Boys (and Girls) on the Bus
The Obama plane is quite cosy - used to be a Gulfstream but is now a 737 - and has developed the semi-hysterical atmosphere the travelling press give any presidential campaign once they have all been doing it too long. Scout, from New York City, a stills photographer with Polaris, has been taking shots of Barack Obama for FOURTEEN MONTHS. Her is as cool as she is.
On take-off for our short flight from Dayton to Cleveland, the journalists try to roll an orange up the aisle into the first class section - the 大象传媒 effort is hopelessly inadequate, making only a couple of yards, but Bonney from Fox has mastered it and scores what appears to be a bull鈥檚-eye. Does a long, languid, expensively shirted arm in first class gather it up?
Minutes before he had been down at the back for a visit and exchanged pleasantries with us all (no politics on the plane) with the same easy, comfortable style you see on stage in front of thousands of people. Does he look presidential? Well, yes, is the honest answer. But then he should do - he is winning, after all. The psychology of the candidate's plane is as true today as it was in 1972, as described in the wonderful book The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse. Winning candidates are relaxed and happy, ergo, so are their staff, ergo so are the journalists who get better treated and better access etc.
Meanwhile, hours to go to the big showdown - dare she attack him as seen over the weekend and described in terms of on-going strategy
and can it work?
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Thanks for the link to Hillary's weekend performance . Fascinating as much for the youtube community comments underneath.
I've never thought Hillary was electable, for some good reasons (the perception of her as smug and scheming, her confusion between marriage-to-the-president and "experience" - particularly when she backed up so many of his little lies) and some bad (the US right-wing's animal antipathy to all things Clinton).
But just recently, in adversity, she has surprised me by appearing far more substantial than I had previously believed AND - more to the point - more tough-talking.
Her celestial choirs speech is a brilliant attack on the whole inspirational rhetoric that in which US campaigning is mired. Good for her - in my book.
BUT REALLY BAD FOR HER where it matters - in the books of those primary voters. Most of those guys don't like the nasty stuff, the cutting stuff, the realistic stuff. I dont' think it will add a tenth of the the number of votes that it loses for her.
So she will go down in flames even as she ceases to be such a phony...But many of us will take her more seriously in the future
No sign of the "baracklash" in this blog. It's more sort of like "Obamamigod". Lets have some more objective reporting and not let the free oranges go to your head.
Have you seen season 6 of the West Wing? It sounds like Obama's campaign team have...
Well said Craig McKee! I have been following the 'reporting' of this election from my perch in Canada and I am shocked at the Obama cheerleading!! This blog is an excellent example (see any CNN election report for more). All objectivity has been abandoned. This is a phenomenon that I am sure will be the subject of many an examination in the future. I fear that it is occurring because Clinton is a woman or maybe it is related to the Great American IQ Decline. At any rate shame on these journalists for declaring their Obama worship from day one...
Style and substance aren't always mutually exclusive.
Agreed. There is a remarkable lack of journalistic objectivity in the media regarding this election. I have always looked to non-US media for that missing balance. The 大象传媒 and Mr. Webb have not been providing it. Other European media has.
Rolling oranges, just like on The West Wing...life imitating art?
Thanks to Charles H for bringing up the 'celestial choir' speech. I agree that it will lose her votes - but for a different reason...
I just saw the footage. It did not feel inspired to me - not because it is substantively 'off-base' - but because when she does that 'rhetorical flourish' stuff, she comes across as fake, and even awkward. It reminds me of bad actors over-acting. Or a flat footed person trying to look elegant in ballet.
I am kinda surprised that her advisers are letting her do this. Rhetorical eloquence isn't her thing and it is a massive risk to get her to do it. More so when she already suffers from allegations of 'fake' and 'manipulative'. But then I suppose she has no choice. Everything else has backfired.
Unfortunately foe her, I think this will backfire too.
Justin,
Thanks for the great work your are doing in helping us have a feel for what is going on at the other side of the pond; (yes i know it is not perfect but well done!). Some of the contributors to your blogg have mentioned several times that 'does mr obama have substance?' I thought that over the last few weeks you would have helped us find something...nevertheless, i found this link from a blog on newyork times which may help some of the bloggers.
FYI - Here is a link to Obama鈥檚 senate record.
290/461422
akin miltonkeynes,bucks
Justin, methinks you just may be getting seduced by the excesses of the campaign trail, an obscene waste of money no more accurately depicted than by the expensive 707 plane on which you and your colleagues of the Fourth Estate traveled with Obama. I would be interested in your assessment of the American way of electing a President versus the short and relatively inexpensive system by which the British elect a Prime Minister.
Hi, Miss America and others, can we go through the facts? I tend to think the greatest paradox in this US presidential race is the attack on Obama as an empty suit because it鈥檚 the attack itself that鈥檚 void of substance. With preconceived and for some instinctive aversion, many simply dismiss the relatively young senator (older than Hoover, Kennedy and Clinton when they became president) as all talk and no substance without listening to what he is saying, without reading his programme etc. At least, it seems the Observer has and now Obama鈥檚 no more an empty suit but a borrowed one (from Clinton鈥檚). Strange to think that Obama the flighty numbskull politician is a Harvard Law Professor!
