So, even on the cotton fluff "deferential" terms under which her first interview was to be granted, Sarah Palin still managed to declare a frightening willingness to go to war with Russia, and a notable ignorance of the foreign policy doctrine of the current Republican president.
And yet, the question as always is, beyond people who actually imagine that a world leader should actually have a handle on basic foreign policy and diplomacy, does anyone else, the majority of the American electorate know or care? Do they maybe somewhat cherish the Capraesque, or even Capra-lite-esque idea of an everywoman taking on the entrenched leadership of the world? The unconscious appeal of ignorance defeating expertise - i.e. the subliminal force behind the appeal of Being There and Dave? And with such a dynamic running for her, doesn't someone - especially an older, established, male member of the dreaded "liberal" media elite - daring to press her for actual positions and causing her to get flustered actually reinforce the desire for those supporting her to see her defeat all those smug know-it-alls?
Which is why Sarah Palin frightens me. She literally embodies the desire of every small town no-nothing or no-little Napoleon to take over the world and make it the way they believe it should be made, as if it were the easiest thing in the world for someone, as long as they're "outside the system". Meaning any legitimate criticism made about her lack of preparedness only amplifies her appeal.
But people do wake up from daydreams eventually. And I don't think it will take them two months to get there either.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wetting the bed
Whether Obama wins or loses, I'll always have a warm spot in my heart not just for Obama but also for the equally unflappable David Plouffe.
But reading his dulcimer tones of sweet, quiet confidence always lulls me back into the closest thing to a peaceful, happy slumber I'm likely to see in the next two months... speaking of which...
“We’re sensitive to the fluid dynamics of the campaign, but we have a game plan and a strategy,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. “We’re familiar with this. And I’m sure between now and Nov. 4 there will be another period of hand-wringing and bed-wetting. It comes with the territory.”Listening to such focus, the sounds of a clear gaze and someone as preternaturally unshakeable as Obama himself, it's hard not believe they really do have confidence in their approach, as if they have somehow mystically figured a way to float above the fear and the escalating "bed-wetting" going on among Obama supporters, including certainly me, but also including much older, wiser folk who've witnessed a few more presidential campaigns than I have.
But reading his dulcimer tones of sweet, quiet confidence always lulls me back into the closest thing to a peaceful, happy slumber I'm likely to see in the next two months... speaking of which...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Water off a duck's back
I was amazed today watching Obama literally - and quite obviously genuinely - laugh off everything the McCain camp is throwing at him. He really is preternaturally self-composed. It's deeply inspiring to watch. I know everyone wants to see him get rightfully righteous and in McCain's face, Huffington and more writing essays saying exactly that, but I think he realizes that's also what the McCain camp is trying to do, to get into his head before the debates, and he's just beyond giving them that satisfaction. Meanwhile, the press is starting to make a hash of the McCain campaign's non-stop blatant falsehoods and stupid accusations.
And after a fitful but intense night of sleeping and dreaming, I'd let it all go myself by this morning. Since the McCain camp really has gotten well beyond the point of self-parody, I guess the best thing is just to laugh at them, and realize that if the American people are actually going to fall for it again, honestly, after all of the last eight years, then... sigh...
I am going to start making my calls however, next week when we get back from NYC.
And after a fitful but intense night of sleeping and dreaming, I'd let it all go myself by this morning. Since the McCain camp really has gotten well beyond the point of self-parody, I guess the best thing is just to laugh at them, and realize that if the American people are actually going to fall for it again, honestly, after all of the last eight years, then... sigh...
I am going to start making my calls however, next week when we get back from NYC.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
You Know and I Know
The problem with reading blogs and agonizing over the politics, esp. God save us just about the ugliest politics ever, namely Presidential politics (is it just going to get uglier and uglier without end?), is that when a politician does something particularly sleazy, it's like YOU know and I know that it's sleazy, but it doesn't make a bit of difference in the larger universe where people are essentially being charged to believe the way their lizard brain wants them to feel - all freakish and paranoid. There's no battling the lizard brain, the lizard brain will make people do all sorts of counter-intuitive and self-immolating things in the name of the lizard brain, and I can safely say that unless Obama has some master plan for simplifying things to their simplest level for the simple folk in this horribly complex land, this ad is the Willie Horton ad to end all Willie Horton ads, down to the pics they pick to make him look like a sicko frickin perv. And I can throw dishese against the wall, scream my lungs out, pull my hair out by the roots, but it makes not one lick of difference, these twisted bastards are JUST DOING THEIR JOB. They don't have souls, souls would get in the way of business and... ew... souls?
And that's where I cease to be able to understand it. It's warfare I suppose, with the notable exception that wars are ostensibly fought - at least American wars - with some sort of tangible positive outcome, fought to achieve some moral good. While these political wars, these twisted ugly ends-unto-themselves, do nothing but mire this country further in the muck, right at the moment when the country can least handle it. Which also means, McCain - who endorses these ads - is so twisted and lost in himself, that... what? Country first, bullshit. No right-minded individual would stir up this negativity if he believed in country first (not that anyone would suspect it was anything but an empty slogan for him in any case.)
But can Obama recover from this? Would the country surprise me and finally turn away from such attempts in disgust? How much faith do I have in my fellow citizens. Not a lot.
And that's where I cease to be able to understand it. It's warfare I suppose, with the notable exception that wars are ostensibly fought - at least American wars - with some sort of tangible positive outcome, fought to achieve some moral good. While these political wars, these twisted ugly ends-unto-themselves, do nothing but mire this country further in the muck, right at the moment when the country can least handle it. Which also means, McCain - who endorses these ads - is so twisted and lost in himself, that... what? Country first, bullshit. No right-minded individual would stir up this negativity if he believed in country first (not that anyone would suspect it was anything but an empty slogan for him in any case.)
But can Obama recover from this? Would the country surprise me and finally turn away from such attempts in disgust? How much faith do I have in my fellow citizens. Not a lot.
Wake me up when it's over
Of course I'm going to vote, but if this is what it's going to be like, if McCain is determined to make this the most disgustingly low-brow Presidential election ever (I realize it's a tough contest) then I have to stop paying attention now. (At least until the debates.)
