*Only 16 million watched the live whodunnit it seems - maybe you all have better social lives than me!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kew Green, sun shining. Good start. Finally walking past the cool-looking second-hand book shop during daylight hours so get a chance to go in. Brilliantly pokey, bought the two oldest-looking books I could find.
On the tube, reading the paper, nobody normally talks to anyone else very much. Irish voice breaks the silence : 'If anyone objects, I won't do it. If no-one objects, I'm gonna play you some music. Anyone want to object, don't need a reason. No?'
Most look straight ahead, don't want to catch his eye. Two stops, and an Irish jig meets James Bond theme tune on the violin, later, and he gets a round of applause. 'If you want to put some money in ma hat, I'd be very grateful. If you don't, ignore the hat.' Quick circuit of the carriage, most add some coins. 'And now, ladies and gentlemen, I depart'. Perfect timing for the next station, hops off. Smiles all round.
Young guy - I'd guess at Japanese but not sure - asks me how he'd get to Acton Town on the tube. Get my A to Z out and show him how - District west I think - and off he goes.
Out at Westminster, hundreds of tourists taking the same picture. Across the bridge, sun shining.
Lunch on Southbank, at Pizza Express (other restaurants are available), lots of laughing. Forget to order dough balls - rookie error.
Little lad turns around from the next table and announces himself: 'Hello, I'm Jake.'
'Hello, I'm Tom'.
That's all.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
What me and you were watching today
He said what we knew he'd say: I was wrong, I've let you all down terribly, I'm going to trying and be a better man.
There was the odd mini-revelation, or more precisely confirmation of what we had already suspected.
"I was unfaithful, I had affairs and I cheated" - the first time he'd admitted it.
"Elin and I have begun the process of discussing the damage caused by my behaviour" - what?! she's taking him back?
"I do plan to return to golf one day... I don't rule out that it will be this year" - frustratingly vague for us; impossibly tantalising for a golfing world that has recently shunned the man that carries it.
But the most interesting part came here:
"I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.
I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me."
.... and, until then, we'd nearly bought it. But, at this point, it became clear that he didn't believe a word of what he was saying. In standing there, saying these words, arriving stage-centre with such pomp, in front of 40 of his cronies, refusing to answer any questions, deliberately upstaging the actual sporting action of a game he's supposed to love, pausing and looking into the camera at stunningly stage-managed moments, hugging his mum and shaking hands with his buddies at the end, the greatest golfer - perhaps the finest sportsman - we've ever seen, showed that he thinks he is entitled, he lives by rules only he (and his 'advisers' - helpful they were) make.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hadn't watched an episode for years. We used to watch every one as kids, then at some point maybe 6 or 7 years ago we just stopped, don't know why and now it's never on in our house. To me, Larry Lamb's Gavin's dad from that Anglo-Welsh comedy that got quite big - getting my head around him being a villain was a bit of a challenge.
But I had to watch tonight's. 25 years of soapy sorrow, a secret storyline so secretive that not even the actors knew (the ads that've been on 24/7 with viewers guessing who killed Archie were brilliant). A first live episode, a leading lady (and Stacey / Lacey most definitely is that) who had lost her voice, and still managed to tell us she dun it.
For what we'll soon find out was a good 25 million of us, unmissable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you don't fall asleep and miss us winning gold!
There was the odd mini-revelation, or more precisely confirmation of what we had already suspected.
"I was unfaithful, I had affairs and I cheated" - the first time he'd admitted it.
"Elin and I have begun the process of discussing the damage caused by my behaviour" - what?! she's taking him back?
"I do plan to return to golf one day... I don't rule out that it will be this year" - frustratingly vague for us; impossibly tantalising for a golfing world that has recently shunned the man that carries it.
But the most interesting part came here:
"I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.
I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me."
.... and, until then, we'd nearly bought it. But, at this point, it became clear that he didn't believe a word of what he was saying. In standing there, saying these words, arriving stage-centre with such pomp, in front of 40 of his cronies, refusing to answer any questions, deliberately upstaging the actual sporting action of a game he's supposed to love, pausing and looking into the camera at stunningly stage-managed moments, hugging his mum and shaking hands with his buddies at the end, the greatest golfer - perhaps the finest sportsman - we've ever seen, showed that he thinks he is entitled, he lives by rules only he (and his 'advisers' - helpful they were) make.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hadn't watched an episode for years. We used to watch every one as kids, then at some point maybe 6 or 7 years ago we just stopped, don't know why and now it's never on in our house. To me, Larry Lamb's Gavin's dad from that Anglo-Welsh comedy that got quite big - getting my head around him being a villain was a bit of a challenge.
