Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Wednesday Evening

The class I teach at USC had its first session today so I missed most of the convention and have been catching up via TiVo. It's not a bad way to view it since you can speed through an awful lot of nothing.

My overwhelming impression of the evening was annoyance at myself. I half-believed all those pundits and talking heads who said that Hillary and her supporters would fracture the party, driving a wedge that could never be healed. I don't know to what extent that possibility was exaggerated by wishful Republicans and/or reporters hyping a possible story...and to what extent skillful negotiation prevented a train wreck. But it sure turned out to be a lot of worry about something that didn't happen.

I was disappointed in Joe Biden's speech...a couple of good lines but it didn't sound like him. I'm also a little tired of speeches where the idea is to end each sentence with a catch-phrase and encourage the audience to join in on it. There was also another thing about it that bothered me but I want to think about how to phrase what I'm feeling so I'll save that for a later post.

Bill Clinton was great. He's always great at this kind of thing...but you know who surprised me? John Kerry. I never thought of him as a great giver of speeches but tonight, a mere four years too late, he seemed to have learned how it's done. It didn't get a lot of TV coverage so I decided to embed it here. If you have thirteen minutes, give it a look.

• Posted at 9:54 PM · LINK

Wednesday Afternoon

Okay...so when she was running against him, Hillary Clinton faulted Barack Obama for a lack of experience. Now that she's supporting him, she has to backtrack from those statements and also watch as the McCain forces use them as a club against "her" candidate.

And when Rudy Giuliani was running against John McCain, he called him unqualified for having a lack of experience in the executive end of government. Now that he's out stumping for McCain, he's decided McCain's experience makes him utterly qualified to be president.

I guess it's always been like this in politics. I'm just wondering if the era of YouTube and digital video libraries is going to cause candidates to start realizing that the words they say today, they may have to eat tomorrow.

• Posted at 2:15 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Don LaFontaine, aka "The Movie Trailer Guy," is a legend in the world of commercials and narration. You wouldn't believe how much it costs to hire this person...and clients gladly pay it because his voice sells. In fact, they fight to hire Don even though there are plenty of actors out there who can give you a "Don LaFontaine" sound for less money. He also has a pretty good reputation in the industry for generosity, both with cash and in recommending others for jobs he thinks they need/deserve more than he does.

This would be a good time to think good thoughts about Don. At last report, he was in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in critical condition due to a blood clot lodged in his lung. We sure hope he makes it. Here's a nice little five-and-a-half minute profile of the man...

• Posted at 2:12 AM · LINK