"Surprise" at How "Moral Values" Top Issue, Admit Out of Touch --11/4/2004

1. "Surprise" at How "Moral Values" Top Issue, Admit Out of Touch
Out of touch media. Many in the media admitted their "surprise" at how the exit poll discovered that, at 22 percent, more called "moral values" the "most important issue" than any other in determining their vote. On Wednesday's Good Morning America, ABC's Diane Sawyer asserted that the exit poll had "some surprises" and Robin Roberts began with the "moral values" answer. Over on CBS's Early Show, Julie Chen asked: "What was the surprise of the day?" John Roberts replied that the "moral values" finding was "the real surprise of the day." Dan Rather teased the CBS Evening News, "Moral values. We'll give you a look at the surprise issue that trumped the war, terror and the economy..." ABC's Peter Jennings insisted that "this question of moral values is a surprising one to show up on exit polls" and George Stephanopoulos described it as "an amazing result." Just before John Kerry's concession speech, ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin acknowledged how many journalists "are out of touch with a lot of America and with a lot of America that supports George W. Bush."

2. Lauer and Stephanopoulos Urge Bush to Govern from "the Middle"
Time to move to the center? The President, largely running on conservative issues, won a majority of the vote for the first time in 16 years in presidential elections, Republicans gained Senate and House seats while eleven states passed constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriages. A conservative mandate? Not to some members of the media. NBC's Matt Lauer relayed how "a lot of people say" George W. Bush "has governed from the right when he had an opportunity to govern from a more central position. Will he do that? Is there any chance that he'll do that?" ABC's George Stephanopoulos touted how Bush now has "more of an opportunity to go to the middle." Katie Couric, on Today, acted as if Kerry had won as she pressed Senator Bill Frist with one of Kerry's talking points: "Many people feel there's a serious healthcare crisis in this country. What do you as, as Senate Majority Leader and the Bush administration, what would you ideally like to do to make healthcare more available to all Americans?"

3. Incoming Senators: "Ultra-Conservative" and "Hard-Right"
Plenty of conservative labeling, and some of that of the extreme kind, but nary a liberal could be found by network anchors and reporters in recounting candidate victories and losses. NBC's Tom Brokaw claimed that incoming Republican Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are "very conservative, and very proud of their hard-right credentials." ABC's Peter Jennings didn't tag Tom Daschle, but he described John Thune, who beat Daschle, as "a very conservative member of the now-Republican establishment." On CBS's Early Show, in a round up of Senate and House races, Tracy Smith avoided the liberal label, but four times applied variants of conservative, twice each to members of each party. She dubbed Republican DeMint an "ultra-conservative Republican" before referring to "conservative Democrat Ken Salazar."

4. Jennings: "We've Not" Called Ohio; Reynolds: "Everybody Else Has"
One of the most humorous moments of election night came after ABC's Dean Reynolds speculated from Boston, at about 1:50am EST Wednesday morning, that the Kerry campaign "must be well and truly shocked tonight, especially about the loss of Ohio." Peter Jennings then gently chided him: "I hate to put you in an embarrassing position here -- we've not projected Ohio." To which, Reynolds, outside in a rainy Boston, shot back: "No, but everybody else has, and I think they can watch television as well as everybody else."

5. Night of Danisms: "Race is Hotter than a Times Square Rolex"
After pleading with viewers to vote ("We've got guys fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan. If they can do what they do, you can get off your duff and go vote"), on election night Dan Rather delivered another night of "Ratherisms" or Danisms," such as: "George Bush is sweeping through the South like a big wheel through a Delta cotton field," "This presidential race is hotter than the Devil's anvil," "The race is, you know, it's humming along like Ray Charles," "This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex," "Situation in Ohio would give an aspirin a headache" and "John Kerry, his lead is as thin as turnip soup."

