calimary
calimary's JournalWelcome to DU, ensemble!
Good to have you with us! It is a good point. Hey, I wouldn't try to play Devil's advocate too hard with Nate Silver, considering his track record from four years ago. One doesn't jump from a blog by some obscure little nebbish to a New York Times resident expert on political polling. I imagine what CNBC is there for, for many, is to check or check against what they're saying before one makes an already-considered move. I am NOT a high-finance expert, though. But I do know as a band manager, I have several "oracles" I consult and confirm or adjust my decisions accordingly. I suppose CNBC would be one if I were a serious investor, even knowing full-well which way they slant politically. I ALWAYS take that little variable into consideration - in any case.
Glad you've joined us! We need you. It'll be over on Tuesday night, but it'll also only be beginning (anew). Let's win this thing.
Now get to work.
Very astute point, stopbush.
Ah, the copy readers. Few are the ones who actually come from direct and relevant (and genuine) expertise, as someone like Paul Krugman would if he were hired as a TV commentator. You can certainly become an expert while covering this stuff, if you give a damn enough to spend the time get to know the players and study the various games and read and learn all you can when you're not on camera or in makeup. We had an anchorman here in L.A., Hal Fishman, who was also a licensed pilot. Every time there was a story about a plane crash or airport restrictions or some airline corner-cutting or something, he didn't just read the news. He usually adlibbed around the copy because he knew this territory backwards and upside down and inside out. He'd fly one of the reporters or camera people or segment producers out over whatever was going on locally to get the bird's eye view AND he'd do commentary simultaneously. And he was VERY believable because he knew the turf. If you're hired as a newsreader on an outlet like CNBC, you better know finance. I would hope that anchors and copy readers there and elsewhere, if they started like that, then they took the time and made the commitment to study that world and make an on-going advanced research project out of it. Make it the clothes you put on in the morning, and the paste you spread on your toothbrush. Then they're not just copy readers.
And as they circulate and learn, they also CANNOT AFFORD to get too cozy with the world and the people they cover. When it becomes an ego thing about the ease of getting into the cocktail parties and the access, then it clouds everything. All you have to do to understand that is think back on the lapdog press we had during the bush/cheney years, and how all that cozy cronyism was nothing but major journalistic malpractice. All for access. But I digress.
What we say around our house is usually something along the lines of "...but she photographs well!"
Damn, kpete, I'm crying just looking at him.
I think as a nation, we're all just on overwhelm.
Overwhelm about the damn election that's been dragging on for 90 years by now.
Overwhelm because of the storm.
Overwhelm because of what the reality of that storm may TRULY mean (and it's not fun at all, especially if you're just starting to come out of denial).
Overwhelm because that has made all our problems, together, feel so unsurmountable - ever get that feeling, like that little prayer, about the whole "the sea is so vast and my boat is so small" thing?
Overwhelm because of all the work there is, ahead, and not just in hurricane recovery.
And overwhelm in trying just to hold all that in, while going about our daily lives - whether you're in Sandy territory or not. After all, times have been so tough for so many for so damn long.
And then along comes Obama. The tall skinny dude who reaches out and lets some stricken, rumpled, fighting-to-keep-herself-together-without-screaming hurricane victim literally bury herself under his arm. The guy from the so-called big-bad-federal-government who extends these long arms to connect - physically and emotionally. How many times have you held it in and held it in until somebody just came up and hugged you, and held you for a moment - and then the levy you've tried so hard to shore up in the middle of all this finally breaks and you dissolve and the tears just flow in spite of everything. I've had that happen - where I've held it in until somebody came up and touched me, hugged me, put their hands on my shoulders and patted my back softly and just hugged me tight. Shit - I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking back on it. It's the touch. The human touch. From the REAL adult in the room - in this case.
And what a time - when we're all feeling so overwhelmed and so small and beaten down and tired and fed up - here comes the cool, calm, steady adult, who's focused and brilliant and compassionate and reasoned, and when he says he cares you sense that he really means it. He's not just saying something that sounds nice so you'll be lulled into voting for him. This is the man with the power and the plan and the answers and the solutions, with a steady hand on the wheel of the nation, and he's come over and reached out to you, personally. Yeah, I'd be a pretty big puddle myself if that happened to me.
I'm right with this sobbing man in the photo. I so get what he's feeling. I SO get what that face is saying. I know this man, too, at least in that sense. I think we all do, from coast to battered coast. Part of the ordeal is almost over (the damned election) and we already know whose steady hands we're in. We already know who our real leader is. We already know who's the President. We already know who needs to stay as President.
