It Happened In 2008

The longest, most expensive (and ridiculous) presidential campaign in history ended with Barack Obama elected as the first African-American chief executive.

Hillary Clinton ran for president, and all she got was the Secretary of State job.

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was chosen by John McCain to be his GOP running mate. She didn't need Tina Fey to remind folks why she wasn't ready to be vice-president.

Wall Street collapsed of its own weight, sending the country into a recession that had been going on for a year, anyway. The government ended up bailing out the banking and auto industries, but not the ones who buy their products.

Bernard Madoff and Tom Petters allegedly ripped off millions of dollars from unsuspecting people, and are now facing prison time.

Norm Coleman and Al Franken had the nastiest, costliest U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota history. And it's still not over.

President Bush's standing with the masses as he fades from the rear-view mirror was so low that someone threw shoes at him, and people cheered.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and former presidential candidate John Edwards got caught cheating on their wives. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is accused of having his hand in the cookie jar.

Britney Spears makes a comeback, as if she never left.

The Dark Knight was the big movie of the year, if only because of Heath Ledger, who died before the film was released.

The writers strike did untold damage to Hollywood. Awards shows were reduced to news conferences. The number of movies being made shrank. TV networks filled their hours with "reality" shows, while canceling half their dramas. And the actors may be next on the picket lines.

Michael Phelps swam his way to eight gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, which turned out to be unremarkable because the Chinese government wanted it that way.

On one good knee, Tiger Woods won golf's U.S. Open, then took the rest of the year off to get the other one repaired. The United States won the Ryder Cup without him, in case anyone noticed.

The city of Detroit has had its problems. Automakers nearly driven to bankruptcy, people fleeing Michigan, and the Lions go winless for an entire NFL season. But the Red Wings did win hockey's Stanley Cup.

Say goodbye to . . . W. Mark Felt ("Deep Throat"), Bernie Mac, William F. Buckley Jr., Jesse Helms, Sammy Baugh, Eartha Kitt, Harold Pinter, Sydney Pollack, Tim Russert, Charlton Heston, Bobby Fischer, Michael Crichton, Studs Terkel, Odetta, Tony Snow, Richard ("Mr.") Blackwell, Hamilton Jordan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Bo Diddley, Sir Edmund Hillary, George Carlin, Paul Newman, Isaac Hayes, David Foster Wallace, Jim McKay, Charlie Jones, Bobby Murcer, Gene Upshaw, Herb Score, Skip Caray, Suzanne Pleshette, Harvey Korman, Eddy Arnold, Dick Martin, Jerry Reed, Jo Stafford, Jerry Wexler, Norman Whitfield, Richard Widmark.

Let's see what 2009 brings. Happy holidays, everyone.

In Politics, It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

Right now there are three seats in the U.S. Senate waiting to be filled before the 2009 session begins. Two of the three openings exist because the previous occupant has moved on to bigger and better things. Another is embroiled in a disputed election. All are fraught with controversy.

• In Minnesota, Democrat Al Franken currently holds a slight lead over Republican Senator Norm Coleman as the state Canvassing Board is still counting the votes. Meanwhile, Governor Tim Pawlenty has offered to select a temporary Senator--most likely a Republican like himself--to serve until the whole mess is straightened out. Who knows how long that will take?
• In Illinois, Barack Obama's successor is up in the air because Governor Rod Blagojevich has been accused of trying to sell the President-elect's Senate seat to the highest bidder. Efforts by the state Legislature to get rid of Democrat Blagojevich have so far been stymied by his refusal to leave, thus complicating the matter of who gets to appoint whom.
• In New York, the possible confirmation of Hillary Clinton as Obama's Secretary of State has created an opening for that state's governor to appoint Caroline Kennedy as interim Senator.

Kennedy is the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, and has mostly been known for staying out of politics and the public eye. Now she suddenly decides she's interested in the position, with no previous experience and on the strength of her name? There would be two immediate advantages: There would be at least one Kennedy in the Senate, with uncle Ted in failing health. And she wouldn't have to face the voters until 2010--if she wants to run again, that is.

