In the last week I've read "The Audacity to Win" and Dan Baltz and Haynes Johnson's new book about the 2008 campaign and I am resolved, as we used to say in college debates: I will never listen to cable news again.
That may mean saying goodbye to Rachel Madow, whom I adore, but I'll be firm.
Plouffe, my hero, says the cable people rarely got the campaign strategy right, even when it was laid out for them in press conferences in black and white. For weeks, i have been hearing the ins and outs of the health care battle. I was so disgusted with Joe Liberman and his opposition in the face of all Barak had done for him that I paid $15 for his supposed email address and wrote a blistering letter, calling him dumb as dirt and kowtowwing to Haddasa's $1 million from the Health Insurance Industry.
Here's what changed my life: Plouffe writes that the cable input was so wrong that they watched ESPN on the campaign bus. Voilla. I'll get movies.
I may even watch football. Anything but cable news. The 24/7 cycle has polluted the atmosphere for me. Except for Jon Stewart. I'll watch him.
And a great big shout out for David Plouffe.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
photo shopping the commercials
May there ever be an adman.
I can't even tell you what the sponsor for this silliness is, for sure. I think it's Comfort Inn.
The ad features an obvious Circ'd'soleil performer swinging on a drapery, for heaven's sake.
When the ad first aired, there was a problem: the performer stripped down to her underwear to do her swinging, and she was wearing a simply awful bra.
Enter photoshop. A year or so later, she is clad sensuously, except in the last frame. There, the mutli-strap old bra is evident. Go figure.
In the second Comfort Inn pitch, we are expected to believe that an exotically clad and made up woman is on a business trip. Sure. She's another circus performer.
Actually, the ads are pretty clever. They just defy reality. And neither one (nor the guy spinning dinner plates) have anything to do with me, my business travel, nor my life.
And as for photoshopping, give me the Geico gekko every time.
I can't even tell you what the sponsor for this silliness is, for sure. I think it's Comfort Inn.
The ad features an obvious Circ'd'soleil performer swinging on a drapery, for heaven's sake.
When the ad first aired, there was a problem: the performer stripped down to her underwear to do her swinging, and she was wearing a simply awful bra.
Enter photoshop. A year or so later, she is clad sensuously, except in the last frame. There, the mutli-strap old bra is evident. Go figure.
In the second Comfort Inn pitch, we are expected to believe that an exotically clad and made up woman is on a business trip. Sure. She's another circus performer.
Actually, the ads are pretty clever. They just defy reality. And neither one (nor the guy spinning dinner plates) have anything to do with me, my business travel, nor my life.
And as for photoshopping, give me the Geico gekko every time.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
A Nobel! A Nobel!
Well, really. The curmudgeons are having a field day. At our senior citizens park the other day, the reaction was "Why?"
Fortunately, the cable chatter featured an expert or two who elaborated. One said that although our president, unaware of his candidacy, was nominated six days after he won; that was the closing date for names. But the voting took place AFTER he had led the atomic energy meeting of six (seven?) U. N. Security council nations who had reached a tentative agreement about disarmament. That had clinched the deal, the expert said.
Another factor had been his speech in Cairo which re-formatted the American approach to the Muslim world. Another had been his groundbreaking analysis of race during the campaign. And lastly came his work on climate change, another reformatting.
Let's face it: So far, it's primarily what he said. But people who characterize him as just a smooth talker overlook two fundamental changes he represents: He is capable of analysis, a trait long missing in this country. He is, furthermore, capable of eloquence. Kids, eloquence stirrs. That's why your grandma signed on lo these three years ago. I would even guess that was a major factor in his unbelieveably groundbreaking victory.
Don't forget, the very fact he put himself out there in a country with very little history of race tolerance was amazing. Don't tell me, the Nobel committee didn't cotton to that, too.
I'm so pround. I knew he was a winner in Iowa.
Fortunately, the cable chatter featured an expert or two who elaborated. One said that although our president, unaware of his candidacy, was nominated six days after he won; that was the closing date for names. But the voting took place AFTER he had led the atomic energy meeting of six (seven?) U. N. Security council nations who had reached a tentative agreement about disarmament. That had clinched the deal, the expert said.
