** NOT NICE GUY OBAMA. After provoking John McCain from the Senate floor into an exchange yesterday about why he does not support his ally Senator Jim Webb’s new GI bill (Webb being the most highly decorated Marine combat officer of the Vietnam War), Barack Obama today ripped Rush Limbaugh for possibly provoking hate crimes against Latinos.Apparently Obama’s rather gentlemanly tactics against Hillary Clinton do not apply to Republicans.
** UPDATE –SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will, following a tour of the so-called Summit fire in Santa Cruz County, hold a media availability in Gilroy, originally scheduled at 10:30 AM, now scheduled at 11:45 AM.
California is in drought condition due to climate change, I drove through one extremely smoky fire in the Central Valley around John McCain’s tour yesterday, and summer does not begin for another month.
** CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY CONGRESSMEN COME OUT FOR OBAMA. Two very prominent Central Valley Democratic congressmen have just come out for Barack Obama. They are Congressman Jim Costa, previously uncommitted. And Congressman Dennis Cardoza, who was previously a Clinton superdelegate. Both are among the leading relative conservatives in the Democratic Party.
Obama is now, under existing national Democratic Party rules, less than 60 delegates away from the presidential nomination.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Miami and Surise, Florida.
John McCain is off the trail at his “cabin” in Sedona, Arizona.
Hillary Clinton is in South Dakota.
Bill Clinton is … I don’t know where.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will, following a tour of the so-called Summit fire in Santa Cruz County, hold a media availability in Gilroy at 10:30 AM.
California is in drought condition due to climate change, I drove through one extremely smoky fire in the Central Valley around John McCain’s tour yesterday, and summer does not begin for another month.
** 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 lays out his plan on global climate change.
** ROAD SHOW. Interesting, though not infrequently boring, day around the John McCain campaign today. I learned a lot, and am still absorbing it. Sometimes it’s best for the instrument to be stuck on receive, rather than transmit …
You’ll start seeing things tomorrow.
** NOTE: I’m on the road today around the John McCain campaign. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins McCain for part of the day.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Washington (he’s also a US senator) and Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and Hollywood, Florida.
John McCain is in California for public events in Union City and Stockton and private fundraisers at the home of ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman and developer and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos.
Hillary Clinton is in Washington (she’s a US senator, too).
** 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.
Both Obama and Clinton hold big leads in California over John McCain. Obama’s lead is the biggest, 54% to 37% over the Arizona senator. The Democratic frontrunner’s 17-point lead over McCain in California is nearly twice as large as his 49% to 40% lead in March.
Clinton leads McCain, too, 51% to 39%. But, while she won a 51% to 43% victory over Obama in the California primary back on February 5th, Obama is much more popular in the Golden State now.
Obama has a 59% favorable rating, with 36% unfavorable. Clinton has a 46% favorable rating, with 51% unfavorable. McCain is 42% favorable and 53% unfavorable.
Republicans have hoped to put California in play for the general election. Here Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of McCain helped him win the decisive primary of his nomination fight, knocking Mitt Romney out of the race. These numbers do little to support that notion.
There’s not much in the poll to suggest that California is anything other than a largely Democratic state. And Schwarzenegger himself, winner of two 17-point landslides of his own in races for governor, very popular at the end of last year, has seen his ratings slide.
Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating used to be in the 60s. But in this poll, among likely voters, the former action superstar is approved by 45% and disapproved by 49%. His numbers are lower among all Californians, with only 41% approving of his performance as governor.
It’s all about the chronic state budget crisis. Schwarzenegger’s May budget revision gets a thumbs down from voters. Only 35% approve, while 57% disapprove. That’s the lowest level of approval for his handling of the budget since he has been in office.
The Legislature is much less popular than Schwarzenegger, with only 23% approving of its performance, and 65% disapproving.
There is no clear popular consensus on how to fix the chronic budget mess. Nevertheless, a clear plurality supports a combination of cuts and taxes over the ostensible Republican position of cuts-only, by a margin of 43% to 33%. Only 8% favor a taxes-only approach to solving the budget crisis. Thus we see that 51% support some tax hikes as at least part of the solution vs. only 33% who reject taxes out of hand. Interestingly, 6% think it fine to borrow money and run an ongoing budget deficit. Which has been what’s happening.
