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.

Paper Backtime: What Are You Reading? It's Classified

When a content junkie takes a 601-day break from blogging, one goes about the hunting and killing of dozens of books. Actual ones with covers, meant for reading when you're sitting in the carpool lane at school or when you're in the upright and locked position awaiting takeoff.

You hope for something memorable and meaningful, but mostly you just hope for a good diversion to turn pages and see what happens next. Nicolle Wallace delivers on the latter.

Wallace was the White House Communications Director under George Bush #43, and her experiences on the grounds ("the acres") shape the world the she's created.

In the first book Eighteen Acres, it's a world with women as President, Chief of Staff, and Secretary of State - in a Republican Administration no less. So while that premise seems unbelievable enough, the Washington environment they live in is very much on the mark.

The political atmosphere is full of power brokers and spin, and the media is just as relentless as the DC heat in an oppressive summer with the faulty White House AC. You can follow the action from the Oval Office to the West Wing to the East Wing to the Situation Room, to the OEOB (Old Executive Office Building), to The Residence...all while running into anxious worker bees and stale M&Ms.

Each story focuses on 3 women, and the administration of President Charlotte Kramer. In my mind's eye, I see Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek Voyager. Anyway, she's all business which eventually leads to The First Husband's affair with TV Reporter Dale Smith. He's able to keep it quiet and since it's not a breach of security, the Secret Service doesn't get in his way.

But when Smith's helicopter is shot down covering a presidential visit in Afghanistan, everything comes to the surface and dissolves the President's marriage. The military fiasco eventually leads to the Secretary of Defense's suicide.

With hope all but lost for re-election, Kramer reaches across the aisle for Democrat running-mate Tara Myers, the popular Attorney General from New York. What Myers lacks in social graces, she makes up in her connection with the electorate. The hotshot VP saves the election, but she is woefully ill-prepared for the position she's ascended too.

That's where It's Classified begins and Wallace really gets some momentum going. And that's where the buzz for this book comes from.

Wallace's experiences with a combustible VP candidate from the McCain-Palin campaign were one of the biggest plot points in the HBO film Game Change, which is sure to be hoarding Emmy awards. In the aftermath of the film, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and Wallace (now both contributors for MSNBC) topped the enemies' list of the die-hard "Palinistas." There's also reason to believe that the Amazon.com review ratings on the book tanked when Palin's flying monkey army got involved.

That said, It's Classified isn't that great anyway. When VP Myers secretly battles undiagnosed and untreated depression and OCD throughout the book, she gains noticeable weight, and calls in sick constantly. Her uneven behavior is not lost on the national media. When the staff tries to rehabilitate her image with a series of network morning show interviews, she screws it up and the plan implodes.

A few days later when the White House elevates the terror threat level, it is ripped apart as a political stunt to divert from the negative press the VP has caused. Independent Counsel is brought in to investigate. The VP resigns and the President is impeached. But the President and her husband get back together and everyone lives happily ever after, of course.

The Myers character only channels Palin in her craziness. While the author paints her as transcendentally popular, that never really comes across. She also has some level of expertise on legal issues, and generally is a sympathetic figure.

On the whole, the storylines of the two books are pretty good. You get a very plausible inside look of how the sausage is made in the executive branch and how the pressure gets all cooked up in a crisis. And you really feel what the endless days are like for the President and The Senior Staff.

The characters are average. Nobody jumps off the page. Too much time is spent with players inquiring about interpersonal relationships in their circle like The Newsroom or House M.D., only with worse dialogue - if that's even possible.

I'll chalk up the forced humanity to Wallace's own tenure in the White House, where I'm sure real emotional connections were scarce.

Ramp Up Your Enthusiasm

It is Season 7 of Larry David's ground-breaking comedy, but unlike other shows which traditionally jump the shark at this point, Curb Your Enthusiasm is still getting better.

Forget for a moment that Larry David and HBO hoodwinked NBC out of a Seinfeld reunion, which begins its story arc this Sunday. Forget we're going to see Jerry Seinfeld act (not Jerry Seinfeld's act) for the first time in years. Forget we'll see the possible redemption of iconic comedy actor Michael Richards.

This would still be Curb Your Enthusiasm's best season ever, and we're only two episodes in. CAUTION - SPOILERS.

First, Larry's quest to break it off with Loretta while she's undergoing cancer treatment has been brilliant. And just because Loretta just left Larry, taking her kids and Auntie Rae with her, doesn't mean "LD" has seen the last of her.

Especially since Larry's real soulmate Leon (Loretta's brother) isn't going anywhere. Leon said they were Leggos (interlocked). Leon will surely be goading Larry into confrontations, to "get up in that ass" for some time.

Meanwhile, Larry's best friend/manager Jeff Green, who we always knew was a sex fiend, has gone beyond the bounds of the conventional comedy. Two weeks ago he bedded Marty Funkhauser's sister, who was a mental patient. Larry was traumatized by the cries of "Fuck me fat boy!" while he was in the house.

