I missed this the first time around, I guess, since it was posted over at 23/6 towards the end of October. But this video of all three debates synchronized really makes you wonder whether the Presidential debates are worth watching at all. I enjoyed the occasional cleverness in them, but I explicitly remember not gaining any new information.
I think SNL had a pretty serious break-through last night (and no, I’m not talking about Poehler’s return, though I adore her). I am talking about the Blue-Note-riff that SNL did on President-elect Obama.
As a comedy writer, you really don’t have to work that hard when your President says things like “I didn’t grow up in the ocean—as a matter of fact—near the ocean—I grew up in the desert. Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I particularly like it when I’m fishing.” And he says things like this so frequently that “Bushism,” has made its way in to common usage in English.
It’s tough to pick on someone who is seriously calculating about what he says and does and good evidence that SNL writers understand that—so make fun of the calculating! Maybe not everyone watching is familiar with the graphics reference in the video, but it’s a direct quote from Blue Note Records and the covers of albums by jazz musicians like Miles Davis. You want to talk about cool?—jazz is where the very word’s origins lie.
Fred Armisen’s imitation of Barrack Obama has been steadily improving. And while this sketch doesn’t top the 3 o’clock in the morning call when “President” Obama loses his cool, you have to give SNL credit.1 They figured out an angle of comedy here that no other comedy writers had thought of—in two years—it shows real creative talent whatever their critics say.
Ironically, this sketch talks about Obama calling Hillary instead of his Secretary of State. ↩
The Obama transition team launched this new web site, Change.gov in order to keep the public informed on the transition team’s decisions and news. They are also soliciting information from the public—so go tell them what you think! I, for one, think that this web site, among other statements that President-elect Obama has made about making government transparent is a fantastic sign of things to come.1 Take a look at the current White House web site and try to imagine what it’s going to look in the next year—a new generation is what. Given the large amount of importance that online efforts played in the President-elect’s campaign, I think we can expect it to play a large role in his administration.
Not to mention his significant support for the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act that would actually create a searchable database of Federal spending open to the public. Talk about accountability! ↩
To continue the trend of writing about election week media here at Banapana, i’d thought I’d make a note about the “Obamamercial,” the 30 minute informercial that candidate Barrack Obama aired tonight at 8pm Eastern. So far, around the web I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how they felt that the production values were good. Perhaps that may seem like an odd point to use to enforce the idea that Senator Obama would make a great President, but I really think it speaks volumes about a man who knows how to delegate power and knows who to trust to get the job done well. As I pointed out in a post about campaign branding the kind of design work you see coming out of a campaign does a lot more than tell you if the person in charge has taste. It tells you whether they are smart enough to not interfere with the work of the professionals that they hire to get the job done. Whether it’s the creatives he’s chosen to work with or just how totally, unbelievably thorough the campaign was in designing graphics for every necessary instance, the Obama campaign’s media strategy can tell you a lot about what Obama’s team knows about strategy and just how good they are at it. I think the production values of this “Obamamercial” just give greater weight to the point that Obama knows how to tap good, talented, smart people and he knows how to manage them cohesively. For all the rhetoric about policy decisions and political stances, I don’t think anything can tell you more about the potential for an executive team then how they’ve run the campaign. Obama’s team is good. Vote for them. Vote for Obama.
It’s a quote like this, from Obama’s interview with Rolling Stone that reminds me how smart he is. It’s one thing to see him being spirited and stoic in front of a crowd of thousands, but it’s another thing to see this side of him; the deft and strategic thinker.
In what way will people underestimate you as president? [Long pause] Because I tend to be a pretty courteous person and I don’t lose my temper, I think people underestimate my willingness to mix it up. I don’t know if they’ll continue to underestimate that after this campaign, but I think you’ll still get columns saying, “He’s too cool, he’s too soft.” [Laughs] That’s OK, actually. You like being underestimated in that way. Yeah. No point in having them see you coming.
I don’t think McCain subscribes to that point of view.