I just handle this much ugly, it's horrible. I mean, McCain, really? This means this much to you? Really? And what are you going to actually do with this power once you have it? Nothing, not with a congress that won't have thing to do with you. Oh lord, maybe it really is time to leave the country.
I just handle this much ugly, it's horrible. I mean, McCain, really? This means this much to you? Really? And what are you going to actually do with this power once you have it? Nothing, not with a congress that won't have thing to do with you. Oh lord, maybe it really is time to leave the country.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
A Viler Shade of Palin
This is a late night thought but it's kind of a thorn I want to pull out of my side before going to bed. I guess I addressed it a bit already but I've really been remembering since listening to Palin's speech the sheer ugliness that American politics can get into, and why such an enormous amount of Obama's appeal is his truly steadfast refusal to go there. Throwing an elbow here and there, sure, but Palin's speech, and the reaction it was garnering from the crowd, was of a different magnitude altogether. There was something just a little bit like a cage of pitbulls - lipsticked and not - about that Republican crowd on Thursday. While Obama's speech - and so many of the Dem speeches - were a genuine celebration of possibility, a truly American sense of possibility, Palin was there with a permanent sneer and the desire and the power to throw politics right back into the unholy stinking gutter of contempt, empty vacous character assassination, and policy-free politics of personality that is by far the Republican party's - and its base's - least appealing character trait.
But what got to me really was a real sense that on a deep sense she meant it. With Giuliani's absurd political theater - a long-time mayor of New York railing about urban elitism (as if) - it just comes across as the pure act of a snake oil salesman reveling in his ability to rally the idiocracy. It's annoying, maddening in its sheer audacity of ridiculousness, but ultimately you can tell it's an act. With Palin, I don't feel that. That sneering vindictive spitefulness feels real, hellish and deep.
While there are all manner of reasons (namely an apparently unending stream of unhappy surprises from her past) that Team McCain is protecting the queen bee by shuttling her back to Alaska after a short tour of deep red country, I suspect that part of this is a realization that temperamentally she may simply be more than they had bargained for, and are genuinely afraid what might come up in a direct confrontation with professional journalists.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Barack vs. Bubba
Since McCain's speech basically left me temporarily assuming Obama victory, I started thinking about something some annoyingly condescending conservative pundit had said about the only reason Obama was so wildly popular among liberals was that he was a "Numinous Negro". And I really, really thought about it. Is it true that the liberal frenzy is just a desire to redress old wrongs by electing a black man President?
In all honesty, there was a little yes but mostly no there's more to the story. Of course there's a great amount of excitement at what this means historically, and dismissive conservatives aside, historically transformative moments are self-explanatory. Of COURSE electing a black man President will be historic, even if, in a way, the noteworthy nature of this moment is simply to negate the idea that it should even be noteworthy.
The mostly "no" part though is this: Barack Obama is clearly a singularly brilliant and talented individual, and the thought that he was merely chosen because of his color is ridiculous on its face. This is proven almost by the nature of the primary itself, when two equally historic candidates were running neck and neck to the bitter end. One had to be chosen, and largely because Obama knows how to create a movement around him, and has the brain, presence, policy wonkery, hidden electoral wisdom, and vocal cords to do it, he succeeded. Even when I step back and realize I'm being taken in by the political theater, the fact is I AM being taken in by the political theater, and I'm thankful, truly thankful, that someone has been kind enough to provide such wonderful political theater in my lifetime! We want to believe, and I truly believe that America functions better as a country when we are provided someone (when they provide themselves) to believe in. There's a reason the American Dream is called the American Dream and not the American Reality. Conservatives miss the forest for the trees when they miss that salient point (which is surprising considering Reagan was a master manipulator of the American Dream beyond compare).
I went a step further and thought about Barack Obama versus Bill Clinton. If Bill would have been in THIS primary, would he have won? And that's a very tough question to answer. John Edwards really never had a chance this time around, and it wasn't just because he was the white guy. I've never been sold on Edwards. I never doubt his sincerity (well...) but there's always just something about him that felt off, and I was never in the least surprised when it came out he'd been having an affair. I think it was this sense about him - sort of a preening self-regard despite the populist rhetoric, that allowed the comments about his $400 haircuts to stick. And Hillary just suffered from a combination of too much baggage and a confused campaign message. I loved listening to her go off on policy, it was wonderful to behold, but ultimately it was clear that she did not have a proper grasp on the necessary theater for the moment. The movement maker was the student of Alinsky, Obama.
So, Bill versus Barack.... My money in that contest would be on Bill, even with the "historic nature" business riding behind such a contest. Mainly this comes down to Bill's ease with "just folks". He doesn't have to force it at all, it just flows out of him like honey. Barack, beyond his indisputable gifts, beyond a certain degree of casual cajolery he can allow himself, doesn't ultimately project ease with folks the way Bill can, or rather sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. Policy-wise I'd be curious to see how the battle would have gone, although I think it's clear it would have been simply another case of the hair-splitting that went on in this primary. So it would have to come down to personalities. And in that contest - it's tough, but just-folks-but-also-strangely-genius-Rhodes-Scholar-with-golden-tongue- and-hypnotizingly-strange-pointer-finger Bill Clinton I think wins. It's just Bill - as singular and exotic a creature as Barack Obama - and something about him just makes you want to let him get away with everything. Something, no matter how philosophically open-minded he might be, is just that much a little stiff and judgmental about Obama, or at least feels that way.
So I'm curious how Barack will season the actual business of governing. I have little doubt he'll be an effective, enormously conscientious, policy wonk's policy wonk of a President. My main curiosity is how he will work on the national sensibility in the long term. I kind of suspect he'll end up being a sort of distant Woodrow Wilson type - having mastered what political skills he needed to get to where he needed to be and then moving beyond them - but who knows, maybe he'll favor a weekly town hall approach a la FDR... But I somehow doubt that he will be as comfortable in the role as Bill ever was (for better and definitely for worse).
In all honesty, there was a little yes but mostly no there's more to the story. Of course there's a great amount of excitement at what this means historically, and dismissive conservatives aside, historically transformative moments are self-explanatory. Of COURSE electing a black man President will be historic, even if, in a way, the noteworthy nature of this moment is simply to negate the idea that it should even be noteworthy.
