POLITICO - Fox News' Roger Ailes For President In 2012? The Next Silvio Berlusconi?

[TomCADem]

Of course, if Rupert Murdoch is barred because he was not U.S. born, but what about his right hand man Roger Ailes? With the U.S. Supreme Court about to strike down prohibitions against corporate donations to political campaigns, and Fox News providing the equivalent of a billion dollar attack campaign against President Obama what's to keep Roger Ailes from being a fomidable force in 2012?

Look at media tycooon Silvio Berlusconi who was able to use his media empire in Italy to twice win the seat of Prime Minister in Italy. Before there was Karl Rove, there was Roger Ailes.

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0910/fox_head_could_make_run.html

###

Friends Push Roger Ailes For President

Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO.

"Ailes knows how to frame an issue better than anybody, and that's what we need now," says one Ailes friend who is encouraging the Fox founder, chairman and CEO to seek the Republican nomination to run against President Barack Obama.

Ailes, 69, has an aggessive, winning personality that made Fox News a huge success — and a huge target for liberal critics.

Frank Luntz, the well-known Republican pollster, said Ailes could be a force if he makes the run.

"I have known Roger Ailes for 29 years," says Luntz. “No one knows how to win better than Roger."

Talk of an Ailes run, which informed sources said is based on more than mere speculation, could escalate the White House war with Fox war in wildly unpredictable – and fun – ways.

* * *

From his official bio: “Roger Ailes has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FOX News Channel since 1996, Chairman of Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television since 2005 and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FOX Business Network since 2007. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Ailes was President of CNBC from 1993 to 1996 and served as President of America’s Talking, an information talk channel that later became MSNBC.”

As a legendary Republican political consultant in an earlier career, Ailes helped engineer victories for Ronald Reagan in 1984 and George H.W. Bush in 1988

###

[babylonsister]

1. Unrec/politico. They suck and I don't trust them. nt

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. I THINK I AGREE WITH YOU

[depakid]

6. Zero credibility

[David Zephyr]

3. I hope he does run. Let him run. Obama will eat him alive.

But then Obama will defeat any GOP candidate and they all know it, too.

Except for the two religious nutjobs: Mitt Messiah Romney and Mike Baptist Preacher Hucksterbee.

[TomCADem]

11. If the Supreme Court Dramatically Alters Campaign Finance Laws, He Has A Chance

Roger Ailes was Richard Nixon's television coordinator, and worked for both Reagan and Bush. He knows how to use TV and with the resouces for News Corp, he could just buy the election.

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. It could happen

As long as Murdoch buys ES&S and Sequoia first.

[FrenchieCat]

5. Shit! Politico must have losta of writers, and nothing to do!

Cause I keep seeing these stories that aren't stories sourced from them.

[hileeopnyn8d]

7. Tell me again

how Fox News isn't a political arm of the GOP. It amuses me that the same people trying to convince us that Fox is a legitimate news network, are pushing their friend to run for President.

[Ikonoklast]

8. Politico is rapidly becoming The Onion.

Unintentionally, I'm certain of that, but they don't even realize that they are a parody of a political site now.


And Ailes would be slaughtered before the convention.

The rabid nutcase wingers have taken over their party, and the conservatives have to cater to them now.

They have a Frankenstein's Monster of their own making in the party to contend with, and the split is just starting to unfold.

[Overseas]

9. If a disgusting person like that won the GOP nomination

then it would definitely demonstrate the power of the media over any common sense. But we were actually subjected to the official nomination of the dangerously incompetent Sarah Palin, so Ailes has achieved that threshold already.

So perhaps they are continuing their strategy from the last election-- They know President Obama will win a second term, so they need a totally shameless blowhard to poison all the debates with more carefree fact-free vitriol to make his second term even more difficult than his first.

Roger Ailes could really stir up that fear and racist hatred, and maybe even come up with more ways to alienate younger people against that damn Democratic compassion-- like what they've been doing for a while now-- "Why should I pay to care for people who eat too much and don't exercise? Why should I pay to help someone who just 'doesn't want to work'?" "Why should our hospitals care for those illegals who take the jobs we don't want to do for the wages that are offered?" -- upping the selfishness quota, encouraging younger people to think "Me" instead of the Democratic "We," and get them to fear Big Government Helping People more than Big Corporations ruling with "the wisdom of the free market."

[Skidmore]

10. The Evil Dick's twin brother???

All you would have to do is slap his picture up next to Cheney's and put a few similar quotes next to them. People won't go there again.

[baldguy]

12. Berlusconi is a paragon of journalistic virtue compared with Ailes.

[annabanana]

13. "No one knows how to win better than Roger". . .sure..

lie, steal, cheat, bludgeon

Without that, not so much

[Tigress DEM]

14. OMG - They have FOUND the Anti-Christ! just kidding. nt

[BeyondGeography]

15. Are they that bored?