6. Letterman's "Top Ten John Kerry Excuses"
Letterman's "Top Ten John Kerry Excuses."

"Surprise" at How "Moral Values" Top
Issue, Admit Out of Touch

Out of touch media. Many in the media admitted their "surprise" at how the exit poll discovered that the most called "moral values" the "most important issue" in determining their vote. On Wednesday's Good Morning America, ABC's Diane Sawyer asserted that the exit poll had "some surprises" and Robin Roberts began with how "our polling unit was out asking thousands of voters what mattered most to them, and the number one response from voters across the country, cited by 22 percent, 'moral values.'" Over on CBS's Early Show, Julie Chen asked: "What was the surprise of the day?" John Roberts replied that the moral values finding was "the real surprise of the day." Dan Rather teased the CBS Evening News, "Moral values. We'll give you a look at the surprise issue that trumped the war, terror and the economy..." ABC's Peter Jennings insisted that "this question of moral values is a surprising one to show up on exit polls" and George Stephanopoulos described it as "an amazing result."

In the afternoon, just before John Kerry's concession speech, ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin acknowledged how many journalists are out of touch with the values of Bush supporters:
"Most members of the establishment media live in Washington and New York. Most of them don't drive pickup trucks, most of them don't have guns, most of them don't go to NASCAR, and every day we're not out in areas that care about those things and deal with those things as part of their daily lives, we are out of touch with a lot of America and with a lot of America that supports George W. Bush."

-- ABC's Good Morning America. About 14 minutes into the 6am EST hour on a GMA which started an hour early, Diane Sawyer noted: "We wanted to know why Americans voted the way we all did at the polls? What are the reasons? What about those issues like moral values? Was it on terrorism? Was it on the economy? We got Robin Roberts. We're going to bring her in now. She's been looking through the exit polls and she's got some surprises. Robin?"
Roberts, sitting in front of a big map with states in red and blue, confirmed, over a matching bar graph: "Yeah really, Diane. Our polling unit was out asking thousands of voters what mattered most to them, and the number one response from voters across the country, cited by 22 percent, 'moral values' was number one. 22 percent said moral values. 20 percent cited the economy and jobs. 19 percent named terrorism and 15 percent said Iraq. Now if you look deeper inside those numbers, those voters who cited moral values as their number one issue, overwhelmingly voted for President Bush by nearly 80 percent."

After Roberts recited how single woman backed Kerry while married women voted for Bush, Sawyer opined: "Interesting about the number one issue there. Okay, let's head off to the weather and Tony Perkins."

-- CBS's Early Show at about 7:45am EST. Julie Chen wondered: "What was the surprise of the day?"

John Roberts, standing in front of a video screen with a bar graph, answered as if it were still night and restricted his numbers to those in the "Midwest" though they were identical to the overall numbers: "The real surprise of the day actually was the fact that the war or terror and the economy was not the top issue for people in the Midwest. 22 percent of them said 'moral values' was the top issue, two percent more than the economy or jobs and three percent more than terrorism. Some folks around our election data center tonight were saying that the Midwest is shaping up to be the new South in terms of the alignment of both religious and moral attitudes."

-- NBC's Today, 6:45am EST. The MRC's Geoff Dickens caught this question from Katie Couric to Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley: "But getting back to the moral issues, does this election indicate that, that this country has become much more socially conservative in your view?"

-- CBS Evening News, November 3. Dan Rather teased: "Moral values. We'll give you a look at the surprise issue that trumped the war, terror and the economy as the decisive issue in the election."

Rather introduced the subsequent story, as taken down by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "An estimated 120 million Americans voted in this election, the highest number ever. There were many issues that motivated people to go to the polls. CBS's Lee Cowan reports on the number one issue."