But what taxes? A hike in the traditional sales tax is not favored. A new services-oriented sales tax is also rejected. The approach that does seem favored is that of taxes on corporations and the wealthy. 63% support higher corporate taxes; 69% support higher taxes on the wealthy. In other words, voters want to tax others.
And what cuts? That gets vague. There doesn’t seem to be any widespread enthusiasm for cuts in health, welfare, or, naturally, the sacred cow of the education budget, the latter of which 61% say they want to protect above all else.
What about Schwarzenegger’s idea of using the underperforming asset of the California State Lottery as a means of generating new revenue without raising taxes? That doesn’t look popular at all. The poll describes the current plan to securitize the Lottery as borrowing against future Lottery income, which is not how Schwarzenegger frames it. Asked that way, the plan is favored by only 30%, with 62% opposed.
One bit of significantly good news for Schwarzenegger does come in the area of budget reform. He’s pushing a Budget Stabilization Act, which would limit how much state spending could increase each year, establish a rainy day fund to smooth out the state’s boom and bust revenue cycle, and allow for mid-year budget cuts.
Schwarzenegger’s budget reform plan is backed by 61% of likely voters.
The poll reveals that 1978′s Proposition 13 property tax cut is still sacrosanct, and that only 39% want to drop the two-thirds vote requirement for passage of a state budget.
In short, a somehow confused and occasionally schizophrenic electorate. But one that generally supports the Democratic approach on governance, without trusting legislative Democrats with the keys to the safe.
There are also two eminent domain “reform” initiatives on the ballot. The most controversial one, Prop 98, would also eliminate rent control and other renters rights laws in California. That’s way behind, with only about 30% support. (Rent control is favored, 54% to 38%.) The other has plurality support, but is under 50%.
Barack Obama spoke last night at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa.
So Barack Obama passed another key threshold Tuesday. He has now won an absolute majority of the delegates earned in the primary and caucus season. With two weeks to go in this marathon Democratic race, he has bested the strongest brand in the Democratic Party — the Clintons — and an impressive field of, frankly, more experienced figures.
In the process, Obama, thanks both to a network of elite fundraisers drawn to his cause and, more importantly, an unprecedented Internet fundraising operation, has shattered all presidential primary fundraising records. He has raised three times as much money as the presumptive Republican nominee, America’s most famous Vietnam War hero, the estimable John McCain, who is a quarter century older than the tyro senator from Illinois.
On Tuesday night, Obama won big in Oregon, the largest state left in the Democratic contest. And he lost bigger in Kentucky, where Hillary and Bill Clinton essentially camped out for much of the past week.
Obama’s victory in Oregon, 58% to 41%, is impressive. I know the state well. In some ways, it is a second home state for me, given my late war hero dad’s wanderlust ways. He died in Oregon. Lots of small town folks there, nearly all of them white. Most don’t drink white wine. It’s much more of a beer state. Yet I knew Obama would do well there, given his post-partisan change framing and environmental rhetoric, which plays in nicely to the the classic Beaver State theme: “Don’t Californicate Oregon.”
Obama did surprise me when he drew a record 75,000 to his Sunday rally in Portland. God only knows how many he will draw to general election rallies, when the Dems are again united.
But Obama, in my view, made a mistake in not campaigning at all in Kentucky. While Hillary Clinton, a very strong candidate — let’s recall that, for all her campaign’s whining today about the media, she was “inevitable” to all but a few of us in the press virtually all of last year — was always going to win the Bluegrass State, she didn’t have to win it 65% to 30%.
And the Clintons, no matter what they may tell themselves, and fitfully issue forth through their increasingly skeptical advisors, are on a glide path. No more attacks on Obama.
But while they are on a glide path, Obama is on a sort of cruise control.
And cruise control, in the end, does not win elections. Not when you are running against so likable and formidable a character as John McCain.
Roll up his sleeves, roll into diners, roll with folks who are unlikely to vote for him but do need to respect him if he is to be the president.
He didn’t do that.
And that was a mistake.
