Pulling A MacManus

I coined the term "pulling a MacManus." Pulling a MacManus is when a jouralist is facing deadline and need a conventional wisdom quote that turns out to be incorrect. Journalists will call USF political science professor Susan ManManus were such nuggets of wisdom about how Republicans were going to win to 2006 midterm elections big-time.

Do a search for "Susan MacManus on Google News and you will find pages of her giving bad predictions to political beat reporters. MacManus is horribly wrong about the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

"Clearly the economy and jobs is still going to preeminent," she said. "But what this ruling does do is interweave healthcare as a cost item and a job creation item into the debate. So in a way, it sort of joins the two issues."

Actually, Obama and Romney stopped talking about the ACA a week after the ruling. Obama got hammered in the midterms on health care and Romney's Massachusetts heallth care has the unpopular mandate. Both candidates would rather talk about anything, but health care. MacManus then makes a hysterical prediction.

"With this 5 to 4 ruling and one that seems very divided--they ruled one way on the Commerce Clause and another way on the tax clause," she said. "If anything, I think that their favorability ratings may be going down a little bit and they may be seen by, particularly independents, as just another politicized Washington institution."

The substance of MacManus' argument is Americans are going to be unhappy with the Supreme Court because of its interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Does she actually believes the casual independent voters she speaks of are going to be that legally nuisanced. MacManus points out she is speaking about independents that don't follow the news cycle religiously.

Will journalists please stop getting quotes from MacManus. It is lazy writing.

Vern Buchanan Is In the Money

Republicans are pushing hard to make sure Vern Buchanan keeps his seat. Buchanan raised $365,000 from April to June of 2007. The organized push by the GOP has been staggering.

More than 70 other PACs, including those for the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Florida's sugar and citrus industries, have given Buchanan more than $162,000.

Also bolstering Buchanan's fundraising total: A $106,000 refund from his 2006 political media consultant and almost $78,100 in travel reimbursements for campaign stops by President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

There are two hysterical quotes from the article. The first is by Buchanan's campaign chairman Tim Clarke.

"Vern's agenda of lower taxes, less spending and more personal freedom is resonating with the people."

Actually, Christine Jennings is going to run against Buchanan in 2008. He barely beat her in a still contested election. Republicans do not want to lose more seats in the House.

The second is by the worst quote machine in Florida politics. Yes, I'm talking about about University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus.

"District 13 remains a very important district nationally, a symbol to both parties," MacManus said. "There's not an analyst out there who doesn't expect another slugfest."

Wow. That is some indepth analysis. This is what makes her a media quote machine.