Sex and the City takes center stage this weekend as Indiana Jones roars up the all-time box office list.
** HITS.Sex and the City, based on the terrific HBO series, confounded its critics and proved a hit this weekend, grossing nearly $56 million at the domestic box office. It did so despite being a near classic “chick flick,” with stars now well past the age at which Hollywood considers actresses to be real box office draws. It also did so despite feeling like five episodes of the series strung together.
Indiana Jones IV also confounded – let’s make that, thoroughly confounded in an absolutely historical sense – its early critics, proving to be a smash with $217 million at the domestic box office in its first 11 days of release. It is certain to be one of the biggest grossing films of all time. Plus, it is a cool A-list ’50s scifi B-flick.
I don’t have the time or inclination to write a whole review on Sex and the City, not now, not with the primary season finally limping to its foreordained conclusions. I was turned on to the show by girlfriends, well, girlfriend and her girlfriend who’s also a friend, with required-viewing gift DVDs to catch up. And it turned out I liked the show even more than they did, especially as, in its final seasons, it got a bit more serious than its early sophisticated-party-girls-in-New York positioning. The girls now no longer, exactly, being girls, with three in their fourties and one in her fifties. And non-twentysomething/thirtysomething issues to consider along with the fantastic and frequently preposterous fashions, witty and risque reparteee, and the fabulous city itself.
Quick thoughts. Miranda made a big mistake. Big would not have done that. And the whole movie turns on a plot contrivance that makes Indy surviving a nuclear blast seem highly credible. Be that as it may, we’re talking rom-com logic here, which is frequently at least as farfetched as action movie logic. Because, Lord knows, in real life, intelligent people never screw things up with poor, even tortured communication. Joe Bob says check it out.
** CLINTON WINS PUERTO RICO. Hillary Clinton won Sunday’s Puerto Rico primary as expected, with island territory voters, who do not vote in the general election, playing their only role in presidential politics. I’ll have more on this, and much more on a very big week ahead in presidential politics as the primary phase draws to its end, in the Monday Morning Quarterback column.
Barack Obama is in Sioux Falls and Mitchell, South Dakota.
John McCain is in Washington, D.C.
Hillary Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
Bill Clinton is in South Dakota.
** UPDATE: The national Democratic Rules committee came up with compromise solutions to the illegitimate Florida and Michigan primaries. Delegations for both states are seated with half-votes, and an edge to Hillary Clinton, though hardly what she was hoping to get from her “victories” there. A few hundred Clinton backers protested noisily and Clinton advisor Harold Ickes, who had earlier agreed that the primaries shouldn’t count, gave some acerbic talk, but the upshot is that Obama is only about 60 or so delegate from clinching the nomination. With what I expect him to win in Puerto Rico Sunday and Montana and South Dakota Tuesday, he’ll need only another 20-odd superdelegates to make him the Democratic presidential nominee.
** DEMOCRATIC RULES CONTRETEMPS. The awkward question of what to do with delegations from states that held illegitimate primaries which all the candidates agreed would not count, Michigan and Florida, is being worked out Saturday at a national Democratic Rules Committee meeting in Washington. Florida looks settled, Michigan — where only Hillary Clinton was on the ballot — less so. About 500 pro-Hillary protesters, far fewer than expected, showed up to pressure the committee.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama will hold a big rally Tuesday night to celebrate the end of the primary and causus season. In St. Paul, Minnesota, at the site of the Republican National Convention.
** SATURDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Rapid City and Aberdeen, South Dakota.
John McCain is off the campaign trail.
Hillary Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
Bill Clinton is in South Dakota.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Jane Fonda, seen in this trailer to her Oscar-winning film, Coming Home, has exercised the right once again due to her being picked by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the California Hall of Fame.
While California’s far right gets exercised over Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s selection of his longtime bete noire Jane Fonda for the California Hall of Fame — yes, there is a major back story there regarding these two famous Santa Monicans of the 1970s — here is another California Hall of Fame pick to bedevil the social conservatives.
That would be the eminent sculptor Robert Graham. Graham, who was born in Mexico and is married to Oscar-winning actress Angelica Huston — daughter of Oscar-winning director John Huston (who also acted in a little movie called Chinatown, which happens to be my favorite movie) — is probably the world’s leading sculptor of the female nude.
Barack Obama, speaking in Spanish, addresses Puerto Rico in advance of Sunday’s (!) primary.
