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Maybe they caught him on a bad day? TIME interviews McCain
For years, John McCain's marathon bull sessions with reporters were more than a means of delivering a message; they were the message. McCain proudly, flagrantly refused direction from handlers, rarely dodged tough questions and considered those who did wimps and frauds. The style told voters that he was unafraid, that he had nothing to hide and that what you see is what you get. "Anything you want to talk about," he promised reporters aboard the Straight Talk Express in Iowa back in March 2007. "One of the fundamental principles of the bus is that there is no such thing as a dumb question." When asked if he would keep the straight talk coming, McCain replied, "You think I could survive if I didn't? We'd never be forgiven ... I'd have to hire a food taster, somebody to start my car in the morning." Even after he won the GOP nomination, he demanded that his new campaign plane be configured to include a sofa up front so he could re-create the Straight Talk Express at 30,000 ft.
Sticking to the old formula seemed like a good idea. But with the press focused on Obama, McCain got attention only when he slipped up during one of his patented freewheeling encounters with reporters. And so in July, the campaign decided to clamp down on the candidate. Open-ended question time was reduced to almost nothing, and the famously unscripted McCain began heeding his talking points, even as his aides maintained he missed the old informality.
And so when TIME's James Carney and Michael Scherer were invited to the front of McCain's plane recently for an interview, they were ushered forward, past the curtain that now separates reporters from the candidate, past the sofa that was designed for his gabfests with the press and taken straight to the candidate's seat. McCain at first seemed happy enough to do the interview. But his mood quickly soured. The McCain on display in the 24-minute interview was prickly, at times abrasive, and determined not to stray off message.
An excerpt:
What do you want voters to know coming out of the Republican Convention — about you, about your candidacy?
- I'm prepared to be President of the United States, and I'll put my country first.
There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?
- Read it in my books.
I've read your books.
- No, I'm not going to define it.
But honor in politics?
- I defined it in five books. Read my books.
[Your] campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?
- I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.
But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of ...
- I think we're running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.
Do you miss the old way of doing it?
- I don't know what you're talking about.
Really? Come on, Senator.
- I'll provide as much access as possible ...
In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?
- [Does not answer.]
Read the rest via the link above. This is a very telling interview. For years, John McCain's marathon bull sessions with reporters were more than a means of delivering a message; they were the mess... more -
The War on Beer Pong
Beer Pong is a virtual rendition of the popular college drinking game that requires players to toss Ping-Pong balls across a table and into a cup of beer (if your cup is hit, you drink). The game was designed for the popular Nintendo Wii platform, and its maker had planned to release it as the first game in its new Frat Party Games series. But concerned parents began sending angry letters to JV Games and Nintendo — Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal even got in on the action, sending his own missives to the companies — until JV Games agreed to change the title of the game to Pong Toss and fill its pixelated cups with water.
"We never anticipated such a severe reaction to the word beer," says Jag Jaegar, co-owner of JV Games, which released Pong Toss on July 28 with a kid-friendly rating of E for Everyone.
The controversy isn't entirely surprising. The point of beer pong is to get your friends drunk — and parents and university administrators generally frown on that sort of thing. Last fall, Georgetown University banned beer pong, specially made beer-pong tables and inordinate numbers of Ping-Pong balls and any other alcohol-related paraphernalia in its on-campus dorms — even in the rooms of students of legal drinking age. The University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Tufts University have also banned drinking games.
Bowdler has a point. Recent data from the Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol study, which surveyed more than 50,000 students at 120 colleges, show that binge-drinking habits vary widely from campus to campus. Kids tend to party hardest at schools with few official alcohol-control policies, easy access to alcohol and strong drinking cultures.
Last year, Dartmouth College banned water pong, the real-world version of Pong Toss, because of the risk of water intoxication — it's no joke, as an H2O overdose can be fatal. "I know that [water pong] seems like a good balance between the Dartmouth drinking culture and just trying to have fun," Kristin Deal, a Dartmouth community director, wrote in an e-mail to students announcing the prohibition. "However, it can be just as dangerous, if not more so."
The anti-pong activism strikes JV Games' Jaegar as somewhat fruitless. As long as students "have access to alcohol, they will create drinking games out of any activity," he says. More to the point, if students have access to alcohol, they'll drink it — no games necessary. "You can't drink if you're not 21, but that does not seem to have deterred [students] in any way," admits Tammy Gocial, dean of students at Kenyon College in Ohio, where a drinking-game ban has been officially repealed. Gocial notes that it's already against the law for underage students to drink, so "to do the same thing [with a campus ban] — we know it's not working," she says. Instead, according to Gocial, Kenyon is developing a student-responsibility campaign in an effort to change campus culture and reduce binge-drinking.