Cowan explained: "In the end, it wasn't the clatter of the war, it wasn't the thud of the economy, it wasn't even the rantings of the world's most wanted terrorist. In the end, what voters say brought them to the polls was much more quiet [video of people in church]. The number one voter motivator: Morality."
Unidentified woman: "America is going down hill morally, period."
Cowan: "National exit polls showed that 22 percent of voters claimed moral values was their chief concern, more than those who list the economy or terrorism." [table on screen]
Unidentified man: "My moral stance and my position will always override any other issues."
Cowan, over video of Bush leaving a church: "It had been a strategy of the Bush camp all along -- instead of reaching out to undecided voters-"
Unidentified man in audience, to Bush: "This is the first time that I have felt that God was in the White House."
George W. Bush: "Thank you."
Cowan: "-the President courted his predominantly white evangelical base. And it worked."
Professor Larry Sabato, University of Virginia: "Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 because three or four million fundamentalist Christians stayed home. Well, guess what, they turned up in 2004."
Cowan: "And he got more help than he bargained for after the Mayor of San Francisco began allowing same-sex marriages. It produced such an uproar among conservatives, 11 states put a constitutional amendment on their ballot to ban same sex marriages. It pulled conservatives to the polls in droves, and the bans passed in all 11 states."
Sabato: "George W. Bush is the inheritor of the Reagan conservative movement on social and cultural issues."
Cowan: "Which has Democrats concerned, not because morals are making headlines, but because morals, some say, are being used."
Very Rev. Tracey Lind, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral: "What this campaign played on were the politics of fear and the politics of scarcity and the politics of good and evil."
Cowan concluded: "For those who thought morality was a sleeper issue during the campaign, most analysts agree it will not be that way during a second term. Supreme Court nominations could soon take center stage, and for conservatives, the highest voter turnout in decades could be an answer to their prayers. Lee Cowan, CBS News, Cleveland."

-- ABC's World News Tonight. Peter Jennings: "After such a long campaign, we look to see what matters most to the voters. ABC's George Stephanopoulos is with us. We look, of course, George, to the exit polls. And this question of moral values is a surprising one to show up on exit polls."

Stephanopoulos, at the anchor desk with Jennings, agreed though the term confused him: "It sure did. It showed up at the top. But, Peter, it's hard to know exactly what it means, moral values, when it's stacked up against other concrete issues like jobs and taxes and health care and the war. But I do think that one of President Bush's strengths was his ability to frame issues in moral terms, right and wrong, good and evil, as Terry Moran just said, using the language of faith."
Jennings: "There is some suggestion in the country today, including among Democrats, that Democrats are out of touch with the culture of much of the country."
Stephanopoulos: "And perhaps that John Kerry, as a messenger, didn't have a good cultural fit with the rest of the country. You saw him try to make up for it. You saw the pictures of him hunting. He emphasized that he was a church-going Catholic, but that didn't make up for, it appears, the fact that he was from Massachusetts, married to a billionaire, a little bit out of touch."

-- ABC's Halperin: Journalists out of touch. During ABC's live coverage of Kerry's concession speech, at about 1:54pm EST Wednesday before John Edwards spoke, this exchange took place amongst Peter Jennings, George Stephanopoulos and Mark Halperin as they all sat together at ABC's Manhattan studio.

Jennings: "I don't think at the end of the campaign, George, that this notion of 9/11 and the President's greatness -- I think everybody would agree -- at the time of 9/11, was resonating as loudly in the community as it turned out to."
Stephanopoulos: "Well, you know, for the last six months, you know, we've done a lot of back-and-forths like this, and what do we say all the time? We said the three big issues are war in Iraq, the war on terror and the economy. What happened last night? Voters who went to the polls came back and said the number one issue, plurality, was moral values -- 22 percent. It was an amazing result...."
Jennings: "Mark, our challenge, as the national press, is to cover the whole country, and I wonder whether or not, looking back on this, we in the establishment media will think that we've missed something in the country that we should have paid more attention to."
Mark Halperin, the ABC News Political Director who had urged a closer scrutiny of Bush's clams than of Kerry's charges, suggested: "Well, look there's a built-in problem. Most members of the establishment media live in Washington and New York. Most of them don't drive pickup trucks, most of them don't have guns, most of them don't go to NASCAR, and every day we're not out in areas that care about those things and deal with those things as part of their daily lives, we are out of touch with a lot of America and with a lot of America that supports George W. Bush."

