Passing Comments

On the night of November 4, 2008 shortly after Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidential election and accepted the glory with yet another stellar speech, four members of Obama’s inner circle sat down with 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft and talked about how the race was won. And time and again in answering Kroft’s questions the four Obama staffers gave much of the credit for the win to one factor — the candidate himself.

“Obama’s Inner Circle Shares Inside Story” video (13.14). Transcript here.

Congratulations, President-elect Barack Obama!

Yesterday Barack Obama wrapped up his presidential campaign of almost two years with a late night rally before an estimated 90,000 people in the state of Virginia. In the speech, he also paid tribute to his grandmother who had passed away earlier in the day (Road Blog: “One Last Rally, By Obama,” BarackObama.com, Nov 3, 2008).

Obama closed the rally with a funny and inspirational anecdote from the early days of his campaigning:

Les Misbarack (One more day):

Laughs along the U.S. Presidential campaign trail (II) here.

Why Worry - Dire Straits

There’s a telling anecdote early in “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. Obama has just described what he calls the drubbing he took when he lost badly in the 2000 election after challenging the Democratic incumbent for his congressional seat:

A year and a half later, the scars of that loss sufficiently healed, I had lunch with a media consultant who had been encouraging me for some time to run for statewide office. As it happened, the lunch was scheduled for late September 2001.

“You realize, don’t you, that the political dynamics have changed,” he said as he picked at his salad.

“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing full well what he meant. We both looked at the newspaper beside him. There on the front page, was Osama bin Laden.

“Hell of a thing, isn’t it?” he said, shaking his head. “Really bad luck. You can’t change your name, of course. Voters are suspicious of that kind of thing. Maybe if you were at the start of your career, you know, you could use a nickname or something. But now…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged apologetically before signalling the waiter to bring us the check.

I’m about two-thirds of the way through reading Obama’s 2006 book. Essentially a political document, as a New York Times review describes it, the book primarily lays out Obama’s political ideas. He recounts some of his experiences in elective political office, and reflects on what he has learned from them. Whether you are a supporter of Obama or not, the book is helpful as a compact refresher course in some basic history about American government and how it came to be.

The book is also a primer on the realities of how the political system functions today. As most of the world now knows, Obama subscribes more to the glass half-full philosophy than the glass half-empty. I find it one of the most admirable things about him. I admit, though, that while reading his detailing at times of the hard, complex dynamics of how the government actually functions, I myself have to resist mightily seeing the glass as dry as a bone.

It may be for this reason that the anecdote above that he related is staying in the forefront of my mind as I continue my reading of his book. I ask myself what I or someone else might have done if, in similar circumstances, life had dished up the same ridiculous name blame game. Talk about a clear cut challenge of how to view that proverbial glass!

You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out how Obama confronted the situation. On the other hand, it’s now kind of obvious, isn’t it.

You can read an excerpt of the book here.

It’s been a a few decades since the Smothers Brothers starred in their own television show, a weekly satirical skewering of, among other things, politics and politicians. Earlier this month, the duo appeared on a late night comedy show hosted by Craig Ferguson:

See Laughs along the U.S. Presidential campaign trail (I) here.

Today, the country’s premier newspaper The New York Times (aka The Gray Lady) endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Excerpt from the endorsement:

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.

In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

If you want details about the candidates and their differences, the editorial’s got ‘em in full — the endorsement runs to three pages. If there is still anyone out there who says he or she doesn’t know who Obama is, you have to wonder what planet they live on.

Election day, November 4, is less than two weeks away. Finally! A good interval in which to begin sharing some comedy from the political battlefield, it seems to me.

Yesterday, Obama popped in (via video) for a surprise, just-for-laughs visit on the popular daytime program, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Topics covered include dancing, Halloween costumes and George Clooney:

Yesterday Michelle Obama sat down for an interview with comedian Jon Stewart of THE DAILY SHOW. An early comment she makes is that she and Barack have been campaigning for 20 months - so for those who feel as if this U.S. Presidential electoral process seems endless, I think she might agree with you.

Part I (04:14) intro blurb
Michelle Obama knows there are some people who will never vote for Barack Obama, but most Americans want a leader who will find solutions that make sense.

