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DAY STREET
I occasionally think that I have a sense of how the American public will go. I occasionally think this. It's easy to do: just tell yourself that you knew it along when something unexpected happens. Human vanity and faulty memory being two of my many gifts... I eventually do have to wonder how accurate my sense of how the American public will go really is.
So I'm going to say what my sense is, right now, in public, so I can't go back later and readjust the facts to fit the needs of my fragile ego.
I think that despite its faults as cataloged by many, the Obama campaign actually has a pretty good idea of what it is doing. I think it is one of the most intelligently and professionally run campaigns I've seen in a very long time. I think many of its "faults" should be chalked up to a Drama Queen Media and a bunch of hysterics on the left.
And so I believe Obama will win in November. That is my prediction. More than that, I am going to predict that it will be a "comfortable blow-out". That is to say, I believe Obama will beat McCain in the popular vote by 6%. That would be a pretty big electoral college win, of course, but I'm not going to go there. I don't have the brains for that. And I'm not going to figure in the minor party candidates.
But, essentially, Obama will beat McCain by 6%. I gar-on-tee it. All this talk of a close election once we get to November is hooey.
Senator Barack Obama nominated by acclamation of the convention to be the Democratic Party's candidate for President of the United States. Brilliantly stage-managed by the Clinton and Obama wings of the party.
I know I'm kind of a cornball, but it stirred my heart. I never... I never thought I would live to see such a thing...
I can't stand my fellow lefties and progressives anymore. For the time being anyway.
Their blogs are so full of relentless, hopeless, whining bullshit, either in the main page posts or in their comments. Just about makes me want to blow my brains out.
It would be one thing if reading them invigorated my political spirit, but it really just kills it. I guess all this progressive rage and despair and panic is supposed to spur me into action or something. Mostly it just makes me want to put my ear buds in and play the music on my iPod.
That, of course, is not acceptable so I have divided my blog bookmarks into "Political Blogs", "Political Blogs, barely readable", and "Political Blogs, no longer readable".
I'm going to be a hell of a lot happier, and a hell of a lot more politically invigorated over the next few weeks, I gar-on-tee it.
I understand the disappointment and even bitterness of those who wanted to see a woman, Senator Clinton in particular, crack that Greatest Glass Ceiling Of All. The question is now, what to do with all that energy that comes of all that disappointment and bitterness.
Senator Clinton can do a lot here, leaving completely aside the question of whether she releases her delegates, leaving completely aside her request for her supporters to enthusiastically support the nominee.
The truth is the field of Democratic candidates for the nomination should have been at least half female. Not "should" in the sense of filling a quota, but "should" in the sense that, fer chrissake, over half of the Democratic party is female.
Senator Clinton needs to encourage all her energized supporters, whether they are energized by anger or not, to take their energy deeper into the Democratic political process and support, nominate, and elect MORE WOMEN! At all political levels... school boards, city councils, state legislatures, the federal congress.
Me, an aging white guy, I'd *LOVE* to see a Congress full of waitresses, single moms, working mothers, career women, female CEOs. I can't think of a Congress more likely to bring about the sort of progressive future I'd love to see in this country just ONCE before I croak.
So, Clinton supporters, do something useful for yourselves and for the country. Take your anger and direct it where it belongs. FILL ELECTIVE OFFICES, AT ALL LEVELS, WITH WOMEN!!!
And pretty soon, you'll have that field of Democratic presidential nominees that is at least 50% female. The country will be better for it not because half those candidates are women, but because women are, as a group, more in tune with those values that can legitimately be regarded as progressive.
Please! DO IT!! I'll vote your way! I swear to gawd I will!
I was a professional stage manager for over a decade. I dealt with a lot... a lot of actors. As a playwright, I love actors. Talented, committed actors are the best friends a playwright could ever have. As a stage manager, my view of actors is a bit different.
Let us just say that as a stage manager, especially when I was stage managing shows on the road, I found actors to be a particularly self-centered and aggrieved set of folks. The greatest lesson I took from that experience was that: self-centered, constantly aggrieved people, in groups, behave like idiots.
I think Senator Clinton is working hard to bring her supporters around. After her gracious speech throwing her support to Obama, I sent her some money to help her pay off her campaign debt. I think she deserves to have her name put into nomination. I think she deserves a prime-time speaking slot. I think many of her supporters will enthusiastically support the nominee.
And I think there will be some die-hard idiots who will do their best to make the Democratic Party look foolish during the convention, and I think there is a good chance they will succeed.
Why will they do this? Because there are always... there are always idiots around, in groups larger than, well, one... or maybe zero.
I have always loved these flight tracking sites. Whenever somebody flies to NYC to visit me, I insist on knowing their flight number so I can track them, figure out what time they'll arrive at my place, etc.