Miss America says Obama has 鈥渙nly 24 months of experience at the federal level鈥 - good you say at the federal level, cause he鈥檚 been in public office longer than Hillary Clinton and has had more statutes enacted. Funny that Miss America still 鈥渉onours鈥 Obama with 鈥渢he most liberal voting record in the US Senate鈥 Award in spite of the infinitesimal experience. He seems to have 鈥渁chieved鈥 something if we go by her words.
Miss America says he鈥檚 (in a serial manner) lifted 鈥1990's New Age Self-Help book passages鈥 鈥 wasn鈥檛 that in the 1990鈥檚 a revamp Delano Roosevelt鈥檚 Self Help spirit? Miss America says he鈥檚 got 鈥淶ERO (0) Military Experience, Zero Foreign Policy Experience; Zero International Diplomacy Experience鈥 鈥 just what military and foreign policy experience did Bill Clinton have in 1992 or George Bush in 2000?
Miss America says 鈥淩EAL Military men tend to be very conservative committing the US Military to war鈥 鈥 JFK was a soldier and never recovered from a back injury sustained during war 鈥 go see how conservative he was in committing the US to war. Nixon served as a Navy Lieutenant Commander in the pacific during the Second World War and Johnson reported to General MacArthur in the war with Japan 鈥 go see how conservative these guys were in committing more troops to Vietnam. Bill Clinton didn鈥檛 fight any war but exercised more restraint than most presidents post world war II.
Miss America says 鈥淪enator Clinton has the powerful leaders of the World's Countries on her speed dial鈥 and I wonder if Mrs. Clinton was born to the American Royal Family or she became acquainted with these leaders by virtue of her position as first lady. Anyone who becomes US president becomes the world鈥檚 most powerful person and leaders of all countries scramble to have such person remember their name. What鈥檚 needed like some have said are VISION, STAMINA, ENTHUSIASM and CHARISMA (to make people accept painful reforms). Reforms are usually guided by party policies that tend to be similar irrespective of the candidate 鈥 presidents fail because like W Bush they derail and focus on special interests 鈥 thinking that the rest would come around.
I don't know about anyone else, but speaking as a Christian, Clinton's 'celestial choirs' attack really turned me off. She's mocking Obama by comparing him to Christ, which is tantamount to mocking Christ Himself - I would have thought that American politicians in particular should be more careful about that kind of thing.
Anyway, I'll be staying up to watch the debate tonight - let's see if she can morph back into 'friendly mode' again.
Out of curiosity I just did a word count for the words "Obama" and "McCain" on the first page of this blog. Interesting, very interesting.
I fully understand that you are in no way obliged to demonstrate any amount of impartiality on this subject, but surely you owe it to the licence fee payer to be not quite so one sided in your reporting?
Try an apple. They're harder so should roll more consistently. And make Bonney use a banana next time. That should tip the odds.
Many thanks for the link to Scout Tufankjian photos. They remind me of some of the better images taken of Robert Kennedy on the stump; there is something about the intensity and what appears to be sheer joy. (I have no political axe to grind here - just another Canadian observer watching our neighbours over the fence...)
This ISN'T reporting, its a blog. Justin has no requirement to give objective reporting on a blog.. which is essentially a mix between an editorial and a diary.
His stories on the main news site are required to be fair and balanced ( ;-) ), but the posts here are simply his thoughts, anecdotes and opinions.
Personally I appreciate having these blogs, as they give some interesting, personal insights into what goes on behind the scenes... but no one claims they are objective reporting.
I do worry that so few people seem to understand the difference between blogs and reporting recently.
Oranges rolled up the plane to first class?
Is it me, or is this election turning in to a remarkable parody of the last season of the peerless West Wing?
An ethnic minority candidate for President? Check.
A messy Democratic run in, culminating in an 'interesting' convention ("Dems in disarray" from TWW) versus the orderly transition of the Republican convention; debates over who goes negative first; confusion over the role of 'super-delegates' in the convention & nomination process (Gambelli & the unions in TWW)? Check.
Running against a more elderly Republican who seems to have the run of the table? Check.
If I lived near a nuclear power plant in the US, I'd be a little concerned right now...
I wish everyone would stop being so hard on Justin Webb for his "lack of objectivity." Webb's job is to travel with the campaign and blog (not "report"--meaning an interweave of personal opinion should be expected) on every last thing Obama says and does...if he comes off as fawning, might it be because Barack's actions and tactics have been mostly unobjectionable? If not, we already have our answer--that's Justin Webb's perception of things. Webb has no pretentions about it being anything else.
I find it hilarious that everyone thinks Obama is going to bring about change aka marxist socialism...There is no plausible way Obama can make conservative capitalists in the House and Senate agree to such reforms. Will never happen...He will probably win because of Bush backlash but because he is so far left I doubt he will do anything of note.