Part II (04:28) intro blurb
Michelle Obama puts herself in the position of a voter when she listens to her husband speak

UPDATE: On the same day, Michelle Obama did another major interview, this one on The Larry King Show. Here she talks more seriously about various aspects of the campaign and the Obamas’ home life.

Upon viewing some of the morning-after reviews of the vice presidential debate:

Spunkiness! Apparently, that’s pretty much all it takes — a perky jut of the chin, a few winks of the eye, and some clicks of the tongue to win some people’s (and some of the news media’s) thumbs-up for your candidacy to land an office in the White House.

These who jab those thumbs upright would have us think that it doesn’t matter what your position is on Iraq, tax cuts for the haves versus the increasingly have-nothing-at-alls, or Roe versus Wade, or gay marriage, or global climate change or energy policies. No, it’s not whether you’re yea or nay or even undecided on these issues that will earn you votes, it’s just the mastering of that cute Gidget goes to Washington attitude that matters.

We’ve come a long way, baby! Wink.

If you want to see the debate and the vote today in the U.S. House of Representatives as it returns a second time to Treasury Secretary Paulson’s $700 billion plus bailout plan for Wall Street, click on to C-SPAN, the only news media organization that regularly televises the legislative proceedings of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

The deliberations begin at 9 am Eastern Standard Time (USA).

The high marks Barack Obama receives in the arena of world opinion have been noted fairly often in the media. Now The Economist magazine has created a feature that allows its international readers online to vote for one of the two major U.S. Presidential nominees (”Global Electoral College — What if the whole world could vote” Oct 1, 2008).

The voting feature is interactive and includes a world map that allows the viewer to scroll over particular countries and see a pop-up displaying respective voter results. Of special interest, Economist editors have designed the feature to function in the same way as the actual Electoral College institution in the U.S. — you can see an explanation of how it works here.

Small hint — someone is winning by a landslide.

R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath (2008)

As Michael Wesch explains, anthropology is the study of culture. The particular culture Wesch and his students are now studying is YouTube. In the video below (which is itself full of videos) of a talk he gave to the Library of Congress last June, Wesch presented some of their findings.

David Weinberger on his Joho the blog last week (where I learned about the video) describes Wesch’s presentation:

It’s a 55 minute lecture, with lots and lots of examples, explaining the importance of YouTube. And, like his own videos, it’s compelling, brilliant, and moving.

(A warning — don’t watch this if you don’t want to understand YouTube in a whole new way)

Definitely check out this article yesterday from David Leonhardt at the New York Times about some of the stinkier aspects of Treasury Secretary Paulson’s bailout proposal (”Could Warren Buffett Negotiate a Better Deal for Taxpayers?” Sept 24, 2008).

One of the article’s insights:

Now, what would Mr. Buffett have said if Goldman asked for his money and wouldn’t let him share in the upside? “He would have said ‘no deal!’ ” said Daniel Alpert, of Westwood Capital, an investment firm. “And that is what Congress must say as well in defense of the American people.”

The article’s closing paragraph is especially a heartwarmer.

Blame It On Your Lyin’ Cheatin’ Heart (Patty Loveless)

And she’s advising the American people also to avoid seeing things through a naively pink glow, especially now. The widely-praised writer of The Shock Doctrine — a book that reveals how the rich and powerful exploit natural and manmade disasters for profit — is warning that the ongoing Wall Street meltdown is a demonstration of more of this ruthless greed in action.

From her blog yesterday: (”Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine” Sept 22, 2008):

I wrote “The Shock Doctrine” in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place…

Summing up the current highway robbery scenario now being staged in the U.S. Congress, Klein warns that there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). Loud, organized grassroots pressure on both political parties is our only hope, she says.

Here is a video of Klein last week on the popular political affairs talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, debating the current crisis.

I don’t know about you, but that was the first question that popped into my head when I saw the headline this week about Rwanda’s achievement? (”In a world first, women in the majority in Rwanda legislature” AFP, Sept 18, 2008).

As I remember, it was only in 1994 that Rwanda ended a genocidal war that left 800,000 of its people dead. How does a country move from being one of the most tragic in history to being one of the most forward-thinking in history in the span of only 14 years?

The answer: It was the first terrible event, the war, that was the catalyst for a new law that led to the second situation of more women in political leadership, according to sources cited on Wikipedia’s Rwanda page (”Gender Conflict and Development” by Tsjeard Bouta, 2004; “Strengthening governance: the role of women in Rwanda’s transition” by Elizabeth Powley).