This isn't the first (or last) time relatives of famous politicians have run for public office (see: Bush, Clinton, Roosevelt, etc.), or were appointed upon the death or resignation of an official. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need much experience to enter politics, either. We've had entertainers, athletes, business leaders, anyone with a name that has been in the media at least once run for office.

(In Minnesota, in addition to former Saturday Night Live cast member Franken, we've had a Senator whose last name was synonymous with a beloved Minneapolis department store, and the son of a former Senator and Vice-President who ran for Governor in 1998 and lost to a former pro wrestler.)

This also brings into question what it takes to get into politics these days. Unless you have oodles of money and/or have a last name everybody knows (in which case the funding usually takes care of itself), you have no shot. Oh, you could hope for a miracle, such as your well-known opponent getting caught up in scandal or saying something stupid on YouTube.

We are just as guilty every time we go into a voting booth, look at the ballot and think: "Gee, I've heard of this candidate's name before. I'm not real sure about where he or she stands on the issues, but I'm gonna vote for this person anyway". Then the voter fills in the oval (or doodles, as the case may be) for that candidate.

There you have it. Name recognition, money to burn, and voter apathy. Why shouldn't it be so surprising that the political scene is filled with enough familiar names to fill a volume of Who's Who In America?

The Blanding Of A Newspaper

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, jettisoning as much ballast as they could before crash-landing in bankruptcy, is about to make its product a little less attractive to readers and potential buyers by dropping two metro columnists.

If you believe the other media blogs, columnists Nick Coleman and Katherine Kersten were apparently given a choice: take the buyout money being offered, or start covering city council meetings in Andover. (There's been no official announcement, so that's why we're not being definite here.)

Coleman has spent decades with both Twin Cities dailies, whether as a columnist or as a reporter. He's railed against the sins of politicians both left and (mostly) right, championed the people who don't make the news but are affected by it (which sometimes makes for sappy reading), and usually takes pains to distinguish himself from the mayor of St. Paul, who happens to be his brother Chris.

Kersten is there because the Strib thought it needed a conservative voice to win back subscribers who quit the paper, alleging liberal bias. She has no previous background in journalism, but did work for the local right-wing think tank. Kersten's pieces on Muslim charter schools, abstinence education, and general longing for 'the way things were' have won the hearts of conservative readers and the enmity of others.

Coleman's and Kersten's apparent departures raise the question of what will happen to the Strib's other resident thought-provokers, C.J. and James Lileks. The blogs I've seen (David Brauer in MinnPost and Brian Lambert in Mpls. St. Paul Magazine) tell me they're staying.

C.J. is a gossip columnist in a city where TV news anchors and professional athletes are considered celebrities. Apparently, the Strib thinks we need to know the scoop on a local man who is dating a former American Idol contestant, or what C.J. thought of the locker room video accidentally showing a certain Viking's, uh, package.

James Lileks' column takes the Jerry Seinfeld approach of observing the minutiae of daily life, but elsewhere he's been known to spout a conservative view or two. Maybe he's afraid of offending his vast readership if he voiced a real opinion?

If the Star Tribune does indeed send Coleman and Kersten packing, they're sending the message that they want to limit social and political commentary to the editorial pages. People don't read the newspaper for details of stories they've seen and heard elsewhere. They read it for the columnists who have a point of view, and are willing to share it. If this keeps up, the most insightful columnists the Strib has left (unless they're in the next round of layoffs) reside on the sports pages.

Florida North '08: Canvassing The Votes

Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken are still locked in a death struggle for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat as the matter goes to the state's Canvassing Board.

After the initial recount, Coleman led Franken by 188 votes, though there have been disputes concerning the ballots. In most cases, voters were instructed to fill in the little oval next to the name of the candidate of their choice. But some people chose to paint outside the lines, so to speak, resulting in ballots marked with checks, slashes, you name it. There were even some ballots with both Coleman's and Franken's ovals filled in. (Notice we haven't talked about the absentee ballots) Both parties have since reduced the number of ballots challenged--Coleman is claiming less than 1,000 while Franken has at least 441.