** FROM THE MCCAIN INNER CIRCLE.Here’s an interview with my pal Steve Schmidt, senior advisor to Senator John McCain, on the campaign to come against Barack Obama.
** HILLARY FACES DEFEAT AT SATURDAY’S D.N.C. RULES COMMITTEE MEETING. Hillary Clinton has hinged her flickering hopes for the nomination on tomorrow’s DNC rules committee meeting, where she hopes that party officials will overturn the rules and seat the delegations she “won” in illegitimate primaries staged in Michigan and Florida. It’s not going to happen, as you see in this Huffington Post report.
** CALIFORNIA LOVES OBAMA. Despite the fact that he lost the February primary to Hillary Clinton, California Democrats now favor Barack Obama over Clinton, 51% to 38%, according to the new Field Poll. Obama leads John McCain in the Golden State by a whopping 17 points. Much as was the case last week in the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll. It may just be, incidentally, that launching one’s political career as an official of the Mitt Romney and McCain campaigns is not the ticket to the governorship of California …
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Back from Mexico City — and I’ll have more on that trip later — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a press conference this morning in the LA area community of Pacoima to announce $463 million in new allocations for construction and modernization at charter schools around California. Schwarzenegger will make the announcement at the Vaughn International Studies Academy. As many readers will recall, Schwarzenegger championed the successful passage of $42 billion in new infrastructure bonds in the 2006 general election. Now the money is beginning to be allocated, as you will see in the 10:15 AM event webcast live on www.gov.ca.gov.
** THE OTHER BIG PROBLEM WITH HILLARY’S NOTORIOUS REMARKS. I explain the OTHER big problem with Hillary Clinton’s notorious Friday afternoon remarks, on my other blog. (Not the RFK assassination reference, but her false claim that Bill Clinton’s 1992 nomination was in any doubt in June. As you’ll see, the Clinton high command knew in May that the fight was effectively over.)
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Hillary Clinton, who will win her last victory as a presidential candidate this weekend in Puerto Rico, which cannot vote in the general election, says she is the only candidate who fights the special interests.
** NEVADA. You know, I just heard yet another so-called national political expert on one of the cable news nets mispronounce the name of the of the new (well, not for NWN readers) general election swing state, Nevada. Apparently, if you are on the East Coast, you can be a complete nitwit and pretend to be knowledgeable about the West. Considering that we had the Nevada caucuses as a major event in January, this level of rank stupidity is simply amazing.
** MCCLELLAN ON OLBERMANN. I just watched former White House press secretary Scott McClellan spend 50 minutes on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show discussing his insider expose book on the presidency of his now former friend, George W. Bush. This is a very big deal (which has caused a delay in a planned think piece of mine). McClellan is an ingenuous sort, and comes off well with the average American. Which is a principal reason why the president picked his old Texas buddy to be White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006.
** PETE WILSON V. TOM MCCLINTOCK. It’s a big Republican furball in the Sierra Nevada foothills as career Southern California legislator and right-wing icon Tom McClintock — loser of four statewide races and right-wing favorite to run again for governor in 2010 — seeks to continue his career as a politician by taking the congressional seat long held by Abramoff scandal figure John Doolittle. Former Governor Pete Wilson yesterday ripped McClintock as an extremist, while backing former Sacramento Congresssman Doug Ose in the primary. Here’s what McClintock came up with today, ripping into Wilson via the right-wing Sacramento Union:Pete the Party Wrecker Strikes Again
Column By WILLIAM E. SARACINO, Published in the Sacramento Union
Not content with his legacy of seriously damaging the Republican Party in California during his term in office, former Gov. Pete Wilson has weighed in on the Sacramento-area Tom McClintock vs. Doug Ose congressional primary. His unsurprising preference is for the candidate who would be most like his tax-raising, pro-abortion, anti-conservative, GOP-wrecking self: Doug Ose.
I lived in Sacramento and was deeply involved in GOP politics during the “Wilson years,” and as such think there are a couple of items Republican voters in the 4th Congressional district ought to take into account as they weigh the liberal Wilson’s endorsement of the liberal Ose.
