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.
** AUSSIES LOWER THE FLAG IN IRAQ. The Australian flag has been lowered for the last time in Iraq this weekend as the Pacific nation’s remaining combat battalion in-country turned over its operational area in Nasiriyah to US forces and prepared to return home. Australia, along with Britain, has been America’s staunchest ally in war and peace for the past century. But the landslide defeat of Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, one of President Bush’s few remaining allies on the world stage, signaled an end to Australia’s role in the Coalition of the Willing.
** SUNDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
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.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil closed at $127.35 per barrel on Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
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That movie looks pretty good. For a chick flick.
I’m glad the primaries are winding down. We can all use a break.
I don’t know if I want to see the movie.
Haven’t they finished the rules committee meeting yet?!
CB…
No, still going on. Vote on both Florida and Michigan is about to happen. It’s on both MSNBC and CSPAN.
Florida got the half vote, as, I take it,was expected. The vote on restoration of the full vote was closer than I would have guessed, 15-12. Half vote was unanimous. They’re just now starting to consider the Michigan motions.
Harold Ickes is an ass. Total, complete, ass. As is the lady he represents!
I just saw Sex and the City. I loved it! I watched the movie laughed and cried a little but, more than anything… I enjoyed the audience reaction to the augmented nudity. Those shoes never get old.
Barack has got it!
an historic day.
Yes, the traditional Memorial Day.
Except for the Monday part …:)
The Democratic Party has a new leader.
>Pat Skipper:
an historic day.
May 31, 2008 – 8:12 pm
Yep.
>Capitol Boy:
Barack has got it!
May 31, 2008 – 7:07 pm
It’s good!
>carole w:
I just saw Sex and the City. I loved it! I watched the movie laughed and cried a little but, more than anything… I enjoyed the audience reaction to the augmented nudity. Those shoes never get old.
May 31, 2008 – 5:09 pm
He is a tad on the perpetually obnoxious side …
>Sacramento Solon:
Harold Ickes is an ass. Total, complete, ass. As is the lady he represents!
May 31, 2008 – 3:56 pm
Hillary had 13 supporters on the committee. (Her support on Credentials will be proportionately less.) She got one fewer vote than she thought.
>Wilbur:
Florida got the half vote, as, I take it,was expected. The vote on restoration of the full vote was closer than I would have guessed, 15-12. Half vote was unanimous. They’re just now starting to consider the Michigan motions.
May 31, 2008 – 3:49 pm
And gripping television it was …
>Sacramento Solon:
CB…
No, still going on. Vote on both Florida and Michigan is about to happen. It’s on both MSNBC and CSPAN.
May 31, 2008 – 3:30 pm
They spent all day coming up with the obvious.
>Capitol Boy:
Haven’t they finished the rules committee meeting yet?!
May 31, 2008 – 3:15 pm
That’s for sure.
>Jack Aubrey:
I’m glad the primaries are winding down. We can all use a break.
May 31, 2008 – 1:15 pm
Indeed.
>Jonas Blane:
That movie looks pretty good. For a chick flick.
May 31, 2008 – 12:30 pm
In yesterday’s round the clock coverage of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, Chuck Todd decreed that the Democratic Party “was Obama’s party now.”
The Clinton’s have lost the grip that they held on the Party from the time of Bill’s ’92 campaign and continuing not just through his years in the White House, but even through the candidacy of John Kerry four years beyond – a grip that remained tight until just now.
Reading a new article on Bill Clinton’s post-Presidency life (The Comeback Id – Todd S. Purdum writing for Vanity Fair), I was struck by the following passage:
In discussing the concerns of some in the Democratic Party – and indeed in Clintonworld – surrounding rumored continuing dalliances by the globetrotting former President (does his office address make him a Harlem Globetrotter?); the official response is that such concerns are symptoms of a sickness in the Party.
Get that? Worries about Bill, Burkle and Bing’s modern-day Rat Pack are the Party’s problem!
In the eyes of the Clintons (and those who surround them), Democrats are wrong in the head if they don’t deify Bill Clinton. After all, what was the Democratic Party before Bill Clinton came along? A bunch of lost-in-the-wilderness losers. What ever would we have done without him?
Such assumed ownership of the Party is exactly why Hillary’s campaign is days from being over.
Such hubris is how a relative newcomer was able to fell the Clinton juggernaut not so much by his talents – which are tremendous – but by simply reading the rules before playing the game.
I will always hold a fond place in my heart for Bill Clinton. He was the first President for whom I cast a ballot. Fighting a tough opposition Congress, he did much for this country and – yes – for my Democratic Party.
I have no doubt Senator Clinton has the drive and intellect to be an excellent President.
But in Hillary’s run, the Clintons placed themselves above the Party and the People – asserting some dynastic right to live in the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue that we own.
I will not mourn the death of Clintonian politics in America. I exalt their slipping grip on the mechanics in my Party.
I am fired up and ready to go.