The Canvassing Board, a bipartisan aggregation headed by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (who happens to be a Democrat), have until Friday--or as long as it takes--to sort through some 1500 disputed ballots. After the first day, Coleman leads by 264 votes.

After the Board's work is done, there's a good chance it might not be over. Both sides will likely challenge the results in court. There remains the possibility that the election might be decided in Congress. A Democratic Congress. Guess who they'd favor?

You'd be forgiven if you wished that they'd settle this thing, choose a winner, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

Be careful what you wish for. All you need to know is that the man who is vacating the White House in a few weeks got his job because of errant ballots in Florida, and an ideologically friendly U.S. Supreme Court. And he didn't even win the popular vote. What happened in the next eight years spoke for themselves.

Yes, there has to be a better way to run an election. Whoever ends up in the Senate chambers representing Minnesota may be in the best position to help do something about it.

Leno "Jaywalks" Into Prime Time

Broadcast TV has been having a rough year. Its audiences keep migrating to cable. The writers strike sank many prime time shows (such as Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money) that were interrupted because of it. The only new hit this season is CBS' The Mentalist, a crime procedural that fits in with the rest of the network's crime procedurals. And we haven't even had the digital conversion yet.

Now comes the first sign that network TV has thrown in the towel. NBC announced that Jay Leno, who is leaving the Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien next spring, will host his own prime time show five nights a week at nine in the Central Time Zone next fall.

For NBC, it means programming five less hours of TV per week, saving money on what would have gone to expensive misfires such as My Own Worst Enemy or Lipstick Jungle. On the other hand, they now have to move two of the Law and Order shows up an hour.

For Leno, it means not having to move to ABC or Fox. Except for a title change and the necessity of tailoring his material to a new audience, it'll be pretty much the same show he's been doing all along. Leno being a classic car buff, his new contract might enable him to purchase a few more for his collection. Why, they're rolling off the assembly line as we speak.

For the other networks, the new Leno show should provide a short-term boost to the remaining dramatic programs on the air at nine. But what is going to stop them from moving David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel to prime time if this Leno thing takes off? Even CSI can't last forever.

For NBC affiliates, their late local news is now going to be sandwiched in between Leno and O' Brien. Will some of those stations see this as an opportunity to move their news up an hour (to compete against Fox's local news) and air Leno afterwards?

Speaking of news, this should put the final kibosh for anyone who believes Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson should be in prime time instead of Leno. For all of network TV's problems, why waste time reporting on the auto bailout in prime time when you can still make money on According to Jim?

Then again, Leno, Letterman and Jon Stewart have become de facto news anchors for many people, staying in touch with the world through the politically-laced monologues and sketches that air, as the recent presidential campaign demonstrated. Even a sketch showing people who think Africa is a country instead of a continent can be taken in its political context.

So what's next for broadcast TV? If the networks keep losing money and viewers, they might end up like the Detroit automakers and beg for billions from Congress. Or they could come up with some really novel programming that people will actually watch. If neither of those work, then they've got no one to blame but themselves.

A Less-Than-Honest Abe in Illinois

The good people of Illinois deserve better than this. They have watched three Governors go to prison over the past four decades, convicted of various crimes of political corruption. The one they have now may be the fourth. And President-elect Barack Obama might have something to worry about.

Governor Rod Blagojevich (an easier name to pronounce than to spell), a Democrat, was arrested by federal authorities Tuesday with a laundry list of allegations. Among them:

• Allegedly trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama when he was elected President.
• Wanted to be paid in exchange for that Senate seat, or whatever the Obama administration could come up with. Also, the Governor wanted his wife on corporate boards.
• Directing an aide to tell the Chicago Tribune (whose parent company filed for bankruptcy Monday) that state financial assistance to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team would be withheld unless the newspaper fired members of its editorial board, allegedly for publishing articles unfavorable to the Governor.

Blagojevich returned to his job after posting bail, and has so far refused to listen to Democrats' pleas to step aside. Legally, he has the power to appoint a new Senator. But Illinois' state legislature and other officials are considering ways to get around that.

President-elect Obama's been getting the "what did he know and when did he know it" questions, but insists he had nothing to do with Governor Blagojevich's alleged misdeeds. That might change if the feds come up with any new information.