* If Pete Wilson had gotten his way, Ronald Reagan would have never been in the White House. When Reagan ran for president, Wilson traveled to New Hampshire during the primary election to campaign against his home state governor. Spending days in the state bashing Reagan, Wilson informed GOP voters that Reagan had been “a mediocre governor,” was “too extreme” to get elected president and would “lead the GOP to disaster.” Wilson, of course, changed his tune once the Gipper got to the Oval Office, but when the chips were really down, Ronald Reagan couldn’t count on Pete Wilson. Reagan fans in the 4th District might want to remember this.
* Pete Wilson’s answer to tight budgetary times in Sacramento was to raise taxes on working families. In Wilson’s first year in office, he faced a budget seriously in deficit. In what is now a familiar scenario, legislative Democrats wanted to raise taxes while Republicans wanted to rein in government spending. Wilson answer was the one given by all knee-jerk budgetary liberals—raise taxes. He not only sided squarely with the liberal Democrat tax-raisers but also embarked on a jihad against conservative legislators brave enough to stand up to him and oppose increased taxes. He famously said, “Conservatives are f—— irrelevant.” Conservatives in the 4th District might want to remember this.
*Pete Wilson managed to ram his tax increases through the Democrat dominated legislature, but that wasn’t enough for him. Like a spoiled child, he set out to punish Republican legislators who opposed raising taxes by recruiting primary opponents to them and other “no new taxes” GOP candidates in the 1992 primaries. Millions of Republican dollars were wasted on needless primary battles, and opportunities to defeat Democrats in November were lost because of Wilson’s petulance. Republican loyalists in the 4th District might want to remember this.
*Pete Wilson’s tax-raising and wishy-washy liberalism nearly destroyed the Republican Party during his governorship. While he was the leader of the party, GOP representation in the assembly plunged from 41 members to 32. Wilson appointed the hapless John Seymour to his vacant U.S. Senate seat, based entirely on the fact that Seymour was one of the very few pro-abortion GOP legislators. There were many stronger candidates then Seymour, but none who passed Wilson’s pro-abortion litmus test. Seymour was a predictable disaster at the polls, receiving less then 38 percent of the vote against Dianne Feinstein, who at the time was damaged goods having lost the 1990 governor’s race to Wilson and was viewed by Democrats as being in danger of becoming a perennial candidate. Feinstein went on of course to become firmly entrenched, and the GOP is still paying the price for Wilson’s arrogance and pro-abortion extremism. Voters in the 4th District concerned about the hostile Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate that a President McCain could face might want to remember this.
*Pete Wilson’s rank opportunism made the victory of Proposition 187 a pyrrhic one, and started the alienation of conservative Latinos from the GOP. Then-state Sen. Dick Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, was the man most responsible for getting 1994’s Proposition 187 on the ballot. The proposition was meticulously written to deal strictly with illegal immigration only. At first, Wilson would have nothing to do with 187; however, during the late summer, when it appeared his campaign was foundering, he used the leverage of his big money donors to elbow Mountjoy aside. Wilson and his wise-guys, desperate for a wedge-issue to re-elect the governor, mangled the campaign so badly that a Latino backlash set in almost before the last vote was counted. The distinction between legal and illegal immigrants was lost, as that didn’t matter to the Wilson folks as long as Pete was re-elected. The California Republican Party is still paying the price for Wilson’s inexcusable bungling of the pro-legal but anti-illegal message of 187. Republicans in the 4th District concerned about the minority status of their party might want to remember this.
Is this really the best that Doug Ose can do? Pete Wilson’s antipathy toward Tom McClintock is understandable. McClintock is an articulate, principled conservative who believes in small government and low taxes—all mortal sins in Wilson’s eyes. But Ose has been trying to hide his actual record while in office and campaign as some sort of conservative. Perhaps he agrees with W.C. Fields that “you can fool some of the people some of the time, and that’s enough to make a decent living.”
However, thoughtful Republican voters in the 4th District ought to take a close look at the Ose campaign and their new attack dog, party wrecker Pete. It would be a fair question for them to ask themselves how much value they ought to give the endorsement of a Republican “leader” who tried very hard to keep Ronald Reagan out of the White House, whose answer to budget problems is to raise taxes and whose tenure as governor saw the California Republican Party nearly destroyed.
It seems to me that if I were a conservative Republican candidate trying to get the votes of conservative Republican primary voters, party wrecker Pete is the last guy I’d want on my side. But since all the actual conservative leaders have endorsed Tom McClintock, I guess Ose had to take whoever was left over.