In short, per Wikipedia, a new law and a new philosophy by the new government:

By law, at least a third of the Parliament representation must be female. It is believed that women will not allow the mass killings of the past to be repeated.

The recent video from AlJazeera, below, is the first of a two-part report on Rwanda. It explores the country’s past tragedy and its recovery. The report also features interviews with some of the women now assuming such a featured role in the government and social programs of the country (”Africa Uncovered: Rights & Reconstruction” Sept 1, 2008).  Ah, and yes, there’s also an interview with a man who objects to this speed-tracking of women as leaders. Gee, imagine that.

I found these videos here at the WE Empower website.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article on Tzipi Livni’s primary victory yesterday that has put her in line to become Israel’s new prime minister (”Can Livni clean up Israeli politics?” by Ilene R. Prusher, Sept 19, 2008).

Prusher offers a look at Livni’s political history and what kind of change she may or may not represent for her country’s policies. Livni has been compared by some to Barack Obama and his message of change, according to the article, but some experts quoted in the piece say this is a false analogy.

For another assessment and close-up look at Livni and some of her recent work in relation to negotiating with the Palestinians, below is an analysis from Daniel Levy in an interview today with the Real News Network (”Livni poised to be next Israeli PM” Sept 18, 2008):

Another assessment from economist Nouriel Roubini in a CNBC interview yesterday about the ongoing Wall Street meltdown (”‘Socialism’ on Wall Street” Sept 17, 2008). Asked about the advisability of Uncle Sam rescuing the sinking insurance giant, AIG, Roubini says it’s a very bad idea.

So where was the regulation and supervision? They screwed up big time over and over again. Now we’re in a situation in which the profits have been privatized, and now the losses have been socialized…

“This is not a market economy. This is socialism for the rich, for the well-connected on Wall Street…”

Roubini rounds out his analysis by explaining his idea of what constitutes a practical and important use of public money, what should be done about the distressed U.S. housing sector, and the way to avoid massive home foreclosures.

Watch:

See previous post on Roubini here.

UPDATE: Today’s New York Times gathers some opinion from around the world on the AIG bailout (”Abroad, Bailout Is Seen as a Free Market Detour” by Nelson D. Schwartz, Sept 17, 2008)

A few days ago in a phone conversation, I was discussing the current U.S. Presidential campaign with a British friend. In particular, we were talking about the stupefying clamor that is characterizing much of the traditional media coverage of Republican vp choice Sarah Palin.

My friend said that the impression she is receiving is that the American public in general loves Palin, and that if it’s true that American voters are so silly, it may be cancelling out the resurgence of international good will toward the United States that has been generated by Barack Obama’s candidacy.

I responded by declaring my own profound hope — which is that what we are seeing is not a true picture of American voters as a majority, but is rather a super-hyped reflection of the actions of a small, noisy core group of ultra partisans, religious extremists and political opportunists, coupled with a widespread failure of much of U.S. traditional news media to do its job well.

One part of this hope of mine stems from reports that the polls — even those that can be trusted — are not measuring the huge number of new and returning voters in this election. The second part of my (cockeyed) optimism is a gut feeling that we couldn’t possibly be so blind as to choose to stay on the same, disastrous path that we are on now.

Cloning Spiro

It seems to me that those who remember the election campaign of 1968, and the surprise selection of Spiro T. Agnew as Richard M. Nixon’s running mate then, may be recalling those past times during these weeks of observing the hysteria and anger in response to John McCain’s “gotcha” surprise of a running mate. In the early days of Palin’s arrival as candidate, Jonathan Singer at MyDD.com wrote about this (”Sarah Palin is Spiro Agnew” Aug 29, 2008):

It has been forty years since someone as inexperienced as Sarah Palin has been put on a national ticket, and surprisingly enough there are some real similarities between Palin and her unprepared predecessor, Spiro T. Agnew, who also had been governor less than two years at the time Richard Nixon picked him to be his number two and who also had a corruption problem lingering in the background that would end up causing his running mate problems.

