Inside the Beltway: Hank: Now hear this

NEWS AND OPINION:

Politically charged patriot and country music star Hank Williams Jr. is pining to get into talk radio. Pro-America and pro-military Mr. Williams will be producing “Loud and Rowdy,” a trio of two-hour specials to air in the weeks before Election Day, offering up news of the day, politics, music and just plain “speaking his mind,” a spokeswoman tells Inside the Beltway. Hmm. This could be the start of something. And interesting. Mr. Williams is offering the production free to any radio station that wants it, so great is his zeal to engage voters, and as his latest song says, “take back our country.” More on this as it develops; the first installment will be finished by the weekend.

PRESIDENTIAL TRAVELOGUE

Wait, there’s a White House to tend, and the world is worrisome? No matter. President Obamaalready is barreling toward the campaign trail following his big debate with Mitt Romney, bound once again for a record-breaking number of public appearances. Here’s where the president will be in the next 48 hours alone:

Wednesday finds him boarding Air Force One for Mount Vernon, Iowa, and then it’s on to Athens, Ohio. When Thursday dawns, it’s back to Manchester, N.H.; Mr. Obama then jets south to New York City, where he will appear — for the sixth time — on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” In the evening, he’ll address the 68th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a Catholic gathering also to be attended by Mr. Romney. The invitation to the pro-choice president from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has caused controversy among Catholics since August.

“How can I justify inviting the president? Let me try to explain. For one, an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner is not an award, or the provision of a platform to expound views at odds with the Church. It is an occasion of conversation; it is personal, not partisan,” Cardinal Dolan advised his critics.

VOIGHT ON THE MOVE

A tenacious and unapologetic Hollywood conservative has found a noteworthy ensemble cast. Rolling out on Sunday, it’s the six-state, nine-city Battleground States Talker Tour, manned by Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and conservative talk-radio hosts Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt and Mike Gallagher. The gentleman’s quintet will journey to Philadelphia, Fairfax, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and Denver through Oct. 27 for a series of free voter rallies organized by Salem Communications, the broadcast syndicator that places Christian and conservative content on 1,100 stations nationwide.

“Salem serves audiences in a number of the states that will determine the course for our country over the next four years,” says spokesman David Santrella, who adds that the five stars intend to “encourage informed participation in the democratic process.” The events are scheduled for major auditoriums and hotel venues; Let Freedom Ring and Michael Reagan’s Reagan.com are among the regional sponsors.

GRANITE STATE ENDORSEMENT

“We already live in a country that spends more than it takes in and borrows money from China to help support the growing number of government programs — each putting us further in debt. We’ve become an entitlement society dependent on the government rather than ourselves. We give money to countries that hate us and then apologize for thinking differently than they do. Our president wants to continue to take money from those who earn it legally and redistribute it to those who barely work for anything at all.”

So says the Laconia Daily Citizen, a small New Hampshire newspaper, offering a last-minute endorsement of Mitt Romney.

“Vice President Joe Biden was absolutely correct when he told a Charlotte, N.C. audience ’the middle class has been buried for the last four years.’ Despite two failed stimulus packages President Obama continues to blame the sour economy on the ’mess’ he inherited four years ago. Well, in the real world, CEOs don’t get four years to right the ship, and Obama has done nothing to earn four more.”

BOO ENDORSEMENT

“Marack Obama.”

And so says TLC reality TV star Honey Boo Boo, when asked whom she would endorse for president by ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Miss Boo Boo, incidentally, is 7.

STEPHEN COLD-BERT

“Sweeter than the Bill of Rights, colder than Valley Forge” is Ben & Jerry’s official description of Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream election-themed ice cream, named for the Comedy Central host. With 15 grams of fat and 280 calories in a mere half-cup, it’s vanilla ice cream studded with chocolate-covered waffle-cone pieces and swirled with caramel. It’s the bulky agenda that counts, however.

Vermont-based, openly progressive Ben & Jerry’s is determined to use the flavor to protest “big corporate money” in politics and has launched a splashy online public petition drive. “Our goal is to take back American democracy and overrule the Supreme Court, with a Constitutional Amendment that will keep corporate money out of our elections,” the company says. “We call on Congress to pass a Constitutional Amendment that overturns Citizens United and gets the money out of politics.”

POLL DU JOUR

• 73 percent of the Chinese admire U.S. technological and scientific advances; 52 percent like American ideas about democracy.

• 43 percent like the “American way” of doing business; 48 percent say the U.S. is the world’s leading economic power.

• 43 percent have a favorable opinion of the U.S.; 43 percent like American music, movies and TV.

• 41 percent have no confidence in President Obama to “do the right thing regarding foreign affairs.”

• 39 percent say China has a cooperative relationship with the U.S.

• 43 percent say it’s a “good” thing if American ideas and customs spread in China.

• 29 percent describe China as the world’s leading economic power.

Source: A Pew Global Attitudes Survey of 3,177 Chinese adults conducted March 18-April 15 and released Tuesday.

• Choruses and noise to jharper@washingtontimes.com