OBAMA VS. CLINTON

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am hooking my cart to Obama's horse. This didn't seem to be much of a "controversial" decision when I made it, but now that the campaign is getting ugly, I find myself defending him (as well as myself) on a more frequent basis. Specifically, I have a good friend at work who supports Clinton, and we've spent countless lunch hours debating the merits of this race.

My friend does not necessarily dislike Obama, but he thinks the man is just too green for the job of President. "What has he done?" is a frequent quote. He also agrees with the Clinton camp that Obama hasn't been properly vetted by the media. The Reverend Wright thing, he argues, is a perfect example of the type of thing that would take him down in the general election. In addition, Clinton has shown she's a fighter who will do anything to win. That, he states, is what is needed in November.

Like my friend, I do not dislike Clinton (although, her attempt to get the Michigan votes to count really bugs me). But my belief is that he -- along with many of her supporters -- is hugely underestimating what the right will throw at her in the general. Obama, I admit, is a little bit of an unknown. But it seems to me that he has the charisma and message of hope that was missing from Gore and Kerry ... and now Clinton. Her argument about winning the "big states" is weak in that it assumes he can't. The important thing isn't whether or not he can win California and New York. No, the big question mark is whether or not she can win any state other than those won by Gore and Kerry. I'm just not sure. As for Reverend Wright: well, if that's all it takes to ruin a candidacy, then you might as will give the Republicans the keys to the White House now.

Having said all this, we both now have a separate worry ... can either of them beat McCain? I would have said "absolutely" a few months ago. But now, I have to admit that I'm starting to feel as if all the fighting between them could be their undoing. If this battle goes all the way to the convention in August without a clear winner, it seems that McCain is handed the election. The common thought is that there just isn't enough time for the Democratic nominee to "catch up" to McCain from a PR standpoint. Whenever Bill Maher has a Democrat on his show, he says, "Everyone is saying you can't lose. So, tell me, how are you going to lose?" It seems we have our answer.

The governor of Tennessee has proposed a solution that I think everyone should promote. At the end of all the voting in June, the superdelegates should be forced to make a decision. They can (and should) vote their hearts, but they cannot wait until August. No matter how you slice it, they will have all the information they need by that point to make up their minds. So far, the DNC has been unable to do anything to make this situation better. And I argue that -- if the Dems can't at least do this -- maybe they are too stupid to win.

WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THE WHINING?

Like most Americans, I have a morning routine that one interrupts at their own peril. And for me, one important element of that routine is watching a few minutes of The Today Show before I head off to work. For some strange reason, I just don't feel quite ready to tackle the day if Matt, Meredith, Al, and Ann haven't given me a rundown on the big stories facing our nation. So, you can imagine how grumpy I was last week when my Today Show experience involved witnessing part of an interview with Dr. (of Physiology) Laura Schlessinger pimping her new book Stop Whining, Start Living.

Rather than go with my instinct, however, to throw the remote at the television, I decided to attempt a little self help and take in some of Dr. Laura's sage advice. And you know what? ... She's right! There is a great deal of whining going on in Santa Barbara lately. In fact, Dr. Laura's wisdom got me thinking about some prime examples of major whining taking place around here ...

- When the News-Press accused Jerry Roberts of downloading porn, Dr. Laura was pretty whiny about the public's negative reaction to Wendy McCaw's actions. Then, a few weeks later, when her son was accused of the same thing, she whined, "We hope all news media outlets will respect his privacy ..."

- When a former NP Healthspan columnist stated that Dr. Laura has "the cajones to preach against tolerating diversity" in one if his columns, man, you would not believe the whining that occurred. Dr. Laura whined-up such a storm that it resulted in the firing of his editor and the resignation of the columnist himself.

- Come to think of it, what do you think lead to her intolerant label in the first place? Hmmm, maybe it was Dr. Laura constantly whining that gays and lesbians are 'abnormal,' 'aberrant,' 'deviant,' 'disordered,' 'dysfunctional,' and 'an error.' That would be my guess anyway.

