Talk Talk with Fred Newman and Jackie Salit: Determinism Run Amok

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Every week CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist/philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, May 30, 2010 after watching selections from "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "PBS NewsHour," "This Week" and "The McLaughlin Group."

Salit: I know. These terrible things happen. Everybody's very upset about this. And Axelrod says 'We're working on a solution. We've mobilized all the great scientists from everywhere in the world.

Newman: That's at least a lie, but surely an exaggeration.

Salit: OK, at a minimum, we've mobilized some Nobel scientists. And, he says, 'We're working on this and we haven't gotten to the solution yet.

Newman: Right. And Matthews, in his typical provocative and sometimes dumb way says: 'What happens if you don't find one?

Salit: And the answer is?

Newman: Then, we'll fail.

Salit: We'll fail, yes.

Newman: People have failed before.

Read Talk/Talk in its entirety here.

Talk Talk: Paradigm or Pause

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogue on Sunday, January 4, 2009 after watching selections from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "The McLaughlin Group."

Salit: When I first posed Chris Matthews' question to you – is this a paradigm shift or just a pause? – you said that the paradigm shift has already happened.

 

Newman: Yes.

 

Salit: So, what are the characteristics of that paradigm shift?

 

Newman: The world is not uni-polar or even bi-polar. It's multi-polar. There are a lot of powerful countries – China, India, Brazil, etc. And they're starting to relate differently. They're not relating to one common center or to a bi-polar power dynamic, like the U.S./Soviet Union. They're relating more directly to each other. In that kind of world, there's a pressing need to discover what shape things are going to take…economically, socially, politically, diplomatically. Countries all over the world are struggling with that, to figure out what they would like to see emerge and whether they can effect it. And, if they can't effect their ultimate design, then what can they effect? That's what's going on in the world.

Continue reading Talk Talk here.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Swing voters give Obama flexibility to solve US economic crisis (Christian Science Monitor) The focus group results also give some insight into Obama’s wins in other red states such as Indiana, Colorado, Nevada, and North Carolina. Keeping the support of those swing voters will be crucial if Obama wants to govern effectively.
• Malcolm X, Obama, Powell, Rice and ‘House Negroes’ (Tri-State Defender) Malcolm X: “The organization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro-American community block by block to make the community aware of its power and potential; we will start immediately a voter-registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community…"
• State's independents gain a foothold (The Durham News) unaffiliated voters surpassed both parties in their rate of growth, increasing by about 220,000 -- or 18 percent. These gains were made primarily among voters ages 18-24, meaning an increasing number of voters -- especially young voters -- refuse to identify with any party at all.
• Time to target gerrymandering (LETTER Lebanon Daily News) Redistricting reform is not a partisan matter. Redistricting reform in Pennsylvania should be attractive to voters in both political parties as well as independent voters.
• Old Issue, New Twist (NY Daily News/Daily Politics) The New York County Lawyers' Association's Election Law Committee will hold a public forum next week on the question of open primaries, and the line-up - from Independence Party attorney Harry Kresky to Post City Hall Bureau Chief David Seifman (acting as the moderator - is sure to make for a lively discussion.
• Chris Matthews Senate Run? Report Says He's Staffing Up... UPDATE: Matthews Denies (The Huffington Post) yes he is, no he's not, yes he is, no he's not....
• Baseball's postseason needs to capture the 'independents' (USA TODAY) If we compare postseason television broadcasting to the recent election, television has the votes of fans whose teams are playing locked up, but it needs to capture the independent voters.

It's Showtime in Denver!!!!

Chris Matthews has kicked off the NBC coverage of the Dem convention in Denver tonight with a little Jerry Springer action . Matthews says he likes (and in fact appears to genuinely revel in) talking with the "real" people.

The "real" people Matthews is reveling in are rabid partisans who are either pro-Hillary and/or anti-Obama (at this point, what's the difference???) Many of these folks will vote for John McCain because they support conservative triangulating party politics.

But hey, it's "exciting" tv. The pundits are talking fast and furious, lest they lose their audience. And who cares about the country anyway?

After all, the MSM has decided that Americans are into the excitement. In spite of the fact that 40% of the electorate now identifies as independent -- and seemingly NOT part of the partisan divide.

Hmmmm..... my money's on the independents and independent-minded voters in the country.

Live-blogging MSNBC coverage March 8

8:00pm: From what I could gather from this giggly segment, Chris Matthews (who I like and think has been more than fair so far) and MSNBC think this primary 2008 election is a fight over rhetoric and campaign slag -- same shit different day.

If the MSM can't understand the move that the American people are making, they should go back on the street and talk to regular folks. This is a moment for Americans to stand up and say what we think needs to happen. We're taking our shot.

Given the fact that 5,000 homeless youth die on the street every year in America, given that there are millions of people in the "richest country in the world" who go to work every day and don't have health insurance, given the fact that the US has been involved for 5 years in war that the American people don't support that has killed thousands of American soldiers and maimed tens of thousands more, I'd like to suggest that MSNBC appologize to the American people for being part of the problem.

Some of us are doing something about that.

And personally speaking, I somehow just don't trust Mrs. Clinton to get us out of Iraq.


6:00pm: Here's a wild discussion between Chris Matthews and some commentators over the assignment of delegates. This election makes no sense to these folks in terms of getting votes and getting delegates.... They don't understand the election. Obama should be going for votes, not trying to lead a movement... etc.

Eugene Robinson -- Change message is the issue for Obama.

Tucker Carlson -- Says Hillary's message of being tough is right on for the country...

Rachel Maddow seems to be a shill for Hillary's campaign but postures as a journalist paid for by MSNBC, but whatever.....

Matthews is talking about how other campaigns have handled this or that attack....