In a Wikipedia page on Agnew, it is noted that he was chosen so he could act as Nixon’s hatchet man during the campaign. Nixon-as-candidate certainly must have been pleased because — and I remember this well myself — his protege excelled in highly partisan, condemnatory language, more often than not creating divisiveness and stirring up anger of voters pro and con whenever he spoke. Related excerpt:

In short, Agnew was Nixon’s “hatchet man” when defending the administration on the Vietnam War.[4] Agnew was chosen to make several powerful speeches in which he spoke out against anti-war protesters and media portrayal of the Vietnam War, labeling them “Franco Un-American”.

This trait is one of the factors that has reminded me most of John McCain’s protege, Palin. And in laying out this path of attack by his “soulmate” as he calls her, McCain has also duplicated the approach of Agnew. In a New York Times article in 1970, while Agnew was still vice president, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., described the strategy well (”The Amazing Success Story of ‘Spiro Who?’” July 26, 1970): (boldface mine)

His (Agnew’s) heart is, however, deeply in another range of questions. Historians, notably Richard Hofstadter, have drawn a distinction between “interest politics” and “status politics.” Interest politics revolves around conflicts of policy: whether we should raise or lower the interest rate, encourage or obstruct collective bargaining, extend or abolish farm price supports. Status politics revolves around personal values and folkways, social aspirations and frustrations, religious traditions and ethnic identifications-those intangibles which, without finding explicit embodiment in political issues, nevertheless affect the climate of politics and sometimes, especially when economic prosperity reduces the pressure of interest politics, determine political results. It is cultural politics, and not public policy which is the Vice President’s bag. He has emerged as hero, or villain, not in the battle of programs but in the battle of life styles.

And hiding Sarah

In Palin’s case, this “status politics” weapon of attack is also, of necessity, accompanied by an even more brutal one — her persistence in grossly misrepresenting (completely denying, actually) her own official record that, among other things, certainly belies her efforts to present herself as a fiscal reformist.

A second striking factor in the similarities between Agnew and Palin, as mentioned above, is the slim political resume of both. And the third is the twin clouds of ongoing investigations for corruption while in office — one such cloud hovered over Agnew just as a major one now hangs over Palin. Agnew’s eventual fate was a criminal conviction that forced his resignation from office.

Here’s hoping that if a similar fate is in store for Palin, the resignation will be from the office of Governor of Alaska, and nothing more.

For those who weren’t around in those old Agnew days, or who may want a trip back in time, below is a video of former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite discussing Nixon’s surprise vp choice, and Agnew himself at his first press conference as vp candidate.

In an interview earlier today, Nouriel Roubini from New York University’s Stern School of Business explained what many people are most worried about (the FDIC), why they’re right, and how long the tough times are going to last (”Top Economist: Americans Should Worry About Bank Deposits if Congress Doesn’t Act” by Aaron Task, Yahoo! Finance, Sept 15, 2008):

Unequivocal answer to the question at the end of this video. No! I! Don’t!

In an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times physicist Brian Greene really does lay out a clear and simple  explanation of the Large Hadron Collider (”The Origins of the Universe: A Crash Course” Sept 11, 2008). In the article, he answers the questions of how the huge proton smasher came to be, how it works, and what scientists hope to find.

And, yes, he addresses also that doomsday fear some have that the Collider is going to do nothing more than gobble us all up into its own black hole, lock, stock and planet.

Here’s a quote that sets up the article’s scope:

After more than a decade of development and construction, involving thousands of scientists from dozens of countries at a cost of some $8 billion, the “on” switch for the collider was thrown this week. So what we can expect?

See my previous post on the Collider here.

Yuriko Koike, who already has made history by becoming Japan’s first female defense minister, now wants to burst through another of the country’s glass ceilings. Today Koike announced that she is running for the post of Japan’s prime minister, according to an article on Bloomberg.com, a position that to date has had a males-only ID tag attached to it (”Koike Is First LDP Woman to Seek Japan’s Premiership” Sept 8, 2008).

Some more bio info here.

And below is a video of an interview with Koike last May at a World Economic Forum. Koike shares her views on various current issues including the energy crisis, internationally shared values, and some developments in the middle east:

Let it be, Ray Charles

In taking his turn last year writing for the regular feature “On God” for Search magazine, political satirist P.J. O’Rourke dove into the apparently immortal squabble of whether faith is compatible with science (”P.J. O’Rourke ‘On God’” March/April 2007).