In the Amazon.com book description for Dr. Laura's new tome, it states that Stop Whining, Start Living encourages whiners "to reject negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes; shift perspective; open up to gratitude and goodness; and embrace obligations to loved ones and the world in general." Sounds good. I think a great place to start would be for Santa Barbarans to reject the huge steaming pile of negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes that come from Dr. Laura and the News-Press as a whole.

Yep, it's definitely time to push out those bad emotions and embrace the good. For example, the gigantic collective 2,000 person whine that occurred when Dr. Laura's picture popped-up on the screen during Citizen McCaw was just quite unproductive for the public's healing process. I mean, booing and hissing is very negative behavior.

So, thank you, Dr. Laura. I very much look forward to a lack of whining over the next few years ... from all of us.

I GUESS BAILOUTS ARE OKAY NOW

From ABC News ...

Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson Sunday defended the Federal Reserve's recent bailout of investment bank Bear Stearns.

"The right decision here, I am convinced, was the decision that the Fed made, which was to do things, work with market participants to minimize the disruptions," Paulson said in a "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos.

From George W. Bush ...

"It’s not the government’s job to bail out speculators," Mr. Bush said, "or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford."

Bailout for big corporations: no problem. Bailout for joe schmo getting kicked out of his home: no way. This is what I hate about the Republican philosophy.

CITIZEN McCAW: MUST SEE FILM OF THE YEAR!

As was the case with many in Santa Barbara, I was eagerly awaiting the premiere of the sold out CITIZEN McCAW at the 2000 seat Arlington on Friday evening. Sitting in the theater amongst the many brave folks who had either quit or been fired from the Santa Barbara News-Press, I have to admit that I had a few butterflies. Would this film live up to expectations? Would the crowd leave that theater with a sense of -- if not closure -- at least satisfaction.

Well, I certainly had no reason to worry, because the movie is great by any standard. And I have to admit that I'm even a little jealous ... As someone who dabbles in filmmaking myself, I remember telling anyone who would listen that the News-Press meltdown would (if done right) make for an outstanding documentary. Lack of resources in conjunction with my fear of Wendy's lawyers made me drop that idea faster than people drop their NP subscriptions. It only took about 5 minutes into CITIZEN McCAW, however, for me to realize that the right people took on this important subject and did it with true care and professionalism.

Instead of attempting to write some sort of review or critique of the film, I thought it would be more fun to simply give you a few insights from a group of friends just chatting about it. After the the documentary ended, I went out for a couple drinks with fellow bloggers I'M NOT ONE TO BLOG, BUT... , Big Table, COOKIESINHEAVEN, and one former News-Press employee. Here are few of the highlights from our discussion ...

BIAS - There did seem to be a little disagreement amongst the group as to whether or not the film was 100% successful in not making it appear completely anti-Wendy. As director Sam Tyler emphasized in the post-film Q&A, every attempt was made to get the major NP players on camera to tell their side. Since Wendy and company would have none of that, the filmmakers were forced drop in written quotes from Ms. McCaw and others where appropriate. The comment was made that, if the film is going to play outside of the Santa Barbara area, it will need to be tweaked some to make Wendy come off a little less unlikable. Personally, I don't feel that way. It seems to me that the quotes from Wendy sound completely absurd only because we all know her and know the story. But someone in Iowa, for example, won't see it that way. In my opinion, you simply can't make a documentary about this subject without Wendy smelling bad.

THE FUNNY - I made the observation that the film would not have worked nearly as well without the Santa Barbara Independent's Nick Welsh. A good documentary needs to cover all the emotions, and Mr. Welsh was pretty much all the funny in this one. I've never seen Nick speak before, but I felt he was really impressive here. He came across to me as natural and charismatic without a hint of nervousness. And all the laugh-out-loud lines came from his lips. Everyone seemed to be in agreement on this point, although some felt that his stuff might have to be reigned in a bit for a global audience.

