NBC’s Saturday Night Live television show has seen its fortunes wax and wane at various times. I have been a loyal watcher of the show since the last year of the original comedy troupe. I am not one of those who think that the show never recovered from the the departure of the original cast but I do recognize when it was good and when it was bad.
Much of the quality of the show is dependent on who are the cast members at any given time. I think that the ensemble in the early 90’s with Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Janice Hooks were at least as comparable to the original cast. This year’s ensemble is not too bad but lacks any real outstanding talent that people will recognize in a flash.
One thing though that always have kept the show relevant is its takes on the current political situation of the moment and this year’s election is no different. The dynamics of the race truly make it different in the approaches that can be taken on the show. Early this year, the ongoing campaign between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama made the show skits topic of much commentary that spilled over into the news shows. The current presidential campaign would have its moments for satire but when Sarah Palin was picked as the vice presidential candidate for the Republicans, the show had a source of material that will keep on giving. Palin’s most recent interview with CBS which most discussion thereof have classified charitably as incoherent has proven to be fodder for numerous Youtube videos and parodies. But as always, the writers at Saturday Night Live managed to nail it perfectly.
On a cool, wet day here in Winston-Salem, the Demon Deacons host the Navy Midshipmen. This may prove to an interesting game in terms of playing styles. Navy is still pushing the rush dominated option offence while Wake Forest is now a true balanced team. Last year, Navy gave the Deacons some trouble early on until Aaron Curry knocked the Navy quarterback out of the game. It was a high scoring game and it appears to be more of the same again this year.
Wake’s defence is built around the concept of being fast and flexible to take on a variety of offence styles. The option offence is a peculiar one and relatively rare as it is a grinding non-flashy type of offence that does not really put a thrill in the fans. Bu since the Navy does not seek to impress Alumni and television viewers, they are no pressure to implement a west coast or spread type of offence that provides endless highlights for the sports shows.
One thing Wake Forest really needs to do is find their offensive groove again. Florida State’s defense last week proved to be resilient in keeping Wake Forest out of the end zone and Sam Swank did not help himself by missing a few field goal tries. More than anything, the rushing game has to be re-established to provide more options for Riley Skinner on the play calling but the real problem is an offensive line that needs more experience and getting the lanes open for the rushers.
Game Time: 3:45 pm
Television: ESPNU
A cool rainy day here in Winston-Salem. Starting to feel like autumn now.
Hurricane hit the Texas coast about 10 days ago. It was pretty devastating though few would know about it since it coincided with the financial crisis that is ongoing. Yet for us here in North Carolina, we are still pretty much affected by the fallout. With the refineries still not at full production, shortages remain here at the gas stations. At the local neighbourhood station, their pumps are dry nearly every other day for regular and premium blends have not been seen for over a week.
Yet we are not so bad off as compared to other parts of the state. The main pipeline for gasoline products goes through Greensboro so there is some supply for the region. Western Carolina, though, is nearly dry. Asheville has 85% of its stations without gas and Charlotte nearly also too.
Supplies are not expected to be normal for two more weeks. Shortages will continue until then but at least gas prices have not escalated tremendously as state laws prohibit price gouging.
One thing that be affected will be tourists who travel the mountain roads for the fall colours which are expected to be quite good this year with the peak happening sometime around the third week or so. Many tourists will stay away if they fear being stranded on the roads without gas. For our annual trips, we always need two full tanks to take us there and back. I might have to buy a 10 gallon jerrican as insurance to ensure that we get home.
Interesting times these are.
After a week’s break, Wake Forest is back on the gridiron, this time on the road against Florida State. After years being fodder for Florida State much in the way Duke is today, Wake Forest has beaten the Seminoles two games in a row. In fact, it was the 30-0 thrashing in Tallahassee two years ago that served notice that Wake Forest was for real in the dream season of 2006 which saw the Deacons go to the Orange Bowl.
After years of strong recruiting in Florida and Georgia, the ‘Noles have not been able to recruit as well for talent. Shakeups in the team sees a team with no less than 22 freshmen. There is talent there to be sure but a lot less experience.
Experience is one thing that Wake Forest does bring to the game now. Defense and offence are a good mix of newcomers and seniors that should hold them in good stead. Riley Skinner is starting to get into a groove now. Unlike Florida State whose two wins were against second-tier teams, the Deacs have faced some quality opposition in Ole Miss and Baylor. The team does not take any team lightly these days even one at the beginning of a rebuilding phase. On any given day, any team can beat any other.
One thing that does need to be improved upon is the rushing. Coach Grobe thinks that the backs are trying to be a bit too fancy in trying to make seams appear rather than busting through the lines. It would be interesting to see if Josh Adams and Brandon Pendergrass can up their numbers from the last game. As for the passing game, Skinner has been quite good in spreading the passes around. Boldin looks like the number one receiver right now, already getting more passes than all of last year. The defense is playing up to expectations which is good. May proved to be the difference in the game.