Jennings soon wondered: "...There is some question, I know, as we talk about, you know, what led to this defeat for Mr. Kerry and this victory for Mr. Bush, as to whether or not we've got this whole notion of moral values right. And today and in the days ahead, we're going to have to be very careful, I think, to try to enumerate what it is we think it means so we don't mislead people with something that it turns out not to be."
Halperin: "Well, I'll tell you one thing. I think the President infuses his words about the war on terrorism with a sense of moral values. It works well for him and I think for some voters, when they say 'moral values and the President,' they mean the fight that he casts as a fight between good and evil against terrorism."
Jennings: "But the question, as [ABC News polling chief] Gary Langer points out, and which was included, asks people about the most important issues in their vote: taxes, education, Iraq, terrorism, economy, jobs, moral values, health care. We really hadn't wanted 'moral values' on the list for some reason, some of our pollsters, right?"
Halperin: "It's kind of a nebulous issue because it means so many different things."

Or is simply too foreign to out of touch journalists?

For a rundown of the exit poll numbers: www.cnn.com

Lauer and Stephanopoulos Urge Bush to
Govern from "the Middle"

Time to move to the center? The President, largely running on conservative issues, won a majority of the vote for the first time in 16 years in presidential elections, Republicans gained Senate and House seats while eleven states passed constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriages. A conservative mandate? Not to some members of the media. NBC's Matt Lauer relayed how "a lot of people say" George W. Bush "has governed from the right when he had an opportunity to govern from a more central position. Will he do that? Is there any chance that he'll do that?" ABC's George Stephanopoulos touted how Bush now has "more of an opportunity to go to the middle." Katie Couric, on Today, acted as if Kerry had won as she pressed Senator Bill Frist with one of Kerry's talking points: "Many people feel there's a serious healthcare crisis in this country. What do you as, as Senate Majority Leader and the Bush administration, what would you ideally like to do to make healthcare more available to all Americans?"

At about 6:45am EST on Today which started early, Matt Lauer proposed to Chris Matthews as they broadcast from NBC's "Democracy Plaza": "Well he hasn't convinced them because a lot of people say over the last three and a half to four years he has governed from the right when he had an opportunity to govern from a more central position. Will he do that? Is there any chance that he'll do that?"
In the 7:30am half hour, Katie Couric lectured Frist about the lack of a mandate: "I think, Senator, many people would probably refuse to call this a mandate seeing that it was quite close in so many of these key battleground states. Having said that the President, it seems, solidified his base with 97 percent of Republicans supporting him. But there have been, there have been many political observers who have said he has failed to broaden his base. Given the fact that this country is so polarized and I think that no one disputes that how will the President govern differently in the next four years to try to unite the American people?"

Then, as if the election hadn't occurred, Couric took up a Kerry talking point: "And Senator Frist since you're a doctor as well as a Senator I'm just curious about health care. There's still 44 million uninsured Americans. Many people feel there's a serious health care crisis in this country. What do you as, as Senate Majority Leader and the Bush administration, what would you ideally like to do to make healthcare more available to all Americans?"

Following President Bush's 3pm EST acceptance speech, ABC's George Stephanopoulos yearned for Bush to veer away from conservatism: "I think, and perhaps it's counter-intuitively, you hear Vice President Cheney talk about the mandate that came out of the first term even though President Bush didn't win the popular vote. In the second term now that President Bush you would think would be unleashed by this huge outpouring of support in this election, could actually have more of an opportunity to go to the middle."

Incoming Senators: "Ultra-Conservative"
and "Hard-Right"

Plenty of conservative labeling, and some of that of the extreme kind, but nary a liberal could be found by network anchors and reporters in recounting candidate victories and losses. NBC's Tom Brokaw claimed that incoming Republican Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are "very conservative, and very proud of their hard-right credentials." ABC's Peter Jennings didn't tag Tom Daschle, but he described John Thune, who beat Daschle, as "a very conservative member of the now-Republican establishment." On CBS's Early Show, in a round up of Senate and House races, Tracy Smith avoided the liberal label, but four times applied variants of conservative, twice each to members of each party. She dubbed Republican DeMint an "ultra-conservative Republican" before referring to "conservative Democrat Ken Salazar."

