Just started on the debate recording and Im worried. Sen Obama is not wearing his trademark blue tie.
Im a true believer in branding, as cliche as it sounds. Those intangibles like the familiarity of a tie color helps to make the Senator seem more accepted, instead of having to re-introduce himself each time, especially when he is running against such a well known brand to the Latin community who puts a high premium on familiarity.
His red tie is throwing me off. His opening was too stump speech especially compared to the newly humanized Sen. Clinton.
Enough with the applause. Makes it seem like a competition and thats unprofessional and typical of CNN, lately.
I keep trying to picture Michelle Obama in Stockard Channings role here.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Maureen Dowd
Ok, we get it Maureen Dowd, you’re a cynic. Check. You’re not on anyone’s side. What you and the rest of the for-profit media seem to miss is that the rest of us are ready for answers, not just to complain about the problems, anymore. Standing on the sidelines lobbing one liners doesn’t do anything productive.
You and the Matt Taibbis of the world need to move on to other professions now. You can barely contain your own glee at your own clever turns of phrases, but the time for complaining is over and the time for participation has begun – regardless of which candidate you support.
So how about contributing to the national discussion instead of pretending you don’t want to be one of the cool kids and would rather be home on election night with your laptop figuring out the next engaged person to mumble snarky comments about for actually being involved and on the line.
To borrow a phrase from the fictional President Shepard in The American President, ‘How’s the view from the cheap seats?’ Seems easy to sit back and tell everyone else they’re wrong when you don’t stand for anything except self-aggrandizement.
Perhaps the two of you can be the political version of Statler and Woldorf from the Muppets Show from a box at the Ford’s Theatre while the rest of us try to put on an involved, representative government.
You and the Matt Taibbis of the world need to move on to other professions now. You can barely contain your own glee at your own clever turns of phrases, but the time for complaining is over and the time for participation has begun – regardless of which candidate you support.
So how about contributing to the national discussion instead of pretending you don’t want to be one of the cool kids and would rather be home on election night with your laptop figuring out the next engaged person to mumble snarky comments about for actually being involved and on the line.
To borrow a phrase from the fictional President Shepard in The American President, ‘How’s the view from the cheap seats?’ Seems easy to sit back and tell everyone else they’re wrong when you don’t stand for anything except self-aggrandizement.
Perhaps the two of you can be the political version of Statler and Woldorf from the Muppets Show from a box at the Ford’s Theatre while the rest of us try to put on an involved, representative government.
Sell Me
A friend asked today to be sold on which candidate to support (forgetting that his primary has passed already) based on their legislative accomplishments.
My response and yes, its a bit long. But Ive taken a bit of time off, perhaps youve noticed:
I don’t want my silence to be equated with being stumped for an answer to your question. I don’t accept the premise of the question.
If legislative accomplishment were the sole criteria, then by all means, vote for Sen McCain. To me leadership, character, thorough positions on meaningful issues are the reasons to vote for a President. But you need to have all three, not just a finger in the air at all times and polls on your desk.
Then Gov Bush had a record and made promises. His character, his leadership and issues were right there to see – but ignored by a majority in one election.
Gerald Ford was Majority Leader of the Senate. Nixon was long serving in Congress and former Vice President. Hell, Carter had the character and the experience and LBJ confounded everyone.
Senator McCain, while I had always felt was an honorable man with character, has sold himself out. In order to govern effectively and try to win a new Congress in 08 and 10, will run to the right of Atilla the Hun, have to give power to the establishment that has raped this country financially and morally for 7+ years now, name Supremes that make Alito, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas look like fence sitters and cover up the crimes of the previous administration.
Pres Hillary Clinton is certainly qualified and is on the right side of the issues, but will quickly, IMHO, be bogged down fighting the same fights of the last 16 years from cattle futures to Vince Clark to who cares anymore, while paying off all the political favors. I will support her if she is the nominee, of course, but her not showing for the Dodd amendment vote this week in the Senate to sell out our privacy was as political a calculation as it was pay back to her financial supporters.
