And they’re off and running …

Today's Buzz ...


Not a lot of surprises (per se) from last night – at least for me. The only occurrence that did surprise me was how quickly the Republican race was called – Mike Huckabee was projected to be the winner by the end of the first hour. And Barack Obama was projected to the winner by the end of the second hour. Was I surprised that Hillary placed third (albeit by one percent)? No, not at all. I think I’ve railed against her enough already to signal that this isn’t even close to being the “cakewalk” that she anticipated.




So do these results have significance? Perhaps. While it’s true that three of the most recent four presidents didn’t win the Iowa Caucus, this is a new day. And really what’s striking to me is that in both parties, those who won have been successful not only in being the ‘nice guys’, but in successfully portraying themselves as the ‘change agents’ that many Americans are so desperately searching for. The NH winners may be totally different, but if Obama and Huckabee end up making strong enough second place showings before moving into South Carolina – it’s difficult to place a roadblock in front of the “big mo” (a sports reference for the non-sports fans) at that point. Especially in the Democratic race, since Obama does have the money and organization to hold strong going into the ridiculously-scheduled clash dubbed “Super Tuesday” on February 5th.

Remaining Caucus comments:

I was so pleased to see both Jack Cafferty and Soledad O’Brien last night. Jack is always so forthright about the injustices and the inequality and the stupidity and the callousness that surrounds so many of the decisions that our governmental representatives make. And not just the elected ones, either. Even though Jack’s appearances are ‘dedicated’ to TSR, I’d really like to see a short AC/JC segment each night on 360 – even a pre-taped one would be terrific! They were a wonderful pairing on AM, and I miss the informative (yet humorous) banter. “Loveable curmudgeon” that Jack is!!



And Soledad’s pairing with Bill Schneider was also very informative – presenting relevant statistical overviews with context and without putting viewers to sleep is always a welcome change!



Not sure the “portable pizza pie chart” worked all that well last night. Maybe Anderson needs to ‘practice’ a bit with it? It didn’t last very long during the evening!



I’m still miffed at Bill Bennett. At least he didn’t have any new ‘e-mail revelations’ to ‘share’ on live TV – I suppose we should be thankful for that!

Ron Paul ended up with 10% of the Iowa vote – if nothing else, a roundabout concurrence with the other results which demonstrated that caucus goers were focused on change. But he did (significantly) better than Rudy Giuliani. I wonder if Rudy’s “proportional campaign” strategy will end up being his eventual downfall?

I apologize for being petty, but was it really necessary to have Chuck Norris standing right behind Huckabee as he delivered his ‘victory’ speech? Maybe we’ve all been underestimating the “Chuck Factor” in this race??



And I don’t know who Obama’s speechwriter is, but he (or she) is a master wordsmith. Even if he didn’t mean a single word of it, it was THE best delivery of a political speech that I’ve heard in a very long time.



My one disappointment of the night – a large one but not unexpected – both Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have dropped out of the race. I hope that, whoever wins, will look to these two extensively experienced public servants for advisement and counsel – it’s going to be needed!

Best line of the night:

Jack Cafferty (to Bill Bennett): "I’ll bet you wouldn’t want to be Bill (Clinton) tonight.”

Bill Bennett: “I would never want to be Bill (Clinton) on any night.”

Donna Brazile (in the background): “But you are Bill (meaning Bennett).”


One last thought:

Change [cheynj]: – verb (used with object)

1. to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone.

Could the underlying message have been communicated any more solidly last night?

Thanks for visiting - updates posted as needed - have a terrific day!

Let’s get ON with it!!

Today’s Buzz ...
I’m not going to comment too extensively on last night’s program, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because there’s this little voice screaming in my head “Let’s get ON with it!!”.

So with that said – I always enjoy the discussions with and analysis from Candy Crowley, John King, David Gergen and Gloria Borger. BTW – Gloria is still part of the weekend edition of “The Chris Matthews Show” – if you’d like to see Chris in a less “blustery” frame of mind, this is the show to watch. He has a panel of four rotating journalists as guests and the discussions and analysis are top notch (IMO).