Incidentally, I present the above document as an exhibit for you to consider in looking at the state of the Republican Party in America’s largest state. No fact checking involved. Aside from this, contrary to the author’s statement, under Wilson Republicans actually gained majority control of the State Assembly. Although Bill Clinton should get some of the credit. Enjoy.
** NOTE: Yes, I know about the slowness of the site today. It’s being looked into.
** CREDENTIALS. After Hillary Clinton wins the territory of Puerto Rico on Sunday and loses the states of Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday — her desperate last-ditch attempt of Saturday before the DNC rules committee on Saturday will turn into a dreafully last-ditch attempt before the convention’s Credentials Committee at the end of June.
Let’s cut to the chase. The Clintons lose. Period. Full stop. I know this because I have been on these various committees as a DNC member. I know this because it is obvious to a smart analyst. What the Clintons are about is trying to find a way to remain minority owners in the new Obama-led Democratic Party. Which, in my estimation, will end up amounting to something perhaps a little more than my minority ownership in the San Antonio Texans. In which I had a lot of say over the team’s cheerleaders.
** TECH ISSUES. Yes, I know the site is moving slowly today. It’s being looked into.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Chicago for private events and meetings.
John McCain is in Greendale, Wisconsin.
Hillary Clinton is in South Dakota
Bill Clinton is … I don’t know where.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILES. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon today in Mexico City. Schwarzenegger chairs the upcoming Border Governors Conference at Universal Studios in LA this summer.
** FIELD POLL: CALIFORNIA POISED TO DECISIVELY REJECT ONE EMINENT DOMAIN INITIATIVE AND, PERHAPS, EMBRACE ANOTHER. The Field Poll shows California voters rejecting the Prop 98 eminent domain initiative, which is in fact a Trojan horse for anti-rent control/anti-renters rights legislation interests. By a walloping 33% to 43% margin. If you’re not at well over 50% at this point, you are going down hard. 33% is death. The competing eminent domain initiative, Prop 99, has a fighting chance of winning, leading as it does at the moment — okay, earlier this month per Field’s quaint methodology — 48% to 30%. This gambit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is a big bust. As I predicted months ago.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Bush consigliere Karl Rove says former White House press secretary Scott McClellan sounds like “a left-wing blogger” in his new insider book about the Bush presidency.
** NWN FORUM: SPIRITED DEBATE ON GAY MARRIAGE. There is a spirited debate taking place in the Forum on gay and lesbian marriage and children. Speaking as someone who has not been a particular fan of gay marriage, you can either accept the future or reject it.
** IRAQ CLOCK. The Republican National Committee has erected an “Iraq Clock” to memorialize the two years since presidential frontunner Barack Obama has visited Iraq. Although I have the RNC’s release, I just spent an unsuccessful seven minutes attempting to link to this clever device. Perhaps they should stick to IBM Selectrics. Incidentally, I have never been to Iraq. But I do know that, were I to go, it would take thousands of dollars to guarantee my safety in getting from the airport outside Baghdad to the capital inside Baghdad itself. Unless I decided to play Lawrence of Arabia and disguise myself as an Arab. Of course, as readers know, I have no idea whatsoever what is going on in the ME …
** NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in South Dakota, which Barack Obama will win next Tuesday, visited Mount Rushmore this morning. Asked if she visualized herself up there one day, alongside Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln, she smirked and threw up her hands.
“You think Bill Clinton should be up there?” a reporter asked.
“Why don’t you learn something about the monument,” Clinton finally said, before walking away to greet some more tourists.
Clinton refused to answer questions about former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s new expose book on the Bush presidency. Clinton has not held a press conference for two weeks.
** SCHWARZENEGGER NAMES FONDA AND 11 OTHERS TO CALIFORNIA HALL OF FAME. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will name the following people to the California Hall of Fame: Dave Brubeck, Jane Fonda, Theodor Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”), Robert Graham, Quincy Jones, Jack LaLanne, Dorothea Lange, Julia Morgan, Jack Nicholson, Linus Pauling, Leland Stanford and Alice Waters. Let the games begin …
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Denver and Thornton, Colorado. Obama and John McCain are both focusing this week on the new general election battleground — the Mountain West.
It’s part of what you might call a … New West.
John McCain is in Reno, Nevada.
Hillary Clinton is in South Dakota.