But I had to watch tonight's. 25 years of soapy sorrow, a secret storyline so secretive that not even the actors knew (the ads that've been on 24/7 with viewers guessing who killed Archie were brilliant). A first live episode, a leading lady (and Stacey / Lacey most definitely is that) who had lost her voice, and still managed to tell us she dun it.
For what we'll soon find out was a good 25 million of us, unmissable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you don't fall asleep and miss us winning gold!
Monday, January 11, 2010
The BBC Radio battle for daytime
David Cameron said when introduced on Richard Bacon’s new show on BBC Radio 5 Live this afternoon: ‘It’s obviously all change at the BBC day’. Indeed.
News of Bacon’s new slot was of course confined to a place in the inside pages, with another former bad boy given a second shot at the big-time hogging the headlines. Chris Evans stepped into Terry Wogan’s rather large shoes as host of the nation’s most-listened-to show, Breakfast on Radio 2, from 7 o’clock this morning, staying one step ahead of speculators with back-to-back Beatles to start: All You Need is Love followed by Got To Get You Into My Life.
There’s been an awful lot of sentiment on Radio 2 lately, what with Terry ending his farewell show on December 18th, his voice cracking, with ‘thank you for being my friend’, and Evans titling his debut broadcast ‘Peace and love and let this be a force for good.’ He reassured the TOGs with a selection of oldies; ‘told you you had nothing to worry about.’ Evans seemed almost endearingly nervous this morning, regularly referencing his practice shows last week, and not braving a move away from Terry’s favourite features. A listenership ‘churn’ is on the cards none the less, figures expected to drop away from Terry’s regular 7.8 - 8 million, before hopefully picking up again within the year, as some return and others come on board. 28 years his junior, Evans presents a more energetic show than Wogan’s, but, although it is far too early to judge, it seems he’s had some of the life sucked out of him on realising the responsibility of presenting the number one show. I fear he’ll end up lost somewhere in between, but a long way away from, both Terry’s gentle crooning and the old outlandish spark that made Evans a great draw in his early years.
Fortunately, the other Chris on the other station isn’t exactly hot on his heels at the moment. Moyles overtook Tony Blackburn as the longest-serving Radio 1 Breakfast Show presenter in September, but lost 700,000 listeners in three months in the process. To be fair to him, he referenced his listener figures when they were up near the eight million mark, and he does the same now they’re down nearer seven. The much-increased number of songs Moyles now plays is as close to an admittance of defeat that we’ll get from him, but maybe the gang have just run out of interesting ‘banter’ (the worst word ever invented, see Dave). The fact that his job doesn’t look to be on the line just yet reflects upon the worrying absence of an up-and-coming replacement. Drivetime host Scott Mills, who like Moyles is 35 and comfortably above Radio 1’s oft-quoted ‘target audience’, is the most likely contender, but neither he nor the station’s other young guns packs enough of a punch for me. Mr Moyles should also be reassured that there’s most certainly life in radio after you’ve had supposedly the biggest job in the business.
For Simon Mayo, who began presenting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show seven years before Evans had his shot, today started his new Radio 2 show in the number two daytime slot: Drivetime. Mayo arrives after nine years presenting the early-afternoon show on 5 Live, in what is an interesting change in direction. The Broadcast Press Guild’s 2008 ‘Radio Broadcaster of the Year’ won plaudits for his work in handling serious interviews and news issues in a sensitive and insightful way. But his new Radio 2 show looks to be strongly musical, today featuring singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald playing live. He might just be the biggest winner out of today’s reshuffles, his new show more accessible than its rivals on Radio 1 and 5 Live. Scott Mills provides adolescent humour for adolescents and even an after-school treat for kids, while Peter Allen’s dulcet tones are an acquired taste on the speech radio end.
The feeling of today being a defining one for BBC Radio was bolstered further by the arrival of a new daytime line-up on BBC Radio 5 Live. The station has long prided itself on being the home of 24-hour Live news and sport, the voices in front of the microphone closer to being show anchors than hosts. But the addition of both Gabby Logan and particularly Richard Bacon to the afternoon schedule signifies a slight but real change in emphasis. Adrian Van-Klaveren, Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live said: “I believe a programme schedule based on three two hour shows is likely to make us stronger as a station, giving each programme a tighter feel and allowing us to develop some new approaches”.
First up from 10, 5 Live’s top performer Victoria Derbyshire keeps her place, this morning putting aside the loss of an hour from her show with a characteristically poignant yet provocative interview with the wrongly imprisoned Shaun Hodgson. Gabby Logan – the female face of sports broadcasting in recent years – takes the reins for the weekday lunchtime shift. Her shows will often fall back into a sporting safety net, although that’s not bad news for a station that seems to switch too abruptly between daytime news and evenings and weekends consumed by sport. Logan’s appointment in the directly competing 12 until 2 slot seems to be a head-on challenge to the supremacy of Jeremy Vine - who has consistently set the daily news agenda over on Radio 2 – and is bold move considering her relative lack of news experience. Rounding off the new line-up is Richard Bacon, the former children’s TV star dismissed from Blue Peter after being caught using drugs, promoted from the late evening slot. Although his show is to be focused more on entertainment, Bacon brushed off suggestions it would be less than hard-hitting by giving the Prime Minister in-waiting a tough time this afternoon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
‘You know how I know you’re getting old? Because you listen to Radio 4.’
My Dad and I used to say that, as you get older, you progress up the radio stations. Kids listen to 1, pensioners to 4. Radio 3 throws a bit of a spanner in the works, but we’ve always ignored, justified perhaps because of a comparatively low listenership. And 5 Live, well that’s just different. Maybe we didn’t think it through.
But both Radio 2 and 1 listened to us in recent months. Terry Wogan, 71, has been replaced by Chris Evans, at 43, much more suitably ‘younger-middle-aged’. Radio 1’s biggest reshuffle in a while happened in September. Out went Jo Whiley, 44, and Edith Bowman, 35, and in came Fearne Cotton, 28, and Greg James, 24, to late morning and early afternoon respectively. Cue yet another BBC ageism ‘scandal.’
No, seriously, it is not all about age when it comes to your station of choice. More worthy of discussion, indeed celebration, is the variety and quality of BBC radio output, without even mentioning BBC local radio.
RAJAR’s September 2009 figures saw the BBC claim 55% of the nation’s listenership. Radio 2 was again streaking ahead with a 15.9% share. Radio 4, which continues to do its own thing, uninteresting in the vying for eminence with its ‘younger’ stations, but making great speech radio less about the characters in front of the mic, claims a 12.4% share.
RAJAR reported a buoyant radio industry in 2009, listening across all radio at a record high of over 45 million.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 until 7 – my BBC radio daytime (best listened to on a tractor)
7.30 – 8.30: Chris Evans – Radio 2
8.30 – 10.00: Chris Moyles – Radio 1
10.00 – 12.00: Victoria Derbyshire – Radio 5 Live
12.00 – 14.00: Jeremy Vine – Radio 2
14.00 – 14.15: The Archers – Radio 4
14.15 – 15.00: The Afternoon Play – Radio 4
15.00 – 16.00: Richard Bacon – Radio 5 Live
16.00 – 17.00: Scott Mills – Radio 1
17.00 – 19.00: Simon Mayo – Radio 2
News of Bacon’s new slot was of course confined to a place in the inside pages, with another former bad boy given a second shot at the big-time hogging the headlines. Chris Evans stepped into Terry Wogan’s rather large shoes as host of the nation’s most-listened-to show, Breakfast on Radio 2, from 7 o’clock this morning, staying one step ahead of speculators with back-to-back Beatles to start: All You Need is Love followed by Got To Get You Into My Life.
There’s been an awful lot of sentiment on Radio 2 lately, what with Terry ending his farewell show on December 18th, his voice cracking, with ‘thank you for being my friend’, and Evans titling his debut broadcast ‘Peace and love and let this be a force for good.’ He reassured the TOGs with a selection of oldies; ‘told you you had nothing to worry about.’ Evans seemed almost endearingly nervous this morning, regularly referencing his practice shows last week, and not braving a move away from Terry’s favourite features. A listenership ‘churn’ is on the cards none the less, figures expected to drop away from Terry’s regular 7.8 - 8 million, before hopefully picking up again within the year, as some return and others come on board. 28 years his junior, Evans presents a more energetic show than Wogan’s, but, although it is far too early to judge, it seems he’s had some of the life sucked out of him on realising the responsibility of presenting the number one show. I fear he’ll end up lost somewhere in between, but a long way away from, both Terry’s gentle crooning and the old outlandish spark that made Evans a great draw in his early years.
Fortunately, the other Chris on the other station isn’t exactly hot on his heels at the moment. Moyles overtook Tony Blackburn as the longest-serving Radio 1 Breakfast Show presenter in September, but lost 700,000 listeners in three months in the process. To be fair to him, he referenced his listener figures when they were up near the eight million mark, and he does the same now they’re down nearer seven. The much-increased number of songs Moyles now plays is as close to an admittance of defeat that we’ll get from him, but maybe the gang have just run out of interesting ‘banter’ (the worst word ever invented, see Dave). The fact that his job doesn’t look to be on the line just yet reflects upon the worrying absence of an up-and-coming replacement. Drivetime host Scott Mills, who like Moyles is 35 and comfortably above Radio 1’s oft-quoted ‘target audience’, is the most likely contender, but neither he nor the station’s other young guns packs enough of a punch for me. Mr Moyles should also be reassured that there’s most certainly life in radio after you’ve had supposedly the biggest job in the business.
For Simon Mayo, who began presenting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show seven years before Evans had his shot, today started his new Radio 2 show in the number two daytime slot: Drivetime. Mayo arrives after nine years presenting the early-afternoon show on 5 Live, in what is an interesting change in direction. The Broadcast Press Guild’s 2008 ‘Radio Broadcaster of the Year’ won plaudits for his work in handling serious interviews and news issues in a sensitive and insightful way. But his new Radio 2 show looks to be strongly musical, today featuring singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald playing live. He might just be the biggest winner out of today’s reshuffles, his new show more accessible than its rivals on Radio 1 and 5 Live. Scott Mills provides adolescent humour for adolescents and even an after-school treat for kids, while Peter Allen’s dulcet tones are an acquired taste on the speech radio end.
The feeling of today being a defining one for BBC Radio was bolstered further by the arrival of a new daytime line-up on BBC Radio 5 Live. The station has long prided itself on being the home of 24-hour Live news and sport, the voices in front of the microphone closer to being show anchors than hosts. But the addition of both Gabby Logan and particularly Richard Bacon to the afternoon schedule signifies a slight but real change in emphasis. Adrian Van-Klaveren, Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live said: “I believe a programme schedule based on three two hour shows is likely to make us stronger as a station, giving each programme a tighter feel and allowing us to develop some new approaches”.
First up from 10, 5 Live’s top performer Victoria Derbyshire keeps her place, this morning putting aside the loss of an hour from her show with a characteristically poignant yet provocative interview with the wrongly imprisoned Shaun Hodgson. Gabby Logan – the female face of sports broadcasting in recent years – takes the reins for the weekday lunchtime shift. Her shows will often fall back into a sporting safety net, although that’s not bad news for a station that seems to switch too abruptly between daytime news and evenings and weekends consumed by sport. Logan’s appointment in the directly competing 12 until 2 slot seems to be a head-on challenge to the supremacy of Jeremy Vine - who has consistently set the daily news agenda over on Radio 2 – and is bold move considering her relative lack of news experience. Rounding off the new line-up is Richard Bacon, the former children’s TV star dismissed from Blue Peter after being caught using drugs, promoted from the late evening slot. Although his show is to be focused more on entertainment, Bacon brushed off suggestions it would be less than hard-hitting by giving the Prime Minister in-waiting a tough time this afternoon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
‘You know how I know you’re getting old? Because you listen to Radio 4.’
My Dad and I used to say that, as you get older, you progress up the radio stations. Kids listen to 1, pensioners to 4. Radio 3 throws a bit of a spanner in the works, but we’ve always ignored, justified perhaps because of a comparatively low listenership. And 5 Live, well that’s just different. Maybe we didn’t think it through.
But both Radio 2 and 1 listened to us in recent months. Terry Wogan, 71, has been replaced by Chris Evans, at 43, much more suitably ‘younger-middle-aged’. Radio 1’s biggest reshuffle in a while happened in September. Out went Jo Whiley, 44, and Edith Bowman, 35, and in came Fearne Cotton, 28, and Greg James, 24, to late morning and early afternoon respectively. Cue yet another BBC ageism ‘scandal.’
No, seriously, it is not all about age when it comes to your station of choice. More worthy of discussion, indeed celebration, is the variety and quality of BBC radio output, without even mentioning BBC local radio.
RAJAR’s September 2009 figures saw the BBC claim 55% of the nation’s listenership. Radio 2 was again streaking ahead with a 15.9% share. Radio 4, which continues to do its own thing, uninteresting in the vying for eminence with its ‘younger’ stations, but making great speech radio less about the characters in front of the mic, claims a 12.4% share.
RAJAR reported a buoyant radio industry in 2009, listening across all radio at a record high of over 45 million.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 until 7 – my BBC radio daytime (best listened to on a tractor)
7.30 – 8.30: Chris Evans – Radio 2
8.30 – 10.00: Chris Moyles – Radio 1
10.00 – 12.00: Victoria Derbyshire – Radio 5 Live
12.00 – 14.00: Jeremy Vine – Radio 2
14.00 – 14.15: The Archers – Radio 4
14.15 – 15.00: The Afternoon Play – Radio 4
15.00 – 16.00: Richard Bacon – Radio 5 Live
16.00 – 17.00: Scott Mills – Radio 1
17.00 – 19.00: Simon Mayo – Radio 2
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
I’ll get the comparison with Definitely Maybe out of the way early. It’s not as good, obviously.
But, the first half of Dig Out Your Soul is the most exhilarating thing they’ve done in 10 years.
Raucous stomper Bag It Up, a song my mum would describe as a “racket”, gets things moving. The second, The Turning looks like meandering along harmlessly until Liam leers “So cumon, shake your rag doll baby” as only Liam can.
Waiting for the Rapture, my favourite song on the album, continues the in-your-face feel. A foot-thumping intro, the definitively Oasis elongated vowel rhyme: “A big love to fall down from the sky / She put an apple in my eye” in which Liam sounds like he’s right back where he belongs, almost eating the mic, and a whole lot more in three psychedelic minutes. This is the band at their best, when it sounds there’s a fight going on between vocals and instruments.
The first single off the album, The Shock of the Lightning, sounds like a beefed-up Strokes racer, but that’s no problem.
Liam then joins the songwriting stakes, and threatens to steal the show from his big brother. Sampling a John Lennon interview, I’m Outta Time is a beautifully wistful ballad, Liam’s delivery convincing you that he’s really opening his heart.
Next comes the relentless shuffling rhythm of (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady. Ruined slightly by the affected vocals, it would have been better as an instrumental. They give you a much-needed 30 seconds at the end to get your breath back, but unfortunately the album doesn’t really recover its momentum from there.
The rest is pretty forgettable. Bassist Andy Bell’s contribution The Nature of Reality, which sounds like a one-dimensional AC/DC rip-off, is worse than that. Liam rescues things with the atmospheric Soldier On, a fitting finale to an album that shows the Gallagher brothers trying to hide their growing lyrical maturity behind good old rock n’ roll tunes. Who else could malign “we live a dying dream”, and follow it with “if you know what I mean”?
But, the first half of Dig Out Your Soul is the most exhilarating thing they’ve done in 10 years.
Raucous stomper Bag It Up, a song my mum would describe as a “racket”, gets things moving. The second, The Turning looks like meandering along harmlessly until Liam leers “So cumon, shake your rag doll baby” as only Liam can.
Waiting for the Rapture, my favourite song on the album, continues the in-your-face feel. A foot-thumping intro, the definitively Oasis elongated vowel rhyme: “A big love to fall down from the sky / She put an apple in my eye” in which Liam sounds like he’s right back where he belongs, almost eating the mic, and a whole lot more in three psychedelic minutes. This is the band at their best, when it sounds there’s a fight going on between vocals and instruments.
The first single off the album, The Shock of the Lightning, sounds like a beefed-up Strokes racer, but that’s no problem.
Liam then joins the songwriting stakes, and threatens to steal the show from his big brother. Sampling a John Lennon interview, I’m Outta Time is a beautifully wistful ballad, Liam’s delivery convincing you that he’s really opening his heart.