A President Obama will immediately, overnight restore our standing in the world, if he can then follow through, and I believe he can – but not alone and that is the key to his strength, IMHO. When asked what book he would bring to the WH, he said Team of Rivals, a bio on the Lincoln cabinet, made up of rivals, political parties and constituencies. His ability to inspire people – including politicians and career government types like Colin Powell – to serve their country and not their parties, pockets and political ambitions is the strength we need to overcome real problems. We need to be in this together again to solve real problems. The political games which the electorate is over will look small, petty, self-serving when they stand in the way of a national movement.
I’m reminded of fictional President Shepards speech at the end of American President and I firmly believe he is the man to walk the walk with the rest of us doing our part. We have to be involved to make this work! That’s the beauty of this movement, people want to be involved and love their country, not go shopping while the fascists (the meeting of corporate and government interests) take care of things for us.
But WE THE PEOPLE have a responsibility, one man, NO MAN OR WOMAN, can do it alone. Sen McCain will try to divide and conquer. Sen Clinton will be divisive regardless. Sen Obama has the ability to give us what we say we want, if WE can make it work. The work of the electorate doesn’t end when they vote, it just begins.
(From the original script, which I think is better than the version that made the final cut - especially today. Substitute McCain for Rumson. And for the record, the real John McCain, he of ‘the agents of intolerance comment’, I like, not the one who kisses Pres. Bush.)
INT. THE PRESS BRIEFING ROOM - EARLY MORNING
ROBIN is on her last drops of energy and patience.
But instead of hands going up, the PRESS CORPS suddenly
stands. ROBIN turns to see SHEPHERD stride in and step up to
the podium.
SHEPHERD takes the podium. There's a palpable BUZZ in the
room as video operators adjust their equipment, etc. People
starts to stand.
My response and yes, its a bit long. But Ive taken a bit of time off, perhaps youve noticed:
I don’t want my silence to be equated with being stumped for an answer to your question. I don’t accept the premise of the question.
If legislative accomplishment were the sole criteria, then by all means, vote for Sen McCain. To me leadership, character, thorough positions on meaningful issues are the reasons to vote for a President. But you need to have all three, not just a finger in the air at all times and polls on your desk.
Then Gov Bush had a record and made promises. His character, his leadership and issues were right there to see – but ignored by a majority in one election.
Gerald Ford was Majority Leader of the Senate. Nixon was long serving in Congress and former Vice President. Hell, Carter had the character and the experience and LBJ confounded everyone.
Senator McCain, while I had always felt was an honorable man with character, has sold himself out. In order to govern effectively and try to win a new Congress in 08 and 10, will run to the right of Atilla the Hun, have to give power to the establishment that has raped this country financially and morally for 7+ years now, name Supremes that make Alito, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas look like fence sitters and cover up the crimes of the previous administration.
Pres Hillary Clinton is certainly qualified and is on the right side of the issues, but will quickly, IMHO, be bogged down fighting the same fights of the last 16 years from cattle futures to Vince Clark to who cares anymore, while paying off all the political favors. I will support her if she is the nominee, of course, but her not showing for the Dodd amendment vote this week in the Senate to sell out our privacy was as political a calculation as it was pay back to her financial supporters.
A President Obama will immediately, overnight restore our standing in the world, if he can then follow through, and I believe he can – but not alone and that is the key to his strength, IMHO. When asked what book he would bring to the WH, he said Team of Rivals, a bio on the Lincoln cabinet, made up of rivals, political parties and constituencies. His ability to inspire people – including politicians and career government types like Colin Powell – to serve their country and not their parties, pockets and political ambitions is the strength we need to overcome real problems. We need to be in this together again to solve real problems. The political games which the electorate is over will look small, petty, self-serving when they stand in the way of a national movement.