Obama and Chicago, as his high command is known, are betting on big dynamics in this election. They have been right as they have inexorably defeated what was supposed to be the most awesome national Democratic political machine in history, the Clintons. The wind is certainly at their back as Democrats in what should be a bad year for Republicans. But Obama still has a lot to prove. And he didn’t go out of his way to prove it in the past week. …
** MCCAIN LOSES CHIEF MEDIA CONSULTANT. As I reported months ago that he would, Mark McKinnon, the Texan who serves as John McCain chief media consultant and was George W. Bush’s before that, has stepped away from the McCain campaign. Why? Because Barack Obama has all but locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. McKinnon says he will still vote for McCain, but is a great admirer of Obama. He determined last year that he would not be part of any campaign against him. Electing Obama, McKinnon ways, “would send a great message to the country and the world.” Five other McCain aides have recently departed because of their lobbying roles. One was the pick to run the Republican National Convention, out because he previously worked for the brutal Burmese military dictatorship. Another is McCain’s national finance chairman, who makes millions as a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia.
** MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.Barack Obama raised $31.3 million last month, racking up 200,000 new donors. Hillary Clinton raised $22 million (including that famous $10 million in 24 hours after her 9-point Pennsylvania win). John McCain trailed with his best month ever, $18 million. Clinton is $22 million in debt.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Tampa and Kissimmee, Florida.
John McCain is in Irvine, California for a private fundraiser.
Hillary Clinton is in Florida.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses the annual California Chamber of Commerce Host Breakfast this morning at 8:30 AM. He will discuss the state’s economy and budget crisis.
** 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.
Obama campaign leader Steve Westly is very confident about his candidate’s prospects.
As we await the predictable results from Oregon and Kentucky, you can see above the view of former California state Controller Steve Westly, the first California co-chairman for Barack Obama and a national finance co-chairman for the campaign who has raised millions for the freshman Illinois senator. We did this video interview late Friday afternoon.
Westly, the ex-eBay honcho-turned-leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist — who on Sunday as head of the Obama California forces found common ground with my old friend John Emerson, head of the California Clinton forces at the meeting of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention — is extremely bullish on Obama’s prospects. As he was when we bantered prior to the North Carolina/Indiana primaries during an earlier visit to his office on Sand Hill Road, the legendary home of America’s high tech venture capital industry.
Westly correctly prophesied the outcomes in North Carolina and Indiana — and the consequent endorsements by superdelegates of the relative tyro Obama — and now believes that the move will continue. As do I.
Meanwhile, Hillary and Bill Clinton have planted themselves in Kentucky, the last state which she will win in this contest. And Barack Obama, along with his wife Michelle, who notoriously said as a black woman that she is for the first time “really proud,” as distinguished from merely proud, of America, with her husband moving forward in politics, will have a big rally tonight in Des Moines, Iowa. The capital city of the Hawkeye State, a not inconsequential place in my own personal history with my old friend Gary Hart, who won the most famous distant second place there in American political history, will serve as backdrop for Obama’s continued launch of his general election campaign. Which from the Republican point of view, is already well underway.
With, as it happens, John McCain attacking Obama for being soft on Cuba. For wanting to talk with Cuba. Cuba? I get it. As I was actually alive, albeit as a very small child, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the reasons why there is a bust of JFK in my office.
But the truth is that Richard Nixon met with Fidel Castro. And John McCain has talked about talking with the Cubans. As I mentioned in my piece last week, which played here and was featured on the Huffington Post — “What Is Appeasement?” — everybody talked with everybody during the most perilous period in the history of the planet, the Cold War.
Some wore the uniform during that period. Some did not. John McCain certainly did.
Ignored by John McCain and the Republicans as they engage with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton will win today’s Kentucky primary.
** MCCAIN PRAISES HIS FRIEND KENNEDY, AFTER BLASTING OBAMA FOR WANTING TO DO WHAT, ER, NIXON DID. After blasting Barack Obama this morning in Miami, and apparently forgetting that Richard Nixon met with Fidel Castro at the height of the Cold War, John McCain issued this statement about his friend Ted Kennedy, with whom he collaborated on the comprehensive immigration proposal: Our thoughts and prayers go out to Senator Kennedy and his family. We hope and pray his doctors will be able to effectively treat his condition and that he will experience a full recovery. I have described Ted Kennedy as the last lion in the Senate, and I have held that view because he remains the single most effective member of the Senate.
