I also listened to Ted Kennedy's speech and I must admit that his sheer presence was moving, as was watching Maria Shriver wipe the tears from her face. The man has had a long and occasionally questionable career, but knowing what he faces it is good to see him have a chance to go out doing what he loves and does best.
The spouse has been giving me snippets throughout the day on the media's comments about last night. And I must agree with my friend who emailed me today about some of the commentators inherent prejudices or biases showing through. For shame, you who would call yourself journalists. Your job is to be objective, it is mine to spout opinions.
That being said, apparently some yahoo on Fox made some comment about the Obama's youngest daughter and how chatty she was last night at the end of her mom's speech and how it came across as coaxed. This person (who I haven't been able to nail down who it is yet—sorry for the I heard from a friend who heard it from so-and-so nature of this) then implied that this was often a sign of a child who has been abused. The audacity! That girl is six or thereabouts? I think she is just a precocious kid, nothing more, nothing less. Fox News is insidious and evil.
And another point my friend mentioned and I myself have been vexed by—what is this nonsense about polls carrying so much weight. First of all, in this day and age, a LOT of people only have cell phones. Cell phone numbers are not included in polls. So that is a large portion of the population, mostly younger voters, whose opinions are not being counted. The spouse is boning up on his conspiracy theories these days and he thinks that the media is deliberately trying to make it sound like the race is close to keep things interesting for them so they have something to talk about.
I don't know what to think to be honest. All I remember is a Nike ad that was out when I was in college that I laminated and hung on my dorm room wall:
A WOMAN IS OFTEN MEASURED BY THE THINGS SHE CANNOT CONTROL. SHE IS MEASURED BY THE WAY HER BODY CURVES OR DOESN'T CURVE, BY WHERE SHE IS FLAT OR STRAIGHT OR ROUND. SHE IS MEASURED BY 36-24-36 AND INCHES AND AGES AND NUMBERS, BY ALL THE OUTSIDE THINGS THAT DON'T EVER ADD UP TO WHO SHE IS ON THE INSIDE. AND SO IF A WOMAN IS TO BE MEASURED LET HER BE MEASURED BY THE THINGS SHE CAN CONTROL, BY WHO SHE IS AND WHO SHE IS TRYING TO BECOME. BECAUSE AS EVERY WOMAN KNOWS, MEASUREMENTS ARE ONLY STATISTICS. AND STATISTICS LIE.
5 comments:
You teared up?! Oh my goodness, it must have been a good speech. (just some good-natured ribbing!)
How stupid about the "abuse" comment. Fox will say and do anything.
Yes, i wonder about the poll numbers myself. It all sounds so familiar to me. Seems every election is always close up until the day we vote. I think sometimes the media creates a story by focusing on this--in other words, "Look how close it is. People aren't making up their minds!"--which leads some people to put off their decision even more or to question the decision they've already made. Enough already. Can we not just review the issues and the platforms? I mean, if the news was focused less on polls and more on other things, we might actually learn something.
rant, rant...
Wesley, here i try to show my humanity and what do i get? sarcasm and grief. i applaud you! I will repeat my mantra these evening to toughen myself up:
I am a cold hearted bitch who doesn't feel.
I will be back in fighting form tomorrow. My apologies.
No apologies necessary for the tears. It was an emotional night, and Michelle is an incredibly eloquent and moving speaker, even when she checks her righteous anger at the door, as she did last night.
As for the media anchors/reporters who have all morphed into op-ed ninjas, I have noted this with CNN's John King, who frames every comment and question about Obama in an unobjectively negative fashion. Is CNN becoming Faux News Jr.? Is it me, or has anyone else noticed it? Or do you [wisely] just avoid CNN's election season coverage?
and now for a non-politico comment--the nike reference made me think of that mel gibson/helen hunt movie where he can hear women's thoughts. they were working on a nike ad together. yeah, i know, totally off base but i'm politically apathetic.
I haven't watched much CNN but I noticed in watching Chris Matthews on MSNBC last night that he asked one particularly stupid question about the clintons and the person he was talking to kinda called him on it. can't remember the direct question, but it was something like, where do they go from here in terms of their ambition to be in the white house. well i guess they need to start looking at chelsea!
but then i think matthews is a blow hole most of the time. i miss tim russert.
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