I’m reminded of fictional President Shepards speech at the end of American President and I firmly believe he is the man to walk the walk with the rest of us doing our part. We have to be involved to make this work! That’s the beauty of this movement, people want to be involved and love their country, not go shopping while the fascists (the meeting of corporate and government interests) take care of things for us.
But WE THE PEOPLE have a responsibility, one man, NO MAN OR WOMAN, can do it alone. Sen McCain will try to divide and conquer. Sen Clinton will be divisive regardless. Sen Obama has the ability to give us what we say we want, if WE can make it work. The work of the electorate doesn’t end when they vote, it just begins.
(From the original script, which I think is better than the version that made the final cut - especially today. Substitute McCain for Rumson. And for the record, the real John McCain, he of ‘the agents of intolerance comment’, I like, not the one who kisses Pres. Bush.)
INT. THE PRESS BRIEFING ROOM - EARLY MORNING
ROBIN is on her last drops of energy and patience.
REPORTER #4
Robin, will the President ever
respond to Senator Rumson's
question about being a member of
the American Civil Liberties Union?
But instead of hands going up, the PRESS CORPS suddenly
stands. ROBIN turns to see SHEPHERD stride in and step up to
the podium.
SHEPHERD
Yes, he will. 'Morning.
ROBIN
Good morning, Mr. President.
SHEPHERD takes the podium. There's a palpable BUZZ in the
room as video operators adjust their equipment, etc. People
starts to stand.
SHEPHERD
That's all right, you can keep your
seats. For the last couple of
months, Senator Rumson has suggested
that being president of this country
was, to a certain extent, about
character and although I have not been
willing to engage in his attacks on
me, I've been here three years and
three days, and I can tell you
without hesitation: Being President
of this country is entirely about
character.
For the record: Yes, I am a card-
carrying member of the A.C.L.U. But
the more important question is why
aren't you, Bob? This is an
organization whose sole purpose is to
defend the Bill of Rights, so it
naturally begs the questions.
Why would a senator, his party's most
powerful spokesman and a candidate
for president, choose to reject
upholding the Constitution? If you
can answer that question, then,
folks, you're smarter than I am,
because I didn't understand it until
a couple of minutes ago. Everybody
knows American isn't easy. America is
advanced citizenship.
You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's
gonna put up a fight. It's gonna
say, "You want free speech? Let's
see you acknowledge a man whose words
make your blood boil, who's standing
center stage and advocating, at the
top of his lungs, that which you
would spend a lifetime opposing at the
top of yours. You want to claim
this land as the land of the free,
then the symbol of your country can't
just be a flag; the symbol also has
to be one of its citizens exercising
his right to burn that flag in
protest." Show me that, defend that,
celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about
the land of the free. I've known Bob
Rumson for years. I've been operating
under the assumption that the reason
Bob devotes so much time and energy to
shouting at the rain was that he simply
didn't get it. Well, I was wrong.
Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't
get it. Bob's problem is that he
can't sell it. Nobody has ever won
an election by talking about what I
was just talking about.
This is a country made up of people
with hard jobs that they're terrified
of losing. The roots of freedom are
of little or no interest to them at
the moment. We are a nation afraid
to go out at night. We're a society
that has assigned low priority to
education and has looked the other
way while our public schools have
been decimated. We have serious
problems to solve, and we need
serious men to solve them. And
whatever your particular problem is,
friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson is
not the least bit interested in
solving it. He is interested in two
things and two things only: Making
you afraid of it and telling you
who's to blame for it. That, ladies
and gentlemen, is how you win
elections. You gather a group of
middle-aged, middle-class, middle-
income voters who remember with
longing an easier time, and you talk
to them about family and American
values and personal character. Then
you have an old photo of the
President's girlfriend. You scream
about patriotism and you tell them
she's to blame for their lot in life,
you go on television and you call her
a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done
nothing to you, Bob. She has done
nothing but put herself through law
school, prosecute criminals for five
years, represent the interests of
public school teachers for two years,
and lobby for the safety of our
natural resources.