Another factor had been his speech in Cairo which re-formatted the American approach to the Muslim world. Another had been his groundbreaking analysis of race during the campaign. And lastly came his work on climate change, another reformatting.
Let's face it: So far, it's primarily what he said. But people who characterize him as just a smooth talker overlook two fundamental changes he represents: He is capable of analysis, a trait long missing in this country. He is, furthermore, capable of eloquence. Kids, eloquence stirrs. That's why your grandma signed on lo these three years ago. I would even guess that was a major factor in his unbelieveably groundbreaking victory.
Don't forget, the very fact he put himself out there in a country with very little history of race tolerance was amazing. Don't tell me, the Nobel committee didn't cotton to that, too.
I'm so pround. I knew he was a winner in Iowa.
Monday, October 5, 2009
MSMBC Has Cornered the Market on Bright Women
It finally occured to the management at MSMBC that if a woman was attractive and smart and had proved herself either on the radio (Rachel Maddow) or NBC assignements (Andrea Mitchell) or as a medical reporter (Nancy Snyderman), maybe she could get her own show! What a boon to intelligent viewers.
All three of these babes are simply great. Rachel is such a rising star that she is chosen for the Flagship: Meet the Press. There, she slaughters Dick Army and is the internet show with host David Gregory. She goes on to rip on David Brooks and spar with some grumpy conservative whose name escapes me. (Neverless, he looked like a luminary.)
But best of all, she is a real muckraker. Unlike the majority of talking heads, she knows how to look things up and find things out. What a hoot to watch her show and learn things nobody else knows. And Kent Jones, her comic relief? He is as original as she is. What a pair.
I don't know how on earth NBC could have harbored Nancy Snyderman for years, knowing her ability to ace medical school, and still kept her hidden. It took that showman Dr.Oz to show networks that medical stuff sells. Here's a solid reporter in the field who is limited to three minute spots on the nightly news, and the network executives don't have a clue what she can do. Voilla. Give her an hour a day and she shines like the sun.
Now, take Andrea Mitchell. Also given an hour, coincidentally right after Nancy. She's NBC's answer to Farred Zakaria, she knows so many of the powerful people and can quiz them on air. Years of newshenery on NBC have set her up to create a really interesting show. She owes her shine to the network; again, they were awfully slow to showcase her.
Anyhow, a belated hats off to the News Department at NBC MSNBC, and even CNBC, although the latter is enamored of Maria Bartelomo who doesn't hold a candle to the MSNBC ladies.
I have thought often of how hard it is to have a national sensibility here in California. If I want to watch Morning Joe, (which I do), i have to get up at 3 in the morning. To see Howie Kurtz's Reliable Sources, which is usually really fine, I have to wake up at 7 a.m.on Sunday here in San Diego. The cretinous network guys don't have the sense to feed it from here, hence the lack of sleep for us current affairs junkies. Pooh to em all. They catch on way too slow. At least they got the gals right.
All three of these babes are simply great. Rachel is such a rising star that she is chosen for the Flagship: Meet the Press. There, she slaughters Dick Army and is the internet show with host David Gregory. She goes on to rip on David Brooks and spar with some grumpy conservative whose name escapes me. (Neverless, he looked like a luminary.)
But best of all, she is a real muckraker. Unlike the majority of talking heads, she knows how to look things up and find things out. What a hoot to watch her show and learn things nobody else knows. And Kent Jones, her comic relief? He is as original as she is. What a pair.
I don't know how on earth NBC could have harbored Nancy Snyderman for years, knowing her ability to ace medical school, and still kept her hidden. It took that showman Dr.Oz to show networks that medical stuff sells. Here's a solid reporter in the field who is limited to three minute spots on the nightly news, and the network executives don't have a clue what she can do. Voilla. Give her an hour a day and she shines like the sun.
Now, take Andrea Mitchell. Also given an hour, coincidentally right after Nancy. She's NBC's answer to Farred Zakaria, she knows so many of the powerful people and can quiz them on air. Years of newshenery on NBC have set her up to create a really interesting show. She owes her shine to the network; again, they were awfully slow to showcase her.