I already knew about the Nixon-Castro meeting, since I study history, but here is a National Review writer deviating from the party storyline.
** TED KENNEDY’S WEEKEND SEIZURES CAUSED BY BRAIN TUMOR. According to the Wall Street Journal alert: Doctors said Sen. Edward Kennedy has brain tumor. Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat said tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal-lobe. The usual course of treatment includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy, but Kennedy’s treatment will be decided after more tests. The 76-year-old senator has been hospitalized in Boston since Saturday, when he was airlifted from Cape Cod after a seizure at his home.
** NO GAME DAY COVERAGE TODAY: NEXT GAME DAY ON JUNE 3rd. There will be a couple of long posts today, including a wrap at the end, but no Game Day coverage of Oregon (an Obama win) and Kentucky (a Clinton win). Going into tonight’s festivities, since the West Virginia primary last Tuesday, Barack Obama has gained 25 new superdelegates to Hillary Clinton’s four.
There will be a full Game Day package on June 3rd, last day of the primary season.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack and Michelle Obama are in Des Moines, Iowa to celebrate his win in the earned delegates and campaign in a general election battleground state.
John McCain is in Miami, Florida to attack Obama on Cuban Independence Day.
Hillary and Bill Clinton are in Louisville, Kentucky.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCASTS THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joins the Environmental Defense Fund this morning in San Francisco as they unveil a new annual look at environmental innovations — products and practices that help the environment and increase business efficiency. The event begins at 10:45 AM.
This afternoon, Schwarzenegger is at the Disneyland Hotel in Orange County for the annual California Peace Officers Awards Luncheon. He speaks at 1:15 PM.
** 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.
Barack Obama fires back at President Bush and John McCain on “appeasement.”
A very big week in presidential politics is on tap. After ceding Kentucky to Hillary Clinton, who has stopped attacking him, Barack Obama will win big in Oregon on Tuesday night and as a result rack up the win in delegates earned in the primaries and caucuses. But, though he drew an astounding 75,000 people to a Portland rally on Sunday afternoon, according to the city fire department, Obama will be nowhere near Oregon on Tuesday night. Instead, he will hold a rally in downtown Des Moines, site of his breakthrough Iowa victory on January 3rd and a key swing state in the general election.
There in Iowa, Obama will note that, but for the existence of the superdelegates (who have been sliding to him for months), he would already have won the Democratic presidential nomination. Following that big rally, Obama will spend the next three days in another general election battleground state, Florida, which should belong to John McCain given its Republican slant and his historic connections there due to his famed Navy service.
You’ve noticed that little of this is about Hillary. The fact is that she is simply being left behind. I was at Sunday’s meeting of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hillary has more delegates from California than any other state. Even her latest putative home state of New York, the second largest state in the union. It was probably the most mellow California delegation meeting I’ve ever attended.
This will certainly disappoint those on the far right who have been prophesying riots in the streets of Denver, but both the Clinton and Obama camps are coming together in California in a sort of kumbaya behind the most probable nominee, the freshman Illinois senator.
It will not, however, surprise those who’ve been paying attention to these columns.
The Clintons are on a glide path. They have stopped attacking Obama. In this, they are following the advice not only of Democratic elders like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Al Gore, but also many of their own supporters, who are getting ready to back Obama in order to defeat John McCain.
With regard to President Bush’s “appeasement” comments last week in Israel, John McCain, unfortunately for him, not that he had much choice, given the state of the conservative base in America, took the bait and defended Bush from the furious counter-attack mounted against him from across the near-unanimous Democratic Party.
“I think it is an unacceptable position,” said McCain, “and shows that Senator Obama does not have the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation’s security.”
Here is the problem with that. Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and Secretary of State Condi Rice have already endorsed such talks. Clearly, with President Bush’s agreement. And, in fact, the US is already engaged in such talks. Iraq does not become the victory that John McCain hopes for by January 2013 without an agreement with Iran regarding a settlement of the security situation. In fact, the end to the latest all-out fighting in Iraq was brokered from Tehran.
Frankly, this is exactly what Obama and the Democrats want. Which is why virtually the entire Democratic Party immediately snapped into action to attack Bush and McCain.
John McCain says he leads while the Democrats fight.
