AC 360° special: On Monday, 2/11 at 11:00 PM EST, make sure to catch the special “Extreme Challenges – The Next 4 Years”. It’s a highly informative hour of discussion and analysis with Anderson Cooper, David Gergen and Fareed Zakaria. You can watch a preview video clip here.
Well, on Friday night it was Anderson Cooper – live from Los Angeles! According to the live blog during the program, he was in LA to shoot an upcoming story for 60 Minutes. And he’ll be back in New Orleans beginning on Wednesday – with Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game happening all at the same time, it shouldn’t be difficult to find several parties to choose from over the course of the time he’ll be there!
Hillary Clinton at CPAC: What?? Not in person, of course. But Joe Johns showed us that the derogatory merchandise devoted to Hillary-hating buyers was on prominent display at the event. Now, I’m obviously not a Hillary fan, but the items shown were extremely juvenile and childish. But what can one expect from such a group who revere the likes of Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity?
“Gergen, Buchanan and Goff” return: The political panel discussion was very interesting – David Gergen saying that Barack Obama is showing a marginally better “electability factor” over John McCain than Hillary Clinton, Bay Buchanan saying that John McCain’s real “problem” with conservatives is about the amnesty issue, and Keli Goff discussing the fact that McCain can’t really count all that heavily on Geroge Bush for support due to his unpopularity, particularly in swing states.
Tom Foreman and his maps: Don’t get me wrong – I like them and think they’re valuable, most of the time anyway. And Friday night was no exception, as I’d temporarily lost track of the rather large primary contests still at stake (Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania) and the number of delegates still to be decided. I just hope this doesn’t end up being decided by the ‘super delegates” – there’s a genuine mobilization of enthusiasm among Democrats and that would be one of the quickest ways to deflate the entire ‘movement’.
Asian-American vote: Gary Tuchman had a report from Seattle about the why the majority of Asian-Americans seem to be voting for Hillary Clinton, according to poll data. After several interviews, the conclusion appears to be that established Asian-Americans are reluctant to support a relative ‘newcomer’ like Barack Obama, and therefore and trending towards voting for the more-familiar candidate that they remember for immigrant-friendly policies, Hillary Clinton. As a post-script, Obama won the Washington Caucus on Saturday with 68% of the vote.
Florida Prison “Mafia”: Abbie Boudreau interviewed James McDonough, who has successfully overhauled what had been an extremely corrupt Florida state prison system, headed up by James Crosby, who is now himself imprisoned. Crosby ran the prison system as though it was a typical “crime family”, with unscrupulous guards buying ans selling drugs and other prison employees taking kickbacks, among many other offenses.
City Council Shooting: Ted Rowlands reported from Kirkwood, MO about the recent shooting of 5 people at a local City Council meeting. The shooter, Charles Thronton, was killed by police officers on the scene. Thornton had a long history of animosity towards the Kirkwood city government over a number of what seemed to be minor conflicts (parking tickets, etc.) – but much to the surprise of neighbors, Thornton apparently ‘snapped’ and his shooting rampage was the result.
Voice of 360 audition: As was reported by Anderson last Friday on Regis & Kelly, Fran Drescher “auditioned” for the highly coveted role of Anderson Cooper 360° announcer. Definitely a distinctive vocal quality ... there’s no mistaking it for anyone else!!!
Other News and Notes:
Dems on “60 Minutes”: Hope you caught the Barack Obama interview and the Hillary Clinton interview on 60 Minutes. A little additional insight into their campaigns and their personas - with a touch of spin from both, just for good measure.
Hillary Clinton replaces campaign manager: Long-time Clinton advisor Patti Solis Doyle has stepped aside as campaign manager and will be replaced by former Clinton Chief of Staff Maggie Williams. Doyle will remain on staff as a senior advisor. There’s an obvious comment to make here, but all I’m going to say is that campaign managers don’t win or lose elections – and certainly not in a vacuum.
Photos courtesy of MSNBC and Getty Images
Anderson returns to NOLA: As mentioned earlier, Anderson Cooper 360° is scheduled to broadcast from New Orleans on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I’m hoping to see some in-depth reports on whatever rebuilding progress has been made since the last 360° visit in August.
Thanks for visiting – updates posted as needed – hope everyone had a great weekend!
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