pretty momentous night of political theater last night. as far as coverage went, the democrats certainly seemed to be center stage while the republicans were almost an afterthought. maybe thats because the conservative who won doesnt have any institutional support so noone wanted to push his brand. and romney disappeared himself by giving his speech at exactly the same time as huckabee insuring that he would not be covered live. doesnt seem very smart. ron paul, of course, got the wheres waldo treatment, despite his respectable 10% showing. he got no coverage and barely no mention, whereas mccain at 13%, still the media darling, was mentioned at every turn. in fact, msnbc desperate to promote mccain had him as #3 most of the night (they only showed the top three in their graphics) despite the fact that he was in fourth behind deputy droop-a-long, fred thompson. thompson must have taken the night off knowing he was on the way out because he got about as much facetime as bill richardson, which was none, and only mentioned in the context of throwing his support to st. mccain. also, despite beating hillary by the hair on his chinny chin chin, edwards wasnt considered viable down the road by the poobahs. probably true but it seems the media would like to make this a self fullfilling prophecy.
my favorite moment of the night: some pundit trying to explain the chuck norris ironic appeal to interpups.
also great to see rachel maddow of air america given space at the msnbc pundits table. kudos to msnbc for having a true liberal voice. i thought she acquitted herself quite well.
so obama gives good speech. i was nearly as taken with edwards populist cant but you cant deny obamas presence. hillary was pretty gracious in defeat but i cant say i wasnt just as happy as the odious chris matthews to see some fresh faces take center stage. oh, and obama wins on art direction as well. instead of the claustrophobic backdrop of family and supporters huddled onstage, he was set apart. it was very bushian, in fact, but effective given his victory.
i should add that the heathers were as usual virtually substance free.
Chris Matthews is truly the worst. I even flipped to Fox because I thought they had a shot at being less annoying than he was - but they weren't even covering it! Had to stick with Wolf as the least bad option. But I could do without hearing another "Best political team in the business" or whatever that tag line is. I know they don't even pretend anymore, but it's like they are selling a laundry detergent or something.
I'm happy about Obama. And doubly happy that Clinton finished behind Edwards (if only by a tiny fraction.) This sets Obama up about as well as anyone could hope, and really puts a chink in Clinton's armor. I just don't think she is electable so I really want to see someone else get the nomination, so I guess Obama's my man. And while it doesn't matter in the big picture, he does have the best internet (and intellectual property) stance, so that will be a nice bonus if he can do it.
On the R side I think the results were worse for us. I don't think Huckabee can take it, but he hurt Romney (or Romney's poor showing hurt himself,) and this opens the door for McCain (or I guess, if you believe the numbers, Thompson - but I just don't believe it.) I think McCain will be the hardest R to beat in the general - and I think he'll almost definitely beat Clinton. So I really don't want that to happen. Plus just the idea of Matthews gushing over him for the next 11 months is enough to make me throw up. Hopefully Paul from one side and Obama from the other will chip into some of his support in NH and he'll do worse than expected.
And yeah, the Ron Paul blackout was sort of obvious. Think some powerful business people don't want to go back to the gold standard?
Can't remember where I saw this, but it's perhaps the best thumbnail explanation of LDS evah: "a fanfic version of Christianity".
One encouraging comment I heard about NH: the indies may break for Obama, which will hurt McCain.
Oh, and go Huck!
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my favorite moment of the night: some pundit trying to explain the chuck norris ironic appeal to interpups.
also great to see rachel maddow of air america given space at the msnbc pundits table. kudos to msnbc for having a true liberal voice. i thought she acquitted herself quite well.
so obama gives good speech. i was nearly as taken with edwards populist cant but you cant deny obamas presence. hillary was pretty gracious in defeat but i cant say i wasnt just as happy as the odious chris matthews to see some fresh faces take center stage. oh, and obama wins on art direction as well. instead of the claustrophobic backdrop of family and supporters huddled onstage, he was set apart. it was very bushian, in fact, but effective given his victory.
- dave 1-04-2008 6:53 pm
i should add that the heathers were as usual virtually substance free.
- dave 1-04-2008 7:08 pm
Chris Matthews is truly the worst. I even flipped to Fox because I thought they had a shot at being less annoying than he was - but they weren't even covering it! Had to stick with Wolf as the least bad option. But I could do without hearing another "Best political team in the business" or whatever that tag line is. I know they don't even pretend anymore, but it's like they are selling a laundry detergent or something.
I'm happy about Obama. And doubly happy that Clinton finished behind Edwards (if only by a tiny fraction.) This sets Obama up about as well as anyone could hope, and really puts a chink in Clinton's armor. I just don't think she is electable so I really want to see someone else get the nomination, so I guess Obama's my man. And while it doesn't matter in the big picture, he does have the best internet (and intellectual property) stance, so that will be a nice bonus if he can do it.
On the R side I think the results were worse for us. I don't think Huckabee can take it, but he hurt Romney (or Romney's poor showing hurt himself,) and this opens the door for McCain (or I guess, if you believe the numbers, Thompson - but I just don't believe it.) I think McCain will be the hardest R to beat in the general - and I think he'll almost definitely beat Clinton. So I really don't want that to happen. Plus just the idea of Matthews gushing over him for the next 11 months is enough to make me throw up. Hopefully Paul from one side and Obama from the other will chip into some of his support in NH and he'll do worse than expected.
- jim 1-04-2008 7:32 pm
And yeah, the Ron Paul blackout was sort of obvious. Think some powerful business people don't want to go back to the gold standard?
- jim 1-04-2008 7:35 pm
- steve 1-04-2008 8:26 pm
Can't remember where I saw this, but it's perhaps the best thumbnail explanation of LDS evah: "a fanfic version of Christianity".
- mark 1-04-2008 8:58 pm
One encouraging comment I heard about NH: the indies may break for Obama, which will hurt McCain.
Oh, and go Huck!
- mark 1-04-2008 9:00 pm