As the comic master he is, O’Rourke examines both sides of the issue and defuses the hostilities. As one example, he writes that science requires more faith than God.

The laugh-out-loud paragraph for me was this:

“One sympathizes with science’s faithful. The apocalyptic power of God has existed forever, and He’s been restrained about using it, despite provocation. The apocalyptic power of science has existed only since 1945, and the A-bomb has been tried twice already.”

Read more here.

I found this oldie but goodie via the Ideas (Links to What We’re Reading) blog by Tom Kuntz on the New York Times website. Definitely a good spot to go exploring for good stuff you’ve missed online.

Defending First Ladies — past and future

A young feminist calls for her mainstream colleagues to show just as much solidariety with Michelle Obama as they did with Hillary Clinton.

Jessica Valenti, the founder of Feministing.com, writes in an essay in the UK’s Guardian that Ms. Obama is offering to be an advocate for women if she becomes First Lady, so women need also to become advocates for her as she faces sexist and racist attacks from the media (”The baiting of Ms Obama” Aug 21 2008).

Speaking of Michelle Obama

Just in case you missed it, Ms. Obama’s widely praised speech last week at the Democratic National Convention, from C-SPAN:

Obama’s mother of all text messages

Nielsen Media estimates that 2.9 million people received Obama’s text message on August 23rd announcing his selection of a vice presidential running mate, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal (”Nielsen: About Three Million Got Obama Text” by Amy Schatz, Aug 25, 2008).

And how the wait drove CNN anchors a bit nuts

See the short video here at 23/6 of how the news media is having to adjust to new technology (”Obama, if you don’t text us soon, CNN will go insane!” Aug 22, 2008).

A chat with Caroline

When it came time to choose someone to help him choose a vice presidential nominee, Obama asked JFK’s daughter Caroline to help. After the choice was made, the famously reclusive Ms. Kennedy sat down with NBC’s Tom Brokaw to talk about the process (”Caroline Kennedy Speaks On Veep Vetting Process” The Huffington Post, Aug 24, 2008). See a video clip here.

And the vice presidential nominees are…

To read the basics about Obama’s vp choice, go here (”Obama introduces Biden as running mate” CNN, Aug 23, 2008). And look here for info about McCain’s vp choice (”McCain taps Alaska Gov. Palin as vice president pick” CNN, Aug 30, 2008 ).

Crossing paths — a hurricane and the GOP Convention

The hurricane now approaching the area of New Orleans is taking priority over politics as usual. Story here (”Republicans scale back convention due to Hurricane Gustav” by Maeve Reston and Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, Sept 1, 2008).

Michael Moore explains the election

In a new book, “Mike’s Election Guide,” the famous film director offers “the definitive guide” to the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.

Moore approaches the subject with his usual satiric wit. One chapter title, for example, is “How many Democrats does it take to lose the most winnable election in American history?” A sample chapter is available to read here online.

Blogging the election

A highly regarded and informative blog about what’s happening day to day, and hour to hour sometimes, in the election is written by Marc Ambinder for the Atlantic Magazine.

Polls and pols

One of the most popular go-to blogs for news and commentary on the various political polls is here at Pollster.com. The blogger is Mark Blumenthal, bio here.

Watching Obama and his new running mate

Last night, Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden sat down for a long interview with the highly rated TV news show, Sixty Minutes. In this short video clip, Obama responds to questions about why he chose Biden, and his reaction to McCain’s vp choice, Sarah Palin:

UPDATE: See more of the interview here and here.

(See previous round-up here)

Mind Games (1973), John Lennon

Just like a lot of other people, I love to watch champions. But I find the story of an underdog equally irresistible, so when I saw the moving photo of 17-year-old Samia (Samiya) Yusuf Omar accompanying a recent article about her by Charles Robinson on Yahoo! Sports, I clicked to read (”Somalia’s runners provide inspiration” Aug 24, 2008).

Sports writer Robinson pours a bit of his own heart into telling the story of the young runner Samia. Introducing the piece as the Olympic story we never heard, he writes:

It’s about a girl whose Beijing moment lasted a mere 32 seconds – the slowest 200-meter dash time out of the 46 women who competed in the event. Thirty-two seconds that almost nobody saw but that she carries home with her, swelled with joy and wonderment. Back to a decades-long civil war that has flattened much of her city. Back to an Olympic program with few Olympians and no facilities. Back to meals of flat bread, wheat porridge and tap water.

