THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I love how Aaron Sorkin gives us actual things to think about, while Newsweek is going all TMZ.com on us and gives us this stuff:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/160091/output/print
About how McCain owns 13 cars while Obama owns 1.

Next week, we’ll learn how many TVs McCain has.

I disagree. The “interview” was a typical liberal cliche-fest, totally uninteresting.

The same kind of lame demonstrating-that-this-common-belief-is-manifestly-absurd sarcasm. Except that “this common belief” is always a liberal caricature that has little basis in reality.

I can’t think of anything more boring.

I find Sorkin’s portrayal of the whatif scenario of Obama’s pregnant single 17yr old daughter perfectly apropos.  There is a racial bias in USA, and I think that that scenario would get 100x the play that Palin’s kid is getting.

If all we did was go by the media, we’d think that all abductees are young, pretty, white girls.

The media should give a pass to Palin’s kid, as its doing for the most part.  It wouldn’t for a black candidate’s kid, I don’t think.

Palin is a VP nomination.  Obama is at the top of the ticket.  Anything Obama does should get 100x the play that Palin does.  Anything McCain does should get 100x the play that Biden does.  It’s simple:  very few people care who the VP is. 

Black/white is an issue in this country, but the VP nomination and the Presidential nomination should in no way, shape or form be treated equally by the media.

Now Maureen Dowd is using surrogates to waste my time?  Ugh.

If the purpose of the columnist is illuminate a particular current issue or event in a new, or clearer, light, then Dowd (and, in this case, via Sorkin) has failed.  Utterly.

Yep, just the same old leftist drivel. Palin is sure in their heads now. Is John McCain even running anymore?

John/2, I disagree.  I thought it was an interesting take on how Obama is essentially being a “nice guy”, but it makes him look like a pushover.  But if he brought some passion to it, and got mad, it might inspire people a little more (and make them a little more likely to vote for him).

Tango/3, I agree.  Although I’ll say, I think the folks that would freak out (or, demonstrate phony outrage, as you’ve coined) are a small portion of the population.  They just happen to yell the loudest, unfortunately.

David/4, you’re crazy.  I don’t know what *should* get press, but anyone with a television or a radio can tell you that people DO care about who the VP is.  And if you’re really concerned about that, I think Tango’s point still holds if Biden was the candidate and he chose Obama & his 17-year-old pregnant daughter as his VP candidate.

I dunno guys, I see a lot of negativity here.  The guy’s a good writer, he brought up some interesting points.  To me, at least.  If you got nothing out of it, that’s unfortunate.  But it doesn’t make it pointless or useless.

Obama faces the same dilemma that all politicians do - actually, it is only a dilemma for those who have a modicum of integrity.  That is, take the high road and risk losing the election, or take the low road (mudslinging and “spinning” the truth) and increase your chances of winning.

The notion that the public is tired of mudslinging and can see through the lies and the “spin” is patently absurd and wishful thinking from the candidates who do take the high road.

I am not advocating one or the other.  There is a certain amount of pride (probably more than just pride) in going down in honest defeat.  I would like to think that I would take the high road in a situation like that.

In any case, writers for TV and the movies (at least the good ones, of which there are plenty) are wonderful at getting points across (whether you agree with those points or not) and eliciting emotion.  Sorkin did a great job at that.

If I were a major political candidate, there is no doubt in my mind that I would hire one of these guys (Hollywood writers) to be part of my speech writing team and as a general adviser.