ANYTHING WE DIDN'T LIKE? - At the expense of hurting someone's feelings, the general consensus in the group was that the illustrations didn't work. They weren't bad in maybe another context, but for the purposes of this movie, they looked too comical in what should have been serious situations. They made you chuckle at inappropriate moments and briefly took you out of the film.

BLOGS - I just can't write about CITIZEN McCAW without giving a little shout-out to our little blog. There is a section in the movie where they talk about how the News-Press mess triggered interest in many new on-line publications and blogs in the Santa Barbara area; the best example being Craig Smith. But imagine my surprise when The Average Man itself actually popped-up along side the likes of edhat and BlogaBarbara as examples of this phenomenon! Made my day, I have to tell ya.

GENERAL FEELINGS - Everyone at the table felt the movie was outstanding on the whole. And to be honest, this group (myself very much included) can be quite opinionated. So, I think it's a tribute to the creators that we couldn't find a whole heck of a lot of bad things to say. As Sam Tyler said in the Q&A, it's a tough thing to keep an audience's attention for 90 minutes. But the pacing here is spot on, and I think it will very much work outside of our little community. The comment was made that this is a movie you really don't want to screw up due to the high level of emotion by so many affected by Wendy's actions. So, bravo to Mr. Tyler and his team for pulling it off.

It will be interesting to see where the documentary goes from here. There was talk of it possibly playing on PBS or HBO. And it might even make a theater run. Let's hope everyone in the world gets a chance to see it!

If you missed the show on Friday, two additional screenings have been added at the beautiful Marjorie Luke Theatre located at 721 E. Cota Street in Santa Barbara: Saturday, April 5th at 8PM and Sunday, April 6th at 3PM.

THE GREEN PATH TO BETTER CARS

A recent article in the Santa Barbara Independent titled The Future of Biofuels Takes Root in S.B. has once again fueled my interest in fuel. And given the fact that the Dale Franciscos of the world don't have any love for promoting alternative transportation, it seems to me that our vehicles simply can't go with the status quo.

But saying you need better cars is one thing; getting there is another. Perform a few searches with The Google, and you'll see that there are certainly no lack of great ideas out there. From hydrogen to jatropha plants, it seems that everyone is feverishly trying to make a better auto. My recent conversations with friends on this subject, however, have had much less to do with technology and everything to do with politics. Case in point: I'd like to summarize a recent debate I had with Big Table, inspired by his interest in compressed air as a fuel source. In a nutshell, here's what we discussed ...

The Average Man - The excellent documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? has turned me into a cynic. The sad plight of the 1970's EV1 has convinced me that removing our dependence of foreign oil will never be about the technology. Because the best ideas in the world will be squashed by the millions of dollars that big oil and big automobile companies with pump into the hands of government officials in order to make sure things stay the same for a long, long time. Or at least, things will change at a snail's pace. It is for this reason alone, that my hope sits almost exclusively with the plug-in hybrid. In my opinion, this is the "gateway drug" our society will need to move from where we are today to where we need to be tomorrow. Not only do these cars get great mileage, but if you really want to be green, you will have the ability to charge your car when not in use. And if we're really lucky, there's even talk of being able to use your idle car to feed energy back into the grid. The important thing for me, though, is that a plug-in hybrid still lets the oil companies and car companies use their dirty oil. And thus, they will play along and slowly adapt to change.

Big Table - He thinks I'm living in the past, and I need to get over it. The 1970's was a lifetime ago, and the world is much different now. High gas prices, global warming concerns, terrorism, informed youths ... all these things are the reason that technology will win out over politics. The oil companies and auto companies are dinosaurs, and the asteroid is coming fast. These industries are so set in there ways and beholden to stock holders and such that they will be incapable of adapting. Thus, the young, fresh start-ups creating cars that run on things like compressed air will be the small mammals that survive the blast. We will have cars that run on alternative fuels, but they won't come from the likes of GM and Ford.

As much as I like to be right about things, I'd love to lose this one.