I liked Tom Foreman’s “tour” of some of the actual venues where caucuses will be held tonight. It’s an interesting process, especially on the Democratic side, particularly since it holds such significance in what the overall political ‘landscape’ will look like on Friday morning!!



As for the “Jesus Factor”, I can’t imagine that it won’t have a significant effect tonight – and further down the road. Not in New Hampshire – but when the focus shifts to South Carolina and beyond, Mike Huckabee better have some kind of campaign structure in place if he intends to continue ‘appealing’ to evangelical voters.




Can Mike Huckabee be characterized as somewhat of an enigma yet? He takes time out of a very (very) close race in Iowa to fly to California and appear on the Tonight Show last night. Which created a bit of a ‘dust-up’ in Burbank, as he crossed the WGA picket lines in order to appear. I didn’t remember that apparently, he & Jay go back a few years. And if you watched and that’s all you had ever seen of Mike Huckabee, you’d come away saying “Gee – nice guy”. Which might mean you hadn’t been paying attention to his ‘flubs’ on foreign policy, immigration, etc. Which also makes me cringe at the possibility that someone who only thinks he (or she) is ready to lead this country into unchartered territory, and doesn’t really have anything close to the practical experience that the position so desperately needs, may in fact be sitting in the Oval Office in approximately one year and 17 days. Just a thought (or two).





A bit of video fun from NYE:

"behind-the-scenes" NYE video available at CNN.com:

There's a special 3:00 minute video available that gives a 'behind-the-scenes" look at Times Square in the hour just before midnight - it features Anderson and Erica Hill - a fun view of what's happening on the ground as the broadcast is progressing up on the platform above the crowd!!

NYE at midnight in Times Square:

There’s also a video of the 3:00 minutes surrounding the NYE ball drop (11:59 PM to 12:02 AM), and for some reason, watching the video today suddenly made me realize that Kathy will be working the “I spent New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper” line into her act for a very (very) long time to come.

Kathy vs. Anderson:

This video has highlights of the AC / KG ‘exchanges’ during the evening.


And - I just found out that the first 9 episodes of The Mole - Season One - will be repeated on the Fox Reality Network on Sunday, January 20th, beginning at 9:00 AM EST. I don't know about the remaining episodes, as the schedule for January 21st (and beyond) isn't posted yet!

Part 2 of our interview with Gary Tuchman will be posted very shortly – stay tuned!!

Politics & Crime - but not in the same story ...

Today’s Buzz ...
From last night’s program:

Welcome back, Erica!!

Mike Huckabee on the move: OK – I get. I do - really. He’s a nice guy that doesn’t take himself too seriously and talks a good game. However, I shudder at the thought that the last Republican you could “kind of” say that about – who was running for President of the United States – was George W. Bush.

Anderson spoke with David Gergen, Candy Crowley and Tony Perkins (Family Research Council President) about the value of “celebrity endorsements” for candidates. I suspect that the jackpot of endorsements in the Republican race will be from Governor Arnold (Schwarzenegger, that is), since you get “two-for-one” – a celebrity AND a political endorsement – all at the same time!



And just as an aside – if I were advising Governor Huckabee – I'm not so sure I would have had Chuck Norris appear with him last night on Larry King Live – particularly for the extended length of time that they appeared together – it makes me wonder if there’s a Cabinet position waiting for Chuck??



Criminal (Justice) Education (gone wrong): As much as it angers me, I wasn’t all that surprised to learn that serial killer Timothy Krajcir learned how to elude police through criminal justice education he received at Southern Illinois University. In the early 1980’s, I’m sure that it would never have occurred to college admissions offices to conduct criminal background checks on its students. Another loss of ‘innocence’. We can only hope that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt will be successful in his quest for extradition and prosecution of this killer, in order to achieve some semblance of justice for the victims.