Could this mark the beginning of the end of beer pong? The game does have plenty more critics outside the walls of academia. The town of Belmar, N.J., for example, outlawed outdoor beer pong in 2005 after the city council passed an ordinance declaring that it exposed unconsenting neighbors to "foul language, rowdy and disorderly behavior and to examples of the consumption of alcohol under circumstances that are detrimental." Two other Jersey shore towns Manasquan and Sea Girt have followed suit, and state officials in Pennsylvania and Virginia have made bars put away their pong tables.
But pong also has its fair share of enthusiasts — many of them will congregate in Las Vegas in January for the fourth annual World Series of Beer Pong, hosted by the site bpong.com. So despite an increasing number of colleges and towns prohibiting the game, it likely won't fade without a fight. Beer Pong is a virtual rendition of the popular college drinking game that requires players to toss Ping-Pong balls across a table and... more -
We've Got You Covered 8.07.08
The End of the South, Jarack McBama, and freaky bathing suits, all in this week's magazine roundup.
We've Got You Covered is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly television show, infoMania. In each episode of We've Got You Covered, Conor Knighton catches you up on everything you need to know about what's in this week's magazines.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at current.com/infomania. The End of the South, Jarack McBama, and freaky bathing suits, all in this week's magazine roundup. ... more -
We've Got You Covered 7.31.08
An abundance of supermodel butt, Olympics mania, and rad Japanese hairstyles in this roundup of the week's magazines.
We've Got You Covered is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly
television show, infoMania. In each episode of We've Got You Covered, Conor Knighton catches you up on everything you need to know about what's in this week's magazines.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at current.com/infomania. An abundance of supermodel butt, Olympics mania, and rad Japanese hairstyles in this roundup of the week's magazines. ... more -
We Got You Covered 6.26.08
Photoshopped fistbumps, women covered in cake, and so much more in our rapid-fire rundown of the week’s magazine cover stories
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TIME Magazine cover: and the winner is... Obama
The latest issue of Time Magazine features Barack Obama on the cover with the headline "And the Winner Is..."
This is an excerpt from the article inside: "Barack Obama has refused to play by the old political rules. He's about to be rewarded for it." The latest issue of Time Magazine features Barack Obama on the cover with the headline "And the Winner Is..." ... more -
Obama declared the winner on new Time mag cover
The people have spoken...well at least that's the way Time magazine see's it, because they have declared Barack Obama the Democratic nominee for President. Time still covered their ass though, by adding an asterisk along with a little fine print.
Check it out, and leave feedback.
Peace The people have spoken...well at least that's the way Time magazine see's it, because they have declared Barack Obama the De... more -
The world's 100 most influential people
Time Magazine has compiled the annual list of the 100 World's Most Influential People. The list is divided into 5 categories: "Leaders and Revolutionaries", "Heroes and Pioneers", "Scientists and Thinkers", "Artists and Entertainers", "Builders and Titans".
...I'm glad to see Steve Jobs and Radiohead in the list, but since when did Mariah Carey become THAT influential in this planet? Time Magazine has compiled the annual list of the 100 World's Most Influential People. The list is divided into 5 categories: �... more -
Jeremiah Wright - "a political disaster"? You decide.
People, we must tell the corporate media that we're not interested in peering at what Wright says. We care about what Obama says he will do for this country. We need to forcibly grab the wrist of CNN, AP and TIME magazine that's holding the magnifying glass and bring it back to the page about war, poverty, economics and global warming.
Time reporter Amy Sullivan called it "a political disaster." But here's the media telling us what we should think again -- and no, Rev. Wright's words were not a political disaster for THIS citizen, yours truly. No, it is not a political disaster. It's you hyping it as a political disaster, Amy Sullivan.
"Maybe Barack Obama skimped on his contribution when the offering plate came past at Trinity United Church of Christ. Or perhaps he nodded off during one of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons. It's hard to think of another reason why the Illinois Senator's former pastor would put on the kind of performance this morning at the National Press Club that can only be described as a political disaster."
In other news McCain also urged people not to judge him by what his supporters say.
