John McCain is now appearing in a soft-sell ad that is virtually ripped off of the “fireside chat” ads Barack Obama has been running. Gone are the Matrix-style dark, scary graphics and ominous music, replaced by McCa sitting in a comfy chair in an earth-tone living room reminiscent of the room Obama sits in in his own commercials. However, instead of just telling us his ideas, McCain, who occasionally goes wide-eyed, looking like Grampa Goober moreso than the leader of the free world, takes a few pokes at Obama. He just can’t go sixty seconds without being mean. I give him credit for the tone shift—that can only help him. But the pokes remind us the mean uncle is still in there, and his overall discomfort with the setting (or, perhaps, the brazen lift from the Obama idea) undermines the entire effort.
I thought Palin on SNL was hilarious, but I’m not sure it helped her, certainly not with her base. I think, at best, it may have stopped or slowed the bleeding, Palin demonstrating she can take a joke. NOT going on the show was certainly hurting her. But, net-net, I think the libs are still not feeling Palin, and support for her among moderates in her own party seems to be in freefall. OTOH, anything that doesn’t patently harm Palin is a net win for her. Having some fun, albeit at her own expense, was likely thought to be a no-lose proposition for her. I really enjoyed the dancing moose—seriously, it was hilarious. Lorne Michaels has GOT to be voting Republican.
Dave Letterman ate John McCain up Thursday. Ate him up. Dave has been phoning it in for years, now. But his evisceration of McCain proved what I’ve believed all along: Dave is usually at his best when you piss him off. Dave revealed a real depth of skill in interviewing I’ve not seen from him in quite some time as, these days, he kind of sleep walks through it. But he was sharp and relentless, and better than any network interview with McCain I’ve seen. Amazing.
5 Comments
Dave kicked butt.
Be nice to see some "legitimate" news follow up on the Gordon Liddy question.
On a vaguely related question, did you see David Allen Greer's Chocolate News?
I was hoping for insight on whether I didn't find it funny because I was white, or because it wasn't..y'know..funny.
scrawled by Scavenger | October 20, 2008 6:05 PM
Yipes... props to Dave for a serious discussion, but I wonder if dave's conservative leaning segment of his audience will start a campaign against him now.. ?
scrawled by christopher currie | October 21, 2008 11:59 AM
I'd have to think any conservative leaners who were going to get upset would have done it a long time ago.
scrawled by Scavenger | October 21, 2008 12:04 PM
I'm with you, I think Liddy should be more of a topic of discussion as long as Ayers is. McCain is much more close to Liddy than Obama is to Ayers.
As for Palin, I think her performance did little but justify the characature Fey has been portraying all these weeks.
scrawled by Trav | October 22, 2008 6:47 AM
My only quibble with Letterman bringing up Liddy was that he didn't bring up the firebombing plans when McCain objected along the lines of "But Ayers wanted to firebomb the Pentagon!" Liddy had his own firebombing plans, and Letterman should have brought that up.
scrawled by Dave Van Domelen | October 22, 2008 9:12 AM