Welcome to 1600 Pennsylvania, President Barack Obama.  I may not have voted for you, but as John McCain said, you are my President.  I am a Republican, but it does not do any good to say that someone is not your president.  I thought the best speech I heard throughout the entire campaign was McCain’s concession speech where he said my former opponent will be my President. That is how I feel today. Unfortunately, for Republicans, McCain had given his best speech after the votes came in that Tuesday night.

Now, I know President Obama has said and offered a lot, but I am going to give him a chance to work at delivering on those words. He has earned that. And if he does not deliver, then I will be critical.  Now is not the time for that.  One day I hope what was said about Joe Louis, can be said for Barack Obama.  New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Cannon once wrote, “Joe Louis is a credit to his race, the human race.”

I think when Lincoln was elected in 1860, no one knew how great he would be.  He was a true unknown to those outside of Illinois.  He ran as a third party candidate, from a party that would be called the Republican Party.  While Obama is from the same state, Lincoln did not have the luxuries of the media constantly tooting his horn or butchering current President James Buchanan or butchering the vice-presidential candidate from the Know Nothing party.

This is a time for greatness.  Not merely a time to talk about greatness.  President Obama has been given a chance to lift the country up from its knees.  It will difficult, but the prize at the end can be very rewarding.  Today, I wish to discuss the Generation closest to me, those who were born in the 70’s and 80’s.  This is the generation that President Obama will need to lead the country in the years to come.

The world has changed, our attention spans are far shorter than they used to be.  A lot of that is do to the fact that there is so much in the world that can be distracting.  It was not that long ago that our news came from the local TV channel, radio, newspapers and magazines.  Now, with the Internet, many of those stories are old news.  There used to be only 10 channels of TV, now there is are1,000 and counting.   There were only a few radio stations, now thanks to satellite radio, there are hundreds.  There is a magazine for just about anything these days.

Have you noticed how much smaller your magazines have become?  And newspapers, forgettaboutit!  You can’t even wrap Pepperidge Farm Goldfish in those!  The Help Wanted section has to stretch to make a page in the papers, except on Sundays.  The shrinkage is not due to less content, but less advertising.  That is something that we have not experienced in this country for a very long time.  This is the real scary part of the economy, less people are trying to sell you something.   It will be very difficult to see how so many of them will survive.  The magazines practically give away the subscriptions.  For newspapers, I could see them cutting back to 3 or 5 days a week.  For magazines, some will collapse and I can see many mergers of titles among the large publication companies.

I think in the newspaper realm, the advance of faster and more abundant Internet connections this was something you could see the losses coming.  Especially, that is does not cost a penny to read your local paper online.  Why would it behoove anyone to subscribe?  If the bacon is given away, do you really want the rest of the pig?

This generation is the I, Me, My Generation.  We have the iPod, the iPhone, MySpace, Youtube, Reality TV, and countless other items that are engineered for the attention of one.  We update our HTML clipboardfacebook page 20 times a day, as if anyone truly gives a crap that right now, “Michael is taking a crap.”  And best of all is, we can get all of this information, anywhere at any time.  It is tough to tie us down for long periods of time.  “The Greatest Generation” as Tom Brokaw calls them, got the bigger picture that it was about being part of something, and not being the something.  So many of us want to rise to be chief, but unfortunately we forget that you need Indians that are willing to work as a team so that a leader and not chaos emerges.  Many of the people in their 20’s and 30’s want to be Managers or Leaders, and not really satisfied with being on the road to Management or Leadership.  We can be Indians, but we need to be shown that there is a path to being chief or at least something that is motivating us for a higher cause.

We are cynical and sarcastic, but for the most part we have good hearts.  We enjoy watching TMZ, commenting on Deadspin, reading the latest on someone in Wikipedia.   We do like seeing Britney getting fat, Terrell Owens crying, seeing who isn’t Jennifer Aniston now, human car accidents and what politician is now in hot water.   We Google what we don’t know, and think it is knowledge, even though it is only information. We love our country just as much as “The Greatest Generation”, because where else could we say and laugh at such drivel.  We just learned to laugh at it a little more.

President Bush is a good man, who just didn’t always come across on TV as the brightest light bulb in the room.  He tried hard, he lowered our taxes, gave us two nice stimulus checks, dreamed for peace in the Middle East, wanted to give every child a chance, kept the hopes and our country safe for 8 years after 9/11, gave us unprecedented growth in the real estate market, low unemployment for six of his eight years, and was entertaining with some of the new vocabulary he brought to the world.  Some of those things did not come true from his dreams, and a few of them backfired mightily.  Unfortunately, when we needed him to be more serious, President Bush tried to be witty, and was terrible at it.  See: Bushisms

President Obama, welcome to 1600 Pennsylvania.  In terms of football, the head coach has been changed.  While you are not inheriting the 0-16 Lions, right now we feel about anywhere from 1-15 to 4-12.  No one expects you to be 16-0 next season.  You will probably never be perfect. But maybe, with a little help and putting those words you like so much like Hope and Change into action we can go 9-7 and make a surprising run like this year’s Arizona Cardinals.