Free Eric Volz: After an overturned conviction being announced yesterday, Eric Volz is still being held in a Nicaragua prison, and when his mother appeared on the program last night, she was justifiably concerned for his safety. This is the update from the “Friends of Eric Volz” site:

“Judge Toruno is currently in contempt of court by refusing to make her appointment and sign the release papers. Eric has been freed, but is still being detained illegally, against the orders of the Appellate Court.

Nicaraguan radio broadcasts have been announcing that the people need to take justice into their own hands, since word of the court’s decision. We are more concerned than ever before, for Eric’s safety.

It appears as if no one in the judicial, penal and/or immigration systems in Nicaragua is responding to requests by Eric’s attorney or by the US Embassy to process Eric’s release immediately as ordered by the court.”



Witness Protection (or lack thereof): Randi Kaye had an extensive segment about the inexcusable lack of witness protection available in the state of Colorado. And even that miniscule amount often is not even offered to those who desperately need it. People who are willing to do what is morally right and testify against criminals, such as Darrell Gibbons and Javal Fields, have paid for this lack of protection with their lives. The only (and I mean only) ‘saving grace’ to this story, if you can even call it that, is the fact that Colorado is the only state with such a sub-standard witness protection program.





Many other updates for today:

Does foreign policy experience matter in a presidential race? I'm very intrigued by the blog entry from Candy Crowley this morning - she asks the question about whether foreign policy experience matters in a Presidential race? She also hints at the fact that both the Democratic and Republican candidates with the MOST amount of foreign policy experience are trailing (rather poorly) in the polls.

I've been thinking about this phenomenon for awhile now. Personally, I would think that, in this day and age, that particular criteria would matter a whole lot more. What about everyone else - does the foreign policy experience of a Presidential candidate matter - and/or should it??

Anderson will be covering the Iowa Caucuses on January 3rd – along with Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs. You can read the full CNN Press Release here.





Jon Klein will be at CNN for another four years, according to Broadcasting & Cable.






And the AC360° ‘Announcer’ is: Anderson's blog today is classic - we all have a chance to vote for the new AC360° 'announcer' - personally, I'm torn between Fran Drescher (in "Nanny" character, of course) and Clint Eastwood (in "Dirty Harry" character, of course) ... "do ya feel lucky?" ... :-)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Anderson's View

Damn that NBC Nightly News. OK, here goes. I hadn't wanted to say anything
about this until we'd reached a decision, and had a signed contract, but now
that NBC News has announced that Michael Douglas will be doing the voiceover
introduction to their nightly newscast, our hand has been forced.

For about six months now we've been working on having someone with a very
distinctive voice introduce 360° every night. It all started for us when CBS got
Walter Cronkite to introduce their broadcast. We formed an exploratory committee
which met once a week in a backroom at Michael's restaurant in New York. Week
after week, cobb salad after cobb salad, we argued over whose voice to use.
Sometimes the discussions got very heated, and eventually we were asked not to
return to Michael's. I actually think some NBC News executives may have
overheard our discussions there one afternoon and it might have given them the
idea to use Michael Douglas. (We never actually talked about using him, but
Catherine Zeta-Jones was high on our list for a long time.) Water under the
bridge.

While we have not made a final decision, I thought I'd let you know about our
four finalists, and if there is anyone else you think should be considered,
please let us know. In no particular order, the four people we are considering
hiring to introduce 360° everynight are:

Fran Drescher
Clint Eastwood
Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman)
Cher

Personally, I'm arguing for Fran Drescher, but I'm keeping an open mind.

- Anderson Cooper




A Special THANK YOU goes out to 360° Stage Manager Kevin!!!!
Our companion Yahoo Group - AC360° - (aka: "Gunmetal Grey") - welcomes the shout-out during your announcer "audition" tonight - although it probably had nothing to do with the group ... but it's still appreciated ... ;-)

Thanks so much for visiting - have a terrific evening!

On the road with Huck …

Today’s Buzz ...
And into the stretch it’s ...

