Empty The Saddlebags

There's a lot to do along the way to a 62-28 final. Every off-the-field story and far-fetched production element ran in the 3rd quarter:

> Arrests were made in the investigation into the murder of Marion Grice's brother.

> Navy backup QB Rafi Montalvo is recovering from a major car accident.

> Former Arizona State recruit Angelo Richardson being paralyzed six years ago, his scholarship honored, and now he assists with the team.

> The future of dominant ASU DT Will Sutton.

> Navy's season in review.

> The game being played at the home of the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.

> Numerous promos and some sales obligations.

Next time we'll have to do soundbites too, because there was nothing left for the 4th quarter, except tape of the game's opening coin toss.

Yes, while Washington sits on the precipice of a fiscal cliff (CLIFF!), Senator John McCain, USNA '58, was flipping an Oreo. I'd call this a self-serving political photo-op, except it's an awesome photo. The home state he serves in the US Senate hammered his alma mater, but guess what - he wins either way. Sorta like being in politics.

Better Late Than Never: David Axelrod Does Real Time

Bill Maher's second post-election show, the "season finale" before going on a two month hiatus, was loaded with big-time guests. He had Michael Moore and David Frum on the panel, and a late visit from Eric Idle. But the feather in the cap for Maher was Obama's Senior Strategist David Axelrod.

This was significant since Axelrod had been booked to do the show back in March but canceled. The no-show wasn't because of Maher, but rather because of Rush Limbaugh. Follow this logic:

In early March, Rush Limbaugh made the infamous nasty and vicious remarks about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. It became a big media blow-up, which ultimately became political. Conservatives didn't defend Limbaugh's comments, though many (like Mitt Romney) wouldn't denounce them.

And then, since the pendulum had to swing back, the Conservative Entertainment Complex found a false equivalent in Bill Maher. Fox News and others began pulling the most incendiary and offensive clips throughout the history of Maher's program. But here are the main differences between the two:

1) Bill Maher's audience knows he's joking. While many who agree with his politics are offended by his "potty mouth" and vile innuendo, nobody takes his laugh lines too seriously.

But Limbaugh's audience thinks he is the gospel. If he uses off-color characterizations, the ditto-heads are all-in, whether Limbaugh is serious or not. And I tend to think he's not serious.

In fact, I believe that Rush Limbaugh voted for Obama (twice). There's no money in playing the opposition if your audience is the party in power.

2) Bill Maher offers different points of view. While Real Time with Bill Maher is certainly liberally biased, he welcomes opposing views onto the show, and gives them some room.

In 2012, a presidential election year, Maher has a vast array of prominent conservative voices on his panel:

Grover Norquist
Darrell Issa
Ann Coulter
Jack Kingston
Reihan Salam
S.E. Cupp
David Frum

Can you imagine Rush Limbaugh hosting Bernie Sanders, Rachel Maddow, or Paul Krugman?

3) In Bill Maher's own words, "At least I know I'm an asshole." And that is the Mason-Dixon line.

Axelrod, being the strategist that he is, decided that being a lightning rod for the right wing would not be the prudent course in the heat of a reelection campaign. So after the election was over and the goal had been attained, Axelrod and his mustache showed up on location in Hollywood.

You rarely see him as anything other than a talking head, so I was thrown off at how tall and gangly he was. But as always he was professorial, and measured. For the first time, I recognized he was a separated-at-birth twin.

Axelrod's long-awaited appearance on Real Time wasn't particularly psychological. He was polite when Maher tried to corner him on Obama's loath for both Romney and McCain. And when Maher brought up his connection to the campaigns he won for black candidates, calling him "the Robert DeNiro of politics," Axelrod laughed it off saying he just had "good taste" and that Obama is a "great guy." Strategist, indeed.

Flash Backtime: Politics And Football Metaphors

Every four years we get to this point. Football is our #1 sport nationally, full of strategy and angles, and a clock that will eventually run out. So naturally we all equate the final drive of this election season to the closing of a football game.

And the blog I filed for SavannahNow.com four years ago still holds true today, taking the football analogies right in the huddle with the signal callers.

October 16, 2008

I wasn't going to watch last night's debate because I had already voted, but the dynamics of the process are far too fascinating to turn away from. I especially like how football is so ingrained in the analysis of the TV commentators.

