This blog's name comes from former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan's off-camera description of the process that John McCain employed in choosing little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Of the nine books I’ve written, it just occurred to me that the first and last have Pulitzer Prize connections—not for my work, unfortunately, but still…
The last was Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, a biography of the American master artist and writer, which featured an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon.
And my first book, Stadium For Rent, features dozens of editorial cartoons drawn by future Pulitzer Prize winning artist Clay Bennett.
Back then, Bennett was poking fun at local issues and political figures for the St. Petersburg Times. I’ve always regarded his style as sneaky—the clean lines and bold images let him club you over the head with his message while you’re still chuckling.
Bennett left the Times for the Christian Science Monitor, where he ultimately won his Pulitzer. Today, he’s with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, of all places, and we’ll certainly talk about that, I’m sure.
You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with editorial cartoonist CLAY BENNETT of the CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!
What a difference a day makes and it seems like once again the McCain campaign is using Jimmy Breslin's "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" as their play book.
First, we have Joe The Plumber, who as it turns out in reality is not the McCain poster child they thought he would be. Didn't anyone vet him? Did they really think that they could mention someone repeatedly in a national forum the media wouldn't be all over it like a cheap suit?
It's probably too late but John McCain needs to fire his entire staff and replace them with people that can think beyond City Council style political strategy. Yes it's clear, the entire staff must go, that is except those who wrote McCains material for the Bill Smith Dinner. Who ever these people are McCain needs more of that! Perhaps it was because he was reading his lines or that policies & recent events were veiled in humor but he seemed like less of a grumpy old man.
Obama on the other hand... well let's just say that we won't be calling him Shekky anytime soon and he won't be touring Vegas. His humor hit a little too close to home as was evident by the sparse applause and nervous laughter. What Obama did do was break with tradition and end with non-humorous stirring remarks which brought the room to their feet.
And so the McCain campaign once again is left looking at what happened through the rear view mirror. All because they forgot three of the irrefutable laws of the world, two of which were brought to us by the author William Goldman: - Never enter into a land war in Asia - Never gamble with a Sicilian when death is on the line and the newest, most relevant, -Never let Obama have the last word in front of a crowd.
Image via WikipediaGrand Rapids, MI (October 2, 2008) – As election season reaches its peak and the debates take center stage, the film gurus at Spout.com have offered up another topic for debate: The 10 Coolest Film Presidents. Silver screen Presidents have come from almost every film movie category including comedy, drama and action-adventure. Spout.com took all of these into account in selecting their top 10.
“As Presidential campaigns have become big budget affairs, they’ve almost become cinematic in their own way,” said Christopher Campbell, Spout.com. “So if McCain and Obama really want to get ahead in the polls, they might consider taking some pointers from the following Presidents...well, maybe not Lloyd Bridges.”
The 10 Coolest Film Presidents
10. President Lindberg (Tony “Tiny” Lister), from The Fifth Element I’m not saying that being cross-eyed or incessantly receiving calls from your mother is cool, though both could very well be thought so in the year 2263. That’s so far in the future that Lindberg isn’t just the President of the United States, he’s head of the “United Federation” (like in Star Trek). No, I’m saying that Lindberg is cool because he’s really big and badass and could probably do some sweet damage to some Mangalores all by his lonesome. Unfortunately, Lister never gets to display his old wrestling moves in any action scenes.
9. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (Terry Crews), from Idiocracy Another African-American wrestler-turned-president, also in a future setting. Only this time it’s the character who is a former pro wrestler (Crews is instead a former pro football player) and the setting is even further in time, 2505, when the people of the world are very, very stupid. But is it stupid to elect a man with an awesome chopper and a tendency to sing his speeches? If Teddy Roosevelt were alive, he’d probably also have a motorcycle and a machine gun, though maybe he wouldn’t shoot the latter while standing before Congress. Or maybe he would, and maybe we’d still re-elect him.