Well, not Rudy or Hill, as was demonstrated through last night’s poll review and subsequent discussion with Gloria Borger, Mark Halperin and Carl Bernstein. I’m glad to see Carl Bernstein being added to the CNN team, and not to detract from his exemplary credentials, but whenever I see him, the word “rumpled” pops into my mind. Kind of like the political version of “Columbo”. But as we know, the detective’s analysis was always accurate, and I imagine that Mr. Bernstein will follow suit!



I’m not surprised at all by the poll numbers below. I may have been unpopular with my previous swipes at Senator Clinton and Mayor Rudy, but we keep hearing the word “authenticity”. And that’s not a word that gets automatically associated with their names – for very obvious reasons.




I’ll say this quite a few more times, but I love this time of the political ‘season’. If only because it provides so much amusement. For example, yesterday – Hillary accused Senator Obama of ‘running for President since he entered the Senate’. Hello, pot? Kettle calling ...


So, Governor Huckabee - what was Keith Richards doing in Arkansas??

Well, looks like Gov. Mike gets a positive rating coming out of last night’s 360 interview, and I can’t say that I’m surprised in the least! Even though I've taken a couple of "shots" at Gov Mike on this blog, the "likability" and the "authenticity" are nothing new at all. It's not just for the campaign. The first time I saw him was on "Real Time with Bill Maher" - he's been on twice just this year - and although there are too many differences for me to vote for him (at least so far) - he listens and responds without attacking. That's more than can be said for a number of other politicians - GOP or Dem.

If he survives the Super Tuesday Super Vote – and is still a viable candidate – I think I’d start to be a little concerned about the ‘populist’ message and whether or not we can really assess if Gov. Mike will continue to be as authentic as he has been in the past. Look at what ended up happening with the guy you wanted to have a beer with during the race in 2000 ...

But for now, we can chuckle at the Governor’s ‘pardon’ of Keith Richards and enjoy the bass playing – at least until things get really serious on January 4th ...





Sean Taylor remembered ...

This is such a sad story, particularly for someone who was trying to live in a positive (as opposed to destructive) manner. I was interested to hear earlier in the evening that all four suspects can be charged equally on the murder count – even though only one actually fired the gun. It’s too bad that concept doesn’t apply to cyber-stalking, as we saw in the next segment.



No justice for Megan Meier ...

I had read about this decision earlier in the day, so I already knew the conclusion. The logical side of me knows that, under current statutes, the DA’s decision that he couldn’t press charges in this case is the only option he had. All of the other sides of me are screaming about how wrong it all is … especially given the attitude of this other family. I don’t know if the Meiers will go ahead with civil litigation, given how painful it would be. Perhaps it’ll depend on how much faith they have that there are greater laws for which this woman (and any accomplices) will be judged by. But I will say that the look of emptiness from Tina Meier last night will be staying with me for a very long time!



Reading Comprehension ...

This is part of the transcript from the last night’s first News Bulletin:

“New insight on Iran from a newly declassified U.S. report which shows Iran actually stopped working on a nuclear weapon in 2003 while under international pressure and likely won't have enough enriched uranium for a bomb for two to seven years.”
And the Bush Administration is, of course, taking full credit for this report and using it as justification for their tactics. WHAT?? Does that include the recent Bush speech where he referenced “World War III”, if Iran’s nuclear program isn’t stopped immediately? Does it include all of the additional ‘saber-rattling’ that’s been going on for at least the past two years? Do they understand what this report says? It says that all the fear-mongering that has occurred has been unnecessary! There were additional parts of the report not discussed on 360, such as the fact that it was determined that Iran, at one point, would have been amenable to diplomatic discussions regarding nuclear research being conducted in their country. But no, Darth Vader and the Texas Cowboy won’t tolerate any of that ‘wimp’ attitude ... ‘get the bombs ready’ is always a better option, right???

But to keep it all upbeat – regardless of those bringing us down ...

I’m going to post a separate entry today about more GOOD NEWS for the blog – we have another interview in the works, and this time – I’m looking for questions from YOU!!


Happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating starting at sundown this evening!


Thanks for visiting – updates posted as needed – have a terrific day!