Finding Rhythm

This is such a great clip. Funny, informative……and the idea of Colbert being on a “death panel” should be made into a TV mini-series.

Here’s a link for Jon Cohn’s book, Sick.

(HT: TPM)

So then it just happens to be a coincidence that this bill is now urgently needed after the first African-American President is elected. Right.

and

I didn’t watch any of the Golden Globes but I have to imagine that after one trims the fat, these two clips are the only bits worth watching.

Shep is fast becoming one of my favorite TV personalities. One, and maybe the only reason to tune into Fox every once in a while.

Two giants battle. Deathmatch of punditry.

Good SNL skits are far and few between. This is a good one. Can we have more of this and less of that techno talk show?

Last night’s debate wasn’t all that interesting, aside from McCain proposing he’ll buy up bad mortgages and then five minutes later saying he’d consider a government “spending freeze.” I’m not sure how he reconciles that, but then again, I’m not sure how he reconciles most of his entire campaign. I think Obama did well enough to impress. McCain was better than he was in the first debate but didn’t pull off a game changing performance that he desperately needs right now.

The most fascinating point of the night for me was watching the CNN focus group of undecided voters. Here we sit, a month out from election day and this group of undecideds really left me scratching my head. Almost every one of them, either republican or democrat, said they didn’t get the kind of specifics they were hoping for from the candidates. If I can find a youtube clip, I’ll post it but so far have been unsuccessful.

It’s laughable to me that these folks are complaining that they don’t have access to specifics. Both Obama and McCain have detailed plans widely available to anyone with thirty minutes and an internet connection. If we really need every specific detail outlined in these debates, the debates would be four hours long and hardly anyone would even watch.

I have to think that the phrase “I wanted to hear more specifics,” must be the thing to say when you really have no idea what you’re talking about or have nothing really to offer in the way of a tangible opinion on the candidates. If you are interested enough in spending an hour and a half watching the debate, then there really is no reason you couldn’t spend the same amount of intellectual curiosity and take a few minutes to read up on the each of the candidates websites.

I personally thought that both candidates were pretty specific and outlined plans about as well as one could do with just a few minutes at a time.

Check out this fascinating post at TPM that takes a look at McCain’s unwillingness to even look at Obama during the debate. Here is a tidbit from a reader of TPM:

As a psychotherapist and someone who treats people with anger management problems, we typically try to educate people that anger is often an emotion that masks other emotions. I think it’s significant that McCain didn’t make much, if any, eye contact because it suggests one of two things to me; he doesn’t want to make eye contact because he is prone to losing control of his emotions if he deals directly with the other person, or, his anger masks fear and the eye contact may increase or substantiate the fear.
I noticed him doing the same thing in the Republican primary debates. The perception observers are likely to have is that he is unwilling to acknowledge the opponent’s legitimacy and/or is contemptuous of the opponent.

I’d love to CNN to ditch Lou Dobbs and replace him with Cafferty. A full hour of Jack would be great TV.

On a side note, is it me or is the amount of graphics most cable news networks are running on the bottom of the screens getting a tad out of hand? I remember an SNL skit that made this same point.