Next comes the relentless shuffling rhythm of (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady. Ruined slightly by the affected vocals, it would have been better as an instrumental. They give you a much-needed 30 seconds at the end to get your breath back, but unfortunately the album doesn’t really recover its momentum from there.
The rest is pretty forgettable. Bassist Andy Bell’s contribution The Nature of Reality, which sounds like a one-dimensional AC/DC rip-off, is worse than that. Liam rescues things with the atmospheric Soldier On, a fitting finale to an album that shows the Gallagher brothers trying to hide their growing lyrical maturity behind good old rock n’ roll tunes. Who else could malign “we live a dying dream”, and follow it with “if you know what I mean”?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Palin for (Vice) President!
Just over a month back now, Jon MacKane was heard muttering under his breath “I don’t care what the papers say about me, as long as they spell my name right.”
And so he unleashed a Miss Palin upon the world.
The 2008 US election, which had been very much about Barack Obama, has since been very much about the Republican running mate.
Sarah Palin, photogenic, gun-touting, Evangelical Christian, inexperienced governor of Alaska, mother of five, including a pregnant teen, has since hogged newspaper inches and radio and TV seconds here, let alone across the pond.
She’s captured the imagination and the empathy of small-town America, and John McCain’s benefited by association. Embarrassment in a Katie Couric interview aside, she’s emerged relatively unscathed from intense questioning, while even managing to reverse the Republicans’ poll deficit.
The Democrat running mate didn’t matter – it’s all about Obama. McCain had to make a gutsy choice. But playing Obama at his own ‘biggest celebrity in the world’ game might have been a big error. The Republicans should have stuck to their guns, played to their number one strength – experience.
McCain was never gonna win because of who he is, but only because he’s not Obama, 47 and black. But now he’s given the all-important swing voters in states like Ohio something to vote against.
Of course, you vote Presidents into the White House, not out. (An idea for next time round perhaps). But, psychologically, it is easier to vote against someone because you dislike them than vote them in because you do have faith in them.
For politically ignorant Americans it will come down to who you take a fancy for, but most importantly – given the level of fear of a worsening economic crisis right now – who you trust.
Both Obama and Palin appear to be Brave New World politicians. Of course, considering Obama’s traditionalist education and Palin’s focus on family and home, those judgements are only correct on a superficial level. But these are the judgements that I think will be made by the people who will make the difference in less than a month.
Now’s the time for someone Americans can trust to guide them clear of the recession that threatens to overshadow the election. McCain had experience on his side, but, with Sarah Palin, his greatest popularity tool, I can’t help but think that he might just have shot himself in the foot.
And so he unleashed a Miss Palin upon the world.
The 2008 US election, which had been very much about Barack Obama, has since been very much about the Republican running mate.
Sarah Palin, photogenic, gun-touting, Evangelical Christian, inexperienced governor of Alaska, mother of five, including a pregnant teen, has since hogged newspaper inches and radio and TV seconds here, let alone across the pond.
She’s captured the imagination and the empathy of small-town America, and John McCain’s benefited by association. Embarrassment in a Katie Couric interview aside, she’s emerged relatively unscathed from intense questioning, while even managing to reverse the Republicans’ poll deficit.
The Democrat running mate didn’t matter – it’s all about Obama. McCain had to make a gutsy choice. But playing Obama at his own ‘biggest celebrity in the world’ game might have been a big error. The Republicans should have stuck to their guns, played to their number one strength – experience.
McCain was never gonna win because of who he is, but only because he’s not Obama, 47 and black. But now he’s given the all-important swing voters in states like Ohio something to vote against.
Of course, you vote Presidents into the White House, not out. (An idea for next time round perhaps). But, psychologically, it is easier to vote against someone because you dislike them than vote them in because you do have faith in them.
For politically ignorant Americans it will come down to who you take a fancy for, but most importantly – given the level of fear of a worsening economic crisis right now – who you trust.
Both Obama and Palin appear to be Brave New World politicians. Of course, considering Obama’s traditionalist education and Palin’s focus on family and home, those judgements are only correct on a superficial level. But these are the judgements that I think will be made by the people who will make the difference in less than a month.
Now’s the time for someone Americans can trust to guide them clear of the recession that threatens to overshadow the election. McCain had experience on his side, but, with Sarah Palin, his greatest popularity tool, I can’t help but think that he might just have shot himself in the foot.
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