October 28, 2012

 

SANDY CHURNING

  1. “This storm is a monster,” said George Stephanopoulos in one breath and in the next got right down to politics and began talking with “This Week” first guest of the morning, Stephanie CutterObama’s deputy campaign manager, who appears on anything that wreaks TV at the drop of a hat.
  2. . . .  “George,” as ABC always affectionately refers to him, talks fast, likes to move stuff right along . . . at breakneck speed with hardly a pause at the end of a sentence.
  3. . . . This characteristic seemed to begin when he began co-hosting “Good Morning America” – to squeeze everything in, I guess.
  4. . . . Is this necessary?
  5. . . . In one ear and out the other.
  6. . . . Can you slow it down just a tad?  Do things have to be that speeded up?
  7. . . . And his rapido speech has caught on with others now, i.e., NBC’s David Gregory of Sunday morning competitor “Meet the Press.”
  8. . . . He seems to be mimicking. Because of the ratings race?
  9. . . . Maybe it’s the youthful wave of the future.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
  10. . . . Always be in a hurry;  it makes you seem important.
  11. . . . Bob Schieffer of “Face the Nation” doesn’t talk fast and he just moderated the third presidential debate.
  12. . . . Candy Crowley – even though her program, “State of the Union,” is on cable (CNN) – doesn’t talk fast and she moderated a debate too.
  13. . . . And Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” doesn’t talk that fast but he does seem to interrupt more than the other Sunday morning personalities.
  14. . . . But back to politics . . .
  15. . . . WATCH WHAT HAPPENS.  Keep your eyes on Ms. Cutter (mentioned above).  After the election she’s sure to land a job at one of the networks, just like talking-head Nicolle Wallace recently did and is now a political contributor for ABC
  16. . . .  She worked for George W. Bush as his communications “chief” and later as a senior advisor to John McCain and Sarah Palin on their ill-fated campaign.
  17. . . . They all wind up on TV as bloviators.  Look at the history.  The streak is never unbroken for people who like to run off at the mouth for the sake of politics.
  18. A lot of people have voted early.  Obama did.
  19. . . . There’s a lot of concern that Hurricane Sandy is disrupting the campaigns.   ABC weekend anchor David Muir referred to the situation by describing it as “a political storm caused by the hurricane” on today’s World News.
  20. . . . Of particular concern is Ohio, says everybody in the press.  Like nothing else matters.
  21. . . . Sen. Bob Portman of the Buckeye State was on “Fox News Sunday” answering about it all.
  22. . . . He should have been home battening down the hatches.
  23. . . . And Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) was on the same show talking about how power outages could affect the campaigns.  Heavy rain and winds are predicted for his state.  He oughta be up there on a power line at the ready with his Snap-on tools waiting for Sandy to strike. 
  24. . . . So what if the candidates can’t travel to Ohio and other states.  Somebody said Obama or Romney – what difference does it make? – has made 19 trips to Ohio.  Does it really matter if they make another one?
  25. . . . (“Enough is Enough.”  (Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer, 1979, on Columbia Records.)
  26. Obama said, “. . . I’m just going . . . to keep on keeping on,” down in Tampa last Thursday on the campaign stump, begging for votes.
  27. . . . He also admitted he was hoarse from speaking so much and said, “ I know you guys are sick of the TV ads” and the crowd yelled, “Yes!”  (Can I get an amen?)
  28. . . . “Except the one’s I’m in,” he joked.
  29. . . . “I’m gonna put it in the “Want Ads” . . . (The Honey Cone, 1970, on Hot Wax Records.)
  30. . . . “Extra, Extra, read all about it!”
  31. PBS’s Gwen Ifill seemed to be having a lot to say about the campaigns this morning on “This Week,” as one of the many “roundtablers,” who ramble down the road on Sundays to pontificate.
  32. . . .  She often seemed to be siding with Mr. Obama and critical of Mr. Romney.
  33. . . . I thought she was a “newscaster,” er . . . I mean  news “anchor” on “NewsHour.”  Isn’t she supposed to be neutral?
  34. Romney’s not doing as many TV shows as his opponent.
  35. . . . Obama’s been on “The Daily Show,” MTV, Leno, “The View,” etc., etc.
  36. . . . Romney’s more serious and sends his wife Ann out to do the honors a lot of the time.
  37. . . . Some say Obama is lowering the standards of the presidency by being a guest personality on TV.
  38. APROPOSThe Weather Channel’s local “On the 8’s” segments played “Message in a Bottle” (1979, on A&M Records) several times this morning in the background as the announcer read the forecast.
  39. . . . I guess they thought it was cool to choose a song to fit the news of the hurricane.(“Sendin’ out an S.O.S. . . .”) 
  40. . . . Some might have thought otherwise.
  41. . . . Al Roker and co-anchor (“Waking Up With Al”) meteorologist Stephanie Abrams and a cast of about a thousand Weather Channel reporters were all over the place covering Sandy with their footsies in the ocean and planted on the beach watching the rising tides.
  42. . . . Al had on a nice yellow parka and his tan-colored pants were billowing in the relentless ocean wind.  It was a sight to behold.
  43. . . . Abrams, on the other hand, was hardly visible.  She had on a dark blue rain suit and seemed to be hiding under the hood.  You could barely see her face.  She needed brighter colors on, like Al.
  44. . . . Matt Gutman of ABC, who was in the Outer Banks in North Carolina, pointed out that what looked like snow all over him was actually sea foam, which was building up with the water surge.
  45. . . . It looked like bubble-bath soap suds.
  46. They’ve sold out of “D” cell batteries all over D.C.  Those are usually the ones you need for flashlights and God knows we’re gonna need them.
  47. . . . And they say you can’t get a generator anywhere.  (Who knows how to operate one anyway?)
  48. . . . Obama was at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and told the large assembled group around an equally large table that, essentially, he didn’t want any bureaucratic BS when it comes to the government’s response to the storm. 
  49. . . . I guess he didn’t want another Katrina thingie in the midst of an election.
  50. . . . He wanted people to know “that we are participating and leaning forward.”
  51. . . . He actually said that and it sounded like he was plugging his campaign which uses the word and slogan, “Forward!,” to get elected again.
  52. . . . Poor choice of words.
  53. UNRELATED.  The Steven Spielberg movie “Lincoln” looks pretty good – at least the trailer does.
  54. . . . Daniel Day-Lewis, a Brit, (where’s he been”) has the lead role; Sally Field plays his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (she supposedly really fought hard with Spielberg to get the part; she thought it was made for her.)
  55. . . . The movie’s based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s (she’s the one who’s always on “Meet the Press”) biography, “Team of Rivals:  The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
  56. . . . The film focuses on the last few months of his life, the end of slavery and the Union victory in the Civil War.
  57. . . . Not sure if it shows the assassination.  (There’s no mention of a John Wilkes Booth in the movie credits listed on IMDb (Internet Movie Data Base) but that might not mean anything.
  58. . . . It’s chock-full of great actors:  Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, James Spader, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, S. (Sharon) Epatha Merkerson (“Law & Order,” Coricidin and Uniball pens commercials).
  59. . . . Opens (wide release) Nov. 9.
  60. . . . UH . . .Open the Door to Your Heart” – Darrell Banks on Revilot Records, 1966.


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