John McCain has some big fundamental problems. And until George W. Bush decides to step away from the fray, those problems only get bigger.
Chief among these problems are his connection to Bush, who is near record lows in job approval, and the fact that some 80% of American voters think the nation is on the wrong track.
Then there are the three straight Republican defeats in special elections in seemingly safe Republican congressional districts. First in former House Speaker Denny Hastert’s district, where Obama played a major role in defeating the Republican candidate. Then in races in Louisiana and, last week, Mississippi, in which Republicans tried to run against Obama and his wacky ex-pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
Following the latest defeat, Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, held a press conference call.
“It’s evident to me,” said Cole, “that a large segment of the American people doesn’t have confidence in the Republican Party.”
What antidote to this problem does he see? John McCain. “McCain,” he said, “is a great asset for us. He runs much ahead of the Republican brand.”
Cole said that he thinks that the Democrats are advantaged in the current environment because George W. Bush is president. “We’re in a luxury period for them (the Democrats) where a lot of Americans think the Republican Party is running things.” He noted that Democrats now have majorities in both the House and the Senate. Of course, the Democrats are stymied by the White House.
How much of an albatross is President Bush?
“President Bush,” Cole said, “is a lot like Harry Truman in that he’ll look good in the history books. This really isn’t about him. It’s about where America is going to go in 2009.”
Meanwhile, Virginia Congressman Tom Davis, former NRCC chairman, distributed a memo in which he said that Bush is simply “radioactive.”
When I interviewed one of Obama’s biggest backers on Friday, former California state Controller Steve Westly, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and ex-eBay honcho, I asked him if they were buying Rev. Wright a one-way ticket to a desert island. He said they aren’t. Wright is not nearly the problem for Obama that Bush is for McCain. …
** ON THE ROAD – A CALIFORNIA BUDGET PROBLEM. I’m on the road today. While in a luncheon, the state’s Legislative Analyst Office shot a hole through Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May budget revision, especially with regard to his plan to securitize the California Lottery, a plan the LAO calls overly optimistic and possibly a threat to a guaranteed amount of funding for education. Republicans and Democrats both jumped on the report to push their respective agendas; cuts for Republicans, taxes for Democrats. The Schwarzenegger team had a media conference call to push back on this, which I listened to as I drove around, mostly in the wrong direction. They say the Lottery will perform better with appropriate modernization.
** CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING REFORM INITIATIVE MOVES AHEAD. Common Cause has announced that the redistricting initiative for the November ballot has turned in over 1.2 million signatures. This should qualify it for the ballot. It’s backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor Gray Davis, former Controller Steve Westly, and other reform groups.
** READ MY FULL REPORT ON SUNDAY’S MEETING OF THE CALIFORNIA DELEGATION TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.You can read my report here.
Incidentally, 2006 California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides, who endorsed Hillary Clinton, has no role with the 2008 California delegation. His narrowly defeated primary rival, former Controller Steve Westly, one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers, has, as you will see, a big role.
Barack Obama is in Billings, Crow Agency, and Bozeman, Montana.
John McCain is in Chicago.
Hillary Clinton is in Kentucky.
Bill Clinton is in Kentucky.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does another event this morning with local elected officials and other community leaders on behalf of his version of budget reform in Coronado at 11:15 AM. The event will be webcast live at 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.
The fourth Indiana Jones picture premieres this weekend at Cannes and opens wide on May 22nd. This is a trailer for the 1981 original, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
** ICONS: INDIANA JONES AND THE WRATH OF CANNES. Okay, a pun for all you geeks out there, and one that doesn’t quite work, either.
Still, there was supposed to be a major element of risk in Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas opening the fourth installment of my favorite All-American movie icon Indiana Jones at the Cannes Film Festival. (You also have the awesome Cate Blanchett as a delicious Soviet villainess.) Given the critical and popular — to the extent that folks who go to Cannes represent popular taste — drubbing that The Da Vinci Code received there two years ago. In the event, Da Vinci Code went on to be a mega-hit nonetheless. And, in classic new media fashion, somebody who claimed to be a studio executive using a fake handle posted a negative take on a popular film blog which some in the dread MSM picked up as a harbinger of something or other. Nevertheless, the fourth Indiana Jones picture, certainly not to my surprise, turned out to do rather well at Cannes. Here’s the Variety review.