But this is the hottest use yet of the capability. A charter flight tracked from Chicago to New Castle, Delaware. The flight landed two hours ago.
I don't know what it means, but I have to say I have always liked Joe Biden and I think he would make a terrific Vice President, and a great member of the Obama team.
Do we know of any website anywhere that calls itself anything more New World Ordery, more Black Helicoptery, more One World Governmenty than the website that calls itself "World Net Daily"?
If I didn't know better -- which, in fact, I don't -- I'd say that if this outfit isn't ZOG, I don't know an International Banking Conspiracy Run By The Queen of England when I see one.
Learned Item #1: I was visiting with my current house guest last night and the subject of the number of ribs human beings have came up. In passing, he remarked that men and women have the same number of ribs. [Brief pause as I considered this.] He is, in fact, trained in a discipline that would give him professional knowledge of the actual number of ribs men and women have, but I had always believed -- ever since I was a child -- that the Biblical Story was accurate at least insofar as the number of ribs male and female human beings had. Confused, I asked for clarification. He looked at me in astonishment. And so I learned that what the Bible tells me is so is not, in fact, so. Finally, after decades of being misinformed about this fact, I now know that both human males and human females have (barring the very occasional individual genetic goofs) exactly 12 pairs of ribs.
Learned Item #2: The Congress requires, not permits, but requires that retired Supreme Court Justices sit on lower Federal Courts. I learned this today while listening to a podcast of a panel discussion held, maybe, sometime in May or June(?) with Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and current Justice Stephen Breyer. During that discussion, mention is made of O'Connor's status as a retired Justice, but then Greenhouse adds: "Although I should mention that you are a sitting Federal Justice". O'Connor explains that she is a Federal Judge, sitting on various circuit courts around the country (5, so far, she says). So, I have to say, considering the course the Courts have been taking under the last nearly 8 years of Republican mis-rule, I'm a bit gratified to hear that somebody with the gumption to stand up to said mis-rule, somebody like O'Connor, is still out there fighting at least part of the good fight. She was not a perfect Justice by any means, but she did have the gumption to stand up a few times to the torturers, etc. And she makes the additional point that she is not riding the circuit out of the goodness of her heart -- she is doing it because the law requires her to do so. This I did not know.
Learned Item #3: Sometime back in the mid-90s I had a couple of friends who were occupying, by means of a number of strange circumstances, an absolutely gorgeous penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. These were interesting, gregarious people, with two or three dogs that they often walked in Central Park. As dog owners will, they would chat other dog owners up and so often, when I attended parties at this penthouse apartment, I would be introduced to a number of New York characters... people my friends had met in the Park and had befriended.
At one of these parties I was accompanied by my friend Stephen who has an interest in and a fairly good knowledge of modern art. We were introduced to one of these New York City, dog-owning, Central Park-frequenting acquaintances of my penthouse friends. He was, or so we were told, a member of a famous American family and had an apartment nearby that was filled with various works by Rothko and Mondrian and other well-known modern artists. My friend Stephen was delighted and managed to wangle an invitation for the next day or two to visit this art collector's apartment to peruse the collection.
I was invited along because my friend Stephen felt a little uncomfortable going by himself to this guy's apartment. We both thought there was something a little strange about him... we couldn't put our fingers on anything specific, but we both, independently, felt there was something slightly creepy about him.
So we go to his apartment... nice building, polite doorman. Apartment is nice but seems a bit more like a pied-a-terre than a rich guy's Upper West Side apartment. And yes, indeed, there are Rothkos and Mondrian's hanging on the wall.
Oh, wait, did I forget to mention this guy's name? He said he was Clark Rockefeller. Yes, he said, one of the Rockefellers.
So then a while ago I hear the news about some guy who "parent-naps" his daughter from his wife. Big panic. He's finally traced to a marina in Baltimore where he is lured into a trap by the police and arrested. I think -- did I hear that right? -- did the guy on the TV say this kidnapping guy just arrested is named Clark Rockefeller?
Don't pay too much attention... think it might be the same guy... but the little girl was found safe... got other things to worry about in my own life... it slips my mind...
So yesterday I read that
POLICE in Los Angeles have declared the accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a newlywed couple from a wealthy suburb in 1985, adding a gruesome new dimension to the mystery over Rockefeller's true identity....Holy crap!
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives arrived in Boston on Tuesday, trying to determine whether Rockefeller was the mysterious guesthouse tenant who disappeared around the time that his landlords, John and Linda Sohus, were last seen alive in San Marino, California.
Nine years later, in 1994, a construction crew digging a pool in the yard unearthed several garbage bags holding human remains that authorities believed - but could never prove - were those of John Sohus. Neither Linda nor her remains were ever found.