Senator Clinton, who is carrying 50% of the Democratic electorate in the US, was brilliant speaking in Rhode Island on Sunday. Her command of the issues of importanct to the World, the Nation, and local municipalities, and her solutions-based approaches to world problems is breathtaking. Barack, on the other hand with his 24 months of "experience" at the Federal Level of government, continues to promote "Hope" and "the Future" and "Bandying together". Who could be against "hope and the future"? She is amazing watching her extemporaneously address problem after problem with great Details-Oriented Solution after Solution, as they are called out by members of teh crowd. Her expertise and successful track record command a sense of control and expertise. There is no way you can compare someone with just 24 months of so called "expertise" at the Federal Level, with someone who has been providing solutions through government for 20 years at the Federal Level. The biased media will rue the day they promoted FLUFF over SUBSTANCE. As James Brown said, "It's a man's world."
So "presidential" so "electible," people can't read his record as a state senator? He is portrayed as being so moderate, yet as state senator he was rather influential in blocking a ban on LIVE BIRTH abortions! Yes in the US until 2002, such a procedure was legal, enducing delivery of a premature baby, and letting it die of exposure, taking anywhere for an hour to all day in a back room. Obama voted NOT to ban this. Check his record people! So moderate! So humane.
If this is moderate, and humane, and poverty focused, then we Americans are barbarians and Obama is a fitting president for us.
You know... I really truly like Barack Obama. That, and i sincerely dislike Hillary Rhodam (emphasis on RHODAM... when will people realize she's NOT a Clinton, let alone Bill Clinton Part Deux) and i like Barack for probably the same reasons as you do. But here's the thing Justin, and this is an honest question, not a negative criticism nor a complaint:
As a journalist, is it "fair and balanced" (whatever that means) that "Justin Webb's America" has become "Justin's Webb's AmericObamania" ? as a 大象传媒 journalist, of ALL journalists, what does succombing to the "cult" of Obama mean beyond the man and his oratory skills ? What does it mean for us ? Because you seem very unappologetic about it, and i'm VERY intrigued...
Dear Mr McKee,
Mr Webb is the owner of this blog and, as such, is entitled to post whatever he likes on it, from "straightforward" news to personal reflections on pink slippers, The X-Files or the works of Haruki Murakami - whatever takes his fancy.
I have no idea how many times certain people require qualifying explanations (many more have raised the point before me) regarding specific differences between "straightforward" news (you might, for example, have heard Mr Webb reporting recently in the sense you are referring to on 大象传媒 World Service Radio) and more personally-oriented blogs.
In other words, Mr McKee, many other sources are available to you, so, if you do not like this particular site you can simply exercise your democratic right (which is already a lot more than many people across the world can do) and absent yourself from it. For example, rather than complain about bad television I just switch it off (after all, the "Off" button tends to be the same as the "On" one, so even I can manage it).
Within the context of Mr Webb's blog, therefore, there is no need to throw stones. However the matter is packaged, there will always be a difference between a culture of criticism and a culture of critical thinking, and, if it is in my power to do so, I'd rather go for the latter Mr McKee. After all, no need to let the privilege of posting for free get to your head.
In his sidebar description, Justin writes "My blog will be dominated, of course, by the US presidential election." It now appears to be concentrated wholly on one potential candidate for the Presidency. Not only is impartial coverage of Mrs Clinton lacking, there is not one word about Mr McCain, let alone Mr Huckabee or Mr Romney, and of the latter that it has been reported that he might revive his campaign. Even commercial publications such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times who have officially endorsed opposing candidates for the Democratic Party's nominee give more balanced coverage.
I would not imagine that 大象传媒 licence payers really wish to fund a shill for any candidate, so enough of the Obamadulation and back to reporting the presidential election - all of it, and without prejudice.
appearances are not deceptive. Clinton appears to want it - badly! Obama appears to be sooooo cool about it. So it appears that the one who appears to want it least will win. QED - I think
Fear mongering indeed!! The Clinton camp knows full well that Barack Obama is half-KENYAN. Either Hillary's campaign manager is so ignorant and stupid to not triple check the facts of that photo before she opened her mouth to make those comments, or she deliberately said SOMALI because she knows the only thing most Americans know about Somalia is the "Black Hawk Down" episode, of which americans would be more familiar with the movie than the actual events as and when they happened. Oh and yes... Al-Qaeda's presence and influence in Somalia.
As a former proofreader on the Birmingham Post and Mail many years ago, I humbly apologise for my error in my blog about the 707 in which you traveled with the Obama group. I can only comment that my proofreading skills have somewhat faded over the years, and add that a 737 is even more expensive to rent than a 707!
Gosh, just leave Justin to Blog.... this is not a 大象传媒 News report!
Pennsylvania? Still Hilary's numbers won't add up. By August Obama will still be leading, and then they will roll dice...and change the rules all together.