October 2008 Archives

Deep down, I don't think this is 2000 or 2004. I think this election is going to be won by Obama, and decisively enough to eliminate any lingering discussion of fraud. Which must be why this sent chills down my spine - the White House preparing for a transition of power. The giant machine slowly sparking to life, as even the most corrupt of leaders sense the weight of history on their shoulders and prepare to play their part.

These dark woods have been cold and uncertain for many long years, and I'm happy, and hopeful, that we're finally getting out.

We did a project last year with Dave Attell, and he frequently mentioned Louis CK. Dave Attell is completely awesome, and now here I really get what makes Louis CK someone worthy of his praise. When people tell the truth and it’s funny, it’s the best funny of all. This is via Scott Heiferman’s running stream.

Kos has his take on the Republican options - the neocons are out, the theocons are poor, and the corporate cons aren't game changers the way Dean was.

The evangelists have been burned by the party in the last eight years, and I think Huckabee's absence of insanity, his genial humor, might lead the party to a more genuine compassionate conservativism. But Palin is all ugliness and ignorant righteous hatred, the unaware spawn of Fox News. Her speech at the convention was horrifying for its ignorant dismissal of Obama (then again, Giuliani was even worse).

Me - I'm thinking about an ongoing project now, all about the rebuilding of the party. Will it get uglier before it gets a big tent message? I wonder what the Obamacons think about that. When will the party be safe again for them? And what will that look like, given how conservative and steady Obama's leadership demeanor is?

The most interesting content online right now - for those who are poll-weary - is watching the new right emerge. For anyone on the left, a reconstituted conservative movement in the United States is something to root for. Bush/Cheney have made the right such a toxic, vapid failure, but for party loyalists, the party is king.

What does this mean? It means a conservative movement animated by stronger ideals instead of a righteous cocktail of greed, disdain for liberty, and neo-corporatism will move the exact same base of party faithful towards something genuinely more meaningful and valuable for more peoples' lives.

There are millions of people who will vote for whatever their party serves them - on the left and on the right. A better Republican Party means a better country. And it also means the Democratic Party will have a worthy adversary - keeping them smart and together and honest as well.

So in recent days, I've found myself poking around (or trying to find, really) the front lines of the new right. Where will the new right come from? Andrew Sullivan - I don't know, he doesn't seem to have his finger on the pulse, exactly. He feels more like another iteration of dailykos these days. And redstate is just the whining detrius of this utterly failed movement of the last eight years.

But the next right seems like a good blog to add to your blogroll if you're a left reader. Not to agree with them, just to watch the edges of the rebuilding that must take place for the Republican Party to reconnect to a meaningful message.

And maybe even to root for the development of a political philosophy that actually gives a shit about people's lives instead of masquerading in years of corruption and deceit. Which brings me to the above picture: the scary-looking 20-year Republican house member Dana Rohrabacher sneering at Debbie Cook, who is running neck and neck with him right now in California's district 46. The contempt is infuriating. Via MyDD.

Just an enjoyable reminder of the danger of letting too many talking heads do your thinking for you. Except me - let me do all your thinking for you.

How can a party exist to represent the interests of the American people that so aggressively pursues disenfranchising voters? Republicans have been hijacked by lies and greed for so long now that the party itself is a hollow, hallowed shell. Let the civil war begin, and let's hope some brave conservatives force the dialogue inward and not into more vitriol, toxic anger. As ugly as that will be, it won't help the party reconnect with Americans.

And McCain has collapsed into an unforgivable mess of a human.

I love letters to the editor, so I especially love the NYTimes’ fantastically spam and flame-free comments they now have. Just about everyone has a smart thing to say given the time to think it through, and it’s great for a major news outlet to invest time and money in keeping the conversation intelligent.

This is about as crass as the dialogue gets, and I agree with it. It’s from the Caucus blog comments:

The truth is that until election day the black guy with the funny name is the real underdog. Democrats, don’t take anything for granted. Work and donate. - pb

It's absurd that these news channel groups of people are viewed in the unreconstructed vacuum of "politically undecided". If Soledad approaches you and says

a) you're going to be on national TV,
b) we're going to live-track your response to every instant of the debate,
c) afterwards, you can tell us what you liked and didn't like,

how many people might be slightly INFLUENCED by how freaking empowering that is? And begin to find their way around the well-come-to-think-of-it-yes-maybe-I-am-undecided mindset? I don't mean they're dishonest or power-hungry, I mean they're human, and it feels really, really good to be "needed" by something as gigantic as CNN or Fox News.







I'm reminded of the woman after the second CNN debate who said that she was "more undecided than ever" after the debate. How is that possible? Might it be that because if you ARE decided, you don't get to come back?

It reminds me of colonial models of anthropology - but it's a hundred times more obvious. You don't just observe someone without them observing you back, and observing the moment that you have placed them in, and altering their behavior because of that.

Unless, like a political candidate or other experienced public actors, they're used to that attention and can find authenticity inside of it.

But for most of us, it's not that way. So many interviews I've done start with us arriving to find a spotless house and a dolled-up interviewee. For lots of people, when the cameras start rolling, it's their moment. And that's OK. But it's not OK when it lives as an a priori state of pure-politic personhood, as it does on these panels.

The BBC has a strategy with documentary filmmaking that is fascinating in this respect - they will often have their producers do audio interviews, in person, before coming back with a film crew. The producer records the interview on a regular small cassette recorder. When they return later, with lights, cameras, crews, the whole magillicutty, they just play clips from the audio interview, from the one-on-one moment, from before the whole thing seemed larger than life - and say please repeat what you told me when it was just the two of us.

TV changes us. Maybe the interet will change that eventually, but for now, when the lights go on, get out the grains of salt.

We did this super-fun stunt to support my friend Jon's Barack Obama site.




I know how spurious and unreliable political video can be, so from the beginning, it seemed best to create a spectacle that would be of service in and of itself, regardless of how the video performed.

So we took two amazing fighters to the streets of NYC, dressed them in Star Wars outfits and McCain and Obama masks, and had them swordfight. They were great - Casey Clark as Obama and Erik Gratton as Vader. Erik also choreographed the fight.

The day was kind of perfect. On Wall Street, it was a lovefest, with all the European tourists simply digging this act of political theater. The markets were in pandemonium, and we were surrounded by some heavy duty cops. But they didn't care a bit. Except to snap a couple photos.

Go Obama. Here's the complete crew:

Casey Clark - Obama
Eric Gratton - McCain

George Tsalkis - Bush
Sean Michael Wilkenson - Stormtrooper
Andrew Deputerre  - Stormtrooper
Sam Dodd - Voice of Yoda

Gregor Clark - Director
Adrienne Imbriaco - Producer, Casting
Rachel Wiederhoeft - Production Coordinator
Blythe Frank - Casting
Eric Gratton - Fight Choreography
Rene Crout -Director of Photography
Hannah Neufeld - Editor
Aaron Steinberg - Sound Design, Editing
Sebastian Conley - Text Graphics

Animators:
Adam Ansorge - Head Animator

Peter Blanco  - Asst Animator
Nicholas Woods - Asst Animator
Bob Gebbie - Asst Animator
Eva Snyder - Asst Animator
Joseph Rufian - Asst Animator
Tobias Roediger - Asst Animator
Euhna Sophie Lee - Asst Animator
Liliana Penagos - Asst Animator
Jon Campbell - Asst Animator
Travis Blain - Asst Animator
Michael del Rossi - Asst Animator
Eric Rothman - Asst Animator
David Wanta - Asst Animator
Nathaniel Caauwe - Asst Animator
Eric Tarkanian - Asst Animator