Gore (with an update) .... Edwards .... and us

More Media Tales from the sewer:

Police in Portland just announced they are going to reopen their investigation into the alleged 2006 Gore Grope of a massage artist in a downtown hotel room.  They had said before that there was no information to warrant a further (excuse me) probe.  But, as noted in my post just below, after the esteemed National Enquirer claimed the story the mainstream media hopped aboard, afraid of being left behind, and now authorities in Oregon have also apparently climbed on once more. A Gore spokesperson says the former Presidential candidate "unequivocally and emphatically" denies all. Adding, the investigation "will only benefit Mr. Gore, " which in my experience means Gore could really be in for some big trouble.

UPDATE 7.30.10:  I was wrong about Gore being in trouble and am pleased to post this, released this day by the DA in Portland Oregon who announced no charges would be filed:

1. Ms. Hagerty, who has red hair, states she called Mr. Gore immediately following the alleged incident and told him to "dream of redheaded women" seemingly in contradiction to her assertions that she was terrified of Mr. Gore. Two days after the alleged incident Ms. Hagerty also sent an email to the Hotel Lucia stating that she appreciated the business referrals she received from the hotel. She did not mention any problem with Mr. Gore;
2. Witnesses at the hotel where the alleged incident occurred state they do not remember seeing or hearing anything unusual---directly contradicting Ms. Hagerty's published claim in the July 12, 2010 of the National Enquirer that she was "shaking and in shock" and "rushed down the hall and to the lobby where the front desk clerk noticed she was upset was asked if she was OK";
3. Forensic testing of pants retained by Ms. Hagerty as possible evidence are negative for the presence of seminal fluid;
4. Ms. Hagerty has not provided as repeatedly requested medical records she claims are
related to the case;
5. Ms. Hagerty has also failed to provide other records related to the case;
6. Ms. Hagerty failed a polygraph examination;
7. It appears Ms. Hagerty was paid by the National Enquirer for her story; and
8. Mr. Gore voluntarily met with detectives and denied all of the allegations.

Meanwhile Elizabeth Edwards has released her explain-all book and is hitting the publicity trail.  Today Show yesterday, Larry King tonight. Can The Daily Show be far behind? Proving once again, there is no end of media lust for this kind of product, and in the "how low can you go" category, there really is no difference between The Enquirer, CNN, and NBC (or almost any other media outlet). It is all just one triumph after another in the lusting after the real news of the day.

Al Gore and the X factor ....

The Gore massage/sex story, another in a lengthy string dredged up by The National Enquirer from the repository in the sewer it so faithfully maintains and nurtures. 

The last big name political sex story The Enquirer chased down was the one about the Edwards love child.  You remember. That one the mainstream media --- print, broadcast, and on-line --- ignored forever because of where it oozed from.  Proved to be a big mistake on their part, very big, because the story was true (and then some).  So the major outlets had to play catch up, something they particularly resent.

But now many of the big-timers are jumping right in.  Some of them falling over others to see who can get more out, or up on-line, first. And I mean from the NY Times and Washington Post and the AP to Politico to Talking Points Memo, they are all on it. No matter how unproven, flimsy, or uncertain the charges may be they want in --- and now.  (To be fair, the network news joints have so far been laying low, but that may be more because of the stupor they are in most days than any fairness and sense of appropriateness.)

Aside from their embarrassment over having been routed by a supermarket tabloid, and their fear that it could happen again, there is also another reason, I believe, why we are seeing this story pop up in more heavily populated and prestigious media locations.  And it's that these mainstreamers are also pissed off at the Gores, who gave them nothing when they quietly, and with dignity, announced the sad ending to their virtual lifetime marriage a month or so ago. No angry charges, no stained dress or hotel stairwell photos, no other person surfacing, no behind the scenes gossip, no tell-all from former employees. I mean, no story to tease out for days, weeks, months. Nothing.  All they could do, what their reporters and personalities did, was to cluck sympathetically and sadly about the demise of Tipper and Al, as if they actually cared.  When competitive fear and professional jealousy marry, you get a more complicated and insidious offspring.  The so-caled respectable media been waiting, hovering, hoping for something juicy about Gore to grab hold of and dance with.  And now they have it.