It will be a big hit. How big? I don’t know. But big. Why? Because it’s made by some of the top professionals in the movie business, who understand their audience far better than their envious critics. (And I don’t say this as somebody who exactly loves all these folks. I like Ford, who may be my favorite movie star. With apologies to a certain governor and a certain almost presidential candidate who shares my initials. Lucas, on the other hand, once sent me a very nasty note about one of my columns. Whatever. They know what they’re doing.)
In addition to knowing what they are doing, they have created, in Dr. Jones, probably the ultimate American movie icon. Archetypes being more relevant to politics than the art house, were I helping run the John McCain campaign I would have the half-dozen years older than Harrison Ford senator find a way to track the icon.
Spielberg famously told Lucas in the late ’70s that he wanted to direct a James Bond picture. Bond, of course, being the ultimate British movie icon. Though Doctor Who might give 007 a run for his money. Lucas told him he had something better than Bond. It turned out to be Henry Jones, Jr.
Lucas is so into Indiana Jones that he created a very involved, and underappreciated TV series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Which, in his notorious fashion, the Star War auteur later reworked into a series of 22 90-minute movies on DVD, with accompanying (and quite impressive) historical documentaries, in which he retconned the young Jones into innumerable encounters with notable figures of early 20th century history.
It’s really quite clever, and all of a piece with Lucas’s conception of Jones as the representative American action hero. Like Batman/Bruce Wayne (the latter being my perpetual gag Halloween costume), Indiana Jones has no superpowers. Unlike Batman, he is not a brooding damaged soul with a split persona. Jones is merely very smart, resourceful, fallible, funny, indomitable, yet not stupidly indomitable. He is like a classic 1940s American.
Obviously, I have more to say about this. But not at the moment. For now, suffice to say that the famous archaeology professor is back. “Hey, Dr. Jones, no time for love!” Time to kick some butt.
** ICONS: TED KENNEDY. So Senator Kennedy was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital after suffering two seizures yesterday morning at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport and being taken to the local hospital. They are still doing tests late on Sunday, he’s in the hospital at least till Monday. They are saying he didn’t have a stroke, though the reports in the first hours are that he suffered stroke-like symptoms. Kennedy family members converged on Boston, along with 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Barack Obama said today that he expects Kennedy back in the Senate soon. Somebody else who knows him said it’s more like August.
How’s he really doing? Who knows? The Kennedys are past masters at controlling this sort of information.
Here is what I know. When Kennedy was out earlier in the year campaigning heavily, and effectively, for Obama, he was quite heavy. He did not move at all well. He tired relatively easily. And after a relatively short time, especially given his obvious zest in supporting his 30-years younger colleague, he disappeared from the campaign trail. And did not reappear in what seemed his appropriate role to cross bodyblock Bill Clinton when he engaged in his negative campaigning.
I’m told that Kennedy lost weight and was trying to get into fighting form for the general election to help Obama. But when you are 76 years old, that is not as easy as it once was. It’s not easy for somebody two decades younger. We’ll see how he really is, and hope for the best.
Incidentally, I’m aware that Barack Obama drew an astounding 75,000 people to his Sunday afternoon rally in Portland, Oregon. He will note the milestone of having won the majority of earned delegates in the race Tuesday night at a big rally in downtown Des Moines, one of my old Gary Hart stomping grounds, site of Obama’s breakthrough victory in January and a key swing state in the general election.
I was at the meeting today of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Which went rather smoothly, though not surprisingly, as the Clinton forces were led by John Emerson and the Obama forces by Steve Westly, both of whom I know well. I’m preparing a full report for another publication, which will be linked to here.
** A fairly light weekend, largely free from contemplation of the endless spin and attack that marks our politics …
** SUNDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Gresham, Portland, and Pendleton, Oregon.
John McCain is in New York City.
Hillary Clinton is in Kentucky.
Bill Clinton is in Oregon.
** SATURDAY — WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Roseburg, Oregon.
John McCain is in New York City. He appears tonight on Saturday Night Live.
Hillary Clinton is in Kentucky.
Bill Clinton is in Nevada, for the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno, and Oregon.
** 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.
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