BAGnewsNotes

The Ring

2008-10-07T10:11:55-07:00

No, this shot does not reflect the physical layout of tonight's debate in Tennessee. What it does show is one of McCain's innumerable townhall-style meetings, this one in Racine, Wisconsin back on July 31st.

How often has it crossed you mind, though, that the format McCain uses looks like an old-style boxing ring? With many in the punditocracy likening tonight's debate to a boxing match, using like metaphors, such as how McCain needs to "deliver a knock out punch," I'm amused how it's McCain's bellicose and flailing nature that has him on the ropes in the first place.

So, what's it going to be?

Mad? Sad? Glad? Or, had?

(image: Mary Altaffer/AP. Racine Civic Center July 31, 2008. image 2 & 4: Gerald Herbert/AP. Pueblo, Colo. Friday, Oct. 3, 2008. image 3 & 5: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty. >October 2, 2008 Denver, CO)

What The Palin Doodle Document Suggests About How She Got Through The V.P. Debate

2008-10-07T01:45:27-07:00

(click for full size)

Like the Ulysses strategy for dealing with sirens, I'm convinced that the safest way to encounter Sarah Palin is by reading the transcript of comments she happens to spontaneously offer in public -- however few and far between. Based on a couple of interviews, as well as her debate with Joe Biden, the discrepancy between how she comes off on TV as opposed to on paper is, simply put, mind blowing. In spite of how palatable she was on stage during the V.P debate, the written narrative -- reminiscent of the Couric interview -- careens back-and-forth between awkward and barely coherent.

With all that in mind, I've been looking at the "Palin doodle document" that has been floating around the past few days, and find it really fascinating -- especially in light of that Veep debate. The note was provided to The New Republic by a woman named Laura Chase. According to Chase -- who was a colleague of Palin's on the Wasilla city council and Palin's campaign manager in her first mayoral race -- Palin scribbled these notes on the back of a City Hall budget passed out during a 1996 Wasilla City Council meeting.

The TNR post doesn't offer much insight into the note itself -- except to call attention to the bulleted points on the right, in which Palin outlines her qualifications for running for mayor. It's the information in the middle and the bottom of the document, however, which I find most relevant. I believe the sample, in fact, might actually help us understand what Palin was doing during her debate with Biden.

If you look at my post on the V.P. debate, my third point offers screen shots of Palin writing and also looking down and reading. As I wrote:

Palin, the former sportscaster, did an impressive job sounding spontaneous while working from a combination of rote memory, as well what seemed like both pre-written and written notes. The delivery was pretty good, although the lack of follow-up questions allowed her to avoid most specificity and change the subject at will. If you watched Palin when she wasn't speaking though, you'll see she spent almost the entire debate making notes.

(Like Bush, I think Palin is probably quite skilled at working off a combination of memory and a written script. Apparently, she thought she could get away with same in the Couric interview, but didn't expect follow-ups asking for specifics and examples.)

Considering the Wasilla document in the context of Palin's behavior at the debate the other night, let's take a look at the passage above in the middle of the page. It reads:

"City Hall says it sees the need for an increase in sales and property tax to pay for some local politicians "wish list." There is no need to raise taxes. Wasilla is collecting two million dollars a year more than what we had projected when we sold the sales tax proposal to you four years ago!"

If you notice, the passage not only relates to City Hall business, but specifically to the budget. I'd be willing to bet -- if a transcript could be found from that City Council meeting -- that Palin spoke these three complete sentences out loud to the council after writing them down for herself. Supporting the assumption, notice how Palin actually encloses the sentences in quotation marks; adds guidelines for emphasis with underlines and exclamation marks; adopts a rhetorical confrontational tone; and also ends with emphatic punch.

Now, compare the strategy suggested by this twelve-year-old sample with how Palin dealt with the Biden debate.

Given how Palin was eagerly writing almost every moment she wasn't speaking; and given that she and Biden were allowed pen and paper but weren't allowed to bring pre-written notes; and given that most of her responses also ended with an emphatic punch (or a "zinger," as she called it); and also given that throughout the transcript of the V.P. debate, you can see instances where Palin sounds more coherent for a sentence or two before descending back into disjointed fragments or sentences without clear beginnings, middles or ends, it seems reasonable to assume that Palin -- having some kind of confidence problem, perhaps -- approaches most extemporaneous speaking by either a.) avoiding it altogether, b.) having everything written out in advance, or c.) relying on rote memory, and scripting as much as possible on-the-spot.

Love The Hat

2008-10-06T14:34:17-07:00

(click for full size)

Is this really the only pic that exists placing McCain and Charles Keating together?

The image was scanned from a September 12, 1993 article in the Phoenix Gazette. The photo, documenting McCain's 51st birthday celebration at Keating's private Bahamas resort, was part of a Keating family expose as related by Krista Keating, the former wife of Keating's only son.

Certainly though, the photo delivers the goods, revealing how McCain enjoyed many free party trips from and with Keating while Mac was a congressman. Although Firedoglake unearthed the article three weeks ago, this is the first I've seen of it -- probably because the media has had a hands-off policy toward McCain's Keating connection ... and the 'sphere was also low-key until Palin-McCain started pushing an Obama-Bill Ayers link.

You can read more here, and the PDF of the original Phoenix Gazette article is available here.

(image 1: Krista Keating via Phoenix Gazette, September 12, 1993, via Firedoglake)

Harsher Focus

2008-10-06T12:12:49-07:00

What goes around comes around?

A BAGreader wrote me recently about a shot of Palin in the Guardian. He thought the picture -- run last Tuesday, but photographed two weeks ago at the Clinton Global Forum the morning after McCain supposedly suspended his campaign -- made Palin look "older, more heavily made up and evil." (The Guardian piece, by the way, dealt with Palin, global warming and removal of protection for polar bears.)

Although the take raised some curiosity, I've see more to it since the Veep debate. If Palin has taken maximum advantage of adorableness, her new incarnation as full-fledged pit bull, and her specific mission to slander Obama, does appear to be shifting the way visual media is responding. It's as if her nastier focus is bringing out something of the same in the shooter's lens.

Take the shot above, for example, accompanying a stark write-up this morning on WAPO's campaign blog. (The piece, "In Fla., Palin Goes for the Rough Stuff as Audience Boos Obama," elaborates how Palin continues to associate Obama with domestic terrorism.)

In terms of the propaganda trappings, notice how the flag is enormous and blanketing, as if equal in scale to Palin's exploitation of it. Also, the "America First" slogan, which grows more racist by-the-day in context with the "Obama as terrorist sympathizer" charge, is cut off to simply read "FIRST," reflective of Palin's role on the GOP ticket, and how Palin encourages audiences to think about themselves in light of her scare tactics. (All on it's own, by the way, the lilly white blouse is quite a touch, pulling for purity, both morally and racially.)

Let's concentrate on what else the camera is doing, however, to counteract the manufacture of hate. From the low angle, we see more wrinkles than usual, challenging Palin's advertised picture-perfect surface. Given the effect of the wind, the image shows Palin, as she delivers the hate, as someone somewhat disheveled. And then, the light reveals Palin as so heavily made up, she almost looks like a younger Leona Helmsley. The visual push back here offers up Palin, with her matter-of-fact gesture, as coming from someone so waxy and artificial as to be held up as phony.

(h/t Mark)

(image: Chris O'Meara/Associated Press. Oct. 6, 2008 in Clearwater, FL)

McCain's Pal Liddy

2008-10-05T20:14:12-07:00

Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. --- from "Why is the NY Times continuing to ignore McCain's "own Bill Ayers"?" (Media Matters)

With the McCain campaign going 100% negative and Palin -- with an assist from the NYT -- playing the racist Obama-as-terrorist card yesterday, a counteroffensive by Obama surrogates and the larger left is picking up steam in the "two can play the guilt-by-association" game.

(Of course, The BAG is expecting all kinds of new visual material to come out of the woodwork.)

The nets are already targeting, and demanding for equal time, regarding McCain's connections to Charles Keating and The Keating Five, John Singlaub, Richard Quinn and John Hagee. As Media Matters elaborates, though, the best comparison to the flimsy ties between Obama and Ayers is the much more tangible connection between McCain and G. Gordon Liddy. Besides his own domestic terrorist credential above, Liddy has consistently raised money for McCain who he had on his radio show in May. McCain, in fact, has publicly endorsed Liddy's character.

If one understands anything from reading this site, it's that character is revealed in all kinds of ways. For example, check out this undated shot taken of and for Liddy on a visit to Iraq. In it, Liddy and an unidentified American officer are posing -- mouths stuffed -- with various Iraqi soldiers. The title of the shot says it all:

"G-man noshes on the head of a sheep."

... And then, I'm also wondering if, 100 years from now, the most popular 43rd U.S. President trivia question might turn out to be: Who introduced ketchup to Iraq?

(image: Gordon Liddy)

All Hands On Deck

2008-10-05T01:21:05-07:00

Although this old LIFE Magazine cover with Tina Fey and John McCain has been making the rounds for about a month now, I haven't noticed anyone relate it to the sexual dynamics of the Palin-McCain ticket.

Given how Palin has energized McCain, I think this cover -- distributed four Septembers ago during the dwindling days of the Bush - Kerry contest -- is, well, on the personal side. In fact, if a news magazine had the balls, I could easily imagine McCain and the real Sarah posing exactly the same way illustrating how McCain would be nowhere right now without those Alaskan hands on deck.

Backstory at Poynter Forums

(photo: unidentified)

Your Turn: The "W"

2008-10-04T16:22:23-07:00

Three days out, this looks to be shaping up as the defining visual take-away from the Veep debate. (And that will especially be true if SNL, the media's "Palin check," puts a magnifying glass on it tonight.)

Shooting From the Hip, With a Smile to Boot (Libby Copeland/WAPO)
My Sweet Coconut (Digby)
Women In Arizona Offended By Palin's Wink (Marlene Phillips/HuffPost)

NYT Plays The Ayers Card

2008-10-03T23:41:17-07:00

Records of a school reform project suggest Barack Obama has played down contact with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weathermen, but they do not seem to have been close. -- NYT article caption

With Obama opening up a strong lead in the polls, it's hard not to feel The Times is either taking it upon itself to make the race more competitive, or adhering to some juvenile rule of parity in which each candidate gets whacked in turn, even if a front page article -- raising all kinds of long hashed-over and discredited innuendoes -- ends in the conclusion there is nothing there to speak of.

Friday afternoon's NYT.com front page features an image and article resuscitating feeble allegations -- all then discounted -- of some kind of professional, philanthropic or even political collaboration between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, the article serving little more than a re-introduction of Ayers -- and, by association, questions about Obama's character and patriotism -- into the media sphere.

If you can hold your nose long enough to read the article, you'll also notice how the author -- by way of an interview with a Chicago Tribute columnist -- also manages to reference Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, including the "God damn America sermon." But then, given the specter of a less competitive election in comparison to the orgy the media had over Reverend Wright, why should all the election fireworks fizzle out now?

Given the power of images to create connotations well beyond the most qualified of words, the NYT dug up this 2001 image of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn to slap on the front of the on-line edition. (I'm more than half expecting to see it on the front of Saturday's print edition, as well.) Besides offering you a screen grab of the digital lead, the image above is the expanded version of the pic from the article. Not only are the former Weathermen staring down at us with self-righteous expressions, but Ayers could be seen as flipping us the bird.

I am typically a lot more high-minded in my conclusions, but frankly, this is right-wing enabling crap.

Update 1: Well, whaddya know. Here's the front page of Saturday's NYT print edition. Check top of the fold, accompanied by a 26-year-old shot of the long hair.

Update 2: After the jump in the print edition, page A14 is full of large, accompanying images including the shot above, BA's FBI wanted poster, and two screen shots from political ads by independent fly-by-nights attempting to tie Obama to Ayers. (Click for larger size.)

Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths (NYT)

(image: Todd Buchanan for The New York Times, 2001)

Why Obama

2008-10-03T12:04:16-07:00

What makes this photo by Callie Shell, taken six days ago in Fredericksburg, Virginia, feel so defining?

To me, at this point in time, given the problems raining down on the country and with what the country has come to see of the candidates, this photo articulates why Obama is pulling away and will likely be the next President of the United States.

In Obama, I believe a majority of the electorate has found the right balance between electricity and the ability to weather the storm.

(image: Callie Shell / Aurora for TIME White House Photo Blog. University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia, September 27, 2008)

Biden - Palin debate: The BAG's Top Pics Of The Night

2008-10-02T20:08:40-07:00

1. Feeling It

There are hockey moms and there are single dads.

The tone of last Thursday's debate completely shifted in the last five minutes when Joe Biden became emotional about his family. Until then, it seemed Palin would clearly emerge on top through her continuous eye-contact with the camera and her cloying engagement of the home audience with the "you-and-me against him-and-Washington" schtick.

But Biden's escape from Washington-speak shifted the whole basis of comparison. His emotion in the last few minutes set up a new measure, between genuine feeling and folksiness. If Palin was winning the audience up to that point, the difference in emotional depth would not have escaped anyone.

2. Family Affair

Sleeper highlight of the evening?

Surprisingly, it was how the Biden family neutralized the PR power of the Palin family in the post-debate milling around. Who woulda' thought? Thursday night's "post game" visuals recast the RNC Palin family extravaganza (1, 2, 3) as just that, an overly self-conscious series of manufactured photo-ops.

If partly calculated, it was also touching the way the Biden clan hung out with Gwen Ifill in light of the pounding she took from conservative pundits the past few days.

3. Reading And Writing

Biden - Palin Debate Preview #1: No Jack Kennedy

2008-10-02T09:36:02-07:00

As a visual analogy, fair or unfair? Predictive, misleading or a warning?

(image: Robert Maass/Corbis. 1988. from NYT Kerry/Bush debate preview: In Presidential Debates, a Duel of Wits and Styles. caption: "HEATED DEBATES In 1988, when Dan Quayle suggested that his political experience was comparable to John F. Kennedy's, Lloyd Bentsen shot back: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.")

Black Car Limos

2008-10-01T22:40:45-07:00

I find my primary solace in those who, one a day-to-day basis, continue to visually capture the human dimension of the Wall Street bailout and the intersection of the two Americas. Photographer Yana Paskova captured this image for the NYT metro section that morning the Wall Street meltdown simultaneously hit the fan and the papers. The caption reads:

Waiting for clients outside Lehman Brothers in Midtown on Tuesday were, from left, Samuel Dankwah, Ernest Campbell, Ronald Saba and Yves Bertrand, who drive black-car limousines.

Accompanying article: "Hard Times for Drivers of the Wall St. Powerful"

(revised 10.2.08)

(image: Yana Paskova for The New York Times. published September 16, 2008)