Category: Television

OBAMA VIDEO, AN AMAZING GOOD DEED, MICHELLE OBAMA, THE INTERNET, JOE TRIPPI AND ORSON SCOTT CARD

VIDEO REMOVED FOR TECHNICAL REASONS.  VIEW IT HERE. 

My younger son sent this ad to me this afternoon.  It really is something, isn’t it?  As I write this I’m listening, on MSNBC, to the mean-spirited, spiteful stump speech that now identifies John McCain.  What a difference.   

Then, the much-admired Liza Sabater at Culture Kitchen posted this and tweeted to be sure we’d all see it.  Since we don’t always travel in the same corners of the blogosphere I’m sharing it with you here.

I keep thinking there must be a catch someplace but I hope she’s right – that it’s part of the impact of what we hope will be the political climate of the next four years.  Respect breeds respect. 
Michelle Obama wrote about it on BlogHer. 

Joe_trippi_big_2 She also reminded that there’s only a week left.  With that in mind, today I went to hear Joe Trippi speak with Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of NDN – mostly talking as if the election were over but so interesting about what would/could happen.  My favorite fact:  You know those Obama-produced videos on YouTube (like the one I’ve posted here)?  TechPresident found that people have watched 14.5 million hours worth!  Think what that would cost if you had to buy the time: somewhere around 46 to 47 million dollars, according to Trippi.  And that doesn’t even count citizen/voter-created videos that voters have watched.  Obama got free, on YouTube, views worth the equivalent of half of McCain’s entire federal campaign budget.  And he got it because he, and his team, have figured out how to use the web.

To Trippi, Obama is a real 21st Century candidate and has built relationships with supporters unlike any ever before.  It’s their campaign too.  I’ve always been enamored of the concept of "taking ownership."  Back when I worked at iVillage in its early days the message boards helped to create communities of women who saw the site as theirs, and helped iVillage become the dominant destination for women online.  They were contributing to the content, and its home became their home.  That’s what is happening, says Trippi, with Obama.  All those volunteers, all those canvassers and phone bankers and sign painters and outreach workers – and all the open conference calls and two-way communication created a new kind of electorate.  Think about this – from Orson Scott Card, author of the beloved Ender’s Game.

Those deep hungers for human connection, for the ability to remake ourselves, for a sense of control over our lives and reputations – those are the senses that the web will speak to does a remarkable job of feeding these senses, despite the relatively primitive technology and laughably low quality of most Web offerings, that people sign on and keep signing on.  They aren’t there for the content.  They’re there for each other.  Trapped in an apartment building or suburban neighborhood of strangers, they come to the Web to find their tribe.

Orson Scott Card in Yahoo Internet Life – December 2000 

What says it better than that?   

PROBABLY THE WORST CAMPAIGN (OR ANY OTHER) INTERVIEW I’VE EVER SEEN!

Myrna the Minx of Reno and Its Discontents found this.  It’s a mortifying, cringe-inducing and heartbreaking example of what has happened to much of local news.  How do we ever put the genie who creates this kind of television back in the bottle?  I dare you to watch it to the end without raising your blood pressure.

FOR THE RECORD: POWELL ENDORSES OBAMA, PALIN YUKS IT UP, THAT RED-BAITING CONGRESSLADY FROM MINNESOTA

Between cooking for holidays, playing hooky at a pumpkin farm with friends and their kids, and work, I’m late writing about this, but it’s such an event that it felt unseemly not to acknowledge it.  Colin Powell is highly regarded, and if you wonder why just listen to the interview with him on the sidewalk outside Meet the Press.  Thoughtful, civil and committed, he related a broad and sometimes moving inventory of the reasons behind his decision.   In addition to this sidewalk news conference, here’s a bit of the statement on Meet the Press itself.  (skip it if you saw it – 3 graphs down) 

"In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn’t have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well. I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines–ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.

And I’ve also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate."

 

It’s great that he’s saying it, but it’s also a bit pathetic that it takes a former general and secretary of state to open his mouth and say "cut it out."   I saw that one blogger – and I’m so sorry that I don’t recall who, ran a bit of the Army McCarthy hearings along with this:

Hard to believe that people in America still sound like that, isn’t it?  Back to the Fifties.
It’s this kind of talk that led Secretary Powell to speak as he did today; it’s this kind of talk that has been part of this campaign  for some time.

