Inauguration Day Madness Update!

Just to follow up on my previous post... I spent Inauguration Day in a news-editing bubble at the ABC News bureau in downtown DC- far isolated from the huge, freezing maddening crowds, but at the same time, hearing intimately from people who traveled far and wide to get to Washington - all for the opportunity to stand for several hours with strangers in the bitter cold and to see an African American man become president. I recorded, and then edited these peoples' stories into soundbites. And the stories I heard changed my perspective - a bit.

I am pretty cynical by nature - I voted for Obama, but never felt the glow that many others apparently did. And while I am still wary of him as I am with any politician, I could not help but be touched by the stories I heard from people who felt the need to be there.

I edited the story of a 70-year-old Louisiana woman who used to drink from a colored-only water fountain... a young woman from North Carolina whose father was the second black player ever to play football at the University of Oklahoma... and another woman who received her education in segregated schools in Huntsville, Alabama. These are people who have seen a world of change in their own life times - like going from the Wright Brothers to landing on the Moon - but at a much faster clip!

I heard from a woman who was watching CNN in her home in Columbus, Ohio last night when she decided she HAD to be in Washington for the inauguration. So she and two friends hopped in the car at 9:45 pm, and drove all night to make it to the Mall. I edited people who flew in from California and Las Vegas - and from a family who crammed 12 people into an RV to make the pilgrimage from Florida. Their dedication to being a part of history was touching and admirable.

As for me - I drove away from Inauguration day with a far better commute than I had any right to expect. After facing unexpected detours in the morning, I flew out of town in the afternoon. We had been warned to avoid driving, and to take Metro, but I made it home - from 17th and K to Olney - in 50 minutes. If I had taken the subway, I might still be on the train!

I am thankful to be done now with the Inaugural hoopla - and I suspect the rest of Washington is as well. Thank goodness this day only comes once every four years!

I do have one small rant to close with. For a world that has supposedly changed - one that strives to embrace brotherhood and a new commitment of acceptance - I think we still have to work on growing up a bit. The way President Bush was treated by the crowd at the Capitol upon his introduction was shameful and immature. The crowd of invited guests - the well-monied, well-respected folks - booed and taunted Mr. Bush with choruses of "Na Na, Hey Hey Goodbye". That disrespects not only Mr. Bush, but also the office he held - the same office President Obama holds today.

If Mr. Obama is to be successful, he will have to find a way to rid the nation of its polarized ways. This little display certainly sent a message that there is still quite a lot of work to do.

And now... onto the hard part! Good luck, President Obama!

In The Tank For Obama

President Obama is going to have a lot of sh** on his plate as he assumes the Presidency... wars on two fronts, a huge political payback expected from his own party, and worst of all, of course, a crippled economy. But one big advantage Mr. Obama will have, at least at the start, is the comfort of knowing he will have the news media fawning over his every move.

You think this is easy for me to write? I spent 20 years taking calls from angry WMAL listeners accusing us of being biased - usually to the left. I always thought the notion was absurd - that the media was more more interested in throwing light on a story than caring which political party was exposed by that light. But times - at least from my current viewpoint - have changed.

Perhaps it's just the pretense of objectivity that has been dumped. Fox News has been accused of being a conservative think tank for years, but I think it took MSNBC's glaring and deliberate lack of objectivity during the 2008 presidential campaign to really show where the media has gone. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann not only showed their political stripes - they essentially dared anyone to challenge their right to do so. MSNBC at one point stopped using the pair as "anchors", and relabeled them as "commentators", but that pretense was dropped by last night, when Olbermann was back in the anchor chair for the President's speech.





But cable TV news is one thing... Now the Washington Post has basically thrown in the towel. Yes - it's making an effort to feign neutrality in the "A" section... But just take a stroll back to the Style section, where they are giddy with both the arrival of Obama, and the departure of Bush. TV critic Tom Shales could barely contain his glee at the President's farewell speech:

A President's Parting Words: Convincing, at Least, to Himself
By Tom Shales
Friday, January 16, 2009; C01

Only his remaining ardent supporters would probably classify last night's TV appearance by President Bush as reality television. On the other hand, detractors -- a sizable group, judging by popularity polls -- would likely say George W. Bush's farewell to the nation, delivered from the East Room of the White House, had the aura of delusion and denial.

You can read Shales' entire column here. You'll see him give credence to Mssrs. Olbermann and Matthews, and make the argument that the speech may have been Mr. Bush's best, if only because it was his last.

Lest you think this was an isolated case - just take a look at what happened when President-elect Obama paid a visit to the Post yesterday for an interview with the paper's editorial staff - Here's the pool account by NY Times reporter Helene Cooper:

After three and a half hours at his transition office, PEOTUS obama took another 6 minute ride through washington, arriving at 157 pm at the nondescript soviet-style building at 15th and L street that houses the washington post.

Around 100 people--Post reporters perhaps?--awaited PEOTUS's arrival, cheering and bobbing their coffee cups.

Pool is holding in a van outside, while Mr obama does his washington post interview, and will exercise enormous restraint by ending report before saying what really thinks about this turn of events.

