This Week At War, A “Sexy” Bus and Brendan Fraser

Monday, 10.08.07 

Hello everyone! After a week off I am back to blogging about our favorite CNN correspondent, John King.

However, I needed to take a step back from it all for a while and see where I was going with everything. I came to the conclusion that even with a few setbacks, glitches and disappointments, it is still a worthwhile effort. After all, I do have a “void” to fill, as one reader so aptly put it, because there is no other blogsite on the internet exclusively about John King. I truly enjoy maintaining this website!

Anywho, on with the show.

John appeared on “This Week At War” over the weekend and he was able to help clarify an issue raised by Tom Foreman: “With the mood in the country, can Democrats really not promise to get the troops out? Help me explore how Iraq is shaping the presidential race…John, was that sound I heard democratic jaws all over the country hitting the floor when they heard their top contenders all say, no, we’re not sure we can end the war in our first term?”

John replied, “Well, certainly, all of the energy in the Democratic Party right now is to the anti-war left that wants this war over yesterday, not by 2013, by yesterday. But what we’re seeing from the democratic candidates, the leading candidates, there’s a bit more reality. They all know they will inherit, maybe 130,000 troops, maybe 100,000 troops. Whoever the next president of the United States is, they have no idea what the security position on the ground will be. So, they want to appease the left by saying I want to end this war and get the troops out, but they also need to remember one of them will be in a general election in a few months in which the Republican candidate will be saying, you can’t pull all of the troops out, even if you wanted to, even if I wanted to. It would cause a disaster if you did. So, a bit more reality in the campaign that will make the base angry.”

Tom mentioned, “John, you talked to John McCain earlier this week and he was talking about the difficulties of this war, something which seems to be playing a little bit to his hand now.”

A clip was then aired of John’s interview with John McCain while they were both aboard CNN’s “Election Express” bus. For more on McCain’s position on the Iraq war, you can view the video here.

Here are a few screencaps from that interview:

From the CNN political ticker, there is an “All Aboard” blog that describes this modern set of wheels as “not your ordinary bus… there’s a satellite dish on top of it. No longer is a television live truck needed to ‘go live’ from the bus. The CNN Election Express can do it all by itself. As you board the bus, it’s like walking into the future. The bus is equipped with state of the art equipment, from the cameras to the computers. This bus is a working newsroom, television studio, and satellite feed center all in one.”

And here’s how Don Lemon and John King described it on October 3rd:

LEMON: “Time now for America votes 2008. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is running third in the national polls, and, so far, anyway, it’s been a rough ride, but not today. The Arizona senator joined our chief national correspondent, John King, aboard the snazzy, state of the art super-sexy new CNN Election Express. It’s looking good behind you there, John, I have to admit. And John joins me now from Orangeburg, South Carolina. Rough ride for him, but smooth ride aboard the Election Express. What do you have to say, John?”

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: “It’s a beautiful ride, Don. You and Kyra should come out and enjoy it some time. It’s not only a great smooth ride. It’s an amazing television production facility.”

A “sexy” bus? Hmmm, that’s not exactly a description I would normally expect to hear about a vehicle, much less coming from an anchor on CNN. Now, if he had been referring to a decked-out bus overhauled on MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”, using that descripton would be an entirely different story!

Hmm.. I wonder what the MPG is on that puppy?

And what about that side-thingy which is sticking out like that? Is it retractable or does it slide back in when the bus is in motion? I wonder what that appendage is for anyway – it reminds me of a camper designed with some built-in extra compartmental space.

But I digress…

On a lighter note today, I want to piggyback off an idea that was posted last week at ATC, in a blog titled Separated At Birth. In that post, a few CNN anchors and reporters were compared side-by-side to television and movie stars – and even a few cartoon characters. Check out the pictures, they are very cute and surprisingly uncanny. (Tom Foreman and Scooter from the muppets! Priceless!)

However, they did not do a comparison for John King. Over at the yahoo group I’ve had this discussion with Mebz who insists that John looks like George Clooney. I beg to differ, I don’t see the resemblance. But I DO see the resemblance between John King and Brendan Fraser:

Have a great Monday and rest of the week everybody!