Drip, drip, drip is turning into a flood as the weekend begins. I have fond memories of the Dick Cavett Show during the years it was on late night television. Cavett managed to have intelligent discourse, and many political moments sandwiched into his talk show comedic format.
Cavett currently writes the Talk Show blog for the NYT.
Cavett has decided to use his biting wit to take a chunk out of the McCain Palin campaign in todays piece, titled "Experience 101". I would love to see some of his zingers used in advertising.
My favorite is midway through his piece:
Every time I nostalgically try to regain my liking of John McCain, he reaches into his sleaze bag and pulls out something malodorous.
Followed by:
If there were a prize cake available, McCain’s lowbrow ad attempting to paint Obama as a virtual pornographer and peddler of sex to kindergarteners would take that pastry. Plate and all.
On Palin's "experience" or lack of he skewers her.
I wince and feel for her over the reports of how she is being tutored, guided and taught in marathon cram sessions of what might be called a crash course in Instant Experience 101. There’s something almost funny in the idea that she is being speedily stuffed, Strasbourg-goose-style, with knowledge she should have had before she was selected.
You can’t help wondering about her current tutors and coaches and experts. Will they collect their checks and depart? Or will they still be around should she have to make a quick decision about things like troop movements, new surges, or whether or not to reduce Iran to a cinder? Or any number of other matters requiring resume items more complex than those faced by a mayor of Wassila.
I’d love to have the chance to ask her how being able to see Russia from parts of her state apparently qualifies her to deal with that vastly complex country more effectively than those scholars and diplomats who find themselves less proximate to its shores.
He addresses lying - which drip drip drip is a word making its way into the TM:
Back here in the past, when I’m writing this, we have just seen part one of her quizzing by Charles Gibson, with mixed reviews for both. So far I have not seen her confronted with some of the things about which she has been, to put it in that awful Diplomatically Correct phrase, "somewhat less than fully truthful." (Typesetter: If space is scarce, use "lying.") As in claiming "no thanks" to the bridge money while failing to disclose that she kept it.
Kudos to Cavett. He also critiques the press love affair with McCain, and their failure to cover McCain's attack on Chelsea Clinton:
McCain is in on a pass with a large chunk of the press. It’s said he owes that to his friendly kaffeeklatsch manner in the back of the plane, sleeves rolled up, chummy, not averse to a dirty joke or two — one of them a stomach-turning jest about a recent president’s daughter uttered at a public gathering.
He closes with Palin's recent use of tax-payer dollars:
But enough of this carping. There is one good thing you can say about Sarah. She seems to have hit upon something that might bring relief to the hordes of suffering souls with the wolf at the door and their homes in jeopardy: Collect per diem for nights spent in your own house.
Write on, Dick Cavett.
DIGG it.
Reddit
And while we are discussing "Experience" thought I'd throw in a clip from a 1969 show featuring the Jimi Hendrix Experience", for those of you who were not even born in those daze of haze.
JIMI HENDRIX on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW - "MACHINE GUN"
**UPDATE**
McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions
If you didn't read this piece in the Times - please do.
And their editorial:
Gov. Palin’s Worldview
And Bob Herbert's piece:
She’s Not Ready