On my birthday, Michael Smerconish gave a somewhat surprising endorsement of Obama. Realizing that this probably caused most of his wingnut listener base to defect, I decided to return him the favor by tuning in this morning (I swear it had nothing to do with NPR's fundraising drive).

His guest was a terrorism "expert" from the Bush administration (I'm sorry I didn't catch his name), and Smerconish was providing this tool with free reign to stump for McCain during a supposedly non-partisan discussion of anti-terrorism policy and WTF happened in Tora Bora. He wouldn't mention specifics; he just kept uttering, off topic, that he supports McCain in this election. I was thinking to myself, "What's up, Smerconish? Standard protocol is to shut these fools down. Why are you letting this jerk run amok?"

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Michael Smerconish, a local rightwing radio show host in Philadelphia on the big talker 1210, had Kevin Kelly on at the end of his show around 9:00AM. Not to talk about his swiftboating of Patrick Murphy but rather to defend himself against all the evil liberals who are "attacking" him by calling him a swiftboater.

Kevin Kelly will be on the Michael Smerconish show tomorrow morning at 6AM.

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It's a fairly common right-wing claim: Hollywood is out of touch with Middle America. Hosts and pundits typically trot it out each awards season, fueling the Republican base's notion of a liberal elite that, in their eyes, doesn't care about the average American.

People like movie critic and Republican radio personality Michael Medved, for instance, have made a nice career out of using their highly funded, big-city-housed positions to speak for the common man. Their thinly veiled opinions mask homophobia, anti-Semitism and jealousy.

Misguided in their notion of how Hollywood works and what art actually is, they appeal to the lowest common denominator to great success. They champion a return to a style of art that, to say the least, has roots in movements they'd rather you not know about. What's more, they're just wrong.

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