Bill Bradley:
Except for the Monday part …:)
——
Only since 1971…but I was wrong on the date. The traditional one was May 30th.
Hope you are finding time for some weekend reading and enjoying it!
Feeble old fat person just back from walking a 10K in 1:29 and now must clean up and get ready for the rest of this day…
And, as always, thanks for providing us this spot to chat about politcs…and other important things of life! You da best!!!
I hope this means I don’t have to see Carville, MacAuliffe and Ickes any more.
lol
Thanks.
Maybe they’ll get their own show.
>Capitol Boy:
I hope this means I don’t have to see Carville, MacAuliffe and Ickes any more.
Jun 1, 2008 – 12:32 pm
You’re very welcome.
>Sacramento Solon:
Bill Bradley:
Except for the Monday part …:)
——
Only since 1971…but I was wrong on the date. The traditional one was May 30th.
Hope you are finding time for some weekend reading and enjoying it!
Feeble old fat person just back from walking a 10K in 1:29 and now must clean up and get ready for the rest of this day…
And, as always, thanks for providing us this spot to chat about politcs…and other important things of life! You da best!!!
Jun 1, 2008 – 10:57 am
The Clintons weren’t much in the way of party builders.
>Tommy Boy:
In yesterday’s round the clock coverage of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, Chuck Todd decreed that the Democratic Party “was Obama’s party now.”
The Clinton’s have lost the grip that they held on the Party from the time of Bill’s ‘92 campaign and continuing not just through his years in the White House, but even through the candidacy of John Kerry four years beyond – a grip that remained tight until just now.
What just happened in the party rules committee seems pretty stupid to me. If they wanted to show they meant business, they should have stuck to their original sanction and not seated ANY of the delegates. Absent having the guts to finish as they started, they should have at least given the delegates some fraction more than half, because that isn’t enough to deliver the nomination to Obama, it still leaves him 20 or so delegates short. They haven’t SOLVED anything, and the Hillary activists will remain pissed off all the way to Denver. Seems to me Dean and company are both stupid and gutless.
You aren’t making sense.
Len – OK. The Dems say, no primaries earlier than X. MI and FL say, screw you, we want to have a “say” in the nomination. Dems continue to say, NO dice. Not that early. The primaries go forward, and now dems get weak, and can’t stick to the earlier rule. So they give the delegates 1/2 a vote or some nonsense like that. But not enough of a vote to get Obama enough delegates to get the nomination. So they have solved nothing and pissed off the Hillary supporters more, I think, than they would have if they had just given the nomination to Obama. At least then it would be over and she could be shut out of the game. Stupid, and gutless.
Sure. Don’t let Obama beat Hillary this week. Hand him the nomination from a party committee.
The Dems follow your thinking, the party goes up in flames.
How is Obama going to “beat” Hillary this week?
What video today?
[...] Clintons, who have dominated national Democratic politics since 1992, publicly lost control of what had been their party Saturday in Washington. There they made their long threatened move before the party’s rules committee to have [...]
Obama moving forward.
OK. I don’t know how this conversation got here. But it’s pretty obvious. From tomorrow’s primaries and the supers. As I believe I said …
Actually, they did it exactly the way I would do it. Give or take a couple delegates.
>Hap Hazard:
Len – OK. The Dems say, no primaries earlier than X. MI and FL say, screw you, we want to have a “say” in the nomination. Dems continue to say, NO dice. Not that early. The primaries go forward, and now dems get weak, and can’t stick to the earlier rule. So they give the delegates 1/2 a vote or some nonsense like that. But not enough of a vote to get Obama enough delegates to get the nomination. So they have solved nothing and pissed off the Hillary supporters more, I think, than they would have if they had just given the nomination to Obama. At least then it would be over and she could be shut out of the game. Stupid, and gutless.
Jun 1, 2008 – 10:35 pm
Correct.
>Len:
Sure. Don’t let Obama beat Hillary this week. Hand him the nomination from a party committee.
The Dems follow your thinking, the party goes up in flames.
Jun 1, 2008 – 10:49 pm
They don’t have to, and should not, hand Obama the nomination as he is about to win it in actual state primaries.
Denying Michigan and Florida their delegations would be political suicide, the ultimate wet dream of Johnny Mac and his Big Five.
>Hap Hazard:
Len – OK. The Dems say, no primaries earlier than X. MI and FL say, screw you, we want to have a “say” in the nomination. Dems continue to say, NO dice. Not that early. The primaries go forward, and now dems get weak, and can’t stick to the earlier rule. So they give the delegates 1/2 a vote or some nonsense like that. But not enough of a vote to get Obama enough delegates to get the nomination. So they have solved nothing and pissed off the Hillary supporters more, I think, than they would have if they had just given the nomination to Obama. At least then it would be over and she could be shut out of the game. Stupid, and gutless.
Jun 1, 2008 – 10:35 pm
[...] Clintons, who have dominated national Democratic politics since 1992, publicly lost control of what had been their party Saturday in Washington. There they made their long threatened move [...]
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