Here's two book reviews that I need to add to the ether. One with tons of press, one a fictional version of a heavy topic regarding newspapers. Tenuous connection to toss out as an intro - my apologies.
"Game Change" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin is that truly rare political journalism book - one that is good enough to stand on the writing alone. But in this case there is also a great deal of well-crafted narrative there. Obviously. The stunning thing about "Game Change" for me is that while they don't craft new character profiles (everyone already knows the personalities of Obama, the Clintons, the Edwards, McCain, and Palin), they absolutely NAIL the air in the room around them. You can see and feel what they're like. That's great reporting. Any political junkie in your life that hasn't read this must be instructed to do so immediately. For all the journalism that I read, I'll nonetheless admit that this book shaped my view of all those players more than anything I've read since 2007. My rating - a strong A-minus.
"The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman is the sort of novel I generally love. Hot, topical, smart, full of characters that surprise and impress. I tore through it, compared to my usual limp while being too easily distracted by a half dozen other things I'm reading. It's not long, and the writing for a first novel is, without a doubt, impressive. It reminded me of Colson Whitehead's first book ("The Intuitionist"). That's a double-edged sword. Because in both cases, I wanted desperately to see what they'd do next, while not being especially thrilled with the way I felt after this book was done. For completely different reasons, mind you. Rachman paints a vivid, cleverly formatted picture of a dying newspaper and the largely horrible people that orbit around that institution's rotting core. Early on, I was knocked flat and happy by how well he drew his characters - introduced and covered deeply in each section, then dropped completely unless by incidental references in other sections. Then I began to hate how cynical the pictures were that he'd painted. Eventually I wanted to tell him to knock it off. At the end, I tossed the book aside and muttered something not especially nice about the time spent getting dicked around. So I can't recommend it. I give it a C-rating. If only judged by the quality of the writing, I'd give him at least a B-plus. But the people he draws - oh gawd, that's at best a high-D. Which I feel sort of bad about, because I was rooting for this author big time going in.
Hope your own double-sided coin is good either way today. Rock on.
A few thoughts on Obama's Cabinet. First, this guy is fully ensconced in the nuts and bolts of settling many scores while getting better geared up to serve than anyone has ever shown themselves to be at this point. Hillary's peeps wouldn't have been happy without at least what she got. Bob Gates staying on at Defense makes more sense than trying to hop into another canoe mid-river. Susan Rice, Eric Holder, James Jones - c'mon, everybody...these are damn strong picks. But this morning I heard the inevitable question asked when Bill Richardson was announced as Commerce Secretary if Latinos should feel slighted. Seriously. Seriously? Employment numbers came out today that stunned everyone (250K lost their jobs in November), the Bushies announced yesterday that we've been in a recession since December '07, new car sales are worse than anytime since Reagan's first term, blah blah blah. Is this really a time to talk tokens? Reporters still need to report. Yet certain questions don't need to be asked at this point in the game. Beeyatches.
While we were in Santa Barbara, we didn't do our regular movie-crazed catch-up deluge. But we did still see a few things worth rating. The new Bond ("Quantum of Solace") is garbage. My rating - a solid D. Daniel Craig is gold, but this movie is a turd. More interestingly, "The Bank Job" was a surprisingly good rental. My rating - solid B. We also rented "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" (C-minus) and "Iron Man" (a re-watched A-minus). Still, I feel like I've failed you by not having more reviews to offer. I'll catch up. I promise.
Hope your own donuts have extra sprinkles today. Rock on.
The unintentional silence you might have noticed from these here parts over the last handful of days has a story behind it. Even if you don't care, I need to clear the drains. So to speak. My darling daughter pulled my Mac laptop onto the floor by the power cord. Shattered the screen. Made me realize how much I love my daughter because she both is fine and was utterly apologetic. But it also made me realize how much I loved my laptop. Do you know how much it costs to replace a LCD screen on a more than 3-year-old Mac? For me, $1240. Not much scratch if you're passing out loans to Wall Street or the auto industry. But serious cash for a piece of over-used electronics. So I've been pouting while I watch the news in the same fashion that you all have come to expect. Thereby, here's some overdue shots.
Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State has more strings attached than Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Will she work hard? Yup. Will she be almost impossible to clear from past controversies? Absolutely. Can Obama do better? I believe so. Will this mend some bridges with Hillary's supporters? Unquestionably. Should we be debating this as the world looks to us to make sense of what a sinkhole we're in currently? No gawddamn way. This one will make two months of transition into 2 years of investigative journalism. Cut the cord, Barack. I hate to say it, but you don't owe the Clintons anything.
Joe Lieberman is still a Democrat. For now. First sign of Iraq War withdrawal and that cat is over the fence.
Ted Stevens lost and Sarah Palin signed a $7M book deal. I'm willing to bet more ink has been spilled on Alaska politics this year since the aggregate timeline of inclusion in the Union in 1959. Expect that 50th Anniversary of Statehood to be Spring Break for Joe the Plumbers cast far and wide next year.
On a personal note - we're headed to Santa Barbara soon with the expectation of being stunned by the damage caused by the recent fires. Our family and friends are fine. But I'll update y'all with some pics and commentary when I get a better gauge of just how crazy it is to see that sort of damage.
Hope you get the chance to hug your own beloved electronics today. Rock on.
The indisputable lead story of the day - hell, maybe the month - was the Obama-Clinton lovefest in New Hampshire earlier today. It will certainly go down as the best stagecraft of this entire campaign. Thus far. Those Obama folks are on frickin' fire. McCain's campaign just ordered in pizza because, man, it's gonna be a long night. But, where credit is absolutely due, Hillary was unbelievably good today. She erased 16 months of vitriol in a half-hour of prideful asskissing. And Barack followed right up with his casual brilliance in returning said asskissing. So here's my theory, not that it's gonna surprise most people. There's absolutely no way she'll be picked as his running mate. Sure, every baby-faced pundit is ready to start dropping fake old school rap about "chemistry" and "the crowd's reaction" and maybe even "lack of sexual awkwardness". But what I read from the whole show boils down to one thing - Hillary's out. She's got bigger issues to address and she knows it. Like an $11.4M overdraft in her joint account. And her off-the-reservation Hubbie who's conveniently in Europe while this whole Unity deal goes down. And the prospects of by not being the most magnanimous loser since Al Gore she'll get sent back to the Senate without the slightest chance of leapfrogging the 28 other Senators in her Party that have more seniority. No, Hillary's out. With class. Kudos to her for the fiesty, brainy, humanish way she did it. That chick's got a huge brass pair.
Hope your own inappropriate sexist postings are especially long and hard-hitting today. Rock on.
Two quickies today. Can't say that I'm ready to synopsize the same extended speech my wife's been hearing all week about why Hillary lost, but the 8-minute video that Slate Magazine produced today pretty much nails the timeline of the Dems march toward inevitability. Please watch.
And while there were years and years seemingly decades ago when I would quote Paul Krugman ad nauseum, his post-mortem column for Hillary today is the worst thing he's ever written. Smart guy. Great ability to subtly talk down to all of us morons when it comes to economics. Horseshite political analyst. Please take a vacation, Krug.
Hope your own campaigns are sailing along as if last week never happened. Rock on.
Let's get a few things straight. Michigan and Florida suck. They broke the rules. Even Hillary said so not so many months ago when she'd self-determined she couldn't be beat. Florida's election commission was unduly influenced by Governor Charlie Crist (a much-rumored John McCain Veep pick). Everyone aside from Hillary took their name off the Michigan ballot in protest of their cynical move to change the Dems' primaries process. Yet tomorrow we're all about to be beat about the face and ears with every imaginable argument from the Clinton camp that everything's changed now that she's losing by an everstill insurmountable margin. How is Obama dealing with this crap? He's talking foreign policy hypotheticals toe-to-toe with McCain. How's Hillary dealing? By getting blotto on her campaign plane with a much drunker bunch of cynics in the press section. I will reserve judgment until tomorrow, but I expect we'll all be appalled by how her supporters act in DC tomorrow. I'll be tuned in to C-SPAN. So you don't have to. Get outside and play.
Speaking of playing outside - NEWSFLASH! Golf is fun. I won't say that I'm refuting decades of prior denouncements. But after a few expected groaning mulligan holes yesterday, I actually settled in and got my game on while having some serious fun with our friend, Sameer. He won by a wide margin. Still, if we'd decided to play 72 holes instead of just 9, I'm pretty sure that I'd have instead won the beer I gratefully bought him. Tip to fickle fellow lovers of the links - keep your head down. Oh, and imagine Karl Rove bending over whenever you tee off.
