Posted on 08/12/2007 5:11:11 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
The Talk Shows
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:
FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann Romney.
MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Harold Ford Jr.; Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos Web site.
FACE THE NATION (CBS): Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
LATE EDITION (CNN) : Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistani ambassador to U.S.; Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Joe Sestak, D-Pa.; former Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., campaign adviser to Mitt Romney; Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., campaign adviser to Rudy Giuliani; former Gov. Buddy Roemer, R-La., of John McCain's campaign; Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
One of the targets of the “Why Do We Suck” article, Karen Tumulty, is on the panel of journalists interviewing Huckabee and analyzing the straw poll results. Maybe she’ll take the opportunity to atone for her sins?
You must be watching a different program. Romney is coming across very negative for me. I don’t like any of the answers he gave. He won’t be the nominee if he keeps darting issues like that.
Mrs. Romney is interviewed toward the end of the program...a really classy woman and matches her husband in looks. lol
We certainly did see it differently. I value your impressions. We just came out on different places on this one.
Good morning Alas Babylon! and All,
Thanks again for all that you do, and congratulations to last week’s winners!
Have to go now—to give a visiting nephew the “cook’s tour,” which includes a church service, of course. (As he is a Lutheran, I hope he enjoys our Presbyterian services—there’s probably not a whole lot of difference. We’re worshiping the same Lord).
When I return this evening, I look forward to reading this informative thread.
up until the post WW2 era, when air conditioning finally became more common, foreign governments classified Washington as a hardship posting for their diplomats because of the climate.
Bob Scheiffer is also off today. I missed the introduction of his sub. He missed a “big get” interview with Huckabee. This guy doing the interview is a real attack dog, but Huckabee is doing well, IMHO.
That was true also for St. Louis.
Amazing, isn’t it?
Everytime I see a Hollywood type spouting this stuff I just consider that here is a very wealthy person who will not put his money where his mouth is, and therefore a hypocritical liar.
First of all, their ultra consumption is a bigger waste of resources than ours by far so in order for me to take them seriously let’s see them live in an average house with an average car. No jet-setting around the world at the drop of a hat. No second homes despoiling the mountains or some tropical beach.
Also, they need to take some of their wealth and instead of buying rich man’s toys and drugs let them buy, say, a chunk of the jungle, er, I mean rain forest and put the local folks there on their payroll ensuring it doesn’t get exploited.
Buy up land everywhere and revert it to what ever it once was. Shoot, I got 18 acres here in Alabama and that’s just what I’m doing! Of course, I can’t afford a tractor at this time so I don’t have a way to clear it so it’s just going back to forest. But I like it that way, so I don’t mind. Just say I’m “lessening my carbon footprint”.
The Hollywood rich should ensure they only buy local, organic food and avoid buying mangoes from Polynesia, goat cheese from Greece and strawberries covered in chocolate in January. Get rid of their air-conditioned dressing trailers on location, too.
Bottom line, the Hollywood rich don’t have a leg to stand on to complain about the rest of us. They are nothing but overconsuming parasites on poor Mother Gaia’s teet.
Only idiots and morons take them seriously (well, that is a large percentage of the voting public, though, huh?)!
Since the advent of air conditioning, everybody is moving SOUTH, fulfilling the prophecy of “The South will rise again!” :D
He gave 2 completely different answers on the abortion issue. One before the video and one after. When you flip flop that fast, it is a big negative for me. Just answer truthfully in the first place and you won’t get caught looking foolish.
What impressed me today was Chris Wallace’s interview of Mitt Romney. No doubt about it, Romney is the smartest of the group and has a track record of success in something other than government—co-founder of Bain Capital, etc.
His problem is curb appeal. Drew Westen defines “curb appeal” as the feeling one has ve after hearing or seeing a candidate. Empirical findings illustrating the importance of “curb appeal.”
Westen summarizes the Ambady and Rosenthal study. Here, the investigators compared first impressions of a professor with their final evaluation. Students were showed thirty seconds of film (without sound) before they began the course. After taking the course they then rated the professor as to ability and competence. The first 30 second impression was astoundingly predictive of the student’s final evaluation.
Westen summarized another study that showed average people could diagnose a psychopath from a brief, nonverbal, tape--- 70% of the time! And, more importantly, could not make as good a prediction if they listened to what was actually said. Psychopathic fluency works!
