The McClellan Interview: One Of Anderson Cooper's Best Interviews Ever

Hi everybody. No, this isn't a regular review. I'm not quite up to that yet. But after watching tonight's 360 I just had to make a post. Okay, I haven't seen every interview Anderson Cooper has ever done, so I'm probably not qualified to say that tonight was one of his best ever, but damn did he bring it! Before my absence due to the whole almost dying thing, 360 had been feeling pretty stale. Not tonight. That was some good television. What can I say? I'm a sucker for hard questions and people being held accountable.

The passion and toughness Anderson brought to the table was quite the contrast to my other tv news boyfriend's time with McClellan. Keith Olbermann basically gave him a big wet kiss. I wasn't expecting the confrontational performance I knew Anderson to be capable of (apparently Keith doesn't due controversy unless he can do it when the person's not there), but geez. It's going to be really sad if Jon Stewart ends up being harder on McClellan (booked for Monday!) than Keith.

There were many great portions of the 360 interview, but in terms of me having a comment, I want to highlight this one:

AC: SO YOU, IN YOUR MIND, WHEN YOU’RE IN THAT BUBBLE, OR BUNKER AS YOU SAID, YOU CAN JUSTIFY EVERYTHING YOU’RE DOING BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE YOUR POSITION IS RIGHT AND YOU’RE FIGHTING OFF, EVERYONE ELSE IS PLAYING PARTISAN POLITICS BUT WHEN YOU’RE IN THE BUBBLE, YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU’RE DOING IS REALLY RIGHT.

SM: no, you’re engaged and you have your partisan hat on. and that’s the problem. that’s the problem, that we’re all focused on trying to manipulate the narrative to our advantage and we lose sight of the importance of how we can work together through deliberation and compromise.

AC: I THINK THAT WILL SHOCK PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU’RE ACTUALLY A CIVIL SERVANT. YOU’RE A CIVIL SERVANT. YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A POLITICAL PARTISAN.

Are there really that many people left that are shocked about them being political partisans? Bueller? I don't know about anyone else, but I've known this and not believed a word they've said for years now. The newsworthy thing about this book is not that it says anything most of us didn't already know anyway; it's who wrote it.

As for McClellan, I have to hand it to the guy. He stayed pretty cool under some fierce grilling from Anderson. Much cooler than during the press conferences I remember watching. Scotty, as I lovingly called him, has always been my favorite Bush Press Secretary because he was just so dang fun to watch. Don't get me wrong, his robotic and repetitive regurgitation of talking points, was beyond frustrating, but you kind of had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Not to mention the fact that he constantly looked like he wished he would just spontaneously combust right there. Now THAT would have been a headline. Plus after press conferences there was always the added fun of the "The Scotty Show."

And it's because of the difference between his behavior and body language back then and his relaxed demeaner in the face of hard questions now, that I actually think I believe him. I think I believe almost his whole story. It seems to me he was a true believer who slowly realized he was being used. If I had to guess, I'd say he started having his suspicions in 2005, which was when I really noticed that he seemed to be near tears half the time. Should he have left the job sooner? Sure, but I think he has been sincere in his answer regarding that question and he's definitely not the only one guilty of this. Although just because he's now sounding like a liberal doesn't mean I'm suddenly a McClellan fan. I'll always have doubts about him. I'll always have doubts about anyone in politics. If there's one thing the Bush Administration has given my generation, it's cynicism.

Anyway, great job Anderson! Be proud. And let's see more of that fired up attitude!

Food Or Medication?

Hi everybody. Now that I have access to cable news again, I see that the irrelevant political bickering and trumped-up controversies go on. This is especially maddening to me given what I've gone through the past couple of weeks. The issue of health care has always been one of the top issues that concern Americans, yet to this day there has been no real nitty gritty national discussion of the subject. You always hear about people that have to choose between buying medication and eating. On the day I was discharged from the hospital, this scenario touched me directly.

I came home Friday night and my mother immediately headed out to the pharmacy with my prescriptions. Prior to this hospital stay I took no prescribed medication. Unfortunately, the lovely doctor (more on him later) wrote the prescriptions so poorly that the pharmacist didn't know what to do with them. She then sent my mother home while she tried to figure things out with the doctor. About an hour later we got a call from the pharmacy and my mom answered the phone. I heard her ask how much they were going to be and by her face I could tell it was a lot. She then turned to me and said that one of my medications was not covered at all by insurance and was going to be almost $500.

"For how long?!" I asked. It was only a 30 day supply. And we weren't even done yet. Another medication was covered, but was still going to be almost $300 for a 30 day supply. I quickly did the math in my head and half laughed. "No. Just tell her no then," I said. "There is no way I can afford that." I really didn't even need to think about it. My mom relayed this to the pharmacist, who said she would call the doctor and tell him. A little later the pharmacist called back to tell us the doctor had switched the cheaper (if you call almost $300 cheap) medication to something else. The new medication would cost me...$12. Um, yeah, that's a bit better. But I have to wonder why he didn't just prescribe that in the first place. I swear.

As for the $500 medication? Don't have it and suspect I never will. I'm not too worried about it though because it's not something that I need to stay alive. But it does make me think about the millions of people in this country, the richest country in the world, who have to choose between eating and taking life saving drugs. It's unacceptable. It's immoral. And the fact that these issues aren't front and center on the news is a disgrace.

No, I Didn't Quit The Blog...I Almost Died

Hi everyone. Have you missed me? I thought I was just going to see my sister graduate and then I'd be back, but life doesn't always work out how you planned. To make a long story short, I was in the hospital for almost two weeks with near fatal double pneumonia. For the first three days I had to be on a ventilator and the whole ordeal also resulted in heart issues, requiring numerous tests. So basically, it's been a hard couple of weeks. But I'm alive and I'm home now and that's all that matters. I might go into further detail of my experiences with our lovely health care system later. Right now it' s a little hard to type since I just came home from the land of a a thousand finger sticks.

As for the reviews, I probably won't start back up until after I'm back at work and doing fine. So probably not this coming week, but maybe the next. Last night (Friday) was the first time I'd even seen 360 in about three weeks. The hospital did not have CNN or MSNBC! Can you believe that? But they had Fox News. Totally uncool. Anyway, that's it for me for now, but I'll try to check in a few times before I start the reviews up again. Thanks to those of you who sent emails. I hope to be back to normal soon.