Hope your own par scores today take into account every single swing, even if only imagined or unintended. Rock on.
We're heading out of town for a roundly anticipated week away. Hillary Clinton's headed out of the Race, given the single stupidiest self-delusion in the history of modern politics. As if she's Hubert Humphrey after her expected upcoming assassination of Barack Obama as the reincarnation of Robert F. Kennedy. I've said it before. I'll probably not stop saying it. This woman knows no shame when it comes to the trench warfare that she - and she along with her ilk - define as fair game politics. I believe people will turn the corner on this tag.
Hope your own Memorial Day weekend ceremonies are half as well-attended as my hometown's (due props out to the Town of Hill cemetary). Rock on.
Last night's Primaries were a disgrace. A penultimate dry hump. No one was satisfied. Yet everyone's looking forward to the next date, working on their lines and hoping for a real dam breaker. But since I'd prefer to end the metaphor above all, here's my most recent take on it all. It's over. It was over a month ago, but Obama's too much of a gentleman to tell Hillary to take a seat off the stage. What do we have coming up at the Rules Committee meeting for the Dems on May 31st when they'll decide what to do with Florida and Michigan? A televised mass suicide. I'm not saying this because I've been an Obama supporter since before he entered the race or as a Clinton fan from my early 20s. I'm saying this as someone who listens to the rules as they were set before the tip-off. Please, PLEASE - let's not forget the karmic damage done to this nation via Bush v. Gore in late '00. If the Clinton camp believes they can win the nomination via rhetorical and legal manuevering, they should be ashamed of themselves. If Hillary steals the nomination, I will not only leave the Party. I'll steal some coats and wallets on my way out.
But the real story today is the money. It's a tangle to decipher, given the difference between primary and general election funds and debt versus cash on hand. CBS News has the best breakdown today, after a few other outlets (the LA Times, most notably) blew the accounting. Bottom line - Hillary's mired in massive debt ($20M) while Obama's got money in the bank ($37M) for a few months of unimpeded spending before the General funds start flipping after the Convention. The biggest surprise is how much better McCain did last month ($22M on hand). Who's most electable? Screw that straw horse argument. Recent campaigns have proven that cash wins. Using that cynical metric, Hillary's screwed.
Hope your own bottom line has enough room for a jet-ski purchase today. Rock on.
If the weatherhandicappers are to be believed, Seattle's about to heat up considerably. Highs near 90 Friday and Saturday. Today's still overcast with hopes for the 60s. I can't say that I'm looking forward to the heat. But after an especially chilly late Spring, we're certainly overdue for a hint of global warming.
Wait a minute...I'm leading with the weather? Well, it's still more interesting than dissecting West Virginia's Primary. Or the lead up to Oregon and Kentucky next Tuesday. The campaign has become so cam-painful that I'm just plain tapped out. For example, a Portland alt weekly (Willamette Week) used the opportunity to interview Barack Obama to ask what sort of tattoo he would get. He tried to respond with wit ("If a gun was put to my head?"). The interviewer persisted. Obama offered that he'd have Michelle's name "put somewhere discreet." How much you willing to bet that Hillary won't get that same question. She's more of a piercing fan, anyways. But please, America - make it stop.
Hope your own endless torture session at least features a moment of levity today. Rock on.
Like most of New Orleans, I spent yesterday at JazzFest. The day was absolutely perfect - near 80 degrees, humidity unusually low around 60%, not a cloud in a true blue sky. One day tickets run way spendy - $50 at the door. But it couldn't have been better timed for the last day of the Fest to enjoy such delightful aesthetics. I saw a few great acts (The Raconteurs surprised me by rocking wholly without pretense, the Mahalia Jackson tribute was powerful and touching especially when Irma Thomas was on the stage, everyone is still raving about the varied and extended gatherings of Nevilles and Santanas). The food and beer were great. Walking around today you can see all degrees of sunburn. Thankfully only my forearms took a hit. I won't say that I'd come back just for JazzFest. But after a day like yesterday, I might think about it.