Westen then summarized a political study buttressing the above. A Princeton group had subjects evaluate opposing candidates for US House and Senate Races. The subjects were selected for ignorance of the candidates and the races. Investigators showed the subjects still photographs of the candidates. The subjects had only thirty seconds to look at both photos. The subjects were then asked to predict the election outcome. The subjects correctly predicted outcome in 70% of the time.
On this basis Romney to me seems deficient in this matter. He arouses in me the same feelings I had about Richard Nixon—very bright, very narcissistic and very competitive. That said, it must be noted that it takes a big ego to fancy yourself as president.
Also, while people (especially conservatives) prepare long lists as to the pros, cons and reasons for a candidacy, they usually fail to recognize the most important facet of why someone runs for office. That facet or part of the reason is “thymos.”
Recently David Brooks wrote a short article in the New York Times called “All Politics is Thymotic.” In this short article Brooks summarized Plato’s thoughts on recognition.
Plato saw the need for recognition (thymos) as central to understanding why people seek leadership positions. Similarly, recognition is seen as a powerful motivator for many human activities.
As Brooks summarizes Plato, “Men want others to recognize their significance. They want to feel important and be part of something important.” For sure, this desire for recognition can miscarry and become a thirst for glory regardless of cost. The desire for recognition results in both worthy and unworthy behavior.
Plato also saw us as desiring group as well as personal recognition. Political parties, religions and other social groups demand respect and dignity. We seek leaders to achieve group goals and among these goals is a sense of justice. The voiceless, downtrodden and ignorant also eventually find leaders who demand justice.
Plato believes the search for recognition (Thymos) is the basis for political action. People will sacrifice for personal glory. They will also sacrifice for causes greater than themselves. Like all of us candidates crave recognition as means to enhance self-esteem and self-worth.
Others discussing Plato find that Plato’s Thymos includes a desire for pride, self-esteem, distinction and excellence. Plato felts that satisfying these desires resulted in a fulfilled life. Life will then have a purpose and not just be a matter of surviving, reproducing and experiencing pleasure. Achieving a full life permits us to make contributions that continue beyond our meager lifespan.
Plato’s theories may mix up goals and responses but his 2400 year old observations still reflect human nature. Politicians do strive for recognition. As members of political parties, religions and a nation we also strive for success, relevance and respect. We do base our individual and cultural self-esteem on the actualization of these goals. And, we also do seek recognition in activities unrelated to politics.
Perhaps, Romney’s central motivation is a search for “thymos.” If so, he is admirably equipped—intellectually and experientally—but his major fault is a lack of “curb” appeal. But, then again, Hillary lacks “curb appeal;” according Michael Barone (panel member Fox News Sunday) Hillary is working on this. Apparently, politicians believe, “if you fake it you will make it...” We will see if either Mitt or Hillary can remedy their lack of “curb appeal” in the meantime thymos will have to do.
Did you catch Hannity's Fox show last night? He had the two women "activists" on who made this film with Leo. He nailed them pretty hard, particularly on the hypocrisy issue. He kept coming back to how Leo's carbon footprint with one private jet ride is larger than most Americans' in a year. They wouldn't/couldn't answer.
Ooo! Ooo! My Sunday morning TV watching just took a big turn for the better. Patton is on AMC at 10:30 central time! Something worth watching! ;^>
I can get all I need (and can stomach) about the Sunday shows here.
I watched a little of Romney, then switched to the dynamic duo on with Russert.
For some reason, I cannot warm to Romney. The domestic partner is skeptical of Fred, calls him, ‘old cut and run.’
That’s probably done to annoy me.
To get revenge, I taped Kos and friends. I told him, in the words of the Bard,
“I could a tale unfold whose lightest word, would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood.”
I figured if he would watch that for a while, he would warm up to Fred and I would get positively humid about Romney.
thank you kindly.
You know, my one big frustration about doing the weekend preview on the schedule I’m on now is that I haven’t been able to listen to your show or participate in the live thread for it. If I did I wouldn’t get the preview posted until after the Sunday thread is up! Hopefully I’ll get a bit more organized and get back to finishing that up on Saturday mornings instead of Saturday evenings. I miss hearing you!
My feeling about air conditioning is akin to worship.
What I can’t figure out is how we lived in Texas without it and didn’t seem to know the difference.
Perhaps the fried our brains and ...
Karen Tumulty on FTN just said that Edwards is positioned so that if the fighting between Hillary and Obama turns into a murder/suicide he can step in. LOL.
Even the hosts are taking off. It always gets really quite in Aug and Dec around here.
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