And Sarah on SNL?  She was funny and a good sport; it humanized and demystified her as a threat.  Good for her, I guess, but she is a threat and she is scary and she says hateful, vicious and provocative things and none of that was apparent in this image-cleansing performance.  It troubles me because the threat of her is in her firm position in the far-right, the scary, nutty, closed-ranks "base" that gets people to yell "Kill him" and "off with his head" and "terrorist" like a citizen in 1984.  She lies, she uses half-truths to build anger and hatred and code words that give people embarrassed to vote against a black man an excuse to do so.  To turn her into a "way hotter in person" cheerleader with a sense of humor is a dangerous, dangerous thing to do.  Rehab by comedy.

My biggest fear right now though, as someone who fears deeply for a McCain-led nation, is what Obama calls "remember New Hampshire."  People for whom voting is a tough logistical effort, or who are waiting in lines that are too long, or who are kind of committed but might decide things are ok without them — that these people won’t vote – will let things falter on overconfidence.   I hope that we all remember that as cute as Sarah Palin might have been, the issues that drove Secretary Powell to do what he did are the issues that will determine the rest of our lives, and those of our children — and those of our country and the world that is watching so intensely to see what we will do.

WOULD YOU HIRE JOHN MCCAIN OR SARAH PALIN? SERIOUSLY

Sacramento_party
This image was just removed from the Sacramento County Republican Party website, according to its Google source. And it’s very disturbing, but  I’m tired.  I admit it.  All these days of Jewish holiday cooking and praying * (not necessarily in that order) have left me frazzled.  So maybe I’m just cranky.  But when I saw this on a search for something else all the anxiety and sadness overcame me. There is hate out there – and the Republicans seem to be finding it useful.

No, the McCain supporters aren’t all like this; capable of dreaming up and posting such a terrible thing.  But they’ve been ginning their crowds into a frenzy and so this "free speech" issue is becoming a life-threatening undertaking.  Generating that kind of distaste so familiar to so many young people will make a big difference.  How that difference plays out will depend on the stars.

I want to write so much more but it has to be tomorrow.  This is a very nervous election; I and many friends get more nervous the larger the margin is.  There’s lots to talk about, although where the debate ranks, not much more than has been said after  But if I don’t go to sleep you won’t want to read what I write; neither of us will understand what the hell I’m trying to say.  More tomorrow.  For now you may want to take a look at the live blog transcript on Writes Like She Talks or the one on BlogHer.

*a post on the same subject from last year.

 

BARACK OBAMA, SARAH SILVERMAN, FLORIDA AND A COUPLE OF QUICK MEDIA THINGIES

That_one_2
The first one is this poster, which I found on Jason Rosenberg’s Facebook page.  It’s not quite as good as "I am a community organizer" but it’s kind of cool.
The other thing is today’s New York Times story about The Great Schlep and Sarah Silverman video, which apparently has been screened more than 7 million times in the two weeks since it appeared!  Basically, it urges Jewish grandchildren to lean on their grandparents in Florida to vote for Obama or risk the end of loving visits from the grand kids.  Given her occasional forays into yukkiness, it’s actually pretty cute. 

The Jewish Council for Education and Research, and co-executive director Ari Wallach, are creative, agile and smart and they’ve done a great job both of creating and promoting a very good idea.  Even if few kids can afford to hit the beaches of Hallandale and Miami, they’ll get on the phone and make their case.  And the press has loved it.  If you missed the video, here it is.

Oh Oh Obama – McCain Was So Bad it Was Hard to Watch

Obama_dials_tight
The Ohio uncommitted focus group dials on CNN during tonight’s debate were riveting.  Among other things, almost every time Obama stood up to respond the dials went up.  Almost every time McCain stood up, the dials went down.  If they are at all accurate McCain was having a terrible night.  I would give my right (well, maybe my left) arm to be in the spin room tonight and hear what the McCain people are saying to justify this.

The big problem is that it was so uncomfortable to watch.  McCain was — well — icky.  You didn’t feel sorry for him you just wanted him to stop so you didn’t have to look.  Obama was excellent but the thing was so hard to watch that I don’t know if it’s possible to feel good about it.  When McCain says you need a strong hand on the tiller it sounded like a commercial for the other guy.    I’m just kind of grossed out by pitiful McCainitude.  Nobody on TV is saying what I’m seeing though; Buchanan says Obama was being presidential but he didn’t see McCain as pathetic as I did. 