The mostly "no" part though is this: Barack Obama is clearly a singularly brilliant and talented individual, and the thought that he was merely chosen because of his color is ridiculous on its face. This is proven almost by the nature of the primary itself, when two equally historic candidates were running neck and neck to the bitter end. One had to be chosen, and largely because Obama knows how to create a movement around him, and has the brain, presence, policy wonkery, hidden electoral wisdom, and vocal cords to do it, he succeeded. Even when I step back and realize I'm being taken in by the political theater, the fact is I AM being taken in by the political theater, and I'm thankful, truly thankful, that someone has been kind enough to provide such wonderful political theater in my lifetime! We want to believe, and I truly believe that America functions better as a country when we are provided someone (when they provide themselves) to believe in. There's a reason the American Dream is called the American Dream and not the American Reality. Conservatives miss the forest for the trees when they miss that salient point (which is surprising considering Reagan was a master manipulator of the American Dream beyond compare).
I went a step further and thought about Barack Obama versus Bill Clinton. If Bill would have been in THIS primary, would he have won? And that's a very tough question to answer. John Edwards really never had a chance this time around, and it wasn't just because he was the white guy. I've never been sold on Edwards. I never doubt his sincerity (well...) but there's always just something about him that felt off, and I was never in the least surprised when it came out he'd been having an affair. I think it was this sense about him - sort of a preening self-regard despite the populist rhetoric, that allowed the comments about his $400 haircuts to stick. And Hillary just suffered from a combination of too much baggage and a confused campaign message. I loved listening to her go off on policy, it was wonderful to behold, but ultimately it was clear that she did not have a proper grasp on the necessary theater for the moment. The movement maker was the student of Alinsky, Obama.
So, Bill versus Barack.... My money in that contest would be on Bill, even with the "historic nature" business riding behind such a contest. Mainly this comes down to Bill's ease with "just folks". He doesn't have to force it at all, it just flows out of him like honey. Barack, beyond his indisputable gifts, beyond a certain degree of casual cajolery he can allow himself, doesn't ultimately project ease with folks the way Bill can, or rather sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. Policy-wise I'd be curious to see how the battle would have gone, although I think it's clear it would have been simply another case of the hair-splitting that went on in this primary. So it would have to come down to personalities. And in that contest - it's tough, but just-folks-but-also-strangely-genius-Rhodes-Scholar-with-golden-tongue- and-hypnotizingly-strange-pointer-finger Bill Clinton I think wins. It's just Bill - as singular and exotic a creature as Barack Obama - and something about him just makes you want to let him get away with everything. Something, no matter how philosophically open-minded he might be, is just that much a little stiff and judgmental about Obama, or at least feels that way.
So I'm curious how Barack will season the actual business of governing. I have little doubt he'll be an effective, enormously conscientious, policy wonk's policy wonk of a President. My main curiosity is how he will work on the national sensibility in the long term. I kind of suspect he'll end up being a sort of distant Woodrow Wilson type - having mastered what political skills he needed to get to where he needed to be and then moving beyond them - but who knows, maybe he'll favor a weekly town hall approach a la FDR... But I somehow doubt that he will be as comfortable in the role as Bill ever was (for better and definitely for worse).
Zzzzz
McCain's final speech was pretty much a dud, esp. contrasted with last night's side of moose served raw. What he really needed to do tonight was talk specifics, but by the time he meandered his way soporifically to the specifics it was hard to pay attention to them, which might have been the intent since there really wasn't much specific about the specifics.
What I largely got from the majority of the economic stuff was - in code of course - we really like it when people do stuff for themselves so when I become president I'll talk a lot of happy talk to the economically oppressed about bein' a rill Amerkin and pullin' yerself up by the bootstraps. In other words nada there for the folks who are really looking for some kind of plan. The usual straightfaced lie about Obama's tax plan, of course. The educational voucher stuff - really? I guess it gets the base fired up (not like serving up Obama Tartare, but it's a little bit of a red meat to this clearly Palin-hungry crowd). And then "oh my healthcare plan"... which is really not much of a healthcare plan, except maybe in terms planning to let employers off the hook of actually having to provide healthcare... but it's not "national health care"! (And the Sarahcudans go wild... yay! down with the pinko commies who think it's cool for everyone to be covered!)
Finally he gets a little actually excited about the energy plan, pushing once again the falsehood that Obama's against drilling and nuclear, when in reality there isn't much daylight between the two plans... the only difference I really sense is that Obama seems to be obsessively focused on it and therefore capable of actually achieving something with it, while McCain just seems mildly more interested in it than he is about the other policy stuff, which is to say "at all" as opposed to "not at all". He attempts to seem "enthusiastic" about it, but one can feel the quotes.
By that point frankly I'd drifted away and missed what was apparently the best part of his speech, the part about his biography as a POW, which clearly seems to be the only tangible remaining reason (since his maverick credentials are out the window) to vote him into office. I caught the very end of it, which was touching, but he also struck me as almost pleading... I know I'm just reading this into it - but his tone was one almost of, please, this is my last shot... An approach that totally works on me... fortunately I've got Sarah Palin to keep me strong.
Overall, meh. Even the offensive stuff was so unconvincingly delivered, or hopelessly oblique, that I didn't even care. I think he may very well have extinguished the Palin frenzy. Some commenter at TPM suggested that it won't be long before Palin pushes McCain off the ticket. And if independents were looking for inspiring or encouraging policy specifics, unless they were leaning so far toward McCain so as to topple in the breeze of anti-national health care fever or just have this thing for stale Republican boilerplate, I really doubt they would have been sold.
So maybe, whew..... But give it a week.
What I largely got from the majority of the economic stuff was - in code of course - we really like it when people do stuff for themselves so when I become president I'll talk a lot of happy talk to the economically oppressed about bein' a rill Amerkin and pullin' yerself up by the bootstraps. In other words nada there for the folks who are really looking for some kind of plan. The usual straightfaced lie about Obama's tax plan, of course. The educational voucher stuff - really? I guess it gets the base fired up (not like serving up Obama Tartare, but it's a little bit of a red meat to this clearly Palin-hungry crowd). And then "oh my healthcare plan"... which is really not much of a healthcare plan, except maybe in terms planning to let employers off the hook of actually having to provide healthcare... but it's not "national health care"! (And the Sarahcudans go wild... yay! down with the pinko commies who think it's cool for everyone to be covered!)
