ABC News - The First 100 Days

100 Days into my new job here at ABC/Disney, and I am honestly loving every minute of it. Sure, it's a big company. Sure, there's politics galore, communication challenges, and competing fiefdoms. BUT, it's a media company. BUT, it's a group of highly motivated, articulate, intelligent and creative individuals. BUT, there's actually quite a bit of integration with all of the Disney properties - nothing's really siloed. AND, best of all - I am an internet professional again. Say it loud and proud.

It tickles me pink to realize that this internet thing isn't just some game I've been playing for fifteen years (gopherspace, anyone), or that we're not the bastard stepchild of an uppity old media company.

The internet - it's here to stay.

Asher and his friend Cora from upstairs




Asher and Sarah

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I stumbled across a movie on television that blew my mind. It was about a little girl that got lost in the Australian outback, and taken in by a friendly kangaroo who gave her a special root to eat that would allow her to understand the speech of animals. I remember LOVING the story and the songs.

For the past twenty years, I've been trying to remember the name of the movie. Today, I found it when I randomly checked out the website of a local theater that plays movies for small kids and babies during the week.

Asher is probably too young, but on April 23, maybe I will take off work to go see Dot and the Kangaroo

What They Must Overcome

Barack Obama
Right now, Obama's biggest hurdle is his lack of experience - especially relative to the rest of the field. He will need two things to carry him past that: (1) charisma, plain and simple. (2) a media meme that experience is what bogs us down in unwinnable conflicts in the first place. On the latter, compare Truman, LBJ and W to the likes of Lincoln who was a one-term Congressman and an unsuccessful Senate candidate before he went on to become one of this nation's best Presidents, and Woodrow Wilson who had only two years as New Jersey's chief executive under his belt before he was elected President. Lincoln held the Nation together. Wilson stayed out as long as possible, then went in, kicked ass, and started the U.S. on it's way to our current position at the top of global politics.

Hillary Clinton
Don't believe the polls, which are really just a measure of name recognition at this point. Hillary is beset with image problems that make her candidacy a true longshot. Among average Americans, she's directly associated with this extremely distasteful sense of polarization in Washington. Her penchant for triangulating pisses off the Left, and her last name still enflames passions on the Right. Her best bet for victory is to do what she's been doing - ignore the Right, keep the Left from spinning completely out of reach with a few well-placed appearances/positions, and pound away at the center to make that polarizing ethos disappear.

John Edwards
Sunny John couldn't pull it off in 2004, so I don't know what makes him think he's more palatable in 2008. Sure, he's got the support of the netroots, good looks, and a winning personality. He's been road-tested, and the general public didn't appear to respond to the "trial lawyer" epithets that were thrown at him. But at the end of the day, he's still only a one-term Senator that couldn't even carry his home state during the last election. And he's been out of the national discussion for too long. Edwards' best hope is consistently brilliant media coverage. He needs to plaster that pretty face all over the Sunday morning talk shows, set up a high-visibility ground game in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire, and make the rest of the field eat his dust in the debates. Oh, and he also needs to show a bit more substance than his standard "Two Americas" stump speech.

Parenting is...

... trying to give your kid nose drops when you're in the thick of an ambien evening.

"Where's your nose, Asher?"

"Here."

"Where?"

"Here, Daddy."

"Oh, Fuck it. You take the spray bottle, and let me know when you're done."

My take on the various candidates' chances in the Republican primaries:

Social Issues, Smocial Issues, He's Got The Mo'
Rudy Giuliani

Get That Name Recognition Up, And You Might Have A Shot
Mitt Romney
Chuck Hagel
Mike Huckabee

Drain From McCain
Sam Brownback

Straight Talk Express Seems To Have Derailed
John McCain

Tanned, Rested And Ready?
Newt Gingrich

Kucinich Of The Right
Duncan Hunter
Tom Tancredo

Running For A Cabinet Position, Guys?
John Cox
Jim Gilmore
Ron Paul
Tommy Thompson
George Pataki

I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel

A broadcast ad sales meeting with IBM is apparently the very definition of a suit-and-tie affair. For better or worse, I will be sporting jeans and a button-down.