From the campaign trail I see nothing but overstated understatements. Obama on "Meet the Press" yesterday was lackluster, Hillary on "This Week" was equally uninteresting. They're just tired. And we're just tired of them. Yet I'll offer one small volley toward Hillary's minions - this mailer from Hillary sent to folks in Indiana and North Carolina is meant to attack Obama's stance on guns.
Only problem is that the photo on the mailer is doctored (reversing a 60s-era German-made Mauser to make it appear that it is a left-handed gun). Small point, maybe. But not only does that "sportsman's gun" not exist, if it did it would go for over two-grand. Or as I prefer to think of it - at least one individual tax rebate check ($600) plus a tax holiday benefit where you'd need to buy 7609 gallons of gas between Memorial Day and Labor Day (saving $.184/gallon). Snark snark. You're welcome.
Hope your own sunburns comes with good memories today. Rock on.
Like most observers, I was appalled after last night's Dems debate. Obama got punked constantly, stumbling occasionally along the way. Hillary was willing to say anything, as usual. Charlie Gibson is officially now a swear word around my house. George Stephanopoulos still is. And the result? Bupkis. Big ratings, no real results. Yawn. With a sneer.
So I'm not about to focus on this whole showdown for the next few days. Sort of. Which should be easy since my parents are coming to town from Wisconsin. Please check back for some fresh pics as they get re-acquainted with Maya.
Hope your own debate analysis deals primarily with podium height today. Rock on.
Without my usual prior notice to anyone checking in, we're on the road again. My apologies to the NSA for not calling. This time we're doing another couple days of work thingie for Sarah in Minnysoda. Downtown Minneapolis, to be specific. Although I was enjoyably forced to take the bus way up to Roseville this morning to get another waterproof layer at the local REI which is oddly placed in the industrial-ish hinterlands. Now I'm taking a late lunch break at ancient yet unchanged Big 10 Subs near my undergrad college campus. I think I still have a few of these greasy things stuck in my colon from the early 90s. At least this time it will be a half turkey, no mayo.
Two quickie campaign stories - USAToday does some early legwork on the surprising spike in new voter registration in the remaining Democratic Primary states. My bet? A whole bunch of Rush Limbaugh-inspired switch-overs looking to unscrupulously vote for Hillary. It ain't over folks. Well - it's actually over. Yet certain overanalyzed misdirection still lies before us. Ah, democracy. Love it or leave it.
Also, Dubya appears to be prepping to add to Mark Penn and Hillary's woes on the subject of an utterly unimportant Columbian free trade agreement. Just imagine if Bush the Elder had introduced a Columbian trade deal during his struggles to define his own still unresolved endless struggle (War on Drugs, anyone)? Dubya really has been a prick of a son. Certainly less than he has been a sonofaprick. But I digress - Mark Penn got bounced from Hillary's campaign for meeting just LAST WEEK with the Columbians. I envision him doing so at Tony Montana's disco in "Scarface" with a hooker on his lap and an aide that looks amazingly like Robert Loggia taking notes in a pile of cocaine on the glass table before them. Well, now it appears that Dubya's going to try to force Congress to vote within 90 days on his proposed deal. McCain supports, Obama doesn't, Hillary doesn't, Mark Penn makes it one of those tabloid dealiebobbers, doncha know. As I said, what a prick of a son.
Time to head onto other things. Hope your own college reunion tours today feature more foie gras, less wilted lettuce. Rock on.
Sunday for those of us churchless liberals is usually about one thing. Unless there's brunch. The lump of deadtree that is the Sunday NYTimes. I know, I know - I need to finally move over to the entirely electronic form of this weekly dive into the finest paper in all the land. So today, my two faves come from other online sources.
The Politico pulls some pretty petty reporting of Hillary's campaign being horrible at paying their bills. But I can't wait for the direct-mail pushback from said lackies as they run to that unseemly copy center way out in the burbs that still writes up advance work orders. Synopsis - Hillary is broke.
New York Magazine has a super-snarky throwaway piece that offers some dish on how John and Elizabeth Edwards feel about the lobbying for their endorsements. Synopsis - Hillary's been very professional, Obama's been a bit of a dick.
