Boring is not Bad

Way back when, I said that I did not mind the YouTube primary debates, nor did I mind the stage being crowded with ten people even if it meant that the frontrunners got to talk less. That was fine then, but now that we are down to our two nominees, I do not expect a flashy debate. A lot of people thought it was boring, but I am not sure what people expected out of this. If you want entertainment, there's plenty of other television programming on.

Are our attention spans so short that we need silly questions like: What do you dislike the most about America? Say one nice thing the person standing next to you? Would you want Bill Clinton back in the White House? Have we been so overloaded by technology that we always need video clips? Are we so lazy that we will just decide winners and losers, or even who we will vote for, by who stumbles or misses a gotcha-question.

As much as both candidates tried to dodge questions or exaggerate answers, this was the most substantive debate I have seen in a while. That is because people actually had to explain answers and could not just rely on waiting out a thirty second time limit that was used in previous debates. And if substance means boring, I am ok with it.

Wow, I sound incredibly idealistic and I haven't even watched West Wing in a while.

The Great Debate?

No post-debate analysis from me because I have no profound thoughts and I am clearly biased. The debate was also pretty uneventful; my favorite part was probably watching with my friends who I was gchatting/AIMing all have the same responses. "He said my friends again, he said POW again."

So instead, I love useless information, so here are some interesting facts I learned from coverage before, during, and after the debate:

• I am as tall, or taller than John McCain, and Alex is the same height as Obama.
• Speaking of height, North Koreans are 3 inches shorter than their South Korean counterparts. Oddly enough, I knew this fact before McCain brought it up.
  
• John McCain twice said that he wouldn't win Miss Congeniality, but his running mate Sarah Palin actually did. (No, I am serious)
• Barack Obama wore a flag lapel. That means he loves America.
• Both McCain and Obama have bracelets. I do not wear them, does that mean I am not qualified to be President?

In all seriousness, moderator Jim Lehrer did a good job of letting candidates going back and forth, answering and challenging each other's responses. Whether what they say is true is another thing. If you missed it, I would encourage you to read a transcript and the fact checking that some of the news bureaus are starting to do.

I cannot wait for the VP debate on Thursday.

[Photo courtesy of the NYT]

McCain-Bailin' 08

One more thing before bed . . .

There was so much I want to say about McCain suspending his campaign that I did not think I could articulate well (hence the last fluffy post.) Well, I found reactions to McCain's shenanigans, and former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards summed it up pretty well:

Oh, brother. What idiot came up with this stunt?

It ranks somewhere on the stupidity scale between plain silly and numbingly desperate. McCain and Obama are both members of the senate and they're both able to help craft a solution if they wish to do so without putting the presidential campaign on hold; after all, I’m sure congressional leaders would be willing to accept their calls if they have some important insights to impart. And while one of them will eventually become president, neither one is president yet, nor is either one a member of the congressional leadership; I’m confident that somehow the administration and the other 533 members of congress will be able to muddle through without tapping into the superior wisdom and intellect of their nominees. Sorry, John; it really sounds like you're afraid to debate. This sounds like the sort of ploy we used to use in junior high school elections. --Politico

I love Mickey Edwards. I actually got to work indirectly with him two summers ago because he was the director of a bipartisan initiative at the think tank I was at. I also thought McCain criticism would sound a lot better from one of the founders of the Heritage Foundation and former President of the American Conservative Union than from me, the bleeding heart liberal.

The Queen Bee

I remember reading that the movie Mean Girls screened better with older women than teenage girls. Film critics hypothesized that older women could look back and laugh at the ridiculousness of how females treated each other in high school, whereas teenage girls living through it feel uncomfortable about watching what they participate in. While these representations are full of stereotypes, there is a grain of salt in there somewhere.

One prevalent social structure in junior high and high school is the popular girl group-- usually led by the Queen Bee. The Queen Bee's followers are also popular but are usually not the "it girl" because they lack something- looks, money, confidence, etc. Often they latch onto the Queen Bee, trying to look and act like her. Just look at Kenley's model on Project Runway. She loved being embraced and designed for by who she called the "cute designer." She wanted to look like Kenley and even started adopting her rude mannerisms.

