Political Junkie week: The Sotomayor hearings start Monday July 11, 2009
Posted by Bill in Politics, TV.1 comment so far
I’m a big political junkie. Since Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court, I’ve been waiting for the hearings. As of Monday, my wait is over.
I was lucky enough to see the Roberts hearings live, and watched them in its entirety. I also watched a good chunk of the Alito hearings, though that wasn’t live. Both sets of hearings let me bypass the media and the talking heads, and let me make up my own mind about the two of them as justices. For the record, I think that Roberts is way smart and well qualified for his position. I also think that Alito is well meaning and we could do worse.
So, starting Monday, I’ll get to see firsthand where Judge Sotomayor will fall in among the other eight justices.
Another twist November 5, 2008
Posted by Bill in Politics.1 comment so far
Here’s another historical first: Barack Obama is the first ethnic African to be the head of state in a major world power. What does this mean to the people in the continent of Africa?
Here’s an interesting thing… November 5, 2008
Posted by Bill in Politics.add a comment
1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President, we were in an economic downturn (“the economy, stupid”).
In 2000, when George Bush was elected President, we were in an economic downturn (the .com bubble bursting)
No, when Barack Obama is elected President, we’re in an economic downturn.
Is this a pattern?
The untold story November 5, 2008
Posted by Bill in Politics.add a comment
There’s going to be a ton of blog entries and articles written in the coming days about the new Presidency. They’ll be talking about how historical this is, and how unprecedented this is. There’s a significant point that will not be made: Part of the reason that this was possible was because Barack Obama was born and raised in Hawaii.
Fair warning: I was born and raised in Hawaii, back 3 generations. Even though I now live in Oregon, I am very proud of my roots there.
Hawaii is the only state in the union with no majority ethnicity; everyone is a minority there (even “white people”). This has created a unique environment. Hawaii is over 2000 miles away from the typical “black/white” cultural undercurrents that we too often see in the rest of the country. This doesn’t mean that Hawaii is some sort of multi-cultural Utopia; it isn’t. What it does mean is that everyone grows up with a strong sense of pride in their own culture and an awareness that there are a lot of other cultures around that everyone needs to work with.
I believe that this is why Barack Obama is always talking about unity and inclusion and insists that he shouldn’t be defined as an African-American candidate. He knows, from the place of his birth and upbringing, that there’s much more to this country than “black people” and “white people”. Now, if everyone else can learn this, we’d be in good shape.
Politicians Taping their Interviews September 12, 2008
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Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, advised folks (politicians) to take their own cameras to interviews and post the raw footage online. He thinks that this would be to the advantage of the politician (link).
I have a theory on why this isn’t done: It actually wouldn’t be advantageous. I think that the politicians don’t want to have their “off the record” comments that are made during the interview see the light of day (remember John McCain’s “bomb, bomb Iran” joke). The journalists are happy to edit out off the record comments.
I think folks need to remember that there’s this dance being conducted between the politicians and the journalism community. Usually, it’s the journalist asks a question and the politician says some talking point that’s more or less related to the question. For the most part, there really isn’t any real Q & A going on.
