Suffragette City

Proud of my hometown... 

and yes, I voted for a woman for President. 

"At Susan B. Anthony's Grave, Visiting Hours Extended For Election Day Crowds," 

NPR, November 8, 2016

Coverage from the two stations I worked at in the Flower City: WROC and WHAM

Re: Assessment

Has it really been a week since the election? A certain heaviness has been lifted from the air... or make that uncertainty... not just about who would win, but what the majority of the general public was looking for in terms of policy and governing style. I'm happy to say that I seem to be on the right side of that equation this time out. 

Of course, now both sides (especially Republicans) are dissecting what went right and wrong with both candidates' campaigns. Most agree with President Obama's assessment that he might have had "the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics." I have heard several news reports discussing the very smart way that they focused their ground team since the last election. Even if I thought the emails about contributions could have been a little more elegant, I was always reassured by the common sense style of the President's  campaign advisor David Axelrod, during his frequent appearances on the Sunday talk shows. 

Here is a rare moment, captured on video, that the Obama team sent its supporters via email this past week. We see the President visiting his campaign headquarters in Chicago, and getting quite emotional while thanking his team:

On the flip side, it is also fascinating to hear the assessment of how Mitt Romney's team ran his campaign. NPR reporter Ari Shapiro, who followed the campaign for the past year, filed a fascinating postmortem on how the former governor's campaign seemed to get derailed on several occasions, and how his team often made rather poor choices in its attempt to get it back on track. It is not only an interesting analysis, I think it is also stellar reporting/writing... click here to listen.

So, I guess there are still plenty of interesting discussions to be had... will Obama be able to work with Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff? What will happen to the Tea Party? Who will run in 2016? What will be done about the millions that are going into political campaigns? What will be done about ongoing concerns about voter fraud and the long lines some voters had to endure this past election? All questions that will soon be answered... but for the moment, this liberal-minded voter feels relieved...

Related Links:

"'Let Mitt Be Mitt': But Who Was He?," NPR, November 9, 2012 

"Hillary's next move," The New York Times, November 11, 2012

"Stephen Gottlieb: Jajja's Kids," WAMC, November 13, 2012

Obamacare

After a very uncertain week, this was a reassuring photo:

AP Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Source: http://news.msn.com/a-look-back-week-in-photos-1

I think the President handled this week's storm in a supportive, calm and reassuring manner. It's one of the many instances over the past four years that reassure me about his leadership. The fact that Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey was able to put politics aside and praise President Obama for the way he handled the crisis seems very telling. So do these endorsements:

"Barack Obama deserves another term," Boston Globe, October 29, 2012

"NY Mayor Bloomberg Endorses Obama in Presidential Race," Bloomberg.com, November 1, 2012

Fact Check

All these news reports about the Presidential Campaign are killing me. Yeah, Obama was off his game last week during the debates, and Romney moved to the center... suddenly everything is getting tense... at least for a compassionate liberal like me. I'm finding it hard to keep myself from checking the news over and over again throughout the day. 

I posted this Norman Rockwell painting on the Museum's Facebook page today--it seemed appropriate after last night's spirited Vice Presidential debate (more on that later).

 "Breakfast Table Political Argument," 1948, Norman Rockwell.
 From the Norman Rockwell Museum exhibition
"Norman Rockwell's 323 'Saturday Evening Post' Covers."
Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections.
©SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.

Speaking of Norman Rockwell, I had three separate press inquiries this week for our traveling exhibition Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. Kind of odd, because they didn't mention that it was the exhibition they had discovered, but rather that they stumbled on the idea that Rockwell had used reference photography (someone putting me on?). Since we don't own the copyrights, I had to come up with something relatable to our Museum, since we can only provide images related to stories about our exhibitions and collections. Luckily, the exhibit is opening this weekend in Vero Beach, Florida. 

Anyway, I was also interviewed for the piece in the New York Daily News yesterday. Here's the link.