The race Samia lost, how and why she lost it, and the reaction of the spectators in the Olympic stadium, as Robinson recounts it, seem like something straight out of a heart-melting Disney movie. Who knows, someday it may be. You can read the article here.

BBC News also has a story featuring an interview with Samia (”Against the Odds: Samiya Yusuf Omar” July 21, 2008).

This afternoon in Denver, Colorado the four-day Democratic National Convention will begin. The star speaker in tonight’s program will be Michelle Obama.

To watch live coverage online, go here (Democratic Convention website, click top left Launch Video Player Live). Another place for interesting videos, photos and other news is here (Barack Obama website blog).

The video above is from the Obama website blog.

UPDATE: The independent DemConWatch, covering the Democratic Convention, is also a good site to find video, photos, news and commentary of the Denver event.

UPDATE II: TheYouTube channel for the non-profit, public service, cable channel C-SPAN is a good site to find videos of the major speeches at the Democratic Convention.

For a comedic take on some people’s fears about the proton-smashing Hadron Collider project, you can read Gail Collins column today in the New York Times (”Digging Ourselves a Black Hole” Aug 23, 2008).

Specifically some fear that (gulp!) the Collider will create a black hole that will devour the planet, rather than boost the research of particle physics, as its creators predict, according to Collins. So, she writes, she talked to a Brown University physicist, Greg Landsberg, who pooh poohs such fears.

Read the full column here.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.
by Emily Dickinson

For fans old or new of Emily Dickinson, a new biography is just out. Titled “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson,” it’s by Brenda Wineapple and it’s getting high praise from critics.

You can find one recent review here from The New York Sun (”The Activist and the Recluse” by Eric Ormsby, Aug 6, 2008).

And if you want to read an excerpt from Wineapple’s book itself, there’s one here on the publisher’s website (Random House/Knopf).

Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be rock stars*

Who knew that being a rock star is such a terrible thing? (President Bruce Springsteen has kind of a nice ring to it, don’t you think?)

But, apparently, Republican Party nominee McCain is calculating that American voters think poorly of the rock deities, because he’s been accusing Obama of the dark sin of being just such a super-celebrity at home and abroad.

• To see an example of Obama as rock star, watch this New York Time’s video overview of the candidate’s Berlin visit (”Reporter’s Notebook: Obama in Berlin” by Nicholas Kulish, July 24, 2008).

• To see an example of how McCain is trying to use the rock star label as a weapon against Obama, see this report and a video of a McCain campaign ad on Politico.com (”McCain contrasts celeb Obama with average Americans,” Jonathan Martin blog, Aug 8, 2008).

The blonde bites back

What do (beautiful blonde) women want? A little respect, maybe. That’s something Republican Party nominee McCain discovered recently when he took the proverbial low road in a television campaign ad in July that compared Obama to blonde popstar Britney and blonde celebrity Paris Hilton. The latter blonde instantly took aim, fired back and scored a bullseye.

Hilton posted her own video in which she called McCain a “wrinkly whitehaired guy.” And, according to the media reports I read, Hilton was widely declared the victor in the video shootout. See McCain’s video here, and the Hilton video here.

How to play “Playing the Race Card”

It was never a question that race eventually would become an issue in the current Presidential campaign, it was just a question of how “it would rear its ugly head,” according to Elvin Lim, an Asst. Professor of Government at Wesleyan University.

Pointing out that “the minority candidate is always accused of playing the minority card” (in this case the race card), Lim analyzes the strategy Republican nominee McCain is using to attack Obama on this front.

See Lim’s article here (Aug 4, 2008) on the Oxford University Press blog (blog.oup.com).

If money really talks

Then it must have quite a bit more to declare about Obama in this campaign than it does about McCain. In July, the Obama campaign reported raising $51 million, compared to the McCain campaign’s report of taking in only $27 million for the same period (”Obama Campaign Raises Over $51 Million In July” by Beth Fouhy, AP, Aug 16, 2008). See article here.

If the news media’s reporting of poll results drives you crazy?

A possible antidote is the website fivethirtyeight.com. The site offers ongoing analysis of the major U.S. political polls, and is the creation of Nate Silver, a highly reputable sports statistics analyst.