Finally he gets a little actually excited about the energy plan, pushing once again the falsehood that Obama's against drilling and nuclear, when in reality there isn't much daylight between the two plans... the only difference I really sense is that Obama seems to be obsessively focused on it and therefore capable of actually achieving something with it, while McCain just seems mildly more interested in it than he is about the other policy stuff, which is to say "at all" as opposed to "not at all". He attempts to seem "enthusiastic" about it, but one can feel the quotes.
By that point frankly I'd drifted away and missed what was apparently the best part of his speech, the part about his biography as a POW, which clearly seems to be the only tangible remaining reason (since his maverick credentials are out the window) to vote him into office. I caught the very end of it, which was touching, but he also struck me as almost pleading... I know I'm just reading this into it - but his tone was one almost of, please, this is my last shot... An approach that totally works on me... fortunately I've got Sarah Palin to keep me strong.
Overall, meh. Even the offensive stuff was so unconvincingly delivered, or hopelessly oblique, that I didn't even care. I think he may very well have extinguished the Palin frenzy. Some commenter at TPM suggested that it won't be long before Palin pushes McCain off the ticket. And if independents were looking for inspiring or encouraging policy specifics, unless they were leaning so far toward McCain so as to topple in the breeze of anti-national health care fever or just have this thing for stale Republican boilerplate, I really doubt they would have been sold.
So maybe, whew..... But give it a week.
OK, maybe I over-reacted
But that particular line of conservative attack-doggity gets to me, because frankly I grew up believing in it. So I immediately assume that it has a mass appeal that it probably, in the end, doesn't. And the reactions from independents in the focus groups I've read seem to indicate the fact that she over-reached with the negative stuff in a big way.
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Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The Dread
The more I think about her, the more Sarah Palin fills me with the worst feeling of dread. McCain on his own I could handle as President. I'd be crushed, especially after this campaign when I lost whatever real respect I used to have for him, but y'know I'd be able to handle it ultimately. Sarah Palin erases that comfort level completely. Forget the fact that she really has no idea about governance on a national scale, she scares me on a biblical level. She is my worst nightmare of a conservative, self-righteous, self-confident, deeply spiteful but with a perfect smile, absolutely convinced about her personal correctness while blissfully capable of floating over personal cotradiction, and completely willing to spout whatever lie flashes by her eyes on the teleprompter without compunction - because it's falsehood for a higher cause. It's Christianity on steroids and acid, and it freaks the hell out of me.
I never bought that Bush was actually Christian, it always felt like positioning, same as with McCain - I could be wrong admittedly - and Obama is the kind of Christian-of-doubt that I can fully sympathize with. But Sarah Palin feels like the real (scary) deal, and if it's true that she's an adherent to end times theology, I have to admit, the idea that she might end up in the White House stirs up all my freaky childhood beliefs about the apocalypse a bit as well.
I wish I were kidding. When does the Mayan calendar end? Thank you Google: December 2012 (same end date as X-Files, I think).
So please, let's not let it happen.
I never bought that Bush was actually Christian, it always felt like positioning, same as with McCain - I could be wrong admittedly - and Obama is the kind of Christian-of-doubt that I can fully sympathize with. But Sarah Palin feels like the real (scary) deal, and if it's true that she's an adherent to end times theology, I have to admit, the idea that she might end up in the White House stirs up all my freaky childhood beliefs about the apocalypse a bit as well.
I wish I were kidding. When does the Mayan calendar end? Thank you Google: December 2012 (same end date as X-Files, I think).
So please, let's not let it happen.
Sexist double-standard?
Looking out at the ocean of buttons saying things like "The hottest VP from the coldest state" and "Hoosiers for the hot chick" I couldn't help but think, Biden was accused of being sexist for saying that she was better looking than him?
But then this was the same evening when Mitt Romney was raving about the problems of "promiscuity in the high schools" while the pregnant, unwed seventeen-year-old daughter of the VP nominee sat in the front row. Republicans are so blissfully free of the effects of cognitive dissonance.
It almost makes me wish I were a Republi... no, no it doesnt.
But then this was the same evening when Mitt Romney was raving about the problems of "promiscuity in the high schools" while the pregnant, unwed seventeen-year-old daughter of the VP nominee sat in the front row. Republicans are so blissfully free of the effects of cognitive dissonance.
It almost makes me wish I were a Republi... no, no it doesnt.
I am afraid
Coming from exactly the kind of place filled with exactly the kind of people to whom Sarah Palin will appeal - truth or the lack thereof in her speech be damned - I am seriously at this moment dreading the onset of another Republican administration.
She really is a pitbull in lipstick, and frankly while I was liking her early in the speech, by the end I had a serious bad taste in my mouth. Other pundits were saying that would probably be a general reaction, of really walking away thinking she's not really so much charming as actually mean-spirited with a pretty smile. I hope, but doubt, that is true. I know where I come from, and this kind of shiny red poison apple feels like exactly what the good people of these United States love to swallow on down.
She really is a pitbull in lipstick, and frankly while I was liking her early in the speech, by the end I had a serious bad taste in my mouth. Other pundits were saying that would probably be a general reaction, of really walking away thinking she's not really so much charming as actually mean-spirited with a pretty smile. I hope, but doubt, that is true. I know where I come from, and this kind of shiny red poison apple feels like exactly what the good people of these United States love to swallow on down.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities
Just realized that the main problem with the RNC this year, besides the fact that it has the curse of being Republican in an anti-Republican year, is that the DNC last week had so much pre-packaged drama. How would Michelle Obama come across? Would the party be "unified"? Would Hillary pull a convention shocker and attempt to take over? Would Bill stick to the program during his speech? Would Obama be able to actually pull off justifying an acceptance speech before a stadium of 75,000?