8. President Devlin (George Clooney), from Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over If George Clooney stopped simply talking politics and actually ran for president, a lot of people would vote for him simply because he’s a cool celebrity. Fans of the Spy Kids films got a taste of what President George Clooney would look like when his character, Devlin, became commander-in-chief by the third installment.
7. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson), from Mars Attacks! Of course, if there’s one actor even cooler than Clooney, it’s Jack Nicholson. What if the presidential race consisted of these two actors up for the position? If you truly voted based on the coolness of the candidate, you’d have to go with Jack. But only if he wore sunglasses during every public appearance, including especially the State of the Union Address.
6. President Joseph Staton (Dennis Quaid), from American Dreamz In a crazy instance of life imitating art, George W. Bush appeared on American Idol in 2007, just one year after President Joseph Staton appeared on American Dreamz (the fictionalized version of the popular show).
5. President George W. Bush (James Adomian), from Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay This list is basically limited to fictional presidents in film, but we can make an exception for Adomian’s portrayal of Bush, as it’s no more accurate a representation than is Neil Patrick Harris’ portrayal of himself in the same film. In this movie, Bush is a much cooler guy. He gets high, has an awesome rec room, and he’s like a rebellious yet spoiled teenager. Heck, if ‘Rold and Kumar like hanging with him, you’d probably like hanging with him, too.
4. President James Marshall (Harrison Ford), from Air Force One People used to prefer a leader who’d proven himself in battle. Now, it’s not so important for a presidential candidate to have served in war or even been shown to have some sort of fight in him. But let’s face it, to kick a bad guy’s ass while also avoiding falling out of an airplane cargo door.
3. President Thomas “Tug” Benson (Lloyd Bridges), from Hot Shots! Part Deux President Benson has been through enough to make McCain look like a lazy hippie. He caught a bazooka round in Okinawa, took a bullet in Corregidor that went straight through both ears, took a torpedo in the lower abdomen that resulted in the removal of his intestines, he has a shell the size of his fist in his head and he was shot down on more than 194 air missions. He’s not too bright these days, but he’ll still take it upon himself to go into Iraq and fight the enemy face to face. With a light saber.
2. President Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock), from Head of State He’s not as cool as his running-mate (who is also his brother, played by Bernie Mac), and the movie isn’t as funny or insightful as Chris Rock’s political stand-up, but Mays Gilliam is like an even hipper exaggeration of Obama. Not only does he listen to rap, he plays Nelly at formal events and gets old ladies to dance and sing along. He takes mudslinging to a new level with “Yo Mama” jokes. And his “That Ain’t Right” slogan is like a cooler, possibly more genuine, inverse of Obama’s “Yes We Can.”
1. President Max Frost (Christopher Jones), from Wild in the Streets As the hit song from the movie goes, “nothing can stop the shape of things to come,” and I take that to mean that inevitably a rock star will one day be elected to the presidency. After all, there has already been a movie star president, and eight years ago plenty of young music fans were ready to vote Jello Biafra into the White House, simply because he’s Jello Biafra. Despite the uncool things done by Max Frost and his band, The Troopers, such as putting LSD in the capital’s water supply and detaining citizens over the age of 35 for re-education, they do carry out some really hip ideas, such as lowering the voting age to 14, and gaving the world some classic garage rock tunes.
Spout.com is the premier online destination for film lovers and film discussion. Featuring up-to-date news, trailers, reviews, podcasts, festival info, and vibrant forums where users can discuss and debate the best in film, the worst in film, and everything in-between; the mission of Spout.com is to connect everyone with more films they are likely to love. Whether it’s big budget blockbusters, independent releases or foreign films, Spout.com has a recommendation for you.
Image via WikipediaI have to admit I thought that Van Halen—or at least Sammy Halen—must have endorsed John McCain when he introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate for the first time. How else to explain the campaign's use of the band's anthemic song "Right Now" at that rally?
• Jackson Browne objected to the RNC using his song "Running On Empty"and failed a lawsuit.
