Blowhard News for Wednesday.

O’Reilly And Rove Agree: Reports On The Bad Economy Are Part Of A Media Cabal To Help Obama
Monday on Fox News, Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove went on a tirade against the media for hyping the struggling state of the economy. They claimed that it’s not as bad as reports are making it out to be, and journalists are overstating the case in order to help President-elect Barack Obama:

O’REILLY: All right, so you are agreeing with me then that there is a conscious effort on the part of The New York Times and other liberal media to basically paint as drastic a picture as possible, so that when Barack Obama takes office that anything is better than what we have now?

Bill O'Reilly explains to Karl Rove that the media is spinning the economic crisis "as negative as they can" to give Barack Obama cover for his economic stimulus program. He hastens to add that he "hopes" it works, he just wants "an honest press."

Joe the Plumber lashes out: McCain ‘appalled me,’ ‘I wanted to get off the bus.’
Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher has a book coming out later this month, called “Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.” He previewed it on Glenn Beck’s radio show, revealing that “a lot of liberals are going to love” some of his criticisms about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He was particularly angry about McCain’s support for the $700 billion financial bailout:
WURZELBACHER: When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen. Yet he voted for it. … And I asked him some pretty direct questions. Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive — they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.
BECK: Really? Now why didn’t you get off the bus?
WURZELBACHER: Um, you know, honestly, because the thought of Barack Obama as president scares me even more.

Rice: U.S. is still ‘very well-regarded’ in terms of ‘popularity.’
In an interview with CBS yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked how the U.S. image has fared under President Bush. Rice acknowledged that there were “some negative perceptions” but added that the U.S. is still quite popular:

But I’m always a little puzzled to find the two most populous countries in the world — China and India – even if you want to take the test of popularity, which by the way, I don’t think is the issue, but even if you wanted to take the test of popularity, the United States is very well regarded.

“Among several of America’s traditional allies, support has fallen steeply since 2002,” Pew noted in 2006. An April 2008 BBC poll of 17 countries found that views of US influence in the world are “predominantly negative