See a Newsweek article here on Silver (”Making His Pitches” by Andrew Romano, Jun 16, 2008). In a crucial primary for Hillary Clinton earlier this year, Silver’s projections were more on target than those of all the established pollsters, according to Newsweek. The article also details how Silver goes about achieving his high level of accuracy for projections in both sports and political events.

The number five-thirty-eight, according to Silver, is a reference to the number of electors in the Electoral College — the U.S. Constitutional process that plays the key role in determining who will win the presidency.

Is it truth, lies, or just politics?

In political campaigns, the practice of smears and mudslinging are favorite activities more often than not. To find out if these accusations are true or false, one of the best go-to websites is factcheck.org.

From the website’s About page:

The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

The APPC accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.

If wishes were horses and rock stars could be president…

Bruce Springsteen performing “This Land Is Your Land” at the Memorial Coliseum in LA on September 30, 1985:

(see here for previous round-up)

Video from the website of the Italian magazine Focus.

Intro translation:

It’s cold!
In search of the animals of the Arctic Circle

Video link here.

If I were king of the world or ruler of China — neither of which I have any chance of ever becoming and I’m okay with that — I would send a limo to the home of that little seven-year-old Chinese girl with the killer voice (who got shoved behind the curtains because she reportedly failed the cuteness test) and I would bring her to the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Then I would put her on center stage and cue the orchestra.

I’m willing to bet a pair of favorite old flip-flops that a fair share of the world’s population would tune in and hum along as she sang her heart out. And in the process, Chinese leaders would win more points with public opinion than all the Olympic athletes of all time.

What could possibly top such a closing act and the restoration of good sense and fairmindedness it would represent? The only possible thing would have been if Yang Peiyi had been standing there in a pretty red dress in the opening ceremonies singing her heart out. But that’s a bell that can’t be unrung, so there it is.

For a humorous, compassionate and informative take on what happened to Yang Peiyi, I highly highly recommend Gail Collins’ column in yesterday’s New York Times (”I’m Singin’ in Beijing” Aug 13, 2008). Collins is a former editor of the Times editorial page, and was the first woman ever in that particular top job.

In her columns, Collins often approaches subjects with an emphasis on the informed perspective. Yesterday, for example, she pointed out that the China leadership is not at all alone in the world in its favoring of show over substance.

In this quote from the Yang Peiyi column, Collins frames the overall issue with her usual wit:

Now this is an Olympic crisis everybody can get into. While your heart goes out to the athletes suffering the agony of defeat, very few of us can internalize the trauma. Really, you have to be able to imagine yourself getting onto the balance beam before you can relate to the pain of falling off.

The chance that the Chinese leaders will right this particular wrong done to a child, not to mention the human heart, is pretty slim, I think. Reading Collins’ piece on it and her quotes from various experts at least offers the comfort that this was a slight felt round the world.

Earlier this week on a major American news show on CBS, the host and veteran newsman Bob Schieffer interviewed Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who’s been mentioned often in U.S. media as a top contender to be chosen as Obama’s vice presidential running mate.

Schieffer’s opening question to Kaine referred to the recent fighting between Russia and Georgia:

This morning’s headlines tell it all. American presidents, as we look at this situation going on in Russia, have to deal with problems that sometimes don’t come up at all in campaigns, so I guess my question this morning, Governor, is when we see what’s happening today, doesn’t that, won’t that bolster John McCain’s argument that the Presidency needs someone with experience dealing with issues like these?

What interested me most about Schieffer’s question was how much it reflected a perception — or rather misperception — that was analyzed recently in an article by Harvard University professor and foreign policy analyst Samantha Power (”The Democrats & National Security” by Samantha Power, The New York Review of Books, Aug 14, 2008).

In the essay, Power takes a close look at some of the factors that, according to her, have led American voters generally to regard the Republican Party to be much better on national security issues than the Democratic Party.

Power writes:

“This faith in Republican toughness has had profound electoral consequences. Since 1968, with the single exception of the election of George W. Bush in 2000, Americans have chosen Republican presidents in times of perceived danger and Democrats in times of relative calm.”

Power, who formerly served on Obama’s campaign as his foreign policy advisor, examines some of the origins of this faith in GOP toughness, and also questions its justification. She lays out some specific suggestions for how Obama and the Democratic Party leadership can reverse this crucial trend in voter thinking. Read full article here.