"McCain continues to say that he should not be held responsible for the views of everyone who endorses him. And he shouldn't. No politician should..... in my perfect political world, we would judge our politicians by what they do and think, not by what people say about them, or what their friends do."
Amen to blogger Swampland.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/04/mccain_watch... People, we must tell the corporate media that we're not interested in peering at what Wright says. We care about what Obama says ... more -
Time Magazine calls biofuels a scam
Time has weighed in on biofuels, concluding they are a giant scam perpetrated by environmentalists, government, and agribusiness. As government mandates have kicked in, farmers are planting more acreage for corn, which they can sell to ethanol makers. This has driven up food prices, clear cut the Amazon, and likely increased CO2 emissions over just using oil. Time has weighed in on biofuels, concluding they are a giant scam perpetrated by environmentalists, government, and agribusiness. As g... more
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George W. Bush has "quadrupled aid to the poorest people on the planet"
Bob Geldof has praised President Bush's humanitarian work in Africa and says the press has mostly ignored the positive reception that Mr. Bush has repeatedly received during his five-nation tour.
Geldof, a tireless campaigner for alleviating poverty in Africa, bagged an exclusive interview with the president for the latest issue of Time magazine, out Friday, in which he described Dubya as an unexpectedly witty and emotional man who has "quadrupled aid to the poorest people on the planet".
He also referred to a number of little-reported initiatives the president has set up in Africa. These have included funding HIV anti-retroviral drugs for 1.3 million people, a $350m project to stop the spread of tropical diseases and the awarding of $1.2bn in contracts in Tanzania and Ghana through the Millennium Challenge Account. Bush claims the US public doesn't know about many of these because the press "weren't much interested".
Geldof's piece is reported to humanise the man who recently scored his lowest ever approval ratings in the polls but the former Boomtown Rats man also writes: "Some of these thoughts, were they applied to Iraq, would have profound implications on the man's understanding of how the world functions: 'US solutions should not be imposed on African leaders'." Bob Geldof has praised President Bush's humanitarian work in Africa and says the press has mostly ignored the positive reception ... more -
Clooney is to Clinton as Day-Lewis is to Obama
You know you have made it when you grace the cover of TIME magazine! George Clooney is already practicing his "it's an honor just to be nominated" speech, telling Time magazine in a new interview that he doesn't have a shot at beating out Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor at Sunday's Academy Awards.
"For me, it's like being Hillary Clinton," says the Michael Clayton star. "If it weren’t for Barack Obama, it would have been a very good year." Adds Clooney: "I thought Daniel Day-Lewis had the best performance of the year." You know you have made it when you grace the cover of TIME magazine! George Clooney is already practicing his "it's an hono... more -
2008: The Year of the Youth Vote
This month Time magazine features a cover story on "The Year of the Youth Vote" and how students across America, both Republican and Democrat, are registering in record numbers, attending events and debates, campaigning for candidates, and getting others involved.
The question asked is: Why this time? What has changed? Who inspires them? Has the youth finally realized how powerful their voice is? This month Time magazine features a cover story on "The Year of the Youth Vote" and how students across America, both Republ... more -
Giuliani endorses McCain
Time Magazine's "The Page" blog reports that Rudy Guiliani has agreed to endorse John McCain in the presidential race and will do so "as early as Wednesday - in Los Angeles or Simi Valley." Time Magazine's "The Page" blog reports that Rudy Guiliani has agreed to endorse John McCain in the presidential race a... more
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Putin......Time Magazine Man of the Year 2007
Bummer. I was betting on Al Gore...
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Time's Person of the Year- Your Choice?
Time magazine has chosen Russian President, Vladimir Putin as "Person of the Year" for 2007.
1st Runner Up- The Honorable Al Gore (Tribute written by BONO)
2nd Runner Up- J.K. Rowling
These are all great articles. I highly recommend them.
What are your thoughts? Who would've you chosen? Time magazine has chosen Russian President, Vladimir Putin as "Person of the Year" for 2007. ... more -
Putin is TIME's Person of the Year?
Umm...My money was on Al Gore! What do you guys think?
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Time's Top Ten Everything of 2007!
...and they mean everything.
From viral videos to most underreported stories, and gadgets to green ideas, this list packs some worthwhile information!
Please add a topic tag to what you find most interesting! ...and they mean everything. ... more -
Stephen King is still crazy and we love him for it!
Stephen King's answer to the debate of waterboarding as a form of torture. Interesting.
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Give Al a 10!
Let's make Al Gore Time's "Person Of The Year".
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