Anyhow, a belated hats off to the News Department at NBC MSNBC, and even CNBC, although the latter is enamored of Maria Bartelomo who doesn't hold a candle to the MSNBC ladies.
I have thought often of how hard it is to have a national sensibility here in California. If I want to watch Morning Joe, (which I do), i have to get up at 3 in the morning. To see Howie Kurtz's Reliable Sources, which is usually really fine, I have to wake up at 7 a.m.on Sunday here in San Diego. The cretinous network guys don't have the sense to feed it from here, hence the lack of sleep for us current affairs junkies. Pooh to em all. They catch on way too slow. At least they got the gals right.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Hard-Won Perspective
Because I am 76 years old and have been paying attention for most of that time, I can tell you what's going on with health legislation in Washington.
The old farts in the Senate are clashing with the young Turks in the White House. The former believe in deliberation, practice, and understanding. The latter think it is possible to be be too deliberate, and to understand too much. They are result-fixated; rather like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks.
We faced this in our Church Workday, when the young Turks were in charge. We got prodigious amounts of work done, some of it awful. For example, an amateur crew refinished cabinets, and the result was shameful. They didn't think they had to learn to do it.
We old farts believe in experience, because we've had a lot of it. When the Chuck Grassley's of the world boast they've held up Obamacare, they think it's a good thing. And if Diana Finestein is right and they've funded it in the Finance Committee (Grassley's bailiwick) then it is a good thing, indeed.
Makes you believe in the Senate as a deliberative body. But for heaven's sake, let's get this thing done.
The old farts in the Senate are clashing with the young Turks in the White House. The former believe in deliberation, practice, and understanding. The latter think it is possible to be be too deliberate, and to understand too much. They are result-fixated; rather like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks.
We faced this in our Church Workday, when the young Turks were in charge. We got prodigious amounts of work done, some of it awful. For example, an amateur crew refinished cabinets, and the result was shameful. They didn't think they had to learn to do it.
We old farts believe in experience, because we've had a lot of it. When the Chuck Grassley's of the world boast they've held up Obamacare, they think it's a good thing. And if Diana Finestein is right and they've funded it in the Finance Committee (Grassley's bailiwick) then it is a good thing, indeed.
Makes you believe in the Senate as a deliberative body. But for heaven's sake, let's get this thing done.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Something all of you should know
I'm afraid this bit of history will be lost if I don't record it here. When Grandma Letty was born, lo these many, many years ago, her birth announcement was a Blue Eagle/NRA (National Recovery Administration, not in a million years National Rifle Association). This group was a Roosevelt Brain Trust which your very smart great-grandpa Robert Lemon was a part of; On Grandma Letty's birth announcement was the NRA motto which was, appropriately, "We Do Our Part." Pretty funny, if you ask me.
In fact, great-grandpa Lemon ran for Governor of Kansas when I was five years ago, lost, but put himself in line to realize his ambition, which was to be a federal judge. When Jack Kennedy campaiged in Kansas, it was great-grandpa and great-grandma who introduced him to the Democrat establishment. Naively, Kennedy told them my parents they would be Republicans if they lived in Massachusetts.He was clearly confused by upper-class Democrats. Many years later when I went to graduate school in that state, I met lots of upper-class Democrats; we all voted for a strange man called George McGovern and we were one of two states in the Union who did, but that's another story.
Anyhow, I was always very proud of my papa who died in 1990; he lived long enough to enjoy taking Carole and her pretty Theta sorority sisters to lunch in fancy places to show them off. They all loved him.
In fact, great-grandpa Lemon ran for Governor of Kansas when I was five years ago, lost, but put himself in line to realize his ambition, which was to be a federal judge. When Jack Kennedy campaiged in Kansas, it was great-grandpa and great-grandma who introduced him to the Democrat establishment. Naively, Kennedy told them my parents they would be Republicans if they lived in Massachusetts.He was clearly confused by upper-class Democrats. Many years later when I went to graduate school in that state, I met lots of upper-class Democrats; we all voted for a strange man called George McGovern and we were one of two states in the Union who did, but that's another story.
Anyhow, I was always very proud of my papa who died in 1990; he lived long enough to enjoy taking Carole and her pretty Theta sorority sisters to lunch in fancy places to show them off. They all loved him.
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