This whole dress-up thing baffles me. Every time someone here has even an internal meeting with a senior executive, they wear a suit. It must be an old media culture thing.

My current thinking on the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination:

Maybe…
Barak Obama
John Edwards
Al Gore

What are they thinking?!
Bill Richardson
Evan Bayh
Chris Dodd
John Kerry

Carry that torch, man
Dennis Kucinich

Nice guy, but…
Tom Vilsack

Looks good until the mouth opens
Joe Biden
Wesley Clark

Please, take one for the team
Hillary Clinton

I just posted this comment to my friend Shannon's blog, and thought I'd surface it here to see what people thought:

Re: Sending more troops to Iraq

Honestly, our only way out of this mess without turning the region into a petri dish for apocalyptic designs is to send not 22,000 more troops in there, but 220,000 more troops in there for the next five years, and dedicate half of them to engineering/infrastructure tasks that will actually make a palpable difference in Iraqis' lives.

Bad Music Fridays

I've had "Turn Up The Radio" by Autograph in my head all day, and now I'm indulging thanks to Rhapsody.

Where I Work

Let's play a game. Without cheating, see if you can match the following top headlines with the correct network news websites.

1. ABC News
2. CBS News
3. Fox News
4. NBC News


Network A
McCain Defends Troop Buildup
Expert Admits "Big Error" In Duke Case
Stowaway's Body Found In Delta Jet
Signs of Hope In Iraq's Hottest Spot
U.S. Embassy In Athens Attacked


Network B
McCain Backs Iraq Plan
Baby Panda Debut
U.S. Embassy Attacked
China Faces Wife Shortage
Lieberman Backs Off Katrina Oversight

Network C
Showdown: Militias Plot To Match U.S. Surge
Black-on-White Violence: Where is the National Media?
Sergeant Relieved of Duty For Nude Playboy Mission
Joumana Kidd: Jason Is The Abusive One
Barbaro Hurdles Health Setback [ij note - Barbaro is apparently a horse]

Network D
Boxer's Sucker Punch
Video Claims Chemical Attack on G.I.s
Anti-Tank Shell Hits U.S. Embassy
Senator McCain Defends Bush Plan
Thief Steals Dying Man's Video To Young Son

Pointless
It's recently occurred to me that I've been doing and saying things designed to establish my internet bona fides to a group of people who either were in junior high when I created my first website, or who have been in broadcast media all of their lives, and only recently learned what the web is.

I don't have anything to prove. I think I should stop that.

Both Asher and I are obsessed with this video. It includes cameos from Wynton Marsalis, John Candy, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Celia Cruz, and others.

Folks, Put Down That Duckie!

Monday Miscellany

Although there are no words to fully describe the tragedy of Beth's death, Sarah spent the better part of this weekend on the phone with friends trying to find them. It's very sad.

The latest sign of the impending, global warming-induced apocalypse was at hand on Saturday, when the temperature reached 70 degrees. We went for a long hike in Prospect Park, and talked about moving to a part of the country that won't be under water in another twenty years.

I watched Meet the Press on the way to work this morning (thanks to podcasts). Lindsay Graham and Joe Biden engaged in a very civilized discourse about Iraq. It was a refreshing change from combatitive Democrats and emasculated Republicans who simply parrot the nonsensical and belligerant rhetoric of the Administration.

Our dear friend Rana's sister Beth passed away this morning. By all accounts, Beth was a wonderful, intelligent and caring woman. She leaves behind two small children, a husband, and a community of friends and family that spans the globe.

Hey Everybody - I've written my first Wikipedia entry!

After more than a decade of New Year's Eves packed with far-flung excess the likes of which could be immortalized in rap songs, it's still a bit hard to internalize that I'm now an old, boring guy for whom the night holds little significance or surprise.

Last year was still a bit of an event; it involved travel and lots of friends. This year, we had three couples and their toddlers over for pizza and letil soup, and everyone was gone by 8:30pm.

In unrelated news, our nanny is very ill, and waiting for the results of a biopsy today. What happens to people in this country who need serious surgery but don't have health care?