My flight was delayed in the Nashville airport last night and, so, I was forced to sit through two hours of CNN's election coverage.
The pundits who they had last night were locked in a contest to see who could come up with the most over-the-top historical comparison to Obama's nomination. Jeffrey Toobin won the prize by mentioning that, in 1961, the Freedom Riders set out to desegregate interstate buses in May of that year and, in August, Obama was born. I'm really not sure what one has to do with the other, as Obama was already conceived and his parents had nothing to do with the Freedom Rides, but apparently just being born in the same year as a monumental civil rights event makes you a crusader.
Toobin also said one of the dumbest things I have ever heard a pundit say. He said "There have never been two candidates more different in my lifetime."
Bollocks.
Toobin, I think, is older than 36, which would mean that he was alive when Richard Nixon ran against George McGovern. Let's see....the peacenik Senator from Big Sky country who runs one of the most unabashedly liberal platforms in history versus Nixon, the brooding, secretive foreign policy genius whose paranoia and nonexistent moral compass brought down his presidency. I think Toobin is older than 28, which would mean that he was alive when Jimmy Carter ran against Ronald Reagan. Toobin is also probably older than 24, for Reagan vs. Mondale. If Toobin was 20, I could accept his assertion, but to a) try to make John McCain out to be a strongly conservative individual and b) to try to make Obama out to be some sort of saint figure really does little to inform the audience. Engaging in extended hyperbole of this sort makes me cringe.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Why I am sick of the 2008 election already
3 comments:
I'm not entirely certain that CNN's job is to inform the audience. That sounds like standard political punditry, to be honest.
I can handle punditry, but not overly exaggerated nonsense. Tell me that Obama's nomination is historical to give me some context, but don't tell me that it is the ultimate result of 400 years of the African-American freedom struggle.
I for one am just glad Hillarity Clinton finally threw in the towel, 'cause that shit was getting pretty embarrassing ... it was totally unlike someone getting beat down, only to come back and keep fighting. It was more like a guy who keeps asking the same girl out, only to find that she's dating someone, but that doesn't stop dude from trying to get some, even at the expense of his own court mandated trespassing restrictions.
At least we don't have to worry about risking living under her vaginocracy.
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