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iTunes - Meet the Presidents

Fri, 06/02/2006 - 08:15 — rogerhoward

If you're a political junkie and iTunes addict like myself, there's a new goldmine online from NBC - downloadable video of Meet the Press episodes featuring various Presidents in live appearances. Having grown up with Reagan, everyone before him was part of the history books to me, figures I couldn't ever fully relate to as human beings. Over the past few days I've watched interviews with Kennedy, LBJ, Carter, Reagan, and Nixon, as well as a special interview with MLK Jr. in 1957.

Since these are hosted on iTunes I can't post them to share, but if you're an iTunes user you can find them in the NBC Meet the Presidents archive. $2 a pop for a history lesson like these is well worth it.

Some quick thoughts:

  • JFK: Slick, sexy, confident, slightly arrogant, very smart. To paraphrase a character in Blazing Saddles, "Mr. Kennedy, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore." The interview is before the 1960 primaries, when Kennedy is fighting for support of the party. Interesting is his comments about the primary races, and how critical it was to select the right primaries, rather than try to compete everywhere.
  • LBJ: he's got a face made for radio, and speaking skills honed for work as a mime. This man exuded defensiveness, and was an amazing contrast with Jack Kennedy.
  • Carter: did this man have electroshock therapy? I've not seen before a sitting President have the mainstream press just accept, and repeat to his face, their accepted fact that his was essentially a failed presidency. He was wholy an uninspired leader, who presided over some real disasters of both foreign and domestic, and while its debatable whether he was cause or effect, it's no surprise Reagan sweeped him out of office.
  • Nixon: by far the most fascinating of all the interviews. This was Nixon's first public interview, I believe, since leaving office over a decade earlier. He, among all the other interviews, came off extraordinarily well - this was a man consumed by and with politics. He talked strategy and candidates - this was during the 1988 campaign season - with incredible openness, calling Bush and Dukakis on their relative strengths (and you might be surprised), and showing outright praise for Jesse Jackson. His foreign policy savvy was completely clear - this guy knew a lot about the world, as crazy as he was. You could really see the toll his resignation took, in keeping him out of the political game where he thrived for so long - being back on Meet the Press his eyes were twinkling. A nasty, criminal, devisive sonofabitch? You bet. But I'll take him any day over Bush Jr. Oh, and his couple comments about Kissinger were priceless!
  • Reagan: the most charismatic of them all by far, it was almost unfair that anyone had to run against him. Snakey, vague on his true politics, but really had the talking points nailed and was able to stay casual and comfortable throughout some fairly pointed questions aside from getting cornered on his support for the Civil Rights Act, and to a lesser degree his position on the John Birch Society. Above all else, he knew how to use his looks, his voice, and his movie star image to great effect on television.
  • MLK: what can I say? A beautiful young idealist with a poetic voice, in 1957 this was one serious rising star. A powerful, humble, intelligent leader.

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    RFK Jr. Takes on 2004

    Fri, 06/02/2006 - 07:46 — rogerhoward

    There's a reason he's named RFK. This month in Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents a well-researched analysis on the manipulation and outright fraud of the 2004 election, an issue with enough glaring questions that call into question not only the election, but the media's role in investigating and informing the public.

    Common Dreams is carrying the report.

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    20060501 Immigration March: 20060501marchphoto01.jpg

    Mon, 05/01/2006 - 20:18 — rogerhoward
    20060501 Immigration March: 20060501marchphoto01.jpg

    A massive and peaceful pro-immigrant march in mid-city Los Angeles on May 1, 2006. At least several hundred thousand people, stretching from MacArthur Park to the Miracle Mile, turned out. This shot is at the corner of Wilshire and La Brea, about a mile from my home.

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    Cheney is a Punk, Says Baldwin

    Fri, 02/24/2006 - 11:59 — rogerhoward

    From Alec Baldwin on the Huffington Post:

    I want to apologize to all of the readers of this blog for referring to Vice President Cheney as a terrorist. I suppose that, in the post-9/11 world, one would be hard-pressed to refer to anyone other than a militant Arab fundamentalist who hijacks a plane and pilots it into a building somewhere on our shores or a Palestinian who bears a bomb into a cafe in Israel as a terrorist. How about something more measured, then? How about...a lying, thieving Oil Whore. Or, a murderer of the US Constitution? No wait! Try...the worst Vice President in US history? Anyway, let me work on that.

    You can read the rest of his editorial here.


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    Politics are Back

    Fri, 02/24/2006 - 11:51 — rogerhoward

    I've kept mum on politics for a long time here; not that I didn't have the taste for it - heck, I spend hours a day ranting like a lunatic about obscure political tales - but, well, I don't know why. Anyway, that changes today. There are so many great stories out there I just have to share a few each day. If you just wanna get the politics visit my Topics:Politics page, or subscribe to it via the dedicated feed.


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