The New (Fatter) Republic

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Is it just me, or has The New Republic gotten buff alongside Sixpack-in-Chief Barack Obama?

The eight-year reign of Bush the Younger was advertising Viagra for liberal opinion journals. The Nation, for one, turned into the lefty-magazine Sidney Greenstreet. But the ad boom seemed to end-run The New Republic.

Until TNR took the radical step of going biweekly. Lately, anyway, it seems to have paid off.

TNR’s October 21, 2009 edition features 56 pages that are thick with full-page ads from: the Cato Institute, PhRMA, Harvard University Press, the National Association of Builders, America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the MIT Press, and energy conglomerate  AREVA.

And there are two other full-page ads that merit attention. They came from:

1) Broadband for America, a coalition “dedicated to promoting a practical, comprehensive approach to increasing high-speed Internet access and adoption in our country.”

The coalition includes a Star-Wars-bar-scene cast of 102 businesses, organizations, and associations that range from Verizon and Cisco to the Jewish Energy Project and the Dominican American National Roundtable.

Who knew?

2) International Securities Exchange, which “operates the world’s largest equity options exchange and offers options trading on over 2,000 underlying equity, ETF, index, and FX products.”

Whatever that means.

Anyway, last month ISE sponsored (and TNR hosted) “Inflection Point,” a $250-per-ticket event that brought together “influential leaders from Washington and Wall Street for an honest examination of our financial system and its future.”

In other words, the usual suspects dishing out the usual eyewash.

They included:

Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management
David Faber, CNBC
Niall Ferguson, Author and Professor at Harvard University
U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)
Gary Gensler, Chairman, U.S. CFTC
Glenn Hutchins, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive, Silver Lake
Christopher Lawrence, Co-Head of Investment Banking, Rothschild
Christina Romer, Chairwoman, Council of Economic Advisers
Eliot Spitzer, Former Governor of New York
James Stewart, Author, Den of Thieves
David Wessel, Washington Deputy Bureau Chief, Wall Street Journal, and Author, In Fed We Trust

Eliot Spitzer? Not to mention New Republic editor Franklin Foer and senior editor Noam Scheiber, who also participated in the Beltway-industrial hoedown.

Moral of the story:

If getting fat means that The New Republic needs to jump into bed with the people it’s supposed to be covering, maybe TNR should rethink its business plan.

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The Great U.S. Senate Tweetoff

Posted on October 10, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider has, of course, been following all the major candidates in the race for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy.

That includes following them on Twitter, the microbully pulpit of the political digerati.

Here’s the tally from the past 24 hours:

Alan Khazei (D-140 Characters) – 12 tweets

Steve Pagliuca (D-GOP) – 5 tweets

Martha Coakley (D-Emily’s List) – 5 tweets

Mike Capuano (D-Ted K) – 3 tweets

Scott Brown (R-American Idol) – 1 tweet

Representative tweets:

@AlanKhazei and Max Kennedy stop at Angelos Orchid Diner in New Bedford for breakfast.

Alan and Max had a great meal at La Cantina in Framingham. Now back on the road. [Clearly, the K-Twins are eating well.]

Martha Coakley is in Washington D.C. today meeting with President Obama to discuss financial regulatory reform and… http://bit.ly/ku9xS

New [Mike Capuano] Blog Post 10/9/09: “Inside Baseball” http://bit.ly/17HC7F

Busy day – [Steve Pagliuca] visiting Stellaris, an innovative clean energy startup in North Billerica http://bit.ly/B7tiG #green #energy

More than 40 federal laws provide for the death penalty. Today, [Scott Brown] asked Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano which ones they’d repeal. #masen

You thought election campaigns were trivial and superficial before?

Tweetie, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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Max Is the Minimum

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

U.S. Senate hopeful Alan Khazei (D-Here’s Another Press Release) has kicked off a four-day barnstorming tour with his political arm candy, Max Kennedy.

Khazei also ran a half-page ad  in Thursday’s Boston Globe headlined “Max Kennedy Endorses Alan Khazei,” which took the form of an open letter from Kennedy to the Citizens of Massachusetts. First paragraph (that has to rank as the worst pick-up line this side of “Do you come here often?”):

I never asked Senator Kennedy whom he would like to serve in his seat when he was gone. For most of my life, I, like so many others, thought he would always be there.

Wait a second – isn’t Max Kennedy the nephew of Ted Kennedy? So why does he refer to his uncle throughout the ad as “Senator Kennedy”?

This could have been written by anybody. Or nobody.

Not sure yet which Max Kennedy is.

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Emaul City Hall

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

So that empty-desk ad Tom Menino ran during the Boston mayoral preliminary election is looking a little different now, isn’t it?

Suddenly Menino’s empty desk is a stand-in for his consigliere Michael Kineavy’s empty desktop – both the compulsively Windexed one, and the one on his computer, which led to Secretary of the Commonwealth Willam Galvin’s rummaging through City Hall hard drives like some bottlenik on recycling night.

Which in turn led to Menino’s empty rhetoric, exemplified in this reaction (via Thursday’s Boston Globe) to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s belated jumping in the pool to investigate the email rumpus.

