Keith Olbermann's strange recent obsession with Rick....

I think Rick must be on the radar screen for liberals nationally, because they pretty much ignored him until the past few months, and the last month in particular. Keith Olbermann has been on a rampage in the past week or two, ripping Rick over and over in his show.

Waldenswimmer has a good retort to Olbermann (link). Excerpt follows...

I was extremely disappointed by Keith Olbermann's uninformed, smarmy rant on his "Countdown" show the other night when he took Governor Rick Perry of Texas (maybe someday the "President" of Texas, or Generalissimo?) to task for mentioning again the possibility that Texas might secede from the Union.  His voice dripping with sarcasm, Olbermann "reminded" Perry of all the benefits of statehood his Republic would forfeit, and mentioned specifically such matters as federal aid, Social Security and the national defense.

Olbermann should have checked one key statistic before launching into his idiotic diatribe: according to the latest figures available (two years ago), Texas ranked 35th in the Union in return on investment (ROI) for federal taxes paid.  For every dollar that Texans send to Washington, they receive 94 cents in return.  (California's situation is much worse; there the figure is 78 cents).  This is a common misunderstanding about the "value" of statehood.  For most prosperous states, it's a net loss to be a member of the United States.  

I'm sure that Rick Perry is aware of this, even if Keith Ol'Blowhard is not.  Perry is simply doing the job he was elected to do: govern the people of Texas.  Their interests should be primary in his choice of policy, and it's become obvious to Perry (and to Sarah Palin's husband, to choose another loud and leading advocate for secession, this time for Alaska) that statehood simply comes at too high a price. 

[SNIP]

Texas: Don't Mess With It.  Perry is operating in the grand tradition of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, who lived just long enough to see the establishment of the First Republic in 1836, yet mercifully died before the tragedy of statehood in 1845.

The fact that Texas sends more to the federal government than vice versa is important. Olbermann's logic makes sense from a liberal worldview, but not from the real world view. Social Security? Texas would be better off without that lousy scheme. Olbermann's schpiel about Texas having to provide its own border security? We're already there, brother.

Olbermann is easily one of the worst people on television, in a sea of terrible people on MSNBC. He is one of the least fair and least balanced people in all of political news. His criticism of Rick only makes me like Rick a lot more.