And Then There Were Two

Thursday, January 31, 2008   Posted By: Joan

Tonight is the CNN Democratic debate – Clinton vs. Obama. I certainly hope it doesn’t become the slugfest that the last debate was! That only demeans the party and the two candidates. Although I can’t say I’ll be watching too much of the debate – don’t you think we already know what our respective candidate stands for by now? At least Super Tuesday’s almost here.

Wolf was live from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles where the debate will be held. I wonder how many celebs will be there? As for John King, he was on TSR briefly discussing Ahnold’s, oops I mean, Governor Schwarzenegger’s decision to support John McCain now that Rudy Giuliani is out of the running. Arnold told John during an earlier interview that he wouldn’t support either candidate because they were both good friends. But now with Rudy out, it was an easy decision for him to lend his name to McCain. I don’t know how you feel, and I’d be glad to hear from you about this, but having a celebrity or a politician supporting a candidate doesn’t do bupkiss for me. I like Oprah, but that doesn’t mean I’ve jumped on the Obama bandwagon just because she’s lending him her considerable name. The same with The Terminator and McCain. In fact, my favorite male movie star is George Clooney and he’s thrown his hat into the Obama ring. I’m sad to say that’s the only thing that I’ve read that he’s said in interviews or watched him say in interviews (regarding politics) that I completely disagree with him on! (But he can’t be PERFECT, right?!) 🙂

Will you be watching the debate tonight? I’m personally going to nab a glass of wine and soak in a hot bath until LOST comes on.

Here’s some caps of John and the gang:

Behold The Screengrabs… And More Celeb Look-Alikes

Tuesday, January 29, 2008   Posted By: Millie

Ok, last night I didn’t have any screengrab material to present during the post-analysis of Bush’s last SOTUA. But today, aha, I have found a few up my sleeve to share with you.

Now, Mebz and ACAnderfan are having this discussion in the comments section of yesterday’s post about the lighting and position of camera on Anderson Cooper during the airing of last night’s AC360. Personally, I don’t see what the fuss is all about. Here he is discussing the SOTUA:

To me, he looks like he always does. Granted, though, I am not as a devout Anderfan as others are, so perhaps I don’t notice the subtleties as much as those who tune in to him on a regular basis.

This is just IMHO, but Anderson always reminds me of what I think this movie star will look like when he is 40:

Yup. Mr “Home Alone” himself. Please, no virtual tomato-throwing if you disagree with me. Just putting my thoughts out there.

In one of their past posts, All Things Anderson wrote about which celebrities they think CNN anchors and reporters look like, and Anderson was compared to Kermit the frog. Granted, there were similarities in the picture they used, but for a non-muppet, I think that Macaulay comes in pretty close, don’t you think?

I also happen to think that in some of Anderson’s younger pictures (ie from when he was hosting Channel One) he looks like a young Andrew McCarthy.

I’ve stated before and I’ll say it again, I think John looks like Brendan Fraser. I think this similarity is moreso, when John was younger:

Take care everyone and I look forward to our contributors’ posts later on this week!

-Millie

JKDSA And POTUS SOTUA

Monday, January 28, 2008   Posted By: Millie

Later on down this post I’ll have some info about tonight’s POTUS SOTUA, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a little Johnjoy from 6 years ago. Thanks to Mebz’s persistence, we have uncovered John’s other Daily Show appearance. Her little find nicely coincides with tonight’s address! (John was speaking with Stewart the night of the SOTUA in January of 2002.)

Here are a few videocaps of JKDSA (John King Daily Show Appearance):

Did anyone catch John’s mention of Bush having an 85% approval rating in the polls??? My oh my how times change!

Here’s what he told us last August about this particular appearance on the Daily Show: “I once did the Daily Show from the White House lawn. If you watch at all you know John Stewart fakes it – their ‘reporters’ stand in front of fake backdrops. Well he saw the real deal behind me and we had a good laugh about it. Again, I was a little nervous and so probably not as funny as it should have been.”

Aww… well, if he was nervous, it sure didn’t show. I thought he did a terrific job! I just wish he had made more appearances like this in the past. It would be great to have stuff “from the vault” to pull up from time to time and post here at the blog, lol!

Here’s an old transcript I dug up regarding the 2002 SOTUA. John was reporting from Maryland Heights, Missouri.

Back to tonight’s speech…

A friend of mine noted how patriotic it was that Bush and Cheney were sporting Red and Blue ties! Hmm… patriotic indeed.

Here is CNN’s link to a transcript of the speech.

John was on AC360 for some post-debate commentary. As part of the “Raw Politics” roundtable, he began by stating that that the differences between Bush’s first SOTU and tonight’s speech are “night and day”. Bush came into the Presidency as a compassionate conservative then back then in 2001 and was very domestic-focused.