Ok, why am I writing about junior high/high school which was almost a decade ago for me? Because it repeats itself all over again in law school, particularly during 1L year. Since I work with 1Ls, I am a semi-detached observer of first year life. After law students put away their books in their lockers, they go up to the cafeteria. And you can always spot the Queen Bee and her disciples. Obviously these young women are smart and most are even nice. It is just funny how high school roles all come back so quickly.

Clearly you can tell that I have been watching Gossip Girl this season.

Obama-Biden-Bartlet

After going to a panel on the Obama v. McCain health care plans, I am having one of those bleeding-heart liberal type of days. Riding off that idealism, I will just post this article that many of my fellow political junkies have probably already seen. Oh how I wish Aaron Sorkin would really be involved in politics . . .

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NY Times

September 21, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet

By MAUREEN DOWD

Now that he's finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can't fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn't expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn't expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks "The Flintstones" was based on a true story, so let's call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don't like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I've been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I'm interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can't give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I'm supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He's promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my "to do" list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he's surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren't funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn't a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won't lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I'm a fictional president. You're dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I'm asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you're losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn't even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I've been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don't know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I'm sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don't mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn't have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched "The West Wing."

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You'd do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old "ER" time slot with "30 Rock" as your lead-in, you'd get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you'd be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you'd be interested.

OBAMA I'm not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I'm — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn't extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You're saying race doesn't have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn't go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with "Thug Life" inked across his chest, you'd come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You're not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn't kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can't appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family's less safe than it was eight years ago, we've lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I'm a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that's what they are. Sarah Palin didn't say "thanks but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said "Thanks." You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I'd ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you're at it, I want the word "patriot" back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn't know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can't do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn't their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they've earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It's not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It's not bad enough she's forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It's not enough that a woman shouldn't have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist's baby too? I don't know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she's got the qualifications of one. And you're worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it's not as if I didn't know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What's the second step?

BARTLET I don't care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You're elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you're still in a statistical dead heat. You're a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren't the same thing and you're in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that's what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You'd give them a pep talk and then you'd always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET "Break's over."

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

N8: Love and Hate

I hardly ever rode the bus in California because public transportation hardly exists there. So it's become an adjustment to ride the little metrobus (yes, I ride the 'shortbus') everyday to school. For the most part, my route the N8 to school is pretty reliable. I can also thank our bus line and our waits at the bus stops for introducing me to some of my best friends in law school.

But then there are days like today. Where our bus comes 25 minutes late. And it is crowded because it is late. And our driver gets lost! Instead of turning into the circle we usually do, we went totally off-track because it was our driver's first time driving the route. He actually said "alright, help me out . . . this is my first time." Fortunately one of the law students riding the bus took charge, stood by the driver, and directed him through the entire way.

I was not as mad as some people because I wasn't late to class and I thought it was actually funny. I also found out later that he was a last minute fill-in for another driver who got really sick. This might just beat out the time the bus started smoking and smelling like gas, and we all jumped out and walked the rest of the way to school.

Family Values

Some of my Democratic friends have been a little unnerved by the latest polling numbers, showing Obama and McCain in a dead heat. I remained unfazed, at least I convinced myself not to worry. Polls are not accurate- especially this time around when young people without landlines hopefully will turn out to vote. The Palin bounce will fade. And look at how many donors Obama has! This has been my inner monologue.

But then my mom told me that my grandma thought that Obama was Muslim, and for the first time I worried. My grandma is a smart woman who has access to information (she even reads this blog, hi grandma! happy belated birthday!) and many politically-inclined family members. How did she believe this? How many people out there are just like this?

I never understood how other people could believe misinformation like this, but in my own family? I feel as though I failed as a granddaughter with a political science degree and was the former President of the Bruin Democrats. I try not to protheletize too much, especially to family members in non-swing states, but I cannot let these lies perpetuate. I remember how frustrating it felt when I ran for student government and the other side stated that I was an anti-union neoconservative who would cut all funding for cultural groups because I was a race traitor.

I honestly do not care if someone votes Republican based on facts and simply have different priorities (well, I do mind but I will respect that choice), but if we lose because people think Obama is a Muslim who performs terrorist fist jabs . . . I do not even want to try to complete that sentence.