Saturday, December 29, 2007

Bhutto

As the MSM gives up 24/7 coverage of the execution and then 24/7 coverage of the reaction to the execution, followed by 24/7 coverage of the reaction to the reaction of the execution, I think to myself...YAWN, and flip over to see the latest '07 Patriots comparison to the '86 Bears or '89 49ers.

Yes it was a newsworthy event. But let's put things into perspective.

First off she was the opposition leader,not the president or prime minister. It would be as if in 2004 John Kerry were assassinated a month before the election. Not exactly the same thing.

Second this was the 3rd attempt on her life this year. It shouldn't have come as a shock to anyone that this event might happen. And judging by the plethora of "experts" the MSM had ready to go, looks to me like they were ready.

Finally, it is fucking PAKISTAN. Politicians get executed often. One thing that the MSM has for the most part ignored is that 2 of Bhutto's brothers were also murdered, one in the 80s, one in the 90s. In Pakistan politics is a blood sport and has been since the country's infancy.

The best indicator that it's not that big of a deal is the reaction in financial markets. Stocks were down about 1.5% on Thursday. And a lot of that had to do with non-Bhutto related news, especially oil inventory numbers. And oil only rose about $1 Thursday as well, again due to inventory numbers more than anything else.

The most ridiculous chatter now is how will this affect the primaries. My take is it will affect the primaries about as much as whether the Patriots go 16-0 tonight.

Is there a voter in Iowa or NH right now thinking "hmm you know I was going to vote for Huckabee since I am a religious nut, but due to circumstances in Pakistan, I will change my vote to McCain since he has more foreign policy experience". Or how about "I think Obama is the kind of change I am looking for but since Hillary personally knew Bhutto and she lived in the WH for 8 years, she will now get my vote".

People who think terrorism is a threat before Bhutto died still think it's a threat today. People who think terrorism is a George Bush made up issue still think it's a George Bush made up issue. I honestly doubt anyone is going to change their vote because of this event.

We live in a world where things like the execution of a political figure in a Muslim country is common. It's tragic but it's not worthy of 24/7 coverage for 3+ days and certainly not a deciding factor in the primary elections.

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