The Republican commentators on CNN were actually being pretty hard on McCain’s "looking to the past" and was also "condescending to voters" according to the Republican consultants.  They’re being really hard on him.  AND they all seem to be assuming that Obama won – "had to stand toe to toe with John McCain and surpass him — and he did." says Gloria Borger.  David Gergen says he was "very presidential" BUT "he is black and the polls may not be accurate."  He’s talking about the "Bradley effect" issues – people misleading pollsters because they’re embarrassed to say that they won’t vote for an African American. It will be tragic if that’s the case.

Finally, the CNN post-debate poll tonight of 38% D/ 31% R indicates a rout:  54% of independents say Obama won the debate.  30% said McCain so that’s not even all the Republicans.  Oh and CBS’s poll has 59% saying Obama won.
The details tell a lot.  Here’s a breakdown:
Who did best job?                         Obama 54%  McCain 30%   
Who did better on the economy?    Obama 59%  McCain 37%.   
Who expressed his views more clearly? Obama 60% -McCain 30%
Who was more likable?                  Obama 65%-McCain 28% 
Who would better handle Iraq?       Obama 54 %  McCain 47%    
Your opinion of Obama:                 Positive went from 60% to 64%   
                                                    Negatives went down — from 38% to 34%
McCain’s favorables stayed at 51% and unfavorables at 46% but he DID win one category:  Who would better handle terrorism?  McCain 51%  Obama 46%.   The results are astonishing – Obama in almost every category.

I’m still frightened about race though; I think Gergen is right.  These results look great.  But when you canvas in Virginia and see how people respond — the reasons they give for "not liking" Obama, you can see it; feel it.  And we don’t know how many intentionally didn’t answer the door; how many are better actors and keeping their true feelings hidden.  What happens with those voters will determine our future, internationally, politically, economically and racially.  This time, more than usual, we’re not just electing a president here – we’re redefining our country. 

Sarah Palin, Rape Kits and Birth Control

When you first heard that Wasilla, AK and its then-mayor Sarah Palin were charging rape victims for the cost of their rape kits (evidence collecting) you didn’t quite believe it, right?  This video is the first of a series being produced by "The Wasilla Project" and was called to my attention by Nerdette, a sharp cookie whose blog "Not My Gal" is usually on top of these things.  After I watched it I went back to this CNN version of the story: 

It’s kind of slippery but, partly because I’ve been working on the issue of very scary threats to the right to planning ones pregnancies, and to actual birth control and family planning, I’ve very aware of the Palin perspective on these important life decisions.  Watch both videos and see what you think.  And if you want to learn more, stop by Birth Control Watch and see for yourself what informs a lot of the thinking behind Sarah Palin and that guy she’s running with.   

SARAH PALIN, SARAH PALIN, SARAH PALIN AND THE DANGERS OF A DESPERATE PARTY

Palin_house_4This photo says it all.  I took it yesterday, on our second Sunday canvassing for Obama in Virginia.  When I got home I decided to review the stats for this blog and discovered that no post has drawn either the traffic or comments as those I’ve written about Sarah Palin.  Friends tell me the same is true of theirs.  I don’t think it’s brilliant writing that’s doing it.  Sarah Palin has captured a large chunk of this presidential campaign as well as either the imagination or the rage (depending on perspective) of many American voters.

The Tina Fey stuff is funny, and effective, as I’ve mentioned before.   The mean stuff is plenty mean.  The "middle-class hockey mom" stuff is more effective than I wish it were, especially since the Palin family is worth over $2M and they made close to $200,000 last year.  None of this matters as much as it should.  She draws huge crowds.  She’s cute.  Those who support her either believe she is a wonder of accessibility and straight talk or have twisted themselves like pretzels to find reasons to justify her presence.  For me, at least, it’s kind of sad. 

What makes so many people prefer a less-educated, less-experienced candidate with a limited academic past, no curiosity or sense of exploration, untrammeled ambition and not much of a history over far more capable, experienced leadership?   I remember when I was a kid and my mother’s adored Adlai Stevenson ran for president in 1952 and 1956, people called him an egghead, he was accused of being too cold and not able to connect to voters.  And some analysts have compared him to Obama – two Illinois candidates too smart for the room. 