And some kind of miracle happened that really went beyond something that could be choreographed. First Teddy Kennedy provided a stirring reminder of the Kennedy blessing on the house of Obama, then Michelle Obama gave a wonderful and heartfelt biographical piece, ending with the "Wizard of Oz" appearance of Barack Obama on the huge screen talking to his family spontaneously on the DNC stage. Then the next night, following a fantastic crowd-warmer from Brian Schweitzer, Hillary blew everyone away with what some considered her best speech ever, and a quote-unquote "full-throated" endorsement of Obama that started about the fifth sentence in. Then the next day the actual nomination - which I remembered liking watching when I was a kid but hadn't seen since - had this really genuinely joyous sense of the best kind of political theater, the best because everyone feels genuinely in the moment and inspired, and it was capped in a delirious crescendo by Hillary's short but sweet request to stop the count and declare Obama the nominee by acclimation. Then the next night, when everyone was just thinking about Bill's speech, there was the surprise star turn by Kerry who enjoyed fully his moment to stick it to the Republicans. And then Bill reminded everyone what they always forget to remember - that he can deliver a speech that goes right to your spine and you don't even know it's happening. And throughout the week, the complaints that there weren't enough hits on McCain slowly dissipated.
But still there was the final big show.... trepidation ran high... were the columns too much? Would they give the McCainiacs fodder for more celebrity ads? Would the sheer size and spectacle feed into the celebrity meme? Would he get lost in one of his lofty speeches, the kind of speeches his followers swooned over but that the people he needed to appeal to were starting to complain were too airy and not filled enough with specifics? Would Obama really be able to deliver? Would he be able to put the "high" in "Mile High"?
And then, after a day filled with people trying to make their way through the long lines, so's not to miss Stevie Wonder singing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and a few preliminary speeches, followed by the obligatory (and pretty good) biopic, narrated by David Straithairn (impeccable taste in the Obama camp as usual), Obama walked out to the strains of a U2 song that I love, "City of Blinding Lights". And then, he delivered, to an audience not of 75,000 but nearly 90,000, and really, to a record televised/internetted audience of at least 38,000,000 and quite probably closer to 50,000,000. And he delivered a speech filled with specifics, a "grounded" speech as they called it - which disappointed some, but was exactly what he needed to do, along with bringing the fight directly to McCain, as in, in McCain's face.
.... and the point is, how could anyone - esp. a party on the popular outs, but really anyone - compete with an event like that? St. Paul is just guaranteed to disappoint.
Instead, the main drama is 1) will Sarah Palin deliver a decent enough speech to not completely tank on a political level in the non-koolaid drinking public's eyes? and 2) will McCain make it through his acceptance speech without laughing that creepy little nervous laugh of his or uttering a patently insincere "my friends"... And really all of this is subsumed by Hurricane Sarah in any case, the ever-burgeoning pile of Palin data, from the frivolous to the silly to the scandalous to the slightly weird to the genuinely incriminating. Maybe McCain took a gamble that there would just be so MUCH stuff that people would just end up paying attention to none of it. Not kidding.
All the rest, all of the wholly predictable dittohead posturing at the convention, isn't going to register on anyone's radar, and why should it?
And some kind of miracle happened that really went beyond something that could be choreographed. First Teddy Kennedy provided a stirring reminder of the Kennedy blessing on the house of Obama, then Michelle Obama gave a wonderful and heartfelt biographical piece, ending with the "Wizard of Oz" appearance of Barack Obama on the huge screen talking to his family spontaneously on the DNC stage. Then the next night, following a fantastic crowd-warmer from Brian Schweitzer, Hillary blew everyone away with what some considered her best speech ever, and a quote-unquote "full-throated" endorsement of Obama that started about the fifth sentence in. Then the next day the actual nomination - which I remembered liking watching when I was a kid but hadn't seen since - had this really genuinely joyous sense of the best kind of political theater, the best because everyone feels genuinely in the moment and inspired, and it was capped in a delirious crescendo by Hillary's short but sweet request to stop the count and declare Obama the nominee by acclimation. Then the next night, when everyone was just thinking about Bill's speech, there was the surprise star turn by Kerry who enjoyed fully his moment to stick it to the Republicans. And then Bill reminded everyone what they always forget to remember - that he can deliver a speech that goes right to your spine and you don't even know it's happening. And throughout the week, the complaints that there weren't enough hits on McCain slowly dissipated.
But still there was the final big show.... trepidation ran high... were the columns too much? Would they give the McCainiacs fodder for more celebrity ads? Would the sheer size and spectacle feed into the celebrity meme? Would he get lost in one of his lofty speeches, the kind of speeches his followers swooned over but that the people he needed to appeal to were starting to complain were too airy and not filled enough with specifics? Would Obama really be able to deliver? Would he be able to put the "high" in "Mile High"?
And then, after a day filled with people trying to make their way through the long lines, so's not to miss Stevie Wonder singing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and a few preliminary speeches, followed by the obligatory (and pretty good) biopic, narrated by David Straithairn (impeccable taste in the Obama camp as usual), Obama walked out to the strains of a U2 song that I love, "City of Blinding Lights". And then, he delivered, to an audience not of 75,000 but nearly 90,000, and really, to a record televised/internetted audience of at least 38,000,000 and quite probably closer to 50,000,000. And he delivered a speech filled with specifics, a "grounded" speech as they called it - which disappointed some, but was exactly what he needed to do, along with bringing the fight directly to McCain, as in, in McCain's face.
.... and the point is, how could anyone - esp. a party on the popular outs, but really anyone - compete with an event like that? St. Paul is just guaranteed to disappoint.
Instead, the main drama is 1) will Sarah Palin deliver a decent enough speech to not completely tank on a political level in the non-koolaid drinking public's eyes? and 2) will McCain make it through his acceptance speech without laughing that creepy little nervous laugh of his or uttering a patently insincere "my friends"... And really all of this is subsumed by Hurricane Sarah in any case, the ever-burgeoning pile of Palin data, from the frivolous to the silly to the scandalous to the slightly weird to the genuinely incriminating. Maybe McCain took a gamble that there would just be so MUCH stuff that people would just end up paying attention to none of it. Not kidding.
All the rest, all of the wholly predictable dittohead posturing at the convention, isn't going to register on anyone's radar, and why should it?
