patmix

Yes we can...make phone calls

Dave and I joined about 15 people all together for the first night of phone banking for Obama at my office.

We were calling New Yorkers and I got only one vote for Hillary and probably 15 for Obama.

The latest polls show Obama inching up in New York, a real race in Massachusetts and California, and a 6 point spread now nationally.

Sweet Caroline

The woman whom Neil Diamond recently revealed his song was all about goes onto the airwaves with her endorsement.

And what Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi had to say about the Kennedy endorsement:

Did you ever see anything like that?" asked Pelosi. "Transferring the mantle from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. It was the most stunning thing. I mean, I couldn't take my eyes off it. And I didn't have any time to sit there and watch TV, you know - we had a whole schedule. I just was mesmerized by it."

What do these women have in common?

   

What do Governor Katherine Sebelius (D-Kansas), Governor Janet Napolitano (D-Arizona), and Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) all have in common?

They are all red state, statewide elected officials who have endorsed Barack Obama.

It's not just the Kennedy's and I have a good word that there will be even bigger news later this week. 

The Stuff of History

I'm just back from Sundance, where my client Queer Lounge is the hub for gay filmmakers and films in Park City. Two years later, almost any panel or conversation or interview about gay film usually turns back to Brokeback Mountain.

Arriving back in Manhattan early last evening, the news of Heath Ledger's death had already been pinged, IM'd, blogged, and whirled around the world. It was strange to look down 6th Avenue towards Soho and think that all that sadness was just a short walk away.

One of the great things about giving life back to this blog is that I've been able to go back through the archives and link to past posts. My first entry about Brokeback Mountain was on September 15, 2005, with one of the first reviews of the film from the Toronto Film Festival.

A.O. Scott from the New York Times wrote:

"Mr. Ledger's wrenching performance is the stuff of Hollywood history."

Lots more followed.

Watching the clips last night from Brokeback Mountain was wrenching...and it was the first time that I realized that Ledger was only 24 or 25 when he made the film.

And last night a reporter from Time magazine emailed from Park City to see if she could go down to Queer Lounge to interview gay festival-goers about what Heath Ledger meant to them and the gay community.

A lot.

I'll miss seeing Ledger interviewed 20 years from now about how his performance - and how his humility, honesty, and kindness in discussing the movie -- played a tiny role in changing how the world sees gay men.

Are Gay Relationships Different?

Our own John Cloud weighs in a very personal and compelling piece that's part of this week's Time cover story package.

Why Obama Matters

One of the key articles that tipped me over the edge for Obama was the Atlantic Monthly's December cover story by Andrew Sullivan.

If you're on the fence or need more inspiration, read it.

Some key quotes:

The man who opposed the war for the right reasons is for that reason the potential president with the most flexibility in dealing with it. Clinton is hemmed in by her past and her generation. If she pulls out too quickly, she will fall prey to the usual browbeating from the right—the same theme that has played relentlessly since 1968. If she stays in too long, the antiwar base of her own party, already suspicious of her, will pounce. The Boomer legacy imprisons her—and so it may continue to imprison us. The debate about the war in the next four years needs to be about the practical and difficult choices ahead of us—not about the symbolism or whether it’s a second Vietnam.

And:

The paradox is that Hillary makes far more sense if you believe that times are actually pretty good. If you believe that America’s current crisis is not a deep one, if you think that pragmatism alone will be enough to navigate a world on the verge of even more religious warfare, if you believe that today’s ideological polarization is not dangerous, and that what appears dark today is an illusion fostered by the lingering trauma of the Bush presidency, then the argument for Obama is not that strong. Clinton will do. And a Clinton-Giuliani race could be as invigorating as it is utterly predictable.

But if you sense, as I do, that greater danger lies ahead, and that our divisions and recent history have combined to make the American polity and constitutional order increasingly vulnerable, then the calculus of risk changes. Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable.

We may in fact have finally found that bridge to the 21st century that Bill Clinton told us about. Its name is Obama.

Is Hillary Clinton Tracy Flick

Alls I can say is genius.

The Perez Hilton Vote

At a Webby Awards conference last spring, Arianna Huffington said that the candidates should be trying to win over the Perez Hilton voting bloc as they are people who typically do not follow politics or vote. 

Check out the 775 messages left on Perez Hilton re: Roseanne Barr's recent  rant against Obama and Oprah or the  comments left regarding Oprah campaigning Obama.

Do we want these people voting? Scary.

Guess Who?

Guess which Democratic presidential candidate -- Clinton or Obama -- said the following regarding their favorite TV character:

"I gotta say Omar’s a great character. That’s not an endorsement. That is not an endorsement. He is not my favorite person. But he’s a fascinating character. He’s this gay gangster who only robs drug dealers, and then gives back. You know, he’s sort of a Robin Hood. And he’s the toughest, baddest guy on this show, but he’s gay, you know. And it’s really interesting. It’s a fascinating character."

You're right. (Hat tip to Towleroad)

Back to "The Future"

What I (and everyone else) said about Barack Obama the day after his 2004 convention speech.