It has been a long, tiring week... fretting about politics didn't help any. 

Still getting over the allergies, and preparing to move this weekend... hello Electric City.

Related Link:

"Norman Rockwell used richly-detailed photographs as reference for his iconic illustrations," New York Daily News, Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Rock The Vote

Today was National Voter Registration Day.... check. Apparently you can now do it online. Do it now. Here is the link: nationalvoterregistrationday.org/register-to-vote

I hope people take this to heart... I wouldn't leave anything to chance after the fiasco of the 2000 election. Since then, I have become weary of the possibility of voter suppression and disenfranchisement... yes, there are those who would sink that low for their own "gains." Look at these recent reports about states trying to pass picture I.D. laws... Fight for your right. People worked long and hard to earn this right for us. Perhaps more persuasive: "Voting is sexy," said my wife back in 2008.

Related Links:

www.headcount.org

The Race

I spent a good part of today getting caught up on politics with Meet The Press and 60 Minutes. The latter had interviews with both President Obama and Mitt Romney, which were interesting. I think I got more facts from Meet The Press though (as always). The first debates start next week, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the two square off against each other... although I'm pretty confident I know who will make (or continue to make) a better leader.

I got back to the gym today--a two hour session, so I'm a little tired at this point in the evening to write about anything with much substance. I was going to try sharing some of my thoughts about this presidential election, but it's something I want to take some time to think about and present in a thoughtful manner.

As for creativity, I spent the rest of the day revisiting a radio program I have been working on. Trying to leap a hurdle with that one to finally get it done... as always, there's a lot to do right now... only so many hours to do it.

Campaign 2012: Obama vs. Romney, "60 Minutes," September 23, 2012

Oops, He Did It Again

And the hits just keep on comin':

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

First Camera

So tonight is the first night of the Democratic National Convention. I might actually watch this one... sorry Clint. 

I think the fighting between parties gets a little hard to stomach, but I must admit to getting caught up in some of the competitive feeling of an election year. I've been bookmarking tons of articles, but I'm far too tired to pontificate in this blog here tonight.

First Camerman: Documenting the
Obama Presidency in Real Time
by Arun Chaudhary.

Instead, I thought I would share an interesting news story that I heard the other day on NPR. They ran an interview with Arun Chaudhary, who has served the past four years at the first official White House videographer. I am familiar with the idea of presidential photographers (Pete Souza does a great job), but I never really thought about someone to document with video... talk about an intense and possibly over-scrutinized job... but it makes perfect sense in this day of instant web access. Chaudhary tells NPR about his early days with Obama on the campaign trail: "I thought the real job of any smart, young filmmaker working for a campaign has to be to think of that brilliant 30-second ad that's the one that just transforms the election. ... And then [I] quickly realize that all these little clever things I was doing on the side were not getting the hits, the attention that uncut speeches from Sen. Obama were: the victory speech in Iowa or the race speech. These were the ones that were the real 'viral' hits." 

The job must be quite the window into history... Chaudhary tells about the experience in his new book, First Cameraman. I would hope his work captures something authentic, but it must be difficult to capture reality... and surely a pain for the President to constantly be concerned about? Talk about living in a bubble. Anyway, I'm sure that the document will be interesting to look at many years from now.

On the topic of videography, my own recent work for Peace Action New York State has lead to another gig... interesting because the client has family ties to a former child star, whose show I used to enjoy watching as a kid... video sure can connect you with interesting people, as I'm sure Chaudhary would attest to.

Related Links:

"Behind the Lens with Obama's 'First Cameraman," NPR, September 2, 2012

2012 Democratic National Convention

RN U Done Yet?

Cool... turned on the TV tonight, and they were showing Gran Torino--I loved that movie! Good old Clint Eastwood... great actor... inspiring figure... hey, I don't remember him talking to a chair... and what the hell is he going on about? And look... this actor looks like he's serving in the Revolutionary War... what's going on? Wow. This movie is kind of crap, actually...