As a bonus, here's one half-hearted shout out to the NYTimes for a Sunday Styles piece on the inherent connectivity between Brooklyn and the East Bay. I don't buy the synopsis for a second (they are inextricably connected by some sort of culture warp) since almost as much time is spent talking crap about things miles away from the East Bay. Kinda like saying Staten Island and Milwaukee are one in the same and spending half your time ordering at The Brat Stop in Kenosha. Yet one of my personal faves - the Mollusk Surf Shop in the Outer Sunset of San Francisco - gets a big blurb. I love the Mollusk (best t-shirts in California). So, weirdly...whoo-hoo.
Hope your don't lose an unread section in an unfortunate French Toast spill today. Rock on.
It's no secret that Barack Obama and family planned to take a few days off away from the media glare to vacation. They chose the U.S. Virgin Islands, left yesterday (on Easter), and plan to return to Chicago on Tuesday. But thankfully, FOX News is able to break through his unpatriotic choice and bring us a bad phone interview and digital pic from the beach to confirm that he truly is acting like the closeted Muslim they surely still believe him to be. Please be sure to wash you hands after if you choose to click through on this pathetic snippet.
I'm curious to see just how far the questioning goes of Hillary's "we took on sniper fire and had to run for the cars...with Chelsea, Sinbad, Sheryl Crow and Willem DeFoe's tragic character trying to keep up with me" crap sandwich. Not far, I expect. But if you think this sort of thing doesn't have legs for a voracious media pack, I'll be certainly willing to pass the collection plate down your pew...
Hope your own opposition research deals mainly with kitchen magnets today. Rock on.
Barack Obama delivered his finest speech this morning in Philadelphia. Which is saying a helluva lot, given how many other fine speeches he is credited with delivering in the past. This time he was attempting to quell a storm - the opportunistic tempest stirred up by endless replays of his former Pastor Jeremiah Wright's bombastic sermons over the last few news cycles. In due course, Obama took on race, history, religion and his truly unique ancestry when compared with a typical candidate for any elected office in this Nation (much less the highest in the Land). He did so with characteristic flair, nonetheless weaving in some digs at Hillary and policy positions on education, health care, foreign policy and our image abroad. I've made no secret of my support for him. I will now go a step further. This candidate has the power to change everything. Obama just keeps getting stronger in front of history's caustic glare. I expect he just won over a ton of those wavering in the past few weeks. If he doesn't win the Presidency, I will quit blogging. Which I'm sure would please more than a few of those aimlessly antagonistic readers. But I'll throw down the challenge, nonetheless.
What if you started a War based on lies, had no plan for how to get out, spent trillions of dollars, killed nearly 4000 volunteer soldiers, and fiddled away the same old tune while the economy melted down 5 years later? Any rational student of history would conclude that you'd be pretty well screwed. So on this dubious anniversary, as the Fed throws everything and the kitchen sink into the chasm that is rapidly opening beneath the feet of so many Americans, I'd like to remind Dubya of his oft-repeated phrasing. "History will decide." Yup, for once we agree.
Hope your own anniversaries relate to the good things in life today. Rock on.
Nobody expects Wyoming to have much sway when it comes to the Democratic nominating process. Or, I should say, nobody EXPECTED Wyoming to have much sway. But with only 11 remaining States and Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam) left to voice their preference, Wyoming's moment in the Dems sun was yesterday. Typical '08 caucus - huge turnout, big Obama victory. The response from the Clinton campaign? States don't matter, unless they're named Texas, Ohio, Florida, Michigan or Pennsylvania. So I'll let them furiously pirouette around the momentum argument, which even I'm becoming tired of watching. Basically, for me it boils down to this - if the current breakdowns expected from the remaining contests hold even Dubya-budget-close to what is expected (even with do-overs in Florida and Michigan) Obama wins well over 30 States/Territories, pledged delegates and the popular vote. So...his head is on the block for the Clintons to whack at mercilessly. They either take him out, or they lose. Which do you expect? I'm personally terrified of the prospects. Or, to play the national security card I've personally used ever since 9/11, I'm more afraid of the response than what's already occurred. One sidelight - Saturday Night Live's smackdown of Hillary's "3 am phone" ad that aired last night was a hard slap that rang out for me with a necessary feel of evening up the satirical scorecard. Don't expect to hear Hillary bringing that one up on the stump. Ever.
Hope you're able to sleep through the night without interruptions for the foreseeable future. Rock on.
