An empty suit is an illusion

Throughout last year's epic presidential campaign, a number of my Republican-oriented friends kept repeating a curious mantra: "Obama is an empty suit."

Their upshot, I believe, was that Senor Obama lacked the resume of accomplishment and life experience of his competitors. Moreover, the implication was that he was all talk and no walk. Obama lacked the necessary qualifications to be president. He was a cardboard cutout. A front, perhaps.

These same folks never seemed to "get" Obama. Despite the obvious signs that something was afoot (consistently huge and rapturous campaign crowds, devoted droves of passionate volunteers, C-150 loads of donations) he was dismissed as a greenhorn or naive poseur. All talk. And no details (never mind the mind-boggling policy recommendations that filled his campaign website).

Despite their best efforts, my right-wing friends have their Empty Suit President. Only now, it's become apparent that the "ideology" they backed is The Empty Suit. The Republican brand is so wrung out that only a circus contortionist can fit its cut of cloth.

Meanwhile, our president continues to astound with a near daily dose of political audacity. Obama had so many people invoking Lincoln before his Inauguration. Wrong-O. At this point, he is synthesizing FDR and LBJ with his dramatic introductions of nation-changing proposals. Anyone paying attention to his prime-time press conference, his economic "summits" and the Non-State-of-the-Union address understand that this is a president like no other we have seen.

All this doesn't mean that the Great O is right. Given the sheer scale of his administration's proposals, he will be wrong, and probably often enough. (The question is whether he will be right on the big issues.) But the conceit that this man is an Empty Suit has been put back on the rack forever.

For a real empty suit, here is a fun clip from the great 1933 film, "The Invisible Man":

YouTube - The Invisible Man - by James Whale starring ~Claude Rains~

And here is an audio clip from Elvis Costello titled, appropriately, The Invisible Man:

YouTube - The Invisible Man by Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Best part of the song:
"Meanwhile someone's hiding in the classroom
Pawing through the books of history
Never mind there's a good film showing tonight
Where they hang everybody who can read and write
But that could never happen here...
But then again it might"

Oh, that Elvis. I believe he wrote that song during the early days of Reagan's first term. I wonder what he thinks of it today.

The Great One

Through the years, the on-going debate continues: who is the greatest figure that Rock Music has produced. My vote for Greatest American Songwriter/Musician goes to the complex, cynical and deeply hilarious Randy Newman. I'll go even further: he's the Greatest Jewish Songwriter/Musician (sorry Bob, Paul, Lou, Neil and Leonard).

I recall first seeing Randy Newman on a Liza Minelli TV special in the summer of 1970. She introduced him as one of the new and upcoming talