Election Eve (Monday's Show)

Hi all. Despite the fact that I watch more CNN than any normal human being should, I still apparently misunderstood how they were doing their election coverage tonight. I thought we were getting "the best political team on television" for four full hours, but instead it was almost like a regular 360 and I hadn't planned for that. So anyway, this isn't going to be like a regular review (and there will be no grade) because I've got massive holes in my notes from when I was doing other things. I figured it was pointless to document the coverage of specific races because it's all speculation anyway.

Anderson is wearing his young republican tie tonight. How very appropriate for this political coverage. Although he needs to sport a young democratic tie sometime. Something in a blue perhaps. When Anderson comes on Larry King is still there and they decide to go formal tonight, referring to each other as "Mr. King" and "Mr. Cooper." Aw, I remember when Erica Hill and Aaron Brown used to that. Except, of course, with their own names. Yeah...Anyhoo, at the top of the show there's this weird shot of Anderson walking to the Wolfbot and it looks like they're both standing on a stage. That studio is huge! It's funny how they try to get all creative with their shots. At one point we had a great shot of another camera. Whoops.

I am pleased to report that Anderson seems to be cured of saying "Missourah." I actually sent an email to CNN complaining about all of their reporters/anchors in general saying it that way. I figured that'll learn them. Or, you know, my email never made it past an intern. But I like to think I'm powerful like that. Candy Crowley, however, did not get the memo. I let it pass though since she was good enough to point out that, despite the GOP talking points, the economy blows for the average American. All the talking heads that always lament about poor Bush and how he can't get his "good economy" message to resonate with the American people make me laugh. Those pundits obviously have no idea what it's like to be an average American.

One of the races they cover tonight is the neck-and-neck battle from my own state between Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill. We're shown a clip of Claire at a rally and I point this out because I was there! And guess who else was there? Barack Obama! It was awesome and totally worth my legs feeling like they were going to fall off after standing planted in one place for three hours.

John Roberts is still in Iraq and I wonder how he feels about that. I guess it makes sense since his show is about the war, but he's missing some good face time in regards to the elections. Remember, this is the guy that wanted the CBS anchor job, so I'm wondering if this is what he had in mind when he came to CNN. Anyway, John talks about the Saddam verdict and Anderson points out that we seem to be having a lot of milestones in Iraq that really don't mean anything. It's good to see Anderson paying attention. I'm sure a lot of Iraqis will be happy when Saddam is gone for good, but I bet they'll be even happier when they can walk out their doors without the fear of being murdered. John also has another piece towards the end of the show on how Iraqis feel about our upcoming elections and I'm struck at how much they seem to know about our political process. I'm guessing they know more about us than most Americans know about them.

An interesting story covered tonight is what seems to be the neocons turning on Bush. Or maybe not. Apparently Vanity Fair did an interview with Richard Perle where he said some harsh things about the Bush Administration in regards to Iraq. The catch here is that Perle thought the interview wouldn't be published until January (after the elections). Now he's crying that he was taken out of context. I say good on Vanity Fair for having the balls to give the public information they might like to know before the election. Are you listening New York Times? And it's so typical of the neocons to whine that the entire problem was how the war was conducted, when one of the main problems is their warped ideology. Don't get me wrong, this war was conducted horribly, but the foreign policy beliefs that these guys cling too like they're a religion have all turned out to be flat wrong.

Another big topic tonight is the Ted Haggard story and for this, the Wolfbot pops out of nowhere to comment. They should give us a warning or something when he's going to do that. I guess he was absent before because they were charging his batteries. Anyway, I'm sure we all pretty much know the details of how this really powerful pastor has fallen big time. I can't say I'm surprised. I'm a Christian, but I don't trust pastors like that and megachurches freak me out. Once you get that big you're just asking for corruption. The Wolfbot notes that now all the other church leaders are distancing themselves and pretending like they really didn't know him. He's like a Christian Abramoff apparently. From some of the other coverage I've seen on this story it seems like a lot of his congregation are sticking by him and talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness of sin is great, but why does it seem like they're very quick to forgive sin committed by "one of them", but they're extremely judgemental when it comes to sin committed by others. I mean, I don't exactly remember evangelicals all over tv in the late 90's preaching how we needed to forgive Bill Clinton for his affair. And furthermore, Bill Clinton didn't spend his life railing against people that had affairs. Ted Haggard is a big fat hypocrite.

I think that will do it for the show tonight and now comes time for a friendly public service announcement: Vote. If you can vote it is your duty to do so and don't stop there. Make sure all of your friends and family vote too. And if you have the time, contact a local campaign and see if you can help out in what will be the final push. Where our country goes over the next few years may very well be determined by what happens over the next few hours. Vote. It's the most patriotic thing you can do.

I don't know what I'm going to do about tomorrow night. I'm definitely not reviewing all the coverage and I plan to be quite busy freaking out anyway. I'll probably do some kind of round up. I also need to figure out how I'm going to watch CNN, Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, and The Daily Show all at the same time. Probably not humanly possible, but I shall try. Anway, I'll also be online and I think I'm going to do a little experiment and post sometime Tuesday evening, which can then be used as a live thread if anyone want to chat. Or not. I'll be popping in and out, so we'll see how it goes. Now off to the polls with you!

Screencap by bcfraggle.