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April 10, 2006
Odds and Ends
• Watched Bill Maher's show over dinner today; guests were the inexcusably hackish Bill Sammon, the surprisingly on-point Ben Affleck, and Joe Biden. The last, unsurprisingly, dominated. Much is said about Biden's gasbag tendencies. So much, in fact, that little is said about how damn good the guy can be at bloviating. When on, he's able to sound effortlessly credible and knowledgeable about foreign policy, a skill few contemporary Democrats possess. I, like most, write off his 08 chances, but if he puts in a few more performances like that, he'll be a contender.
• On a whole other note, we had a string of awesome comment threads today. Good stuff.
• And while I'm noting the random, Rick Perlstein's got himself a website now. Nothing fancy, but it does provide a handy compendium of his essays, which I had fun browsing through. His post-election lament is both the best-titled and most honest entry in the genre, and it deserves more attention than it got.
April 10, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
Re: Biden: Quality varies, like mileage, with Biden. He can just as easily slip into saying the most vaccuous things that parrot the Repub. line.
I'd seriously consider staying home if he was the Dem. Pres. candidate.
He is seriously overexposed on TV shows and underexposed as a leader in the Senate - on any issue, including foreign policy.
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Apr 10, 2006 10:00:03 PM
That show lives or dies on its panel, and it can be downright terrible.
Friday was good though. Affleck came across well.
Posted by: Jeff | Apr 10, 2006 10:35:52 PM
Oh Ezra! Come on! We've all had that "Wow, Biden sounds great!" moment. Biden's problem isn't that he can't come off sounding great. It's that just when you're convinced that he will be great, he lets you down.
Biden's impressiveness is like McCain's independence...it's only there when nothing's on the line.
Posted by: Royko | Apr 10, 2006 10:51:04 PM
"So much, in fact, that little is said about how damn talented the guy is at bloviating."
Once upon a time, prior to the plagiarism incident, Biden was the Great Democratic Hope.
Posted by: Petey | Apr 10, 2006 10:58:37 PM
Perlstein's a stud. I keep looking at people like him, noting the complete absense of an opposite number on the other side, and wondering how the fuck we keep losing.
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Apr 11, 2006 12:19:55 AM
Affleck is the intellectal's intellectual and a great spokesman for the Democratic party and he would be a worthy successor to John Kerry's senate seat.
Posted by: Jose Chung | Apr 11, 2006 12:45:51 AM
I was surprised by how much I agreed with Affleck. I was also surprised that Bill Sammon had no visible scars from the lobotomy and implantation of the talking-point regurgitation chip.
Posted by: scarshapedstar | Apr 11, 2006 1:32:05 AM
"I was also surprised that Bill Sammon had no visible scars from the lobotomy and implantation of the talking-point regurgitation chip."
You have to look behind the ears.
Posted by: Petey | Apr 11, 2006 2:19:21 AM
Affleck has always done well on Maher's show for some reason...not to defend Sammon, but the 'conservative' slot on the Maher panel has got to be amongst the most thankless jobs ever, (especially for elected officials...I almost felt bad for Rohrabacher. No, that's a lie. But it's got to be tough to be Illeana Ros-Lehtinen and have Richard Belzer literally scream "bullshit!" in your face.) Ramesh was about the best they've had all season, which makes the "Party of Death" thing all the more disappointing - he can chose to be onpoint, respectful and not entirely unconvincing. But, lowest-common talking point pays better in publishing, I guess.
Posted by: Pooh | Apr 11, 2006 2:27:05 AM
Yeah, The conservative slot on the Bill Maher show is about as equivalant of the token liberal slot on Fox news programs that we will ever see. You have Bill Maher, then you have a liberal political figure, a figure from the entertainment world (usually liberal too) and a fiercely liberal studio audience. To balance that you have one token conservative. Lately I've heard some people (on Feministe) complain about there even BEING a token conservative. That the show would be better with just 4 liberal guests & a liberal audience Bush bashing for an hour.
As for Biden, I concur with both Ezra & the comments. When he is on, he's on & can come off downright Presidential (or at least Vice-Presidential) Other times (like during the Supreme Court hearings) he comes off as a joke.
Posted by: Dustin | Apr 11, 2006 3:30:35 AM
Lately I've heard some people (on Feministe) complain about there even BEING a token conservative. That the show would be better with just 4 liberal guests & a liberal audience Bush bashing for an hour.
Sometimes it's better to have the thematic consistency that a liberal panel would provide rather than the awkwardness caused by a half-baked attempt at creating "balance."
Posted by: Constantine | Apr 11, 2006 4:01:11 AM
At the end of the day, in spite his nonstop mouth, Biden's a thoughtful, enthusiastic guy who would be a top-notch President. So of course he has no chance, given the oddities of our political system. Perhaps he's better suited for Secretary of State anyway.
Posted by: kreiz | Apr 11, 2006 9:10:45 AM
"Sometimes it's better to have the thematic consistency that a liberal panel would provide rather than the awkwardness caused by a half-baked attempt at creating "balance." "
In what situations would this be so? It seems the show would be far less interesting than it already is.
Posted by: Dustin | Apr 11, 2006 9:19:22 AM
Given that this was my first visit here via Tigerhawk, I was impressed by the quality of yesterday's Iran thread. I have no way of knowing whether that's typical here, Ezra, but it speaks well of you and your blog.
Posted by: kreiz | Apr 11, 2006 9:35:37 AM
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