I make some inquiries and discover that, yes, this is the same "Clark Rockefeller" in whose apartment my friend Stephen and I were standing, admiring his art collection. Right next to this guy! A suspected double-murderer!!
Well, I guess all I can say is that I'm glad he didn't have a backyard at his apartment, or even a series of large planters....
And that is what I have learned recently.
David Gergen, adviser to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, speaking this morning during the Roundtable section of ABC's "This Week":
... Look, I think that Donna [Brazile] has got a point here. Everybody knows that [Obama] is black, but there has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream. Other. He's not one of us. It's below the radar screen. I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows it and when they send -- there are certain kinds of signals that -- as a native of the South, I can tell you that when you see this Charlton Heston ad -- "The One" -- that's code for: He's Uppity. He ought to stay in his place. Everybody gets that who's from a Southern background. We all understand that."The infamous Jake Tapper was on the panel as well. He acknowledged that maybe there was something to the "uppity" attack, though he couldn't see it himself.
My grad school training was in theater. Playwriting, to be precise. I've had some plays produced. One of my first lessons learned (and learned hard, I can assure you) is that you owe it to your audience to produce material that feels fresh. It can be flawed. It can bite off more than it can possibly chew. It can not quite deliver on what it promised. But the one thing it can never be is predictable. Otherwise, there is no point in going to all the trouble.
I long to be addicted to all the political shows on T.V., but you know what? It is some of the worst theater I have ever seen. And do you know why? Because the "talent" bookers insist on inviting these hacks who repeat the talking points from both sides.
I'm a lefty. It's much easier for me to watch a political hack from the left gas on and on than it is for me to listen to a political hack from the right. Still. Hacks are hacks and if I can sit there and predict from the teaser precisely what they will say, then I'm already bored. They are called hacks because they are hackneyed. If the audience can predict what all the characters in the play are going to say, if the audience can see every plot turn coming, then there's only one thing you can say: this is the worst sort of crap theater you will ever see.
Tonight I tried using the mute button whenever a hack came on. Why listen? I already know what they are going to say.
Here would be an interesting theatrical production. Take the worst sort of hackneyed play you can find -- there are plenty of them out there -- and then put on a production wherein the actors, whenever they are to say something we can totally see coming, they just fall silent and mouth their words. Who needs to hear them? In fact, gawd spare us from having to hear them. And so then you have an audience no longer going out of its mind with boredom, you have an audience intrigued, sitting forward in their seats. The audience is having to do the work a clever playwright would have done ... keep the audience wondering about the meanings behind what's being said ... after all, the actors aren't saying anything. They are silently mouthing things which, if said aloud, would send us screaming from the theater at the predictable triteness of it all. Instead, we actually have to pay attention now... we have to involve ourselves in what is happening... what are these people really saying to each other? In a well-written play, the real meanings are hidden in what the characters are saying. In a hackneyed piece of shit play, the real meanings would have to be hidden in the silenced voices of the actors.
So actually using the mute button tonight kind of helped. It at least made watching the political shows bearable.
But it's a very poor substitute, really, for genuine political theater.
I'm thinking that if I were ever to start another blog, I might do something like a theater review column, treating the political hacks (and non-hacks) like actors... the political shows like plays... and review them like they are what they want to be: theater.
I think I'd have a searchable database that you could turn to whenever you sit down to watch a political show. Who are the guests? I'd use a rating system that maybe involved little mute buttons instead of stars only in reverse order... the more mute buttons the pundit gets, the more I recommend you hit the mute button whenever he/she opens his/her pie-hole.
You know what's interesting -- even dramatic -- to listen to? People who are actually nonpartisan experts on important issues. People who know what they are talking about and who can frame the issues in interesting ways based on their deep knowledge of them. Who the fuck wants to listen to a political party hack talk about the meaning of his candidate's behavior or talking points on a particular day? I mean, really, how brain killingly predictable and therefore boring is that?
These people should be torn new assholes in the way the bastardly theater reviewers of the past used to regularly rip actors, playwrights, directors, etc., new ones -- to the point of ruining people's careers. Yeah, that's it. Get me? These people need to be subjected to career killing reviews. Not because they are right or wrong all the time, but because they are always predictable.
People need to learn to stop hiring these tedious assholes. Maybe if we could get people to turn the shows off as soon as they see the cast of tedious thousands, we will stop having to listen to these brain zombies. Who knows? Maybe I could become as famously heartless as the bastardly John Simon.
I mean really. I don't even care if they are particularly right or accurate in what they have to say. I just don't want to be able to predict with absolute certainty what is going to be coming out of their mouths. The truth or correctness of what's said will take care of itself in a roomful of people who aren't boring the shit out of you.