Unlike 85,000 of my fellow New Yorkers, I stayed home last night to watch television instead The most insightful remark in the matching of twits came from the debate’s moderator But for avoiding direct answers to specific questions and for talking past, over and Needless to say, making sense was not the point of the debate or the analysis, despite Unlike 85,000 of my fellow New Yorkers, I stayed home last night to watch television instead of going to Central Park for the free concert by the Dave Mathews Band (scroll down for a video clip). I also missed the live Webcast of the concert (here’s the setlist), because I was busy clicking between the season premiere of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-65","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nof going to Central Park for the
\nBand<\/STRONG><\/EM><\/FONT><\/A> (scroll down for a
\nmissed the live Webcast of the concert (here’s
\nbetween the season premiere of
\nof the candidates for governor in the California recall election, (here’s a
\nwas followed by so-called political analysis. <\/P>
\n
\n— “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not Comedy Central” — as he tried and
\nfailed to put a halt to one more of the many practiced quips that dropped like marbles from
\nArnold Schwarzenegger’s mittle-european<\/EM> lips. The biggest disappointment was the
\nabsence of John Goodman, who made his debut on “The West Wing” as the conservative
\nRepublican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who has temporarily replaced President
\nJosiah Bartlett. Goodman would have lent true executive presence to the debate, given
\nwhat even an unhappy Bartlett staffer conceded was his “presidential” aura.<\/P>
\n
\nunder each other, the candidates were no match for the political commentators on MSNBC who
\nfollowed the debate with a squawking contest that sounded like the birdhouse at the Bronx
\nZoo. Led by blond bombshell Chris Matthews, the “analysis” featured two ex-governors — a
\nred-shirted baldie, Jesse Ventura, of Minnesota, and a sun-burned baldie, Jerry Brown, of
\nCalifornia — along with a rightwing banshee, Bob Dornan, and other assorted species of experts.
\nNone of them, with the possible exception of Brown, said anything more enlightening than the
\ncandidates themselves.<\/P>
\n
\ncomments I’ve seen claiming that Schwarenegger shined, or at a minimum did not
\ntarnish himself; that Cruz Bustamante had more presence than people counted on, let alone a
\nvoice made for radio; that Arianne Huffington offered high-minded comic relief; that Tom
\nMcClintock held out for stiff-necked righteousness, as expected; and that Peter Camejo made a
\nbetter impression than the League of Women Voters, which wants to exclude him from the next
\ndebate, would care to admit.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"