Game Time: 7:00pm
Television: ESPN2
A rough week it has been in the financial market and by extension, the economy as a whole. It does not say much for the ‘fundamentals of the economy’ that it requires the government to take on hundreds of billions of dollars to stabilise the one part of the economy that more than anything else is behind the malaise in the economy through its credit pumping schemes especially in the housing market.
So the week ends with the stock market just a bit lower overall than where it ended last week. A very wild week which saw the Dow Jones average move by hundreds of points in the course of a day.
Not much I can do on my own other that hunker down and wait for better days to come.
Whereas the stock market remains relatively unchanged from last week, not so with presidential race. A week ago, John McCain was up by 1-2 points on the national polls and nearly drew even in the electoral college votes. But from the time he said that he economy was fundamentally strong on Monday morning, McCain has been playing catch up to Barack Obama. While McCain continued to make gaffe after gaffe and keeps blaming Obama for the crisis, Obama has been more stateman-like and appearing more clear-headed and cool about the situation. This is an Obama which voters are comfortable with and it is making a difference in the polls Obama is now leading in most of the national polls and several states are swinging in his favour
But it is a long time to election day, plenty of time for various events to keep popping up that may change the course of the election. A potential one is next week for the first of the presidential debates. Expectations are not that high for Obama as his debate performance in the Democratic primaries was just adequate. The debate is supposedly about foreign policy, a strength of John McCain apparently, but look towards seeing it more focused on economy issues rather the foreign policy issues.
It is good to be in the lead once more but as Obama has found out several times this years, such leads are made of dust and not for a moment should Obama waver on putting forth his economic plan and keep pressure on McCain.
Via a circuitous route on my Internet surfing, I came across an article written by William Galston at the Democratic Strategist. In the article, he outlines a way for Barack Obama to set the tone for the remainder of his campaign.
An Open Letter From William Galston
The article is lengthy and I will not repeat it verbatim but outline the points he made as advice to Obama to win the campaign:
- Offer a coherent account of what has gone wrong with the economy
- Offer a focused, parsimonious list of remedies for the economic ills you cite
- Draw crisp, punchy contrasts between your plans and McCain’s
- Make the stump speech no more than 15 minutes long
- Provide coordination between an economic message and the rest of your campaign
What Galston repeatedly says in the article is that even though McCain is no where near the intellectual that Obama is, by distilling his message, fraudulent it may be, by harping on a few themes in a simple fashion, he is getting his message across better than Obama is.
There may be some truth to that. Many of us undoubtedly hear or read the transcript thereof of the speech Obama gave today in Colorado outlining his take on the situation facing the economy. He showed his understanding of the situation and the challenges it poses but also prescribing the solutions needed to fix it.
In terms of governance, Obama demonstrates his unmatched qualifications as compared to McCain. But to govern, he first has to win the campaign.
There are times I wish that Obama stays on a theme for more than one day. It seems that whenever the campaign tries something out in terms of messaging it and it starts to register it is confronted with a change in the campaign environment making it move onto to the next message. Part of that is because of pressure from the media and supporters to respond as quickly as possible. There are some things I wish they could sustain for longer periods like the McCain “I do not how many houses I have” gaffe which reflects the disconnect McCain has for the real economy. For media coverage, it last for just two days which is the usual lifespan of such things but what irritates me about it is that it was just thrown away and never incorporated in the larger picture that needs to be revealed about McCain in terms of his character and what he stands for.
The Sarah Palin wave is starting to recede now and the national polls are tightening now and moving in Obama’s favor. This was not unexpected. Question is whether Obama can create enough momentum to open up a clear lead on McCain.
Looking at Galston’s prescription for success, there was little harping on the emotion part. On Hardball, this evening, Chris Matthews played a bit of the speech today for Governor Richardson and Matthews asked where is the passion? There has been a lot of discussion on that topic in the past few weeks but Galston does not go there but he emphasizes that there must be a clarity in Obama’s message. Not necessarily dumb it down but make it succinct enough that a few phrases or moments will resonate with those who hear it.
This approach requires relentless focusing on the economy as the issue to the exclusion of everything else including Sarah Palin. In essence it is the old “It’s the economy, stupid” phrase from the Clinton campaign of which Galston was a part of in 1992.
While political junkies and pundits can relish the details of an Obama speech, most people do not have the time to do so. The soundbite era is truly alive and well but Obama’s message does not need to be reduce to that extent. Rather, just stay on message, repeat it often, keep it short so that when people are in the voting booth on election day but with their thoughts focused on their own personal financial situation, it will be Obama’s message that they will remember as the one that gives them hope that things will turn out better.