“I think it’s great that she’s getting involved,’’ the mayor said after [a West Roxbury schoolyard] ribbon-cutting. “We can finally come to finality on this issue. She will look at what we’ve given them and bring finality to the issue, finally.’’

Clearly, Menino would like that to be the final word on this e-millstone.

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Concept with a Capital K

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

U.S. Senate hopeful Alan Khazei (D-City Year) is trumpeting the endorsement of his candidacy by Max Kennedy,  son of Robert F. Kennedy.

From Thursday’s Boston Globe report on the gala endorsement:

Max Kennedy is endorsing City Year co-founder Alan Khazei in the US Senate race to fill the seat long held by Kennedy’s late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy, a significant endorsement for a candidate trying to quickly build his name recognition with Massachusetts voters.

By “significant,” of course, the Globe means “virtually useless.” The only constituency Max Kennedy represents is the Giggle Wing of the Democratic Party.

Max Kennedy got into the 2001 race to succeed Joe Moakley, the late Massachusetts congressman, but pulled out of the contest after a rocky start, citing his three young children as the reason.

That “rocky start” was an announcement speech that Kennedy giggled his way through, after which he performed a slow-motion exit from the race.

Max Kennedy for Khazei?

Is to laugh.

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“Whatever” Is Annoying? Whatever.

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Here are the results of a new Marist College poll asking which terms are “most annoying in conversation” (via the Associated Press):

So, you know, it is what it is, but Americans are totally annoyed by the use of “whatever” in conversations.

The popular slacker term of indifference was found “most annoying in conversation” by 47 percent of Americans surveyed in a Marist College poll released Wednesday.

“Whatever” easily beat out “you know,” which especially grated a quarter of respondents. The other annoying contenders were “anyway” (at 7 percent), “it is what it is” (11 percent) and “at the end of the day” (2 percent).

“Whatever” — pronounced “WHAT’-ehv-errr” when exasperated — is an expression with staying power. Immortalized in song by Nirvana (“oh well, whatever, nevermind”) in 1991, popularized by the Valley girls in “Clueless” later that decade, it is still commonly used, often by younger people.

It can be an all-purpose argument-ender or a signal of apathy. And it can really be annoying. The poll found “whatever” to be consistently disliked by Americans regardless of their race, gender, age, income or where they live.

You wanna know what annoys the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider? Phrases like “which especially grated a quarter of respondents.”

The expression is “grated on.” And no, I don’t care that the American Heritage Dictionary lists “grate” as a “v. tr. 3) to  irritate or annoy persistently.”

I say it’s grate on. Then again at the end of the day, you know, it is what it is.

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Ad o’ the Day©

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Headline of the VISA Black Card ad in Tuesday’s New York Times:

“Black Card Members Experience More.”

Below the headline is this testimonial:

I have the flexibility to choose between superior mileage or cash back.

Sanjay Grover MD

Plastic Surgeon

A plastic surgeon endorsing high-end plastic.

Priceless.

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What Is This – Tokyo?

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

WCVB’s NewsCenter 5 at 11 reported Tuesday night about the family effects of the swine flu – or the H1N1 virus as the U.S. government prefers to call it. ( Don’t want to alienate the Amalgamated Bacon Union, now do we?)

But the ‘CVB report – business as usual, right?

Except that Richardson wore a surgical mask while delivering her stand-up in front of the family’s house at the end of the piece.

(Sorry – no link. But it’s not like I didn’t try, which resulted in 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.)

A surgical mask?

Really?

When Richardson was nowhere near the maybe-infected family?

Really really pathetic.

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Imus in the Mourning?

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

The ever-chastised Don Imus began simulcasting his ever-castrated morning radio show on the Fox Business cable network Monday morning.

That would be the same Fox Business powerhouse that draws up to 25,000 21,000 viewers daily.

(Translation: Fox Business essentially has no business.)

The Imus ad is headlined, “Starting Today The Legend Gets Down To Business.” Beneath that, the ad features Imus superimposed on Mt. Rushmore.

That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Fox Business as a source of information.

P.S. If anyone new is going up on Mt. Rushmore, it should be Cary Grant.

UPDATE: Imus drew 177,000 viewers for his debut on Monday morning. No mourning at Fox Business.

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Barack Obama: Huckster-in-Chief

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Campaign Outsider

Had it just been Pres. Obama sucking up to the International Olympic Committee to bring the 2012 five-ring circus to Chicago  – Dayenu, as they say at the Seder. That would have been enough.

Had it just been Pres. Obama sucking up to Jay Leno by plugging Leno’s new NBC show during an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams – Dayenu.

But Obama flacking George Lopez’s upcoming TBS late night program (see incriminating promo here)?

That wouldn’t be enough. That would be too much.

Script:

George Lopez (to Obama):  I need to know if you’re serious about a cabinet position for me ’cause I have an opportunity to do a talk show.

Barack Obama: What kind of talk show?

GL: Ah, it woud be a late night talk show but if you offered me a position like Secretary of State – Ambassador to Mexico – you know, something where I could wear a badge-

BO: No. George, you need to change late night. That’s the kind of change I can believe in.

Barack Obama promised to bring dignity back to the White House.  This is a helluva way to do it.

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