Staffers at the Post were defensive about that description of Mr. Obama's visit, but they didn't really try to deny their revelry, either.

Look - call me idealistic if you wish, but I earned my journalistic chops in an environment where it was pounded into me that a reporter does not take sides in a story.... They instead report the story, and leave it to the reader/listener/viewer to interpret the news. The line has been getting more blurred as the years have gone by, and I fear it has simply melted away at this point.

At one time - even within the span of my career - money was largely a non-issue within a newsroom. Reporters and editors had the freedom to hone their craft without the pressure of having to worry about where the revenue was coming from. There was a tall wall between the accounting and news departments. That wall has long since come tumbling down, and now I fear news organizations are feeling the pressure to give the audience what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear, lest they take their business elsewhere.

I have no reason to believe President Obama will be anything less than an excellent Commander-in-chief. But when and if the sh** hits the fan in the administration, how do we know we'll get the real story from a news media that can't objectively cover the President? Who's going to be the first reporter to break away from the pack? And what will he/she do when his/her membership card in the "Cool Kids Club" is revoked?

I used to swear that this kind of "Mainstream media" bias did not exist.

Now I worry that the fourth estate has gone to foreclosure.

Sharpen Your Arrows...

...because I'm about to say something nice about President Bush. That's not an easy thing to do in most circles these days. Mr. Bush has been the designated blamee for everything that's gone wrong in this country - especially in the past three years or so. There is a certain level of peer expectation - even among some conservatives - that President Bush is to be summarily dismissed as a Chief Executive.

While his policies are indeed responsible for some of our pain, they certainly are not responsible for all of it - especially on the economic front, despite my mother-in-law's assertions to the contrary.

In the end, history will decide how Dubya did in the White House, but I do want to give him kudos for one thing. George W. Bush managed to hold his head high and bring a certain level of decorum - and maturity - to his Presidency by refusing to respond to the myriad of potshots thrown his way... something his predecessor struggled with a lot. Mr. Bush discussed his philosophy on name-calling with Larry King.



If President Obama takes nothing else as a lesson from President Bush, he would do well to follow this example.

It's Still The Economy, Stupid.

As the battle goes back and forth over our ailing financial system and what Congress should do about it, I have formulated just a few brief thoughts.

1/ Congress is certainly living up to it's approval rating now, isn't it?.

2/ Nancy Pelosi is a bitch.

Yes, I realize that is potentially a sexist remark, but the fact is that no one on the Democratic side - man or woman - has been as partisan and unreasonable as the Speaker of the House. She says on the one hand that she is working in a bipartisan manner to try and find a solution for the crisis, and then with the other, she proceeds to blame the entire crisis on the Bush Administration and her Republican counterparts.

Ms. Speaker - you have plenty of Democratic colleagues who have dirtied their hands in dealings with Wall Street, so your side is certainly culpable in this mess. And by blasting the administration one last time before the vote, you needlessly stoked the flames. If passing this bailout package is the best thing for America, then why did you potentially poison it? Were you more interested in protecting America, or protecting your party? You caused a problem instead of helping to solve one. Oh - and while "supporting" the bailout, you also managed to NOT get the votes of 95 Democrats. That shows a certain lack of leadership within your own party, doesn't it?

3/ The Republicans have to grow a pair - and then they have to grow up.

The biggest reason the vote on the bailout package failed had nothing to do with the "criminals on Wall Street" and everything to do to the November election. Every single member of the House is up for re-election, and they - especially the Republicans - are afraid that a vote in favor of the bailout package will cost them their jobs. Our representatives should be representing us, instead of worrying about keeping their seats. The Republicans are quick to shake their fists and say "we're not going to reward those criminals who ruined Wall Street by handing them more money!" That's all well and good, but it's akin to being angry when you find out you have cancer, and then refusing to undergo chemo just to show the cancer who's boss! Finally - to those Republicans who claim they voted no because of Nancy Pelosi's remarks - it's time to graduate to big boy pants.

4/ President Bush gives a new meaning to the term "lame duck".

Can anyone tell me the last President who had this little amount of power in his final months in office? Even his worst enemies are embarrassed for Bush, I think. He couldn't scrape together a boy scout troop to support him at this point, and I hear his dog hates him, too!

5/ We are all to blame for this.

Look, there's plenty of reason to be pissed at Congress, and pissed at Bush, and pissed at Wall Street... But where was the outrage when the economy was booming, and everyone was able to buy a house, and go on fancy vacations, and spend money like crazy? Before our broken financial system put us in this current mess, it also allowed America to go on an extended binge, and now we're struggling to find the aspirin bottle to soothe our mounting headache. It is human nature to celebrate the good times when times are good. But we need to recognize that, going forward, Americans need to do a better job of paying attention to what's going on in the world. And that means more regulation.


I think it's only a matter of time before the economic bailout package is passed in Congress. If the party leaders can't convince their GOP and Democratic colleagues in the House to change their minds, another day or two of falling stock prices oughta do the trick. Of course, by then, our 401k plans will really be in the toilet, but what the hell! At least we'll have shown Wall Street how ANGRY we are! That'll teach 'em!