Yes, Waterloo, but not just for McCain
I think the main effect of the choice of Palin, besides hastening McCain's rapid descent in the polls and final loss in November, will be essentially the entire Republican Party and all of its spokespeople irrevocably tossing their credibility in the flames. Fantastic! It really couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Is Palin McCain's Waterloo?
While the original announcement, after Obama's historic acceptance speech Thursday (which somehow already feels as though it occurred weeks ago), certainly had it's intended effect of throwing the news immediately off of the wholly successful Democratic convention, it's difficult to see how McCain's campaign is going to survive the choice of Sarah Palin for the VP nominee in the long term.
Even beyond the fact that she now seems to be the gift that keeps on giving to the Obama campaign in terms of eye-opening revelations from the political to the personal, the fact that the move from the start was perceived as a desperate gambit - a "Hail Mary pass" as I think everyone liberal to conservative has described it - creates a perception both that, first off, McCain's position is more desperate than I think was generally perceived, and, secondly and more importantly, that he is more than willing to make rash, unexamined moves with very little forethought - a quality I think even the American electorate can process after the last eight years as one that we would be much better avoiding in our next President.
But, of course, after the last eight years, trying to process the inner mental workings of the American electorate is clearly an impenetrable task. Still, from poll results and the results of focus groups run gauging the reaction to McCain's choice of Palin, it does seem as though the Hail Mary pass is eventually going to be looked at as more of a punt.
Even beyond the fact that she now seems to be the gift that keeps on giving to the Obama campaign in terms of eye-opening revelations from the political to the personal, the fact that the move from the start was perceived as a desperate gambit - a "Hail Mary pass" as I think everyone liberal to conservative has described it - creates a perception both that, first off, McCain's position is more desperate than I think was generally perceived, and, secondly and more importantly, that he is more than willing to make rash, unexamined moves with very little forethought - a quality I think even the American electorate can process after the last eight years as one that we would be much better avoiding in our next President.
But, of course, after the last eight years, trying to process the inner mental workings of the American electorate is clearly an impenetrable task. Still, from poll results and the results of focus groups run gauging the reaction to McCain's choice of Palin, it does seem as though the Hail Mary pass is eventually going to be looked at as more of a punt.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Wow.
I'm not one to go goo-goo gaga over web technology, but Flock, despite my initial hesitation, is pretty damn cool. Including this auto-blog function...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Audiobooks, my new best friend
One thing for which I'm discovering a new-found appreciation is audiobooks. Since I commute by train, and wear my ipod at the gym, and wash dishes with the headset on, I'm learning that that time adds up to a whole lot of book listening that can be going on. So far I've made my way through Obama's narrations of his own two books (albeit abridged) and right now I'm listening to Jeremy Irons' recording of The Alchemist, which I'm liking a whole lot more than I expected to.
The plus is that - if the reader is good, and both Obama and Irons are not surprisingly fantastic - I can "read" books like I haven't been able to read them before and really want to pay attention in a way that's been difficult with parenthood. The negative is that the eye reads a whole lot faster than the voice, so that for a very large book, for example Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the total running time is a prohibitive 38 or so hours of listening time. The then-positive is that that is probably a book that I will NEVER read if I try to make my way through the hard copy. So I might just give it a shot by audio after all.
The plus is that - if the reader is good, and both Obama and Irons are not surprisingly fantastic - I can "read" books like I haven't been able to read them before and really want to pay attention in a way that's been difficult with parenthood. The negative is that the eye reads a whole lot faster than the voice, so that for a very large book, for example Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the total running time is a prohibitive 38 or so hours of listening time. The then-positive is that that is probably a book that I will NEVER read if I try to make my way through the hard copy. So I might just give it a shot by audio after all.
On my mind
Commenting on this entire political cycle just feels beside the point somehow. I'm sick and tired of it, I just want it to be over, but it's still got three months to go and I completely fail in my desire to look away. At least unti the Democratic convention, what is the point? Obama's going to continue to take his "victory lap", McCain is going to continue to toss any insane accusation at him that crosses his campaign's mind, the polls are going to hover in the "close but in Obama's favor" range, everyone's going to argue about why Obama just isn't doing better, one outlier poll will indicate a runaway victory for McCain, the tensions will mount, the tempers will flare, the pundits will declare one or the other the obvious choice, while other pundits talk about how until the conventions none of this matters. Lather rinse repeat. And yet I STILL CAN'T LOOK AWAY. As if the minute I stop looking some fundamental campaign-changing event will suddenly take place and suddenly McCain's new found momentum will vault him and his scary smile into the White House for another four years of a president that is wholly ineffective, that no one likes all that much not even the Republicans, and that everyone crings and tunes out whenever he speaks.
And part of me - beaten down by eight long years of the mind-numbingly relentless constitutional debauchery of the Bush Administration - simply can't let me believe that it's actually possible Obama could win. Everyone blissfully forgets who's making our voting machines, among other things. And Ohio - Diebold land - still seems to have the power of being a decisive state yet again. Oy. It's going to be a long 98 more days...
And part of me - beaten down by eight long years of the mind-numbingly relentless constitutional debauchery of the Bush Administration - simply can't let me believe that it's actually possible Obama could win. Everyone blissfully forgets who's making our voting machines, among other things. And Ohio - Diebold land - still seems to have the power of being a decisive state yet again. Oy. It's going to be a long 98 more days...
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Let's do this thing
I've decided to live up to the slogan finally. Maybe this can save me from fixating...
Not bloody likely....
Not bloody likely....
As for Wall-E
Worth every minute that Wall-E is on the screen, but I hate to admit it but I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe I was just tired, or I mean, I was tired, so maybe that affected my viewing.
But that weird thing with using a combination of real actors and shapeless Pixar pseudo-people just was a break in the fourth wall that my mind couldn't get its way around. And since the eco-message was hardly a stunning revelation for me, that part was, eh, okay, glad to see the dystopian message is being spread to the masses but, y'know, here comes the deluge of Disney produced Wall-E toys...
But I liked the love story, and there was something so compellingly innocent and childlike in Wall-E, things that made me get misty-eyed thinking about Juliana, that I certainly liked, edging on loved, a good part of the movie. I just feel like the first 40 minutes, yes! And then the second half just felt a little stitched on and compulsory, minus the dance in space, Wall-E's original flight in space, and... hmmm.... that's about it! Ratatouille still wins my favorite Pixar movie award! Yay Remy! And Juliana can't wait for Desperaux...