There is work to be done, and you can be that leader who comes across as knowledgeable on TV, but also strong when we really need you.  Please work to be above the extreme bleeding heart liberals and ultra Jesus-loving conservatives.

One side note, if McCain had won; do you think MSNBC would have even televised the inauguration?  Better yet, would the event even been put on their news ticker on the bottom of the screen?  I know it certainly would not have made Keith Olbermann’s Countdown.  The camera operator would have to reduce the zoom to 1:1000 in order for Keith’s tremendous noggin and ego to step aside.  Congrats on the big contract Keith, but what are you and Chris Matthews going to talk about now?  You can only blame the old coach so much, before the blame carries on to the new coach.

; ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ trailer; angelina jolie; Brad Pitt; David Fincher; movie trailers; trailer download; variety; Warner Bros.; DreamWorks animation is back in the jungle again with ‘Madagascar 2: Escape from Africa.’; ‘Madagascar 2′ trailer; Ben Stiller; Chris Rock; trailers; variety; video; Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in the New Line holiday comedy, “Four Christmases.”; four christmases trailer; Reese Witherspoon; trailers; variety; Vince Vaughn; Isla Fisher in the adaptation of the bestselling series, “Confessions of a Shopaholic.”; ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ trailer; isla Fisher; trailers; Variety Video; Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in writer Charlie Kauffman’s directorial debut, “Syndecdoche, New York”; Charlie Kauffman; New York trailer; Philip Seymour Hoffman; Synecdoche; variety; video; “Atonement” director Joe Wright composes Robert Downey Jr.

(Warning: graphic language); Brad Pitt; Burn After Reading; George Clooney; Joel and Ethan Cohen; John Malkovich; trailer; variety; video; BETWEEN THE LINES explores the Vietnam War through the prism of the surfing sub-culture.; Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe star in Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the CIA thriller.

; American Teen; documentary; sundance; trailer; variety; Fox’s intergalactic comedy highlights the antics of astronaut chimps with all the “wrong stuff.”; ‘ Fox; ‘Space Chimps; animation; trailer; variety; video; Jack Black and Ben Stiller topline this jungle comedy about a group of Hollywood actors getting caught in the action.; Ben Stiller; comedy; Jack Black; Matthew McConaughey; movie; Robert Downey Jr.; Tom Cruise; Tropic Thunder; Marvel Comics returns to the bigscreen with the second installment of the action/fantasy thriller.

; Jack Black voices a 600-pound martial arts whiz in the Dreamworks animated film, ‘Kung Fu Panda.’; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Movie Trailer; Get Smart: Movie Trailer; Story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.; Dreamworks Animations presents Kung Fu Panda.; Single business woman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.; A team of people work to prevent a disaster threatening the future of the human race.; The attempted assassination of the president is told from five different perspectives.; A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.; The last man on earth is not alone.; The rebellion begins.

Source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117996597.html?categoryid=14&ref=ra&cs=1

Brokaw was a bit aghast at some of the absurd remarks by the dementia teasing Ted Turner. Of course, there was the obligatory we can’t criticize Russia because we are no better for invading Iraq. Who are we to judge. Then he introduces the idea of mutual disarmament with Russia….and closes with Putin, the KGB and the FBI. Now of course both agencies involve themselves with espionage, etc. But, the etc. is the key…the KGB has a long track record of assassinations of citizens on a grand scale; of initiating hits on journalist and ignoring any semblance of adherence to civil liberties….Turner believes both agencies are the same in intent and outcomes. To borrow from the name calling skills of Margaret and Helen, Turner is a moron. What a blithering gas bag. Brokaw knew he was too. Pathetic mantra of the Left. 

Brokaw brought up the concerns some have about Putin’s history of being a KGB agent. Turner defended the “honor” of the KGB: ”Well, [Putin] had that background, but, you know, we have an FBI, and we’re not prejudiced against somebody who’s worked at the FBI. It’s got an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work And it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2008/11/30/ted-turner-soviet-kgb-was-honorable-fbi-gave-people-opportunity

You did not elect a President America, you elected a King to RULE YOU.