Chicago and the state of Illinois have had a long history of political corruption, dating back to the Roaring 20s. So why is this national news? It couldn't just be the fact that a future President is involved, or that the charges are so over-the-top. Maybe someone decided we needed a break from bad economic news and terror in India.

Whatever the case, the people of Illinois--just like people everywhere else--have been made to look like fools for voting in the likes of Blagojevich. They shouldn't be. As long as less-than-honest politicians are sold to the public with a pretty bow while his opponent doesn't stand a chance, it shouldn't be all that surprising why some people choose to stay home on Election Day.

Kevin McHale's Last Chance?

The Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the worst teams in the National Basketball Association. Anyone who's seen them knows that goes without saying. Before tonight's game with the Utah Jazz, the Wolves had a 4-15 record, which is four more victories than the Detroit Lions. Clearly, something had to be done.

In cases like this, that 'something' usually means changing coaches. Owner Glen Taylor replaced Randy Wittman with former Minnesota Gopher and Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale. In his former job as vice-president of basketball operations, McHale was responsible for trading Kevin Garnett to the Celtics, and bringing in such household names as Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Rashard McCants and Randy Foye. Now he has to coach them.

McHale's first game, a 99-96 loss to the Jazz played before the usual sparse audience at the Target Center, was an improvement over the last few games in that the Wolves were actually competitive. But they went back to their old ways, letting Utah score 12 of the game's final 14 points in a come-from-ahead defeat.

It was a significant victory for Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who celebrated his 20th anniversary with the team. Compared with the rest of the NBA, Sloan is a model of coaching stability.

McHale is the Timberwolves' coach for the rest of the season, and will not be splitting his time with the front office, like he did when he was interim coach in 2005. So this is widely believed to be his last chance to prove that the team he puts on the floor is capable of someday making a playoff run. And someday is not today.

Hard Times In Media Land

It was announced Friday that a half million jobs were lost in the month of November alone, due to mergers, closings and cutbacks at the companies that still exist.

Unless you're one of the half million who found this piece of news out on their own, chances are you heard about it through the mediums of print, broadcast, or the Internet. And chances are real good that there will soon be fewer people getting that information to you.

In the Twin Cities alone, changes in the media landscape are widespread.

• Avista Capital Partners, owners of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, have announced another round of layoffs. They've already dropped a magazine aimed at affluent readers. With reports circulating that the Tribune Company (which owns several newspapers and TV stations across the country) is about to file for bankruptcy, some folks are wondering why the Strib doesn't do the same thing instead of floundering around.
• KSTP, the local ABC affiliate, is dropping 17 employees. That includes reporter Kristi Piehl, who gained some national pub for her coverage last spring of the "Smiley Face Killer" story. For a station that airs six hours of local news a day and bills its entire operation as 5 Eyewitness News (as if Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were an anchor team), this kinda stretches things to the limit, doesn't it?
• NBC station KARE, in a directive from owner Gannett, plans to cut more staff if some workers nearing retirement age don't take a buyout.
• The stations of CBS Radio Minnesota (WCCO-AM, WLTE-FM, and KZJK-FM) whacked 14 employees, and have asked some of their big-name air talents to take pay cuts. One of the unfortunate ones was WCCO morning sports anchor Dan TerHaar, who still draws a paycheck as the TV voice of the Minnesota Wild.
• KSTP-AM let midday personality Tommy Mischke go, though it wasn't really an economy move. They never did figure out what to do with Mischke, whose quirky talent is better suited for late nights instead of the lunchtime crowd.

The main reason for all of this cutting back is that most advertisers have moved to the Internet, which is where the people who still have money are going. Classified ads in the newspaper, for example, have taken a major hit. If you've been trying to find a job, you have no doubt noticed that the Sunday "Help Wanted" section has gone on a starvation diet. It's the size of the comics section now.

With media outlets teetering on the financial brink, it raises a serious question: How are we going to get our news in the future? Unless you have a laptop or mobile phone, you can't curl up with a cup of coffee and read the online edition of the latest newspaper or magazine. And unless you subscribe to cable or satellite, the networks and local stations aren't going to interrupt programming every time a disaster happens in the world. But they will tell you what Britney Spears had for breakfast this morning.