How often did you hear that McCain needed a "Hail Mary" or that Obama merely had to "sit on his lead" or "run out the clock." There are plenty of boxing analogies too, but they aren't as fun. So I decided to take it a step further and compare the two candidates to former NFL Quaterbacks.

Barack Obama is Troy Aikman. Each came from limited means and had to overcome early career adversity. Obama lost his first bid for the U.S. Congress. Aikman had to transfer to UCLA after losing his starting gig at Oklahoma. But after some seasoning, and surrounding themselves with talented and well-versed ensembles, they exude cool, charisma, and confidence. And then they became champions.

John McCain is Archie Manning. The un-polished, over-emotive, scrappy risk-taker who gave his all. But because of a motley crew of flunkies at his side, and some terrible decisions of his own, not even his great determination could lead him to the top. His spirit will win legions of fans, but he will inevitably lose the big showdown.

Obama "took a knee" last night when the Governor Palin question came up. He could have unloaded on her the way she has on him. Lord knows, there's plenty of material. He could have expanded his lead and "run up the score" but he took the high road to win with class.

Maybe you favor the loveable loser over the collected champion. That is your right. But don't expect a monumental comeback on November 4, because your heart will be broken again.

November 3, 2012

So who is Mitt Romney in this cosmic political gridiron tapestry?

I'm going with Chris Simms. Romney, like the younger Simms, was born into royalty in his field. He had all the tutelage, grooming, and good hair one could possibly need to take the world by the balls.

Simms set records at Texas and Romney tore up the private sector, but when it was time to go pro the results were tepid at best. Simms's career NFL record of 7-9 is akin to Romney's record as as Massachusetts governor, where Romney claims to have coexisted in a bipartisan fashion with the state's legislature but had over 800 vetoes over-ridden.

Ultimately both lacked the toughness necessary to succeed at the highest level, and are resigned to live out the remainder of their careers inconsequently and on name recognition alone.

Book vs Movie: Game Change

This post was inspired by Julianne Moore's well-deserved Emmy (and bright yellow thing) Sunday night. I thought she was phenomenal in late-90's classics Boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski, though she seemed to disappear after taking a run at FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling in Hannibal.

But she came back in a big way in the 2012 HBO Original Film Game Change. Her portrayal of a certain Alaskan half-term governor took us inside the meteoric rise to national cult figure, the hubris that came with it, all wrapped in the mind of crazy.

But now more to the point of this post, the book Game Change wasn't really about Palin. The actual title of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's work is Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime.

There are 23 chapters in the book, and Sarah Palin is only the subject of two of them. That's only one more than devoted to John Edwards, who was a factor in the Dem race early on. In fact Palin doesn't even enter the story in person (and only mentioned a couple of times before that) until page 359.

So why did HBO decide to make a film using just a small subsection of the book by the same name?Well, as the long title of the book hints, the story would be way too broad. So why the McCain/Palin angle? The Obama-Hillary heavyweight fight was just as compelling. And the book's ultimate hero is obvious.

In the afterword, the writers state, "And then there is 44. More than any other character, it was Obama who was at the heart of Game Change."

It's probably because Obama's American success story is boring in comparison. Palin went from unkown to unavoidable literally overnight. The American reality mentality now is that anyone can be a star, and when they get there we love to see them torn down, built back up, and torn down again. It's the perpetual story arc.

In fact America has become so attached to the Palin brand, the supply and demand is there for the whole clan to continue to do reality TV for the foreseeable future. The Palins and the American viewers are co-dependants. Thus the telegenics of a TV movie.

The movie seems to check out. The McCain campaign needed a running mate with sizzle to match the heat of Obama, and didn't do their homework on Palin. McCain brain-trusters Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace have backed the story up. Palin's legions feel that she's been scapegoated for the lost 2008 election.

Conventional wisdom is that Palin, though an extremely flawed VP candidate, did not lose the election. Chapter 21 of the book is called "September Surprise" in which McCain totally mishandles the financial crisis of 2008. This is glossed over in the movie.