One quick comment from last night's Dems debate - Hillary's crap-filled coda was borrowed from both Bubba circa '92 and this season's John Edwards. Talk about a Xerox moment. With duplicates. I sincerely hope she gets hung up on this sanctimonious bunk for a bundle of days in this crucial period - extremely stupid strategy on her part.
We're heading down to the Bay Area this evening for a handful of days. Maya's turf from way back when. Expect a handful of photos and updates from the visit. Hope your own weekend leads you somewhere full of liberals stoked with loads of Rice-A-Roni. Rock on.
Last night's Primary results in Wisconsin confirmed an astonishing trend. The Hillary Inevitability Mo-sheen is now officially scrapped for a downsized model. And while everyone's parsing the exit polling (somewhat dubious) and the speeches (total theatre), I've actually got something that matters. To a microscopic degree. Nonetheless, the teeny township that I grew up in (Town of Spirit outside Ogema in Price County) is filled with conservative farmers and church-goin' folks that I remember as well as my current ATM password. So last night after polls closed, my Dad passed along the polling results received via my childhood church's treasurer (also the election official for the Town Hall). Please bear in mind - in '04 there were 160 votes cast in the Presidential Election. For this Primary, 120 showed on both sides of the coin. Not a bad turnout. Although, I'm not sure how many neighbors have died in the last handful of years. Anyhoo, here's the tally:
One microcosm doesn't make an election. Unless it's my microcosm. Hillary got stomped by almost every demographic across the Badger State she until recently took for granted. Now everyone's focused forward on the horserace in Ohio and Texas, parsing the intricate nature of delegate allocation and...blah blah blah. Barack Obama just took a district in the strictly rural northern reaches of Wisconsin. A black Senator from Illinois. Where anyone from "down South" is still called a "FIB" (F**king Illinois B**tard). If you need more evidence of a movement beyond the "words" that the Clintons have come to so condescendingly deride, look no farther than the landslide yesterday in the folksy confines of Spirit's Town Hall.
Hope your own constituencies are filled with good ol' church-goin' commies today. Rock on.
For all my GOP friends, welcome to your Goldwater moment - John McCain won the nomination with Mitt Romney's release of pledged delegates. He's doomed unless Hillary wins the nomination, but I respect McCain. I couldn't disagree with him more on the issues of importance to our future, but I respect McCain. And I think he's pandered more to his rhetorical enemies in the last few years than anyone other Ryan Seacrest, but I respect McCain. Romney? Pull-eeze. Regardless, half the field is set at the top of the ticket. My bet for McCain's Veep? Here's my longshot offer - former Colorado Governor Bill Owens. If I'm right, you all owe me a Coke.
I've been a fan of Josh Marshall's TalkingPointsMemo since '04. His commentary is only surpassed by his site's journalistic method. He provides the best debunking of the SuperDelegates story surrounding the Dems to date. In short - chill out, chumps. These Party players are holding their cards. Whoever provides the best storyline for the nomination wins in the end. That's why Hillary is playing so hard and fast for committments now, when they're sure not to come.
Hope your own Veep is chosen merely to make you look like "the skinny one" today. Rock on.
There's no way to de-spin the Joementum Barack Obama's got coming off yesterday's thumpin' in Virginia, Maryland and DC. Hillary is now, officially according to everyone's tallies, trailing in delegates. She lost yesterday in every imaginable demographic. Even pets. So her newbie campaign leaders chose to head to Texas for the weirdest concession speech in history to bolster her firewall strategy. Consider that for a moment. A Clinton. Relying upon Texas. To turn the tide. Holy crap. Hillary's over.
One catch up requirement on my part - I saw a gaggle of films a few weeks ago while my lovely wife and daughter were out of town. So before the Oscars pollute the collective opinion of filmlovers, I'll offer a few ratings.
"Cloverfield" - all hype, totally disposable cinema verite. An underwhelming C-plus. "There Will Be Blood" - bleak, beautiful, surprisingly dull. Daniel Day Lewis is astonishing. But my rating is still a B. "Charlie Wilson's War" - smart, more star-power than in years and years, also bleak. A solid B-plus. "Persepolis" - best animated story in years, the most human story of the year. An astute A-minus. See it.
Hope your own delegates are super all day. Rock on.
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