Real Time Musings - Thoughts on the January 25, 2008 show with guests Richard Belzer, Herbie Hancock, Martha Raddaz, Merle Haggard, and Amy Holmes

On the talk about the candidates:

Re: Hillary Clinton

When the economy is bad, people turn their concentration toward basic concerns like money, jobs and health care. People have a sense that the Iraq situation is beyond their control and have to cope with rising gas prices and job concerns.

Hillary Clinton recently started a new ad here in Arizona. The line I remember from it was "People want to be able to fill their gas tanks without draining their wallets." Hits home with me.

Re: Rudy Guliani

Skipping the earlier primaries may have hurt Rudy Guiliani, but did leave his campaign with millions in reserve while minimizing opportunities for gaffes.

Endorsing someone for mayor does not mean an endorsement for president. In 1997, the New York Times did not know about the mis-steps in funding the communication systems that cost lives on 9/11.

The ladies Bill talked with cited the mis-steps in planning that came to light in the years after that endorsement, so surely the NYT has heard about them, too.

Re: Mitt Romney

When saying that when things get scary in the markets, he puts aside his fear and buys, from whom does Romney think the profits come from when he can swoop in and grab undervalued assets? This fits well with Belzer's definition of a successful businessman. Why is this optimism missing when consumers seek credit at reasonable rates?

A recent article in the New York Times Magazinedescribed reasons why overcoming resistance to Romney's Mormon religion might be difficult.

According to the article:

"But most Mormonism-related discomfort with Romney may, in fact, reflect less a view of religious truth than a sense that there is something vaguely troubling or unfamiliar in the Mormon manner or worldview. This latter possibility presents Romney with an especially tricky political problem. For such reservations are not simple prejudice; they are a complicated outgrowth of the tortured history of the faith?s relationship to mainstream American political life over the nearly two centuries since God first spoke to Joseph Smith."

It went on to describe the concept of "esoteric public speaking: the attempt to convey multiple messages to different audiences through the careful use of words," as a strategy that is used to communicate one thing to those who share one's views, while appearing to convey a different meaning to outsiders. This is a concept that seems illustrated in many of the carefully crafted statements in this campaign.

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Re: Clinton and Obama's chances with women

Amy Holmes' Oh! My Nappy Hair segment was interesting, although it seemed as though there was a little bit of leading going on in the questioning. The answer to the main question of how these women will actually vote, particularly if Obama is not the nominee, remained a little murky.

Bring back Dan Savage!

The whole question of race versus gender is somewhat insulting in that it assumes that voters would use only the race or gender of a candidate to decide.

As the ladies in Bill's earlier segment showed, women are not opposed to electing a woman.

Richard Belzer is right in that OJ's support was largely based on the demand for proof beyond a reasonable doubt within a judicial system that is often challenged in that area.

On the state of the surge

Thanks for pointing out that although early reports showed Al Qaeda at 2.5%, now all strikes are reported to be against AQ targets. New names for the enemy that Martha Raddaz mentioned meaning that there are new enemies does not sound like a positive thing. It would be interesting to hear the percentages of "other extremists" to understand how the situation has changed since the "surge."

Classic quotes from this week's show":

From Richard Belzer: Re: Guiliani - "Fascist thug with a comb-over trying to suppress his speech impediment."

From Merle Haggard: "Good evening, friends and conservatives." "I am rarely in Muskogee." "We met Hillary, she came in Willy's bus and I think she inhaled."

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Edited by SusanSFH at 01/25/2008 9:45 PM