Bill Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING, THEN OFF TO MEXICO CITY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears at the ribbon-cutting for the 400th LA school playground renovation financed by his friends Kirk and Anne Douglas. The event will be at 9:45 AM and will be webcast live at www.gov.ca.gov. Schwarzenegger played the role of “Handsome Stranger” in Douglas’s 1979 Western comedy, The Villain.
After that, Schwarzenegger is off to Mexico City for a whirlwind round of meetings with his fellow US and Mexican border governors, various ministers of the Mexican government, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Schwarzenegger hosts a major border governors conference in LA this summer. I’ll have much more about all this.
** BOMBSHELL BUSH BOOK. Scott McClellan, that nice guy presidential press secretary given to malapropisms who came with President Bush from Texas has a bombshell book coming out that will guarantee that Bush remains a political pariah for the rest of his term and make life quite difficult for John McCain. In “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” McClellan says the liberal media failed to expose the “propaganda campaign” that led to the Iraq War, discusses the debacle of Hurricane Katrina, and rips Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and Bush political consigliere Karl Rove. And to think La Maison Blanche was perturbed with Bush chief strategist-turned-Schwarzenegger chief strategist Matthew Dowd. He didn’t write a book.
** WITH ICE CAP MELTING, ARCTIC NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN. With the Arctic ice cap melting rapidly — and, ironically, an estimated 25% of the world’s remaining oil and natural gas reserves beneath it — the five nations of the region have begun meeting in Greenland to try to work out their respective claims. Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. are all meeting now in the wake of last year’s planting of the Russian flag beneath the North Pole.
** FIELD POLL: CALIFORNIANS BACK GAY MARRIAGE.The Field Poll of California voters shows same-sex marriage now favored, 51% to 42%. Before Arnold Schwarzenegger, who publicly opposes a likely November initiative attempt to ban gay marriage, became governor in 2003, same-sex marriage was opposed, 50% to 42%. (Schwarzenegger has vetoed high-profile gay marriage legislation citing an initiative at the beginning of the decade banning it, while making his sympathy clear. Then the California Supreme Court, dominated by Republicans, tossed out the gay marriage ban.) Partisan breakdown? Democrats, 65-29. Republicans, 25-69. Independents, 61-27.
** THE OTHER BIG PROBLEM WITH HILLARY’S NOTORIOUS REMARKS. I explain the OTHER big problem with Hillary Clinton’s notorious Friday afternoon remarks, on my other blog. (Not the RFK assassination reference, but her false claim that Bill Clinton’s 1992 nomination was in any doubt in June. As you’ll see, the Clinton high command knew in May that the fight was effectively over.)
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
John McCain makes a play for Latino voters on patriotism.
John McCain is in an interesting period. But not an especially good period. Today, as yesterday, when they were both in New Mexico, the Arizona senator showed the obvious, that he will contest the Mountain West with Barack Obama. He gave a speech in Denver, where he somewhat defensively began with talking about the spirit of youth carrying on in America, notwithstanding the fact that it is now an old country. Funny, I can think of some countries whose citizens still view America as a very young country. (Incidentally, I’m hearing a cable news host in the background talking knowingly about the West and repeatedly mispronouncing “Nevada.”)
McCain’s speech, on stopping nuclear proliferation — can you say “Iran,” Barack? — was interrupted four times by anti-war protesters — and was not one of his better performances.
Aside from the fact that that sounds a lot more like the Dick Cheney of 2008 than the John McCain of 2000, it’s not the sort of thing you say on Memorial Day. Clearly, McCain and Obama disagree about Iraq. McCain supported the war from the get-go; Obama opposed it. To his credit, when McCain saw that the early forecasts about Iraq were, not to put too fine a point on it, flat wrong, he urged a different approach. Which has met with some notable success, though nowhere near ultimate to date.
Incidentally, with McCain having floated January 2013 as the date by which most US troops will be out of Iraq and those left in-country will not be engaged in combat operations, perhaps he and Obama don’t differ so much as either would have us believe.
Last Thursday, I followed McCain around as he campaigned in California. He was not an ebullient figure. The Vietnam War hero spoke condescendingly about the tyro Illinois senator, repeatedly describing him as a very young and very inexperienced man who had no standing to criticize him for his views on veterans affairs, since Obama “never bothered to serve.” Here he was referring to Obama’s rather cheeky criticisms of McCain for opposing Virginia Senator Jim Webb’s new GI bill, which would increase educational benefits for veterans. Webb, a former Navy secretary described by many as the best Marine company commander of the Vietnam War, saw his bill — backed by Obama — pass the Senate on a bipartisan 75-23 vote.