The focus is on how ill-prepared Palin was for the position she was running for, and ultimately how she changed politics forever. Politicians have always stretched the truth, but the absolute denial of facts plays the country for fools, and the 2012 GOP candidates' seismic-shifting, facts-be-damned narrative wouldn't have been possible without her precedent setting the table. This exchange between Schmidt and Palin sums it up:

Schmidt: [regarding "Troopergate" charges] You can't say you were cleared of all wrongdoing. 

Palin: Why not?
 
Schmidt: Because you weren't. The reports stated that you abused your power; that is the OPPOSITE of being cleared of all wrongdoing. 

Palin: Then why was I told otherwise? 

Schmidt: You weren't told otherwise! 

Palin: And why haven't you released a statement saying that Todd was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party? 

Schmidt: Because that would be untrue! He WAS a member. 

Palin: He checked the WRONG BOX! He registered BY ACCIDENT and rectified the error immediately! 

Schmidt: He was a member for SEVEN YEARS! I'm sorry, Governor, but there is only a few weeks left in this campaign and you have got to stop saying things to the press that are blatantly untrue; that is NOT the kind of campaign that we are running here! 

Schmidt's role in the movie is definitely outsize in the movie compared to the book, but Woody Harrelson's performance is excellent. He goes from nurturing to placating to puppeteering to excoriating the VP candidate.

The movie, as many movies will do to smooth out a story, takes what were likely a dozen meetings among the McCain campaign staff and condensed them into one. That was before Palin's arrival in the movie, and the story seemed incongruous.

I'm pretty sure John McCain never said, "Then find me a woman." And I'm sure Rick Davis (Peter MacNicol) never checked a shopping list of every woman in GOP politics against Google articles and You Tube videos.

McCain (Ed Harris) is the one who is short-sold in the movie. He's actually the most dynamic character in the book. His legendary temper doesn't come out, and his profanities are kept in check.

In the book he's quoted dropping 11 straight F-bombs on poor Cindy after she interrupted him. And his sly humor is invisible as well, "I'm the only one I know who would go to Iraq to get away from it all." In the movie version, McCain comes across less of a maverick and more of a deferential uncle.

Also Todd Palin seems too benign in the film. It is well-documented that he was a man behind the curtain in Alaska, manipulating and peddling influence, not a nerdy dad with puppy dog eyes.

But Julianne Moore steals the show. She doesn't look like Palin as much as Tina Fey or Gina Gershon, but the nuance is uncanny. The speeches, body language, accent, smile are all spot on. After a little while you forget it's a portrayal. The makeup room meltdown before the Katie Couric interview was chilling. Wallace later said it made her "squirm."

I think that people who love the movie and love to hate Palin, might pick up the book and find it's not what they expect. It weaves the tapestry of a 2-year campaign on both sides. The title Game Change actually fits the movie better than the book, even if the movie doesn't have the same mission as the story that spun it.

Juneau What I Think

The hardscrabble icecap politics of The Last Frontier must have been too much for this shooting star. Conservatively speaking, of course.

Sarah Palin stirred up the GOP base with her smile, winks, values talk, and her ability to relate to "regular folks" (read: white people).

She was without a doubt an American success story. Mother of five (or is it four or six - I can't keep count) becomes mayor and then governor in her home state. It was quirky and cool until the big fish left the small pond.

Yes Governor, you could see Russia from your home base. You just couldn't see the lower 48.

You could throw your weight around, usurp the legislature, create your own ethical roadmap, and make back-room deals all the way from Wasilla to Ketchikan - until America heard of you.

The national spotlight and Katie Couric's softball questions gave the Alaskan hockey mom a lot of Northern Exposure. She became a target for comedians, commentators, and even some conservatives as she continually put her foot in her mouth, and left a financial twister in her wake.

Palin burst on the scene on August 29, 2008 when Senator John McCain tabbed her as the wild card VP candidate the morning after Senator Barack Obama stirred up 70,000+ at Invesco Field in Denver and hundreds of millions worldwide.

Just over 10 months later, Palin resigned her post as the executive officer of the nation's least-populated state with a ton more name recognition and a lot more baggage.

Cash in those speaking engagements while you can. Your name was in the news cycle longer than Elian Gonzalez, but shorter than OJ Simpson. Your run for the White House was historic, but your footnote in history will be merely historical.