Then last week, Jeff's intolerable wife Susie went down on him in the car on the way to party, causing a wreck that Larry happened upon.

But the best individual exchange, what the show is all about really, was when Larry broke a pair of glasses while hugging his former next-door neighbor in the cancer doctor's waiting room.

It wasn't just typical of what happens regularly to our protagonist, but was able to weave in money, insensitivity, guilt, shame, disgust and cancer.

Conventional wisdom is that George Costanza channeled Larry David on Seinfeld. I really think Larry's character is a mix of Jerry and George, the unwitting and the unscrupulous, the shlameel and the shlamazel.

Hard Knocks Rocks!

While I am a huge fan of good TV drama (and some smart comedy as well), there’s only one reality show that I watch. And it wraps up its short season tonight. The Bengals story is all the more inspirational when you see the level of commitment from these professionals, even while working for the least dynamic boss in the history of team sports. Mike Brown seems more equipped to be some middle-manager from the Dilbert comic strip than run an NFL franchise. Fortunately Head Coach Marvin Lewis is a strong leader, and he has the team’s attention.

The individual storylines are riveting as well.

Carson Palmer. Clearly one of the NFL’s top QBs, must be getting frustrated with more injuries. His good health is the only way the Bengals will make the playoffs for the first time since winning the AFC North in 2005.

Andre Smith. The mammoth rookie 1st Round OT out of Alabama held out, showed up out of shape, and suffered a stress fracture in his foot. It will likely take a long time for him to win over his teammates.

Chad Ochocinco (nee Johnson). I know my perception of him has completely changed. Despite being a loudmouth, he’s not in trouble off the field like so many of his Cincinnati cohorts. And he clearly works his ass off. He’s very impressive in the swimming pool and the boxing gym. And he showed off his versatility earlier this preseason by kicking an extra point, and then launching a high, sailing kickoff to the 8-yard line.

Now Ochocinco is very much a poster boy for this generation of Wide Receiver, as a me-first attention seeker. But make no mistake, he is a player. And as for the name change, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before.

Marvin Philip Aufrichtig = Marv Albert

Reginald Kenneth Dwight = Elton John

Prince Rogers Nelson =

Obviously the position battles and who gets cut is where the real drama lies. Director of Football Operations Jim Lippincott is the ultimate badass "Turk." Completely unemotional in his overweight frame stuffed into coaches' shorts, "We're putting you on waivers today." What an awesome character. I had a similar job with my fraternity during rush week, but I was nowhere near that level of efficiency.

But Hard Knocks still has plenty of levity. Like DT Tank Johnson mixing up Bill Walsh (the late football legend) and Donnie Walsh (the NBA GM).

My favorite moment was from Jordan Palmer, Carson’s younger bro, who’s fighting for the backup QB job. Jordan Palmer’s side job is as a website creator and manager. Except he’s a little more innovative than I am. His site RunPee.com tracks first-run movies, and when it’s a good time to relieve yourself without missing anything or disturbing those around you. God bless the internet.

So while tonight is the season finale’ of Hard Knocks, the Bengals season opens this Sunday. When they finally take the field in anger, it will be hard not to root for them.

When They Were King's

Just watched HBO's documentary Thrilla In Manila - the story of the third, most epic of the Ali-Frazier battles. This is re-lived largely (and hypnotically) through the eyes of Joe Frazier, who still seethes about Ali. HBO does a great job tracking the rivalry through the years with Frazier, Butch Lewis, and Ferdie Pacheco.

It is reminiscent of, but not as comprehensive as the 1997 Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings, which had enough footage to do 5 movies. This was Ali & Foreman's transcendent fight.

But there's another central figure in this history that isn't Frazier, Foreman, or Ali. And it's not Howard Cosell either.

Don King made it all happen. Call him what you will: caricature, buffoon, scoundrel, criminal. Boxing's history as we know it, is entirely because he created it. He can be all those things and still be a visionary and a genius.

Once King's corrupt puppeteering of the sport became compartmentalized, his diminished power became our diminished interest in boxing.

The late Jack Newfield, former writer for the New York Post wrote a book: The Life and Crimes of Don King. HBO later adapted it into a lesser-known made-for-TV film Don King: Only In America.

HBO went soft on the title, because they were still airing King-promoted fights. The film features Ving Rhames in I think the performance of his career. He plays the perfect hero/anti-hero. The film is the story of King's rise to power, interspersed with Rhames' dead-on monologues where he even calls HBO "a bunch of hypocrites." Classic.

King set up these fights by somehow negotiating with ego-maniacal dictators, getting big money from tyrants like Mobutu and Marcos. Then he had to get the fighters to play ball. He lured Ali with women, Foreman with wads of cash, and Frazier, because he knew he could.

In Jamaica, King entered the fight with the champion Joe Frazier. Then he left with George Foreman after he knocked out the champ in Round 2.

King created The Rumble In The Jungle and The Thrilla In Manila out of thin air. A numbers-runner (and some say murderer) from Cleveland was at one time the most powerful man in sports. Only in America.