Obama Transition Chair Valerie Jarrett told Tom Brokaw on Meet The Press on Sunday that “Obama will take power and rule on day one” – not lead, not advise Congress but take power and RULE.

See it for yourself, there is no mistaking what she said.

America will have a dictator, from day one according to Obama’s own transition chairman.

I guess this is the “change” we deserve, from free republic to Marxist dictatorship.

I have no qualms with John McCain as a human being.  Either he hasn’t stabbed any toddlers in a very long time, or he has an extremely good coverup team (well, he IS with the GOP…)  So I don’t think he’s a bad guy, I just disagree almost across the board with his policies.  That’s why I can’t help but feel bad for him when he throws out an interview like the one he did with Meet The Press’ Tom Brokaw.  If you didn’t see it, I would recommend against it.  I honestly feel bad for the guy, no irony or snarkiness intended.  Despite what the rest of this post might lead you to believe.

She has more executive experience than Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama, together. She took on the governor of her own party because she had seen what she’s thought was corruption. She’s been a mayor. She has 24,000 people underneath her. Her husband is a, uh, works the third shift on the oil who…in…facilities in the North Slope. He’s a, ah… the-they have a won…she has executive experience…

When you see verbal gaffes dictated like that, you think you get the full effect by just imagining yourself saying them verbatim.  However, in this case, it doesn’t really achieve the full effect, unless you can also imagine yourself dangling from a dark precipice in despair, straining to maintain an increasingly more tenuous grip on what you know, deep down inside your soul, to be your last chance at attaining the Presidency of the United States.  The transcript writers just jotted down “uh” because they’re not allowed to get all interpretive, otherwise it would have read like this:

She has more executive experience than Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama, together. She took on the governor of her own party because she had seen what she’s thought was corruption. She’s been a mayor. She has 24,000 people underneath her. Her husband is a, uh, works the third shift on the oil who…in…

[McCain pauses to emanate a series of giggles and nervous twitters that sound as though an autistic squirrel is trapped inside his larynx, and in its wild escape attempts manages to tickle McCain in all the wrong (or right?) places]

…facilities in the North Slope. He’s a, ah…

[McCain pauses, turns to stare at the camera, and allows a solitary tear to stream down his left cheek.]

the-they have a won…she has executive experience…

[McCain reaches into his trouser pockets to produce a six-shot revolver, a flask, and a single bullet.  He drinks deeply from the flask for several moments, then throws it over his shoulder, and loads the bullet into the gun and deliberately chambers the round.  He hefts the gun lightly between his finger tips, then places it gently on the table and slides it towards Brokaw, his eyes pleading.]

MSNBC’s Meet The Press, which is wonky and really hard to link directly to a single video (sorry)

I think Powell articulates the most important reasons to elevate Obama/Biden to the White House instead of McCain/Palin.  His comments after the interview about how “pro-America” and “anti-America” Americans are being defined by people on the right like Palin and Congresswoman Bachmann of Minnesota are also well worth hearing.

Tonight’s third and final presidential debate was the devastating blow to McCain that I was hoping for in the first debate. And the funny thing is, Barack Obama barely laid a finger on McCain. All the damage to McCain was self inflicted. Unlike the first and second debates, Obama didn’t really have any memorable moments. He played defense for most of the debate, and kept his cool throughout which worked in his favor. All the post debate insta-polls showed him winning by an even larger margin than the first or second debate.

McCain on the other hand appeared very angry, grumpy, desperate, and old. Frankly, he seems like a real jerk. Johnny Mac came out swinging aggressively, and looked strong for the first thirty minutes or so. It was all downhill from there. David Gergen said this was like watching an exercise in anger management. I agree. His best moment in the debate was when he said that he was not President Bush, and Obama should have ran four years ago if he wanted to debate Bush. Still, why didn’t he do that in the first debate? Its a little late to fight back against that charge when Obama has painted him into that corner for months now.

Aside from that high point, McCain floundered, and the split screen killed him. He blinked hyperactively, frequently rolled his eyes when Obama spoke, and scowled a few times. This particular part of the debate brought me back to the first of the Bush Vs. Kerry debates, where George W. Bush frequently slouched and scowled. He also interrupted Barack more than a few times, which is just rude.

And for those of you that were playing the John McCain drinking game, a lot of you are probably waking up with a surprising lack of hangover. Unlike the last debates, he barely said “my friends”, or “maverick” at all, and who could have forseen that “Joe the Plumber” would end up being the focal point of half the debate?