You want a character debate? Fine,
but you better stick with me, 'cause
Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your
league. I've loved two women in my
life. I lost one to cancer, and I
lost the other 'cause I was so busy
keeping my job I forgot to do my job.
Well that ends right now.
Tomorrow morning the White House is
sending a bill to Congress for its
consideration. It's White House
Resolution 455, an energy bill
requiring a 20 percent reduction of the
emission of fossil fuels over the
next ten years. It is by far the
most aggressive stride ever taken in
the fight to reverse the effects of
global warming. The other piece of
legislation is the crime bill. As of
today it no longer exists. I'm
throwing it out. I'm throwing it out
and writing a law that makes sense.
You cannot address crime prevention
without getting rid of assault
weapons and handguns.
I consider them a threat to national
security, and I will go door to door
if I have to, but I'm gonna convince
Americans that I'm right, and I'm
gonna get the guns. We've got
serous problems, and we need serious
men, and if you want to talk about
character, Bob, you'd better come at
me with more than a burning flag and
a membership card. If you want to
talk about character and American
values, fine. Just tell me where and
when, and I'll show up. This is a
time for serious men, Bob, and your
fifteen minutes are up. My name's
Andrew Shepherd, and I am the
President.
SHEPHERD exits the press room, leaving a stunned room in his
wake.
The MURMURS begin from the PRESS CORPS. They're talking
among themselves, confirming that they just saw what they
just saw. ROBIN steps to the podium.
ROBIN
Any questions?
And when that didnt quite land...
I didn’t say it very effectively, but what I was trying to say is, start with the proper question: What kind of government do you want?
We are not hiring a CEO and checking results quarterly while we go on vacation and spend our $600, nor hiring a caretaker and hoping they don’t have parties in our place for their friends while we’re gone.
We are electing a team captain to lead us in our shared work and goals.
If you want the disillusioned, post-Watergate, CEO President, vote McCain, but don’t be surprised at the results – outsourcing (of rights to Telecoms, KBR & Blackwater), attempts to stifle competition (politics in Justice Dept), promote homogeny and team playing (wedge issues rather than protection of the rights of the minority). Those are the hallmarks of business as well as China, Inc. and Russia, Inc.
If you want a caretaker, don’t be shocked that your meager compensation wasn’t enough to motivate them. They have their own agenda and plan to use your confidence as a base for their own benefit.
If you want a leader, then be prepared to be involved. That’s the country I always heard about growing up. Its the country I saw in Ken Burns war documentary. Its the characters I have admired in history devoted to public service and statesmanship, not permanent majority and triangulation. Its about a level playing field to allow for innovation in business, education and expression, not preservation of the status quo and protection for big business.
Start with the question and don't forget that YOU are part of the answer. Except if you're Maureen Dowd or Matt Taibbi.
We are not hiring a CEO and checking results quarterly while we go on vacation and spend our $600, nor hiring a caretaker and hoping they don’t have parties in our place for their friends while we’re gone.
We are electing a team captain to lead us in our shared work and goals.
If you want the disillusioned, post-Watergate, CEO President, vote McCain, but don’t be surprised at the results – outsourcing (of rights to Telecoms, KBR & Blackwater), attempts to stifle competition (politics in Justice Dept), promote homogeny and team playing (wedge issues rather than protection of the rights of the minority). Those are the hallmarks of business as well as China, Inc. and Russia, Inc.
If you want a caretaker, don’t be shocked that your meager compensation wasn’t enough to motivate them. They have their own agenda and plan to use your confidence as a base for their own benefit.
If you want a leader, then be prepared to be involved. That’s the country I always heard about growing up. Its the country I saw in Ken Burns war documentary. Its the characters I have admired in history devoted to public service and statesmanship, not permanent majority and triangulation. Its about a level playing field to allow for innovation in business, education and expression, not preservation of the status quo and protection for big business.
Start with the question and don't forget that YOU are part of the answer. Except if you're Maureen Dowd or Matt Taibbi.
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