McCain says he opposes the Webb bill because granting the benefits too soon would discourage service personnel from continuing their tenures, thus depriving the Armed Forces of needed non-commissioned officer cadre. Webb’s view is that the benefits are owed to veterans for serving throughout a very long war, and to make sure that the military can get the highest quality volunteers. Standards have recently been dropped to maintain recruitment quotas.
John McCain is very much in this race, as the Democrats may end up with too exotic a candidate, even in this bad year for Republicans — Obama is clearly an exotic figure, and Hillary Clinton, in the unlikely event she were to somehow become the nominee, is also exotic and carries historic amounts of baggage — but he seems off-key to me.
** INDY 4 A HUGE HIT AROUND THE WORLD. Fulfilling one of the easiest NWN forecasts ever made, Indiana Jones returned for a fourth picture following a 19-year hiatus in the ever so elegantly named Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And achieved one of the biggest openings in movie history. Between its Thursday opening and last night, Indy 4 grossed took in $311 million in global box office. In domestic box office, the picture took in $151 million.
To put that in perspective, in only five days, Indy 4 achieved a bigger domestic box office than such recent summer movie smash hits as Terminator 3 (sorry, Governor), Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen did in their entire theatrical runs.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following his Memorial Day visit to New Mexico and pror to his Wednesday visit to Colorado. The Mountain West is in play for the general election. Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada together equal Ohio in electoral votes.
John McCain is in Denver, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona. Denver to try to contest the Mountain West, a new suite of swing states, with Obama. Phoenix for a fundraiser with President Bush.
Hillary Clinton is in Montana. Clinton has tried to sneak up on Obama there, but trails now, 52% to 35%.
** THE OTHER BIG PROBLEM WITH HILLARY’S NOTORIOUS REMARKS. I explain the OTHER big problem with Hillary Clinton’s notorious Friday afternoon remarks, on my other blog. (Not the RFK assassination reference, but her false claim that Bill Clinton’s 1992 nomination was in any doubt in June. As you’ll see, the Clinton high command knew in May that the fight was effectively over.)
** SCHWARZENEGGER WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons at Lake Tahoe to receive the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission report. Schwarzenegger will outline specific steps to be taken in advance of the fire-prone Sierra Nevada region’s fire season. The event will be webcast live this morning at 10:30 AM from www.gov.ca.gov.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
John McCain has the benefit of embodying many of the virtues celebrated on Memorial Day.
On this Memorial Day, I can think of few if any tributes to the enduring military values of this republic more significant than that offered by Senator John McCain when he spoke at the U.S. Naval Academy on April 2nd.
McCain’s speech to his alma mater — the alma mater of the four-star Navy admiral who was his father and the four-star Navy admiral who was his grandfather — came in the midst of the Western senator’s so-called “biography” tour. He undertook it because research showed that, while he is quite famous, most voters don’t know that much about him in depth aside from his having run for president in 2000 and 2008, being a Vietnam War hero, and having a reputation as a maverick. And he undertook it because values are important to John McCain, as anyone who’s read his classic memoir, “Faith Of My Fathers,” is aware.
Ironically, McCain’s Annapolis speech didn’t get much coverage at the time. Of the cable news nets, only MSNBC, the most liberal of the three, carried any of it live, and then just a snippet. Fox News did not carry the Annapolis speech live at all, choosing instead to carry on with its usual morning chatfest.
It’s unfortunate, because the speech captures much of the humor of the man and, more importantly, a sense of the American martial tradition.
If the usual hit squad tactics of our recent politics don’t come to dominate the general election campaign, we’re in for a fascinating clash between two candidates who represent what are frankly rather exotic strains in American life.
In Barack Obama, the representative of an exotic multi-racial, multi-cultural future that repels and frightens many Americans even as it attracts many others to a possible America.
In John McCain, the representative of a military tradition which for most Americans, who increasingly never serve in the military and have no direct experience with it, is exotic in its coming from a storied past.
There is probably no more traditional educational institution at the core of America’s military heritage than Annapolis. Merely allowing women to receive appointments as midshipmen was a lengthy cause celebre that led many — including possible Obama running mate Jim Webb, the Annapolis grad and Vietnam War hero who was Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the Navy and opposed women in combat — to no end of protest.