But that weird thing with using a combination of real actors and shapeless Pixar pseudo-people just was a break in the fourth wall that my mind couldn't get its way around. And since the eco-message was hardly a stunning revelation for me, that part was, eh, okay, glad to see the dystopian message is being spread to the masses but, y'know, here comes the deluge of Disney produced Wall-E toys...
But I liked the love story, and there was something so compellingly innocent and childlike in Wall-E, things that made me get misty-eyed thinking about Juliana, that I certainly liked, edging on loved, a good part of the movie. I just feel like the first 40 minutes, yes! And then the second half just felt a little stitched on and compulsory, minus the dance in space, Wall-E's original flight in space, and... hmmm.... that's about it! Ratatouille still wins my favorite Pixar movie award! Yay Remy! And Juliana can't wait for Desperaux...
Okay, I admit it, I'm addicted
November can't come too soon. Every day, it's like drugs, my need to get on the web and look at Five Thirty Eight, or Andrew Sullivan, or Kevin Drum, or TPM, or Politico, or the Corner if I want to get my blood boiling, or etc. etc. And I realize it's all just some weird psychological thing, it's gone beyond rationality, it's gone beyond the issues, I fully admit that to a certain degree it really is about the cult of personality, though my very strong caveat on that particular statement is that I would be vehemently behind whoever was the Democratic candidate, it just happens to be the case that this time around the Democratic candidate happens to be one of the most compelling presidential candidates of all time. And on the one hand I suppose it's a profound and wonderful miracle that he's ahead of the game at all (think fifty years ago... think ten!) but the historic nature of his run, combined with the fact that he's just flat out brilliant, combined with the fact that the Republican alternative is about as compelling as molding cheese and as likely to make effective change from eight years of Bush, combined with the fact that the polls are just way to close (albeit in the right direction), and it all adds up to four more months of godless agony.
But I have to figure out how to disengage, it's starting to freak me out a little. Politics and food - I just can't stop myself. It sucks.
But I have to figure out how to disengage, it's starting to freak me out a little. Politics and food - I just can't stop myself. It sucks.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Mike TV
One way I've started trying to avoid politics is, it's brilliant really, by watching TV online instead. Because that's much more important in the end, right? Specifically, I've been watching the free HD versions of Lost on ABC.com. They look great, and all seasons are free. Free! In HD! It's like some insane gift from the gods. (Granted with the connection I've got at home it's slightly less than HD, but who cares? It looks great and no one is looking that gift horse in the mouth.) Figuring it can't last long I'm trying to suck them down as quickly as possible, which of course for a working full time parent who's also attempting to do something constructive with his off time is not really that quickly at all. (Although somehow I have managed to put away four episodes this week.)
I've been kind of studying it while I watch it. Trying to figure out the keys are to its impossibly addictive nature. I'm too tired to lay out all the theories here but one of the brilliant things they did was setting up the formula with the stories in the past. Also, just deciding to go there with the implausibilities and then running beyond. And when I'm a little more awake sometime I want to talk about why... but it's been a long hard day.
I've been kind of studying it while I watch it. Trying to figure out the keys are to its impossibly addictive nature. I'm too tired to lay out all the theories here but one of the brilliant things they did was setting up the formula with the stories in the past. Also, just deciding to go there with the implausibilities and then running beyond. And when I'm a little more awake sometime I want to talk about why... but it's been a long hard day.
Politics
I realize I've been avoiding writing about politics really. That doesn't mean I've kicked the habit, though I wish I could. I wish I could limit it to: I'm going to vote in November, I know who I'm going to vote for, full stop, move on. But I just can't help myself. I have to read the news obsessively and political blogs obsessively even though I know it has very little to do with me and very little to do with life in general frankly.
One thing I've noticed that makes it easier this year is just simply knowing that George W. Bush is not going to be running again. My respect for McCain has taken some serious hits in the last eight years but he comes nowhere near the level of distaste that I've always felt towards Bush, and frankly I doubt he ever could. (Well never say never.) But I have a very good feeling about Democratic prospects this year, Obama's proven himself a formidable candidate, and probably most importantly versus McCain an exceedingly cool and calm one (which at some point is guaranteed to unnerve a man notorious for his temper).
Clinton meanwhile seems to want to burn down her entire reputation on the way out, which is just sad more than anything. I just can't get my mind around that "working Americans, hardworking Americans, white Americans" statement. It would be one thing if she were stating the fact that she does better than Obama among whites, sure, I mean it's a fact. But to phrase it like that, oh my God, stupid and offensive and just frankly impolitic at its core.... Do we even somewhat conceivably want that kind of potential "misspeaking" going on in the White House? Also the "obliterate Iran" comment. And the "sniper" comment. And the whole thing with undermining her opponents credentials and putting the Republican nominee on a higher pedestal. It's just, as she put it, "a pattern emerging". And it's a pattern that frankly is going to be a stain on her future political career.
But like I said, I'm trying to emotionally divest myself of politics... trying, failing yes, but trying... at least trying to be conscious about it's lack of actual importance to me. Or at least it's relatively low degrees of actual importance.
But man I do love Obama.
One thing I've noticed that makes it easier this year is just simply knowing that George W. Bush is not going to be running again. My respect for McCain has taken some serious hits in the last eight years but he comes nowhere near the level of distaste that I've always felt towards Bush, and frankly I doubt he ever could. (Well never say never.) But I have a very good feeling about Democratic prospects this year, Obama's proven himself a formidable candidate, and probably most importantly versus McCain an exceedingly cool and calm one (which at some point is guaranteed to unnerve a man notorious for his temper).
Clinton meanwhile seems to want to burn down her entire reputation on the way out, which is just sad more than anything. I just can't get my mind around that "working Americans, hardworking Americans, white Americans" statement. It would be one thing if she were stating the fact that she does better than Obama among whites, sure, I mean it's a fact. But to phrase it like that, oh my God, stupid and offensive and just frankly impolitic at its core.... Do we even somewhat conceivably want that kind of potential "misspeaking" going on in the White House? Also the "obliterate Iran" comment. And the "sniper" comment. And the whole thing with undermining her opponents credentials and putting the Republican nominee on a higher pedestal. It's just, as she put it, "a pattern emerging". And it's a pattern that frankly is going to be a stain on her future political career.
