The Sarah Palin Interview

The McCain campaign has been reticent (trying to avoid) about letting the evil media ask Sarah Palin actually questions.  They had three real options: 1. Continue to avoid letting her take part in sit downs and jump start a new round of questions about her capability.  2. Let her do an interview with Fox News and admit that she can only handle the sort of fawning butt kissing that a GOP candidate gets from Fox.  Or 3. Find a member of the non Fox MSM that will provide a fawning butt kissing interview.

Charlie Gibson come on down!

Anybody saw the debate on ABC between Obama and Clinton hosted by Gibson and George Stephanopoulos knows that Charlie has a soft touch for the ladies.  That or he really just doesn’t like Obama; at any rate, I think we can rest assure that Charlie won’t be asking Palin the sort of questions that the McCain camp fears.  You know questions like “why did you flip flop on the bridge to nowhere” or “why do you insist on calling snowmobiles snow machines?  What are you Canadian?”  No instead I’m guessing Charlie will reach deep down and find his inner Colbert when interviewing Gov. Palin, observe:

“Gov. Palin: great mother, or the greatest?”

“Admit it, you should have won Miss Alaska?”

“If you were selling me on eBay, how would you describe me?”

“If I was you child what eccentric name would you give me?”

So clearly we can all expect that the enigma that is Sarah Palin to be decoded by Charlie Gibson.

An Open Letter

This is an open letter to all the amateur poets, songwriters and movie directors; and well also the cable news networks.

STOP!

Don’t feel the need to email me (and a couple of hundred/thousand other Democrats) your poems about Senator Obama, or your songs about Hillary.  They’re dreadful, simply terrible.   And why CNN and others feel the need to punish ups by showing them is beyond me.  Nobody needs to hear a middle aged man calling himself “Kid Brooklyn” yelling for a minute and a half about how he should be vice president.

So in conclusion, please I beg of you, feel free to keep your hidden “talents” hidden and to yourself.  We’ll both be happier in the long run.

Your,

Hank

There’s A Word For This: Extortion

There’s really no other way to describe the behavior of Hillary’s donors. The Democratic leaders in Michigan and Florida both knew full well the consequences of their actions if they moved their primaries ahead of New Hampshire and Iowa, and shouldn’t act surprised that the DNC held its ground (though I’ll admit that does go against type for the party) on this issue.

What her backers don’t want to mention is how she came to win those states; or her lack of party unity on the way to said victories. Every major candidate withdrew their names from Michigan, except Hillary, and Obama didn’t campaign in Florida. Now they’re claiming that these banana republic-esque votes should be counted as legitimate contests, and that we should ignore the fact that on issues where the national party showed unity she choose to be opportunistic.

The latest twist is Hillary’s donor demanding their money back, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Money given knowing that the primaries were in violation of DNC rules, money given known that the primaries would not count. The message is clear, if Hillary can’t beat him following the rules, you had damn well better write new ones. Which is ultimately the reason Obama has done so well against her in this election; her win at all cost mentality makes it clear that this isn’t about the country, it’s about her getting what she thinks is rightfully hers, what she considers owed her.

We owe her nothing.

Internet Killing Fields

So there apparently have been some shakeup at Wonkette, the Gawker site devoted to politics. Why? It really hasn’t been said, but Greg Wasserstrom (who wrote the morning round up among other things), Liz Gorman (their photog and stunt woman, by DC standards) and editor Megan Carpentier were all let go in the same week.

This is interesting in that Gawker is one of the first media companies that exists solely as a collection of blogs; no hard website or old media ties, just a diverse collection of blogs. They’re advertising driven and rely upon page hits to generate income. Some are more successful then others, but Wonkette has always been a vanity name plate; well known in political circles but generating fairly low page counts (around 150,000 compared to 600,000 for Jalopnik and 3,000,000 for gizmodo.)

So what does this mean? Probably very little, given Wonkette’s level of notoriety and the lack of involvement by founder Ana Marie Cox one would have to assume it’s peaked for the near term. Unless there is another major scandal it can get out in front of (i.e. Washingtonienne, Mark Foley scandal), it’s hard to see how these firing will lead to any sort of revival. But one does have to question whether or not it will continue at the same level of quality. Why at this point would anybody with skill take the job knowing that unless a Senator is caught with a goat in his office you’re probably not going to be able to generate the page views to keep the job?

Its the Barry Williams (B-Bunch) Show

If the reality craze hasn’t already jumped the shark (or Darva Conger) then this may well seal it. I can appreciate that the internet and the low cost of digital equipment are a great way to reach out to voters; but is showing staffer live from Dodd HQ really reaching out? Is showing President Clinton ordering a chicken sandwich at Dairy Queen? If at this point you don’t get that this isn’t Bill’s (and therefore probably Hillary’s) first time at a DQ, you just haven’t been paying attention. But isn’t that the problem with “reality” TV; that’s its as scripted as anything else?

The beauty of internet video for candidates is the ability to cut through 30 second sound bites, to take their message unedited straight to the viewer/voter. But what good is it if you self impose the rules? Bill and Hillary at DQ is nothing but packaging; at least Dodd offers his speeches. Not that its really much of an improvement, while he’s offering substance, he misses the opportunity afforded him to discuss issues in a more personal and direct manner; one that is more likely to connect with a viewer then seeing footage of a speech he gave in Des Moines.

The genius of the fireside chat was that FDR forsake the stentorian style common among politicians and spoke to the listeners as if they were having a conversation with him by the fire, instead of hearing him on the radio. It made the speeches more authentic, heartfelt, and sincere; and far more effective. The candidate that creates the “fireside chat for the 21st century” (and Sen. Obama’s podcasts come close, if only they were more then an occasional offering) will have an advantage over their opponents.

Note: For anybody curious about the title it comes from a Peter Gabriel song off the album Up released in 2002. Which now earns this post a LJ tag.

I Hear Alaska’s Beautiful This Time of Year

Sen Gravel,

You helped end the Vietnam War when you filibustered the draft reauthorization; and for that you deserve your place in history.  But is this how you really want to be remembered?  To be honest you seem less interested in running for president and more interested in telling the other candidates to get off your lawn.  What’s the plan; do you really think your sanctimonious holier then thou act is going to get you elected?  Even if you were elected you’ll have effectively burned bridges with every Democratic leader in Congress; how do you expect to enact an agenda?

Having an anti-war voice in the debate is important; but you don’t seem very interested in debate.  Do you really think these tatics will work?  I don’t.

Hank Gets Serious for a Moment

A new report out today says that a child born in Iraq has a one on eight chance of not seeing age 5.  That’s a 150% increase since 1992. 

Well Of Course He’s Irish

The only way this story could get any better is if it turned out Obama was a Kennedy.  It turns out that Sen. Obama can trace his heritage back to an Irish cobbler.  Seeing as Hank himself is Irish he sees this as a big win for the tradition of Irish pols.  The Kennedy’s have been on the wane lately, and we’ve been needing a new standard bearer.

And I love this quote from the rector in Ireland: “We’d certainly welcome a visit. He’d be very, very welcome and speaking personally I’m just glad he’s a Democrat.”

Note: I hadn’t used the LJ tag for a couple of days.

I’d Like to be Suprised, Really I Would

The Washington Post is reporting that Senator Obama now has Secret Service protection. While its normal for a presidential candidate to have protection once they’re secured the nomination; its unusual for a candidate to have it before the first primary.

I guess I should be surprised it took two years in the US Senate before it occurred. I suppose that’s an improvement.

Updated with a more in depth story from the Post.