I don’t see it.  Obama appears to me far looser and more accessible- and more well-rounded in experience and education – and he’s younger and more available to young voters; Stevenson was a different man at a very different time and he was running against the man who, at least partially, won World War II.  Even so, the question really is, how far have we evolved since then?  AND how much have we learned from voting for the guy we’d "rather have a beer with" when that guy was George W Bush?  AND in times so very dangerous that by the time each post is replaced at the top of the que, markets around the world have gone down once more and international tensions risen – will we still, as a country, opt for the "mavericky mom" who is not, at least on paper and on the stump, capable of understanding, much less solving, our problems?  (OH and that guy who’s running with her…..)

As I write this, Palin, just introduced by Joe Lieberman (%#@!!**&) to a huge Florida crowd screaming "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah", continues to draw the faithful to great emotional response.  It’s hard to know if, when people go into the voting booth, this emotion will translate into votes – or the reality will hit them and they won’t be able to do it.

My other fear is that because the race is moving toward Obama, acts of desperate chicanery will be part of the election day landscape.  Here are some things that are already happening;

If you’re an attorney or law student, you can help with these things and the others that will happen.

We Americans will be tested in many ways in the next few years: economically, militarily, educationally, diplomatically and more.  The first test, though, is this:  As we face these challenges and all the others certain to emerge, and we think about our kids and what we want to leave for them, will we be able to take a deep breath and vote for "the smart guy" or is the phenomenon that is Sarah Palin the canary in our coal mine – warning us that our electorate is, even after W, not ready to choose the most capable and visionary, who has inspired so very many of our next generation to enter the fray,  when they can elect Tina Fey light and her "old guy" running mate instead?

TINA FEY, SARAH PALIN, HOME PERMANENTS, AND THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Fey_palinWhen I was a kid there was a thing called a "home permanent*."  It was a hair treatment that made your hair curly (horrifying to girls like me who ironed their hair and wrapped it around orange juice can sized rollers [or real orange juice cans] to keep it straight.)  One of the most visible products was called Toni Home Permanents and its ad campaign was at least as popular as a great Saturday Night Live catch phrase.

Ad_toni_home_permanent_cropped_2
Yup.  It asked "Which twin has the Toni?"  That’s a photo of the print version on the left.  The idea was that one twin had a fancy salon permanent and one curled hers at home with Toni, but you couldn’t tell the difference.  Of course, any kid who ever had a sleepover at the home of a friend who’d just done a "home permanent" knows that the chemical smell was gross (and if I remember correctly you couldn’t wash you hair for a couple of days) and their hair was often substantially more dry and brittle than the "salon permanent" girls’.  In fact, there was a difference.

Every time I see Tina Fey being Sarah Palin I’m reminded of that.  The McCain-Palin campaign is asking us to believe that when you spend upscale salon money it’s mostly for snob appeal, because all you need is a Toni and your bathroom sink, and you’re just as gorgeous.  In this context though, the comparison is different — and ironic.  If you saw Chevy Chase being Gerald Ford or Phil Hartman as Ronald Reagan or Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton, the impressions were great, but you always knew that the real guy was smarter, and more serious, than the comedian.  No trouble knowing which "twin" was which.  But with Tina and Sarah, it’s reversed.  The brains, and the class, go to the comic, not the politician.  The girlfriend of a young friend, asked if she was jealous about another woman in his circle, responded that she’d only worry "if he was hanging around with Tina Fey."  Her intelligence, class and charm are that attractive.  It’s pretty clear that she’s smarter and probably knows more about what’s going on in the world than The Candidate and, for many of us, appears better equipped to serve as Vice President.  Many conservative pundits seem to agree.  And many Alaskans.  And liberals.  Several posts, and tweets, from strong progressives, have described a "cringing" sense of discomfort when watching her stumble. 

So what thoughts, and emotions, do we bring to this spectacle tonight?  What do we, who support her opponents, consider as we watch alone, or with like-minded friends at debate-parties or with tweeters on #Debate08?  From here, it’s complicated.  Angry at her searing convention speech, but sad to see her stumble so pitifully in the Couric interview; fearful of what could happen if she and McCain win, furious that she’s trying to stall the Alaska report about her alleged abuses of power, and, in my case at least, completely detached from the fact that this woefully inadequate candidate happens to be female, we hope the battle is fought on competence and capacity, not gender and one-liners.  Mostly, we’re aware that the copy is far superior to the original, and that the smart, attractive version of the candidate isn’t the one who’s going to be there tonight.

*I just looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently there still are things called home permanents but who uses them??   No clue.