Substantively, this debate was pretty much more of the same. Aside from the subject of the supreme court being raised, all the questions were ones we’ve heard in the other two debates. The subject of Ayers and ACORN was brought up at one point though, and frankly this is the part of the debate where I think McCain lost the independents. If I were McCain, I wouldn’t have raised the issue at all, because it just gave Obama a chance to defend himself in front of a huge national audience.

I’d also like to give props to Bob Schieffer. Brokaw, Ifill, and Lehrer were pretty pathetic moderators, but Shieffer did his job very well. He kept them within time, asked follow-ups when necessary, and kept them on topic.

So what happens now? McCain needed a huge victory in this debate and instead he imploded. While there is still a few weeks from election day, I think this race is over. Barring some huge unexpected game changing event, McCain has too much ground to make up and not enough time to do it. He doesn’t have the money to compete, is down in all the polls, including almost every swing state, and no more huge national audiences to prove himself to. While anything is possible, the likelihood of a McCain presidency seems to be slipping further away by the day. Obama is going to win. Now we just have to wait a few weeks to make it official.

Jude Hammerle

Of all the United States, Texas has the clearest brand identity. Aside from its militantly Fun capital,[1] the entire geography and demography of Texas sits deep in the heart of Strong.

Texas takes considerable pride in its proprietary history and culture. Texans proudly note that the flags of six nations have flown over Texas, because it implies that nations come and go, but Texas is forever.[2] For a time, Texas was a republic unto itself. The state flag of Texas depicts a Lone Star on a blue field with a single white and a single red stripe. Simply put, it is the flag of a United State.

Everything about Texas is Strong. Dallas is “Big D.” Texas’s signature industry is Big Oil. Texas leads the nation in executions, with 413 since 1982.[3] And in toxic waste emissions. And in prison construction.[4] The state’s official unofficial motto (official because President George Bush 43 uses it) is “Don’t mess with Texas.” The state’s unofficial unofficial motto is “Everything’s big in Texas.” The University of Texas mascot is the Longhorn. When it became Normal to stop wearing hats in 1960, Texas refused to doff its ten-gallon rebel version, and continues to refuse today.

Dan Rather is from Texas.

Dan Rather is the Alpha journalist who anchored the CBS Evening News for 24 years and one day, from March 9, 1981 through the same date in 2005, the longest service by any anchor in US television history. Rather inherited the ratings leadership from his predecessor Walter Cronkite, lost it, regained it from 1985 to 1989, lost it to Peter Jennings at ABC, and dropped to third place in 1992 when NBC’s Tom Brokaw passed him. Since then, CBS has been unable to move up from third place.

Rather made his name through characteristically tough reporting. He was tough on Nixon. He donned a mujahideen headdress in Afghanistan and was tough on the Soviets. He was so tough on George Bush 41 about the Iran-Contra affair that neither George Bush 41 nor George Bush 43 ever granted him another interview. Saddam Hussein did grant him an interview, and Dan was tough on him, too. His sign-off of choice was “Courage.” It lasted only for one week, but he did reprise it in his last broadcast, his final act of defiance.  

Rather toughened the news culture at CBS so profoundly that his successor in the Evening News anchor chair, Katie Couric, has been unable to leverage her sublimely Normal identity into a higher ranking for her broadcast. CBS seems to have forgotten that Cronkite cried when JFK died, swelled with pride at every success of the space program, and grieved with families as the Vietnam body counts he reported grew nightly. Cronkite was America’s incredibly well-informed uncle. In a word, he was Normal, and we loved him for it. Tom Brokaw was Normal, too. Katie Couric is cut from the same ideal cloth as these two greatest anchors. If she and CBS can embrace the Normal and let go of the Strong, the world is theirs for the taking.

A few weeks after the preceding paragraphs were laid down, in the New York Times dated October 11, 2008, journalist Jacques Steinberg noted the beginnings of a possible turnaround for Couric’s fortunes as anchor. Among similar developments, Steinberg pointed to a recurring segment in Couric’s election coverage called Primary Questions, in which “all of the major candidates…were asked the same 10 questions about character, including the last time they had been angry about something or whether trust in a marriage should be a barometer of trust in office.”[5] At last, it seems that Ms. Couric has turned her gift for the interview format into a quest for answers that will allow Normal people to evaluate a complex issue with supreme confidence and fluency. While she remains third in a three-person race, Ms. Couric’s position on the inside rail of the Normal viewer identity bodes well for her, especially if she has the Courage to press her advantage.

This post is an excerpt from How Sex Sells: The Persuasive Power of Identity, a work in process.

[2] The six flags are, in chronological order: Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, USA, Confederate, USA again.

[3] http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/annual.htm

[4] http://www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_012101_popculturetexas.html

[5] New York Times, October 11, 2008, p. C1 and following.