Hugo Chavez: "Rev. Pat’s off his meds again." Of course, the MSM didn’t see it that way, trumpeting the TV preacher’s stupid remark far and wide as emblematic of conservatism as a whole.
National Review Online’s Byron York has an interesting essay on Robertson’s actual influence here http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200508250914.asp, making the point that Robertson’s 700 Club TV show reaches an average audience of 863,000.
The Rev. Pat episode reminded me of political conversations I’ve had with my old college roomie, sweetest guy in the world, very liberal. Virtually the only "conservatives" he can name are Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell. He might throw in Bob Novak in a pinch. He watches CNN.
The MSM likes things that way: Stick with a few easy symbols and use them over and over. Kind of like rooting for Juan Fangio to win the Monaco Grand Prix.