If people can't afford to be well-informed, then let the dumbing down of America begin.

Can Talk Radio Survive Obama?

Now that the election is over, conservatives are down in the dumps. And they should be. The economy tanked in spite of their tax-cutting efforts. John McCain, a candidate the right never really supported, loses to Barack Obama. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, became a national joke. President George W. Bush . . . can we move on, please?

There are silver linings for the right, however. Gay marriage has been banned in California. Michele Bachmann has been re-elected to Congress. Senator Norm Coleman still has a shot at winning the recount battle with Democrat Al Franken. Governor Tim Pawlenty is still preaching no new taxes as Minnesota plunges six million dollars into debt. And Palin's making noises about running for President in 2012.

Now there is concern that one of the right's biggest platforms--talk radio--is in for a rough time during the coming Obama years. They tell us that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others will suffer ratings declines because of the Internet and the possible re-introduction of the Fairness Doctrine, forcing stations to provide balance on controversial issues. Like having actual callers who disagree with the host?

One word: Chill!!

Conservative talk radio isn't going away. In fact, it might be bigger than ever as the opposing voice to the Obama administration--just like they were when Bill Clinton was President--and in drumming up support for Republican victories in 2010 and beyond.

It's progressive talk that needs to worry. Compared to the right, hosts like Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow and others will have little to maintain their audience with now that they've succeeded in putting a Democrat in the White House. They're also at a disadvantage when it comes the type of stations they're on. Most of the 50,000-watt AM boomers carrying conservative talk formats are owned by chains such as CBS, Citadel and Clear Channel, while progressive formats must make do with dinky 1000-watters that earn less money than your average NPR affiliate.

Yes, there's Air America, the progressive network that went on the air shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But it's become more or less a programming service after bankruptcy and new owners. Their future is still in doubt.

So rest easy, conservatives. Your favorite blowhards will be yakking about God, Country and No New Taxes on radio and on Fox News for years to come, no matter who the president is. The rest of us will have moved on.

The Obama All-Stars

President-elect Barack Obama, from his temporary headquarters in Chicago, put his national security team on display Monday. Some are familiar faces, others are not. For those concerned that this isn't the kind of change Obama promised during the campaign, there is this: Unlike the people President George W. Bush hired for his Cabinet, there are no yes-men and women or party hacks here.

Attempting to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, Obama has chosen the following. It'll be interesting to see if they all get along.

• Former campaign rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. She follows in the footsteps of Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice in the highest rank a woman can obtain in government. And that is not a compliment.
• Robert Gates, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Bush's Secretary of Defense, continues in that role. He's also the only Republican in the bunch.
• Eric Holder as the first African-American attorney general.
• Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security chief.
• Susan Rice (no relation to Condoleeza) as United Nations ambassador.
• James Jones, retired Marine general, as national security advisor.

The rollout had been planned long before the terrorist attack on Mumbai, India last week. That was where allegedly ten men went on a killing spree (174 dead), burned down a historic hotel, and shot up a local Jewish center. This just makes it all the more timely, with two of the United States' primary allies in the War on Terror--India and Pakistan--pointing fingers at each other, and not for the first time.

Assuming Senate confirmation, the new Obama team already has a lot on its plate domestically and internationally, even without the events in Mumbai. There's the matter of deemphasizing its military role in Iraq, while increasing its presence in Afghanistan. There's a recession, which the government finally admits has been going on for a year, and will be with us at least through 2009. And then there's the matter of undoing the damage Bush has wrought over the last eight years, trying to make nice with all the countries he and his underlings have offended in the name of keeping America safe. Good luck with all of that.

There are those who say that, with everything that's going on in the world, Obama should be taking the oath of office ASAP instead of waiting until January 20. For constitutional and practical reasons, this is currently not possible. Much as we'd like to wish President Bush a nice retirement back in Texas, Obama needs the time between the election and Inauguration Day to get his new administration and his family prepared for the next four years in the White House.

Besides, as the next leader of the Free World so eloquently put it, there can be only one president at a time.