I confess, it is my nature's plague to spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy shapes faults that are not...Othello

Obama Shows Up ....

All the things he wasn't in his speech about the oil crisis he was in making the announcement about dumping McChrystal. Firm, clear, resolute, determined. Qualities which, of course, the beady eye of the camera lens bores in on intently and irrevocably.  I don't know what it is with this President.  How and why he goes from graceless stumbler one week to the Man In Charge the next.  What I do know is that someone needs to sit him down in front of a television screen at the White House and make him watch himself in both instances. And learn.  He has shown that he is a good and fast learner but it's like he too often forgets his lessons, and leaves his real self at the door.  And he can't afford to keep doing that, anymore than we can continue to believe in him, and support him if he does. 

I am one of the ones who thinks that McChrystal had to go, and now find myself strangely and uncomfortably alligned with the likes of Joltin' Joe Lieberman and his dear friend John McCain, both of whom immediately came out in support of Obama's call.  Lieberman in fact was absolutely lit up with praise by the President's action, almost beside himself. 

Media angles:  Who would have believed that Rolling Stone would suddenly rise, at least temporarily, from the ashes of the sixties and virtual irrelevancy to be the catalyst for all this. However, the issue with the story hasn't come out yet, won't until 2 days from now.  So Rolling Stone has had to make the full article available on-line, where as of this writing, only 22 people have bothered to find it and post comments.  It has not been the magazine itself, which has almost no constituency these days, but the internet bloggers and mainstream media that turned up the heat. And, from what I could see, it was the on-line folks at Talking Points Memo and Politico who today broke the news regarding Obama's decision about McChrystal and Petraeus.  Other media big timers, like the cable news people, the NY Times, and Huff Post, were late getting those details. 

Which leads me to my final points here:  Why would McChrystal and his aides ever have given a reporter such access to their arrogance and mockery? What was the strategy guy's strategy here? In an interview with Newsweek, where he once worked, even the writer says he was surprised. Perhaps as important, why didn't McChrystal, so far as we know, have to clear that access in advance with his bosses in Washington. I also have to wonder how and why the President's final decision about McChrystal and Petraeus was leaked a half hour or so before Obama announced it himself.

Fireside Chats .....

Here is the text of the opening of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat which he delivered on Sunday March 12, 1933, and which was about closing down the banks for a while:  

 I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking—with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking but more particularly with the overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be.... I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and help during the past week.

And here is something he said toward the end:

I do not promise you that every bank will be reopened or that individual losses will not be suffered, but there will be no losses that possibly could be avoided; and there would have been more and greater losses had we continued to drift.

And here is how he closed:

It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.

All of it, every word straight, simple, direct, reassuring, assertive not defensive. Delivered the goods.

I watched President Obama last night, and we should be embarrassed for him.  

Not a "chat," and not quite a speech, either.  Fumbled words, uncomfortable language, misplaced emphasis, unclear objectives.  It felt more like a run through, and that he was not familiar with the text or its meaning. He was supposed to leave us gasping with gratitude, and instead we were left grasping for meaning.

I have long resisted what I now fear: that our President, a man I have supported and greatly admire, just doesn't know how to express (or worse, doesn't actually feel) real outrage, real anger. And if he does, can't communicate that anger in a productive, comfortable and comforting way that still does not compromise its power. Saying you know whose ass to kick doesn't mean you'll actually do it. The kids in the schoolyards where I grew up always knew who was faking it, and who wasn't. Guess who is faking it?

Results count most in the end.  Of course. But in the moment no matter what you say about a problem, how you say it is as least as important. And the moment lingers.  Long after people forget the substance they remember the feeling they had.  As of last night, that can't be good ----- either for us or for Obama.