McCain, an old friend of Webb’s, as it happens (he calls Webb “a legendary fighting man”), talked about the taut Annapolis discipline with amusement.
“Witnesses to my behavior here,” he noted, “a few of whom are present today, as well as a nagging conscience, have a tendency to interrupt my reverie for a misspent youth, and urge a more honest appraisal of my record and character here. In truth, my four years at the Naval Academy were not notable for exemplary virtue or academic achievement but, rather, for the impressive catalogue of demerits I managed to accumulate. By my reckoning, at the end of my second class year, I had marched enough extra duty to take me to Baltimore and back seventeen times — which, if not a record, certainly ranks somewhere very near the top.”
But, he says, while he ignored some of the Academy’s conventions, he was “careful not to defame its more compelling traditions: The veneration of courage and resilience; the honor code that simply assumed your fidelity to its principles; the homage paid to Americans who had sacrificed greatly for our country; the expectation that you, too, would prove worthy of your country’s trust.”
Few if any universities have such an emphasis on the history and valor referenced by McCain, much less an honor code which stipulates that midshipmen will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate among them those who do. Most Americans are ignorant of military history, which merely makes up much of our engagement with the wider world, in some ways shaping it into what it is today.
McCain spoke of the tough Annapolis discipline that over the course of plebe summer (the Academy’s version of basic training in which “plebes,” freshmen, have their civilian airs stripped away and are remade into a rudimentary semblance of a naval officer-in-training) and beyond constantly tests midshipmen even as they engage in academic and athletic pursuits much more familiar to civilians.
“The Naval Academy was not interested in degrading my dignity. On the contrary, it had a more expansive conception of human dignity than I possessed when I arrived at its gates. The most important lesson I learned here was that to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest.”
The discipline, says McCain, stood him in good stead when he needed it later, in combat and his famous captivity in the Hanoi Hilton. Earlier, ironically, the retired Navy captain, with a rather oblique remark about the “perpetual springtime of youth” had referred to his famous days as perhaps the hardest-partying officer in the Navy prior to his shipping out for the Vietnam War.
“When I left the Academy, I was not even aware I had learned that lesson,” said McCain, referring to the discipline which enabled him to gain a greater sense of both himself and of his part in a greater whole. “In a later crisis, I would suffer a genuine attack on my dignity, an attack, unlike the affronts I had exaggerated as a boy, that left me desperate and uncertain. It was then I would recall, awakened by the example of men who shared my circumstances, the lesson that the Academy in its venerable and enduring way had labored to impress upon me. It changed my life forever. I had found my cause: Citizenship in the greatest nation on earth.”
McCain went on to discuss a pervasive cynicism that afflicts America.
“In part, it is attributable to the dislocations economic change causes; to the experience of Americans who have, through no fault of their own, been left behind as others profit as they never have before. In part, it is in reaction to government’s mistakes and incompetence, and to the selfishness of some public figures who seek to shine the luster of their public reputations at the expense of the public good. But for others, cynicism about our country, government, social and religious institutions seems not a reaction to occasions when they have been let down by these institutions, but because the ease which wealth and opportunity have given their lives led them to the mistaken conclusion that America, and the liberties its system of government is intended to protect, just aren’t important to the quality of their lives.
“I’m a conservative, and I believe it is a very healthy thing for Americans to be skeptical about the purposes and practices of public officials. We shouldn’t expect too much from government – nor should it expect too much from us. Self-reliance – not foisting our responsibilities off on others – is the ethic that made America great.
“But when healthy skepticism sours into corrosive cynicism our expectations of our government become reduced to the delivery of services. And to some people the expectations of liberty are reduced to the right to choose among competing brands of designer coffee.”
Then McCain discussed patriotism.
“Love of country, my friends, is another way of saying love of your fellow countrymen—a truth I learned a long time ago in a country very different from ours.
“That is the good cause that summons every American to service. If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you are disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. I hope more Americans would consider enlisting in our Armed Forces. I hope more would consider running for public office or working in federal, state and local governments. But there are many public causes where your service can make our country a stronger, better one than we inherited. Wherever there is a hungry child, a great cause exists. Where there is an illiterate adult, a great cause exists. Wherever there are people who are denied the basic rights of Man, a great cause exists. Wherever there is suffering, a great cause exists.”
