We spent an hour talking about the week that was in lipstick politics. As I said on the blog earlier in the week, I thought McCain overplayed his hand, went too far and produced a dishonest ad. He compounded his mistake by bringing out Jane Swift as part of his “Truth Squad”. I also thought Palin did just ok during the Charlie Gibson interview. Let’s just say the audience reaction was mixed.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called "groundbreaking" by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston's Talk Station.
It was great to speak with T.J. English, author of Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution.
I started by asking T.J. what went into researching a book like this. We then got right into the incredible story of the mob in Havana.
“[An] excellent new book.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.” — Washington Post
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
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There will be a lot of thoughtful posts in the blogosphere about the seventh anniversary of September 11. Here, I want to tell just one story of a man who we got to know thanks to Matt Burden and his Someone You Should Know series at Blackfive. Here is Matt’s tribute to Rick Rescorla,
Rick was a British (Cypress and Rhodesia) and American (Viet Nam) war hero. He retired as a Colonel in 1990.
Decades later, after 9/11, I had no idea that Rescorla had everything to do with denying Al Qaeda a huge victory. I wasn’t surprised that Rick had saved 2,700 people that day, and then paid the price with his life when he went back into the tower for stragglers. He knew, KNEW, it was coming down. And he went anyway…
Tenacious, strong, and leading all the way to the end.
Here is the Someone You Should Know Matt did in memory of Rick Rescorla on September 11, 2006,
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Here is Greyhawk’s tribute at Mudville Gazette.
As many of you know, Michael Yon is back in Afghanistan and reporting from the front lines. Bruce McQuain and I were fortunate enough to speak with Michael a couple of weeks ago,
Michael just posted his first major Dispatch, complete with the usual great writing and photography. It starts like this,
When I was briefed on the top-secret mission before it was launched, I thought : “Good grief. I might have to report on the failure of one of the largest and most important missions of the entire war.â€
and ends like this,
The mission was a brilliant success against substantial odds. The British press was justifiably proud of what has been called their largest logistics operation since World War II. These are precisely the sort of large-scale civil affairs/information operations, backed up with military strength and tactical ingenuity, that are required to turn this war around.
The story in between, titled Where Eagles Dare, is simply amazing, as are the photographs that go with it. Don’t miss it!
Michael is a truly independent journalist, fully supported by his readers. If you appreciate this kind of independent, trustworthy reporting from the world’s hot spots, you can support Michael via Pay Pal at his website or by sending a check to,
Michael Yon
PO Box 5553
Winter Haven, FL 33880
Something tells me that the Clinton’s are thoroughly enjoying Barack Obama’s campaign stumbles since he left Denver. Sure, they said all the right things at the DNC,
Hillary: Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.
Did anyone in America believe a word of it? Maybe the Obama campaign did?
New York Times, Sept. 4: Obama Camp Turns to Clinton to Counter Palin
ST. PAUL — Senator Barack Obama will increasingly lean on prominent Democratic women to undercut Gov. Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain, dispatching Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Florida on Monday and bolstering his plan to deploy female surrogates to battleground states, Obama advisers said Thursday.
The fact is, they are letting Obama sink or swim on his own. One has to wonder if Obama is experiencing what many Democrats are feeling, buyer’s remorse. His VP pick Joe Biden seems to be wondering about that himself,
Joe Biden said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton “might have been a better pick than me†to be Barack Obama’s running mate…“Make no mistake about this, Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Lets get that straight. She’s easily qualified to be vice president … and quite frankly, might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate. I mean that sincerely. She is first rate. So let’s get that straight,†he said.
Biden has already broken rule #1 of VP selections, do no harm. Somewhere, probably at seperate locations.:), Bill and Hillary are enjoying every minute of this.
Wow. I don’t pay attention to the campaign for one day and look what I missed. I just heard about the lipstick kerfuffle this morning. Now that I have seen the McCain ad, I have to say that I am disappointed that his campaign went so far to make this a serious issue. What bothers me is that is was perfectly clear what Obama was saying and it had nothing to do with Sarah Palin. The icing on the cake was the ad itself, in which it said on the screen, “Barack Obama on Sarah Palin” before launching in to the clip of the lipstick comment. That is misleading and dishonest. Not a great moment for the McCain campaign. They compounded their mistake by trotting out our former governor Jane Swift as part of their Truth Squad. I have to agree 100% with National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuro,
Don’t they realize that this harping on ambiguous slights is what people hate about political correctness? It was bad enough when liberals were trying to destroy Palin. Now Republicans are trashing her brand. They’re undermining the basis of her appeal as a different, tougher kind of female politician. Today has been worse than wasted.
Having Jane Swift lead the McCain campaign’s Palin Truth Squad is an additional mistake. It’s not just that she was an incompetent and unpopular governor of Massachusetts, although she was, and had nothing like Palin’s credentials as a reformer. Her administration was a failure in significant part because of her inability to walk the line between public and private, work and family. She was the last female governor before Palin to be prominent for being pregnant in office, and she made a hash of things, using state aides as babysitters. Couldn’t the campaign have found someone who wasn’t such a counter-example to Palin?
Important? No. Pretty damn funny? You bet.
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As for Obama’s lipstick comment, he did not mean it towards Palin. That’s a real stretch. Was it stupid? Indeed. Intentional, I think not.