To paraphrase a 20-year-old campaign slogan - "it's the connection, stupid." Followed by "it's the continuity, stupid."
kpete - this is one of the best posts you've ever contributed. If you ever see this fellow in the photograph, please send him our sincere love and solidarity/brotherhood/sisterhood! We know him, too.
Several of us here are old enough to be your mother! };D
But as a writer, too, I know how stuff like that grabs people. It's good news! I like it when the bait-'n'-switch has the good part at the end. Very UN-wrongney-esque!
Thanks for posting the story, Will! Encouraging!!!
I don't trust him anyway. There's an "r" by his name. That's enough to get, and keep, my guard up.
A couple of days of making nice-nice and so many people are writing sonnets to him. Hey, don't forget - even a broken clock is correct twice a day! christie has to do a LOT better than that for me to start warming up to him.
AND he's a loutish bully with the sensitivity of sandpaper.
Welcome to DU, politrixjunkie!
Yeah, it always seems to be the bad old days being brought back and - pardon the expression - whitewashed. I had hoped that Barack Obama's election in 2008 would mark the turning point in America, where a critical mass of us finally woke up all the way and shed the old, bad, dried-out, shriveled-up, obsolete, and despicable outer shell of racism. Finally buried that beast 1,000 feet under, in cement. Man, was I wrong. It just reactivated the klan and the john birch society. Disguised as a bag of tea.
Glad you're here. This election isn't won yet. We need you. We need every last one of us!
Now get to work.
Dang, what a great post, Grammy23!
I especially like this line:
This man calls himself a "man of faith". And for the life of me, I cannot think of any faith group that advocates lying to achieve your goals. If he is guided by his faith, I would hate to think where he would take this nation.
And how!!!
I can't feel terribly sorry for her overall situation because she can sob all the way to the bank if the results Tuesday night are what many of us are hoping. She gets her privacy back, and I'm sure she's always prized it. Even moreso NOW, I suspect, after the rigors and rude impositions and bright lights and annoying questions and exposure brought to you by this campaign! And with her illnesses, certainly horrible ones - no denying or diminishing that - but she will never know what it's like to live with the fear and dread that her treatment will bankrupt her family. They won't ever know what it's like to lose their home because of mountains of medical bills. They'll never know what it's like to try to figure out which spending to do - on her treatment or one of the kids' plans to go to college. She'll sink into her disabilities with the finest comforts and the best medical attention money can buy. Her odds of a long life are thus better than just about anyone's on the planet. What I'd wish for anybody facing what she's facing, physically.
He will never run again if he doesn't win this time. Mainly because her condition won't withstand it, especially adding the at least four years he'd have to wait before he could try again. He may not want to go through it again, himself, if he doesn't win this time. If he loses, it'll be the cost-benefit analysis that won't look very good, and as a businessman he would ruefully recognize what a bad investment this would turn out to be. That would not be lost on his cronies and donors and other high-roller benefactors either, and he knows it.
If he loses.
Which is not a sure thing. We may be grasping at straws. I won't stop worrying until it's called for Obama nationally AND wrongney's conceded. And, knowing this bunch, maybe not even then!
Damn - sorry I missed it.
In not wanting to gloat or otherwise jinx things, I found myself wondering if it could also be that her ladyship ayn of dressage was actually getting kind of sentimental toward the end. Maybe it was the thought that this long road is almost over and there are so many people she got close to whom she'll probably never see again...
But then I thought about it for awhile and realized that nobody scatters after a winning campaign. Most if not all of them ride into power together with their victorious candidate, because most of them will wind up working on the transition team or somewhere in the White House or any number of Cabinet offices or sub-offices.
Maybe it's the general sense of let-down that the party is almost over? Like sometimes what you felt when final exams were over and you only had a day or so left to clean the classroom and clean out your desk and locker?
Or, maybe... not. I just am REALLY hesitant about becoming overconfident. Counting chickens and all that...
I've had my hopes up before and then saw them royally dashed.
EVERYBODY KEEP WORKING!!!
He's also like what we used to say about Top-40 radio. Don't like what you hear? Wait five minutes.
It'll change!
Welcome to DU, FieryLocks! Wow! So many new DUers here!
As well as those who've not posted that often so they look like they're new. GLAD YOU ALL ARE HERE!!! We need every last one of you! There's still an election to win and some awfully relentless adversaries to defeat!!!!
Now get to work.
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