John McCain represents two great traditions in American life. The career military tradition, in which he and his forebears have served America as professionals for more than a century. And the Scots-Irish tradition, the history and meaning of which is laid out in Webb’s “Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America.”
Both traditions overlap. Without them, we wouldn’t be celebrating our ease on this fine Memorial Day. …
Barack Obama is in Las Cruces, New Mexico for a Memorial Day town hall in that general election swing state with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
John McCain is in Albuquerque, New Mexico for an observance at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial.
Hillary Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
Bill Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull dominates the Memorial Day weekend movie scene.
Fulfilling one of the easiest ever NWN forecasts, the new Indiana Jones picture is a huge hit. The early word amongst some turns out to be wrong, and most reviews have ranged from pretty good to quite good.
But a picture like this is not about reviews. It’s a summer action movie. Is it fun? Yes. Is it action-packed? Yes, maybe even a little too action-packed. Is Harrison Ford a credible action superstar at 65? Yes. Is Karen Allen’s return all it could have been? No, but it’s pretty good. Is that Shia LaBeouf kid any good? Yes, actually, very. Is the great Cate Blanchett having fun playing a psychic dominatrix KGB agent? Absolutely. Do we miss Sean Connery? Yep, but it’s not clear what he would do in the story. About which, by the way, I don’t believe in spoilers. But think 1957, Area 51, the Red Scare, with plenty of Reds actually running around — the Russian Communist Party has denounced the movie, which is playing on record number of screens there now — and a couple of other movies in the Spielberg and Lucas catalogue aside from the Indy movies.
Is Indy 4 as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Is it as good as the first picture?
Of course not. The 1981 original is probably the best action/adventure picture ever.
Is Indy 4 as good as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
Is it as good as the second picture, from 1984?
No, it’s not. It’s better. That movie, which started off in rollicking fashion, bogged down in something of a horror show.
Is Indy 4 as good as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
How about the third picture, from 1989, the “last” in what seemed for the longest time to be a trilogy? The one in which the original James Bond plays Dr. Jones’s dad.
I don’t think it’s quite as good as that. It’s certainly not as funny. Of course, many found Last Crusade to be too jokey. Connery provided Ford with an equal. But the new movie has stronger female characters.
** ANOTHER CLINTON WHOOPS. I explain the OTHER big problem with Hillary Clinton’s notorious Friday remarks, on my other blog. (Not the RFK assassination reference, but her false claim that Bill Clinton’s 1992 nomination was in any doubt in June. As you’ll see, the Clinton high command knew in May that the fight was effectively over.)
** SUNDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is taking the place of the ailing Ted Kennedy, at Kennedy’s request.
John McCain is at home in Sedona, Arizona. He is entertaining three potential running mates: Florida Governor Charlie Crist, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Hillary Clinton is in Puerto Rico.
Bill Clinton is in South Dakota.
** SATURDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Bayamon and Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Hillary Clinton is in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
John McCain is at home in Sedona, Arizona, where he is entertaining three potential running mates. Florida Governor Charlie Crist, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
** MOVIES … AND MOTORSPORT. We all know Memorial Day weekend is Indiana Jones weekend at the Metroplex. But it’s also the occasion of two great auto races. There’s the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco, one of the most colorful and glamorous races on the planet, conducted on the streets of Monte Carlos. And there is, fittingly for the launch of Indy 4, the biggest and most historic race in America, the Indy 500. In, er, glamorous Indianapolis, Indiana. Both Sunday morning.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
Although he is definitely younger than Harrison Ford, of whom that Shia whatever kid puts it in the new Indiana Jones picture: “For an old guy, you’re pretty good in a fight. What are you, like, 80?”
I also mention the Hillary Clinton statement on why she is not dropping out yet … I’ll leave it to others to discuss the apparent psychosis of the Hillary Clinton campaign — the formerly inevitable presidential frontrunner said today that one reason she shouldn’t drop out in May is that Bobby Kennedy wasn’t assassinated until June!!!! — certainly one of the most bizarre statements ever made by a serious political figure.
There is no way that a person who has made such a bizarre statement can be on the national ticket of a major political party, something the Clintons have obviously been pushing for over the past few days.
I will have more, here and elsewhere, with regard to my assessment of the John McCain campaign from yesterday, and the overall effort of Republicans to frantically re-brand, as it were, their party.
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