John pointed out that 9/11 “changed everything”. International policy as a constant shadow over his Presidency is now forever etched in history. Anderson asked for analysis of points Bush emphasized throughout the speech when it comes to Iraq: urging patience and stating that more time is needed to achieve goals.

John called these comments throughout the speech a direct blow to Democrats, because Bush and the Republicans are in a much better position now than a year ago when it comes to touting progress in Iraq. Even though the progress may not be on the larger scale many Democrats would like, there has been some improvement nonetheless. John noted that we will have to see how this plays out as the campaign rolls on.

It should be interesting to finally find out in November who will be making SOTU speeches over the next four years…

I apologize for the lack of screengrabs for tonight’s speech analysis, but I do have this one to share in closing:

Hmm… maybe we should do a caption contest for this one? What is John rolling his eyes at and why is Stewart looking so perturbed??

My Fellow Americans

Friday, 1.25.08   Posted By: Mebz

Update (1:24pm) Oh Great Googly-Moogly I found it!! Remember the long lost “John in front of the White House” Daily Show interview? Here it is! It is elusive no more! Gratitude in the form of flowers and jewelry will be accepted.

First things first, this is for Millie, she knows why:

FYI: Saturday is the Democratic primary in South Carolina, Tuesday is both Florida primaries. My guess is that there will be some special political coverage both nights. But did you know there is a “significant” political event on Monday? It’s the State of the Union-given by, you know, the President we already have. And based on the amount of coverage I’ve seen about it, I can only assume that we as a society have collectively decided that President Bush doesn’t matter all that much anymore. Any other year the SOTU would get top billing. But this isn’t any other year is it? It’s an election year. It doesn’t bother me too much, but I feel sorry for the little man who stands in the back of Congress and yells: “The President of the United States!” I mean, this is his one moment in the spotlight! What does he do the other 364 days of the year? Do they keep him in a closet and only let him out one day in January? I think for his sake, we should all tune in and listen to a man with an excellent health care plan, insurance coverage, ’round the clock security, retirement, housing, and financial future tell us Americans what the state of our union is. No, I’m not bitter…

As I started working on this post I came to the conclusion that I have about reached my limit of politics. A sad realization to come to when there is still over six months until the conventions. And this is coming from someone who likes a lot of political coverage. Therefore, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about John covering the debate in Florida last night. I will say this: How odd must it be to cover a debate held by another network? So anyway I thought I’d rummage through the archives for a little inspiration and came across some old(er) screen caps and thought I’d share. ‘Cause if there is one thing I learned in Kindergarten it’s that sharing is good. Not sure who they belong to, although I’m guessing Millie and/or Kitten.

You’re welcome.

This last one’s for me. I’ve just started re-reading Peter Bergen’s first book Holy War, Inc. For the fourth time. For those of you who think that any book on Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda can’t be entertaining as well as informative, you would be wrong. I recently read an older interview where Peter said they actually cut some of the more light-hearted travelogue scenes out of the book, directly following 9/11. This kinda bums me out, since those are always my favorite parts. Anywho, even now six years after 9/11 I highly recommend it. So raise your hand if you want a Peter Bergen, John King, Reza Aslan pic!

DONE!

Now, on to what you’ve all been waiting for:

Mebz’s Weekly No-Good Irrelevant YouTube Video *wild applause*

Leading to our weekend discussion question. Clowns: beacons of goodness and joy or horribly frightening agents of the dark lord? Discuss!

The PTB Are Evil!

Wednesday, 01.23.08 Posted By: Katie

I am so, so sorry, but my picture editing software is acting up, so unless I can fix it anytime soon, this post will be pictureless… Also, Disclaimer: Blogger is extremely caffeinated, proceed with caution.

First of all, I would like to acknowledge, but not comment on this:

John was on the Situation Room Tuesday reporting from Fort Walton Beach, Florida on Fred Thompson dropping out of the race and John McCain. He was later on 360 as part of a roundtable with Candy Crowley and Joe Madison.

John reported from Fort Walton Beach for TSR and from Tallahassee for 360. Google maps tell me that the drive between the two cities is 172 miles and takes about two hours and 49 minutes. Hmmm, TSR is on from four to seven and 360 is on at 10, so thats about 3-5 hours to make a 3 hour drive. That leaves…. not a whole lot of time to get there. Maybe John and his crew teleported?

He was also reporting from inside a studio on 360, so maybe the producers finally got Jack Cafferty’s note about sound… His motorcade must have had to wait outside.

In my caffeinated state today, I stumbled across this video that for some reason, I found hilarious. It also kinda has to do with John, but not really.

Happy Wednesday!

-Katie