An ongoing discussion of politics, law, pop culture, and fine draperies.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008



Spring A-Ling

A real quick one today, just to keep my streak of one post per three months alive and well …

I'm really serious about putting up the next in the Concerts series … or at least, serious about getting ready to think about putting up the next one. Naw, I ain't jokin'. I'm pondering the options – likely one of the following:

• Nirvana, Live at Fitchburg State (11.12.1993);
• Phish, Live at the Ballpark, Old Orchard Beach (7.02.1993);
• Morphine– at Granny Killams (defunct Portland club) in (??.1994) and Black Cat, D.C. 4.14.1996);
• U2 Zoo TV Outside Broadcast, Foxborough (8.22.1992);
• Pearl Jam, Live at the Orpheum (4.XX.1994) or
• Bob Mould, Live at the 9:30 Club (10.10.1996)

That said, options are like … uhh, oh well, whatever, nevermind …




Yah, yah, yah … Pennsylvania comes and goes, and what we gots? Nobody knows … that includes the Christian Science Monitor, whose
editorial today described the ever-dreaded "Superdelegates' Superdilemma":
Their campaign styles are telling of what kind of president each might be. For superdelegates caught on the fence of interpreting primary results, they must ask if the party wants a nominee whose tactics will carry over to the general election against Mr. McCain, then the White House, and ultimately to creating a different America.



Clinton won this primary squarely, but 68 percent of voters thought that she had "attacked unfairly." With mixed messages like that, the 300 will need Solomonic wisdom.
Meanwhile, Joe Klein writes in Time Magazine … well, wrote a bit, about a month ago, about the prospect that just won't die. Only he who sees things in Primary Colors has the gall to project a bit outside of the horserace, suggesting that perhaps "the answer to the Democratic Party's dilemma may turn out to be Al Gore:
Which brings us back to Al Gore. Pish-tosh, you say, and you're probably right. But let's play a little. Let's say the elders of the Democratic Party decide, when the primaries end, that neither Obama nor Clinton is viable. Let's also assume—and this may be a real stretch—that such elders are strong and smart enough to act. All they'd have to do would be to convince a significant fraction of their superdelegate friends, maybe fewer than 100, to announce that they were taking a pass on the first ballot at the Denver convention, which would deny the 2,025 votes necessary to Obama or Clinton. What if they then approached Gore and asked him to be the nominee, for the good of the party—and suggested that he take Obama as his running mate? Of course, Obama would have to be a party to the deal and bring his 1,900 or so delegates along.



I played out that scenario with about a dozen prominent Democrats recently, from various sectors of the party, including both Obama and Clinton partisans. Most said it was extremely unlikely ... and a pretty interesting idea. A prominent fund raiser told me, "Gore-Obama is the ticket a lot of people wanted in the first place." A congressional Democrat told me, "This could be our way out of a mess." Others suggested Gore was painfully aware of his limitations as a candidate. "I don't know that he'd be interested, even if you handed it to him," said a Gore friend. Chances are, no one will hand it to him. The Democratic Party would have to be monumentally desperate come June. And yet ... is this scenario any more preposterous than the one that gave John McCain the Republican nomination? Yes, it's silly season. But this has been an exceptionally "silly" year.




The folks at
New York Magazine have taken a more cutsy tack toward the question, with a screenplay-as-article titled "Four Days in Denver." The April 9 piece, by 'West Wing' writer Lawrence O'Donnell Jr, provides a vision into an imminent "Showdown at the Democratic National Convention."

The writer ponders a Hollywood answer to the question that has become all the more bandied about among Democrats as we fall into the jetwash of Hillary's victory in Pennsylvania yesterday. Fading in and out of screenplay style, he offers mini-scenarios like:

CUT TO:
Harold Ickes hanging up the phone in his hotel suite, the Clinton delegate-counting center.


Ickes: Hey, I just got the lieutenant governor of—

Howard Wolfson: Have you seen Gore? (Grabs a remote, flips on CNN’s live coverage of Al Gore arriving at Denver airport.)

Ickes (shocked): Holy shit!

Wolfson: He’s lost, what, 30 pounds?

Ickes (still can’t believe his eyes): He looks like …

Wolfson: A fucking candidate!



CUT TO:
Al Gore passes through a hotel lobby and is swarmed by fans and delegates. The fat man from the sex scene fights his way close to Gore. A Gore aide whispers the fat man’s name to Gore.


Fat man: Hey, Al, remember me? I’m the lieutenant govern—

Gore: Hey, Pete, great to see you. Are you committed?

Fat man: Well, actually, I just said yes to Hillary, but if you throw your hat in the—

Gore: Hey, I’m just here to help any way I can.

Fat man: You look just unbelievable.


Another excerpt:

Hillary has never seen this kind of ruthlessness outside of her family. For the first time ever, the thought flashes through her mind that this guy could maybe turn out to be a good president, maybe he could stare down the Putins of the world.

Barack: When you walk out of here I’m going straight to a press conference and announce that when I get the nomination, my choice for VP will be Wesley Clark, and—

Hillary (laughs): Not gonna happen. Wes has been with my campaign from the start.

Barack (continuing): —and on the next ballot, the possible Obama-Clark ticket’s gonna get me the Arkansas delegation and another—what do you think—200 superdelegates at least?

Hillary: I’m not gonna let you have Wes for a phony unity ticket.

Barack: Too late. Michelle is meeting with him right now.

Barack’s iPhone buzzes. He checks it.

Hillary: He won’t accept anything without my—

Barack holds up the iPhone. close on text message: CLARK DEAL DONE. LUV U, M. Hillary looks pained—as much by the Clark deal as by the love in the Obama marriage. Barack gives her a moment to process the shock, then …



Barack (softly): I want you to come with me to the press conference.

Hillary: No way.

Barack: I need—

Hillary (bitterly): You don’t need me. You’ve got my biggest supporter as your VP. He’s got you covered now on foreign-policy credentials, military experience.

Barack: It’s not a unity ticket unless you say it’s a unity ticket. I want to tell the press that I asked you to be VP, you turned it down and suggested General Clark. I want to give you credit for saving the day, saving the party. I want you leaving Denver with your head held high.

Hillary: I, uh, I …

Barack: Wes has already agreed to that story.

CLOSE on Hillary, thinking about it …

Barack: I can win the nomination without you, but I can’t win the election without you. I need you, Hillary

Etc.

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3 Comments:

Blogger timb said...

Well done, but I still await your discussion of draperies. Plus, I would like more of a discussion of how people like Josh, who care so desperately that Obama NOT win, are weird in the minds of us "normal" people.

That's right, I want you to ridicule Josh.

2:12 PM

 
Blogger B said...

I don't even know who Josh is, and I think I want to ridicule him...

I say go with it.

11:41 AM

 
Blogger T. Oklahoma Bandwagon said...

People either love or hate Josh ... and often both, within a span of 3-4 minutes.

1:38 PM

 

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