But like I said, I'm trying to emotionally divest myself of politics... trying, failing yes, but trying... at least trying to be conscious about it's lack of actual importance to me. Or at least it's relatively low degrees of actual importance.
But man I do love Obama.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Music
Is something I've been rediscovering for the past year and a half. I'd kind of sucked myself into a black hole of all my favorites from the past and sealed off the progress of music in history, hoping it wasn't true that there were actually people making music past say 1992 that was worth listening to.
- That's complete hyperbole of course. I'd listened to at least two albums recorded after 1992 before my recent rash of listening.
- Turns out in any case I was completely wrong and music just keeps growing and growing, despite the fact that no one can make a legitimate living from recorded music anymore, it doesn't seem to be stopping anyone in the least.
- While my ignorance of music post-1992 is largely a hyperbolic fiction, the fact is that while I thought I had some idea of the music out there, in truth every time I thought I'd even begun to see the tip of the iceberg, I realized that that was really just an icechip at the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
- Which leads me to wonder, how do people ever find enough damn time to listen to that much music? Bob Boylen or whatever his name is with All Songs Considered, Nic Harcourt, sure they're paid to do nothing but listen to music all the time and bully for them. But what about the average schlump with a day job? Add wife and child?
- So thank god for shared iTunes libraries at work. Thank God for music-obsessed friends with a lot of money and nothing else they want to do with their time. Thank God for All Songs Considered and Radio Paradise and Pandora and KCRW.
- No purpose is being served by this enumerated list, but, eh, whatever.
- Is this actually my first post on music on a blog named after a song?
As for politics
Obama. Can I say, of course? Especially lately Clinton has suddenly made me realize why people could ever have disliked the Clintons so much. I never really understood the crazed, feverish tone of Clinton-haters, and now suddenly I'm thinking, "Hmmmm..."
I read Audacity of Hope a few months ago (or really had read to me by the author by virtue of the modern miracle of the recorded voice captured by spinning disc borrowed from the local library, transplanted into the pure binary audioverse of the Ipod and played back mostly in a vehicle moving between home and work) which just struck me as unhealthily honest for a book written by a politician, and that was it, I was hooked. That he has even made it this far, to me, slightly staggers the imagination.
But that said, I'm seriously attempting to shut off that part of my head. I've realized that politics is an unhealthy obsession, one that I've wasted far too much time on in this life, and one that in the real world will only bring a sensitive soul unnecessary torments, when there are so many genuine, real, personal torments available by the bucketload that one should be using ones meager supply of seconds on this planet to deal with and grapple with and write endless screeds about. I'll vote and do my part and all that and break down and blog about this in the future again because I'm weak, but for the moment I just want to acknowledge a truth of which I've become cleanly aware, before going there again.
I read Audacity of Hope a few months ago (or really had read to me by the author by virtue of the modern miracle of the recorded voice captured by spinning disc borrowed from the local library, transplanted into the pure binary audioverse of the Ipod and played back mostly in a vehicle moving between home and work) which just struck me as unhealthily honest for a book written by a politician, and that was it, I was hooked. That he has even made it this far, to me, slightly staggers the imagination.
But that said, I'm seriously attempting to shut off that part of my head. I've realized that politics is an unhealthy obsession, one that I've wasted far too much time on in this life, and one that in the real world will only bring a sensitive soul unnecessary torments, when there are so many genuine, real, personal torments available by the bucketload that one should be using ones meager supply of seconds on this planet to deal with and grapple with and write endless screeds about. I'll vote and do my part and all that and break down and blog about this in the future again because I'm weak, but for the moment I just want to acknowledge a truth of which I've become cleanly aware, before going there again.
Weird Internet Twins
About the same time a month ago when I actually looked at this thing again and realized, whoa, it was still here, I stumbled on another blog (thelittleblackegg as opposed to littleblackegg) and found a like-minded soul - I guess not surprisingly considering the choice of blog names - only far better read and listened and generally evolved, right down to the fact that he's making a terrible go of it as an independent writer and copyeditor and basically doing anything he can to keep it together and not have to retreat back into an office ever again. He's not really doing very well at it, but the salient point is that he has this brain going a million miles an hour to my hundred and he really is obsessed with music and books in a way that I used to be (and dream of still being). Admittedly I was never quite as eloquent with my obsession as he is, or if I was I've forgotten, but in any case here I am, harried, overworked, overtired, extremely parental, and that state of being is one which I am now currently in the process of re-establishing as my ideal, but am far from reaching as my actual.
And then Kelley just let me know that I guess I let ownership of robbfritz.com lapse, and some Broadway junkie, maybe an actor?, gobbled it up to start a now six-month outdated blog on the Broadway strike, which is like some quantum mechanically generated other-worldly weird ghost of my high school self out there wandering the streets and getting all feverish over Broadway and writing a blog about it. So there they are, two strange internet twins. Kelley mentioned after finding the robbfritz.com site that there's a term she read for it, "googlegangers", which, yeah, there it is.
And then Kelley just let me know that I guess I let ownership of robbfritz.com lapse, and some Broadway junkie, maybe an actor?, gobbled it up to start a now six-month outdated blog on the Broadway strike, which is like some quantum mechanically generated other-worldly weird ghost of my high school self out there wandering the streets and getting all feverish over Broadway and writing a blog about it. So there they are, two strange internet twins. Kelley mentioned after finding the robbfritz.com site that there's a term she read for it, "googlegangers", which, yeah, there it is.
Now what was I talking about?
I've been wanting to do this again, but just didn't want to get back into the political thing, and didn't know how else to start and basically just got all confused and balled up and stopped thinking about starting all over again.
Eels song Going Fetal.... yessir. The blogging fetal position. Current politics and a lack of creativity in general are going to drive me there.
Eels song Going Fetal.... yessir. The blogging fetal position. Current politics and a lack of creativity in general are going to drive me there.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
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