A few examples of the many instances of one-sided ideological labeling I observed from Tuesday night and Wednesday morning:

-- NBC, about 10:45pm EST on Tuesday night. Tom Brokaw to Senator John McCain: "It appears tonight that your side of the aisle -- in the Senate, at least -- will be more conservative with Jim DeMint coming in from South Carolina, and Tom Coburn coming in from Oklahoma, very outspoken, very conservative, and very proud of their hard-right credentials."

-- ABC's Peter Jennings, Wednesday morning at about 4:18am EST, as tracked down by the MRC's Jessica Anderson: "And by the way, as ABC's Linda Douglass on Capitol Hill reminds me in an e-mail just a moment ago, John Thune in South Dakota ran on all the moral issues. John Thune's a very conservative member of the now-Republican establishment, but he ran on the moral issues and constantly against Senate Daschle as the principal obstructionist to President Bush's policies as he tried to pass them through the Congress. What South Dakota now comes to grips with, and we'll what happens when the Senate reconvenes, or when the new Senate convenes, as to whether or not the historic influence that the leader brought to the people of South Dakota in terms of assets for the state will be delivered by Mr. Thune."

-- CBS's Early Show, 7:48am EST Wednesday rundown by Tracy Smith of House and Senate results. The MRC's Brian Boyd took down her recitation, with her ideological labeling in ALL CAPS:
"The story of the night was South Dakota where in a major upset for Democrats, Senate leader Tom Daschle lost the seat he's held for 18 years to John Thune. And the retirements of five Democratic senators also helped Republicans. Of those seats, South Carolina's, vacated by Fritz Hollings, went to ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN Jim DeMint. CONSERVATIVE GEORGIA DEMOCRAT Zell Miller's seat was won by Republican Congressman Johnny Isakson....
"The barely known state senator [Barak Obama] stepped into the national spotlight when he was chosen as keynote speaker of the Democratic National Convention. As polls predicted, he won handily over former presidential candidate and CONSERVATIVE Alan Keyes. The first time in Senate history that two African-Americans ran against each other. Barack OBama will be only the third African-American senator since Reconstruction.
"Democrats also took the seat vacated by retiring Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell in Colorado, where the race between CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT Ken Salazar and Republican beer magnate Pete Coors was the most expensive in the state's history....

Jennings: "We've Not" Called Ohio; Reynolds:
"Everybody Else Has"

One of the most humorous moments of election night came after ABC's Dean Reynolds speculated from Boston, at about 1:50am EST Wednesday morning, that the Kerry campaign "must be well and truly shocked tonight, especially about the loss of Ohio." Peter Jennings then gently chided him: "I hate to put you in an embarrassing position here -- we've not projected Ohio." To which, Reynolds, outside in a rainy Boston, shot back: "No, but everybody else has, and I think they can watch television as well as everybody else."

Indeed, by that point, FNC (and Fox) and NBC (and MSNBC) had already called Ohio for Bush and any TV watch could tell by comments from analysts on CNN that Ohio was a lost cause for Kerry.

The MRC's Jessica Anderson tracked down the early morning Wednesday exchange between a warm and dry Jennings and a cold and wet Reynolds:

Reynolds: "Well, Peter you know, when one side in a very close election has to keep asserting its confidence, it tells you something about the level of its confidence, and frankly, the Kerry campaign -- and it's now raining, drizzling here [in Boston], which further dampens the mood -- has been trying to buck itself up for the last, oh, I'd say about six hours. It was only about 12 hours ago that they were feeling really good and earlier this morning when we arrived in Massachusetts, I couldn't find any Kerry campaign folks who didn't think they were going to win. They must be well and truly shocked tonight, especially about the loss of Ohio. If there was one state in the whole country where they thought they could make the economic argument stick, it would be Ohio, which has lost more than 200,000 jobs during George Bush's presidency."
Jennings: "Let me ask you a question which I'm sure, you've certainly twigged me there, do you believe that the Kerry campaign is conceding Ohio? Because we've not -- I hate to put you in an embarrassing position here -- we've not projected Ohio."
Reynolds: "No, but everybody else has, and I think they can watch television as well as everybody else."