• Abba ("Take a Chance On Me")
• and John Mellencamp ("Pink Houses") also complained about unauthorized use of their songs, according to Browne's suit.
Why do artists object? For one thing, if they don't support a particular candidate, the use of their music implies a type of endorsement. I, for one, never dreamed a campaign would use someone's music in a public gathering that is, furthermore, broadcast nationally, without permission or a licensing fee. Seems some government officials need to bone up on copyright laws.
And, endorsement aside, musicians get paid for every public performance of their music. Radio stations pay every time they spin a disc. And if you watch "Big Brother," you know the housemates are always being told to "Stop singing!" because CBS doesn't want to pay licensing fees for music.
Won't anyone out there let McCain/Palin use their songs before its too late? Any suggestions for more appropriate songs? Add your comments by clicking below!
Image of Bill AdairIf you wanted to pick a good presidential campaign upon which to launch a political web site devoted to truth, justice, and the American Way – and those are my words, not theirs – this would be the one.
You’ve got a man running as the candidate of one party who was in Vietnamese prisoner of war camps for five years, plus the first woman and African-American man to ever challenge for a major party’s nomination – and one of them will win it, one of these days.
And before we reached this point, there were so many candidates on both sides that we needed scorecards to keep track.
If you haven’t visited it before, take a minute and surf over to www.PolitiFact.com while you listen to this podcast.
Joining me today is the editor of Politifact.com – and Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times – Bill Adair. (And in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that my wife is a long-time editor at the Times.)
Image via WikipediaThanks to Tony D. for the link to this Lee Camp prank audio that is plainly phony but just as plainly funny as "McCain" calls "Sarah Palin" to invite her to be his running mate.
SAMPLE LINE: "She's from f$@king Alaska? Am I getting punk'd?"
Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan ("Morning in America") gave Democrats exactly what they wanted today during a commercial break on MSNBC, calling John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his vice presidential running mate, "political bullsh*t." Give a listen!
The web site MarketingVox.com reports that Barack Obama's presidential campaign may have broken new ground by placing an advertisement in the videogame Burnout Paradise.
Can anyone remember an election year in which presidential politics intruded any more obviously into the insular world of comic books than it has in 2008?Presidential (and now Vice-Presidential) candidates have increasingly graced the covers of comics and since IDW’s even-handed McCain and Obama biographical comics (see “IDW’s Comic Book Bios”), the depiction of these political figures has become increasingly controversial with Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon endorsing Obama (see “Endorsement Gets Noticed”), and the cover of Bluewater’s Hillary Clinton comic drawing criticism for its similarity to IDW’s McCain and Obama covers (see "Hillary Clinton Comic").
Now along comes news that Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be depicted on the cover of half of the copies of Papercutz’ Tales from the Crypt #8, which ships to retailers later this month. Governor Palin is shown brandishing a hockey stick and asking, “Didn’t we get rid of you guys in the 1950s” as the traditional narrators of EC Horror comics, the Crypt Keeper, the Old Witch, and the Vault-Keeper, flee in panic.
The issue will include a special editorial by Cathy Gaines Mifsud, the daughter of William Gaines, the original publisher of EC Comics and Mad Magazine.Gaines Mifsud’s editorial links the cover image to the controversy surrounding Governor Palin’s queries (while Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska) to a librarian about the possibility of removing controversial books from the public library (no books were actually removed from the library, see “Palin Library Censorship Issue Raised”).
Of the nine books I’ve written, it just occurred to me that the first and last have Pulitzer Prize connections—not for my work, unfortunately, but still…![[Get Copyright Permissions]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vkiiu0jM3WHPtg-N7QZ7f7pf27euhmt8sDDhgIXeqNCRhNMMZS4ADtHgA_Am26TArS0DoUU6ThmfWGfL2gbLm3CvcsdeOYwYoxf07t_xCFOYWn=s0-d){kind=small}
Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!
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