Night of Danisms: "Race is Hotter than
a Times Square Rolex"

After pleading with viewers to vote ("We've got guys fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan. If they can do what they do, you can get off your duff and go vote"), on election night Dan Rather delivered another night of "Ratherisms" or Danisms," such as: "George Bush is sweeping through the South like a big wheel through a Delta cotton field," "This presidential race is hotter than the Devil's anvil," "The race is, you know, it's humming along like Ray Charles," "This race is hotter that a Times Square Rolex," "Situation in Ohio would give an aspirin a headache" and "John Kerry, his lead is as thin as turnip soup."

At about 7:48pm EST, Rather pleaded: "The polls are still open in many, many states in our great United States of America. If you've not yet voted, we urge you to go to the polls and vote. You may say 'Well, I'm too tired' or what have you. No excuses. We've got guys fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan. If they can do what they do, you can get off your duff and go vote. Then come back and watch us."

The MRC's Brian Boyd on Wednesday went through the Tuesday night video and took down some of Rather's odd observations:

From just past 8pm EST:
-- "Illinois, Land of Lincoln, Land of John Kerry for tonight. Play a verse of Johnny Be Good in Illinois for John Kerry. Twenty-one electoral votes we estimate he'll get there."

-- "In Missouri, the Show Me State, show me insufficient data."

-- "George Bush is sweeping through the South like a big wheel through a Delta cotton field."

-- "This brings us to our projection of right now George Bush with 80 electoral votes, John Kerry with 77. This presidential race is hotter than the Devil's anvil."

From a little past 9pm EST:
-- "Kansas, six electoral votes. You know they say 'never gamble with strangers,' never bet against a Republican in Kansas."

-- "New Mexico, Land of Enchantment. Each of the candidates was hoping it would be their land of enchantment."

-- "George Bush is sweeping through the Midwest now like a big combine."

9:43pm EST:
-- "The race is, you know, it's humming along like Ray Charles, but there are increasingly fewer decisions until some of those states in the West get closed."

Interview with Joe Lockhart at 12:14am EST:
-- "I know that you'd rather walk through a furnace in a gasoline suit than consider the possibility that John Kerry would lose Ohio because, will you agree, the figures don't lie, Kerry can not win if he doesn't carry Ohio?"

-- "What about Michigan? It's been out there a long time. Is that making your fingernails sweat?"

Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman ran a compilation of Rather cracks, including:

-- "This presidential race, you know, it's been crackling like a hickory fire for at least the last hour and a half."

-- "This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex and it has been all night long."

-- "Situation in Ohio would give an aspirin a headache."

-- "John Kerry, his lead is as thin as turnip soup."

Letterman's "Top Ten John Kerry
Excuses"

From the November 3 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten John Kerry Excuses." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com

10. Voters were in a fever-induced haze because they couldn't get flu shots.

9. Floridians confused by shockingly unconfusing ballots.

8. Maybe it wasn't best idea to begin speeches with "yo mama is so fat" jokes.

7. The endorsement from Osama Bin Laden didn't exactly help him.

6. "Dude -- it's the Curse of the Bambino."

5. Should've campaigned more in New Mexico, less in regular Mexico.

4. Turns out voters think it's hot that Cheney has a lesbian daughter.

3. Thought America was ready for a lunatic first lady.

2. Voters seem to really like a weak economy and a badly-run war.

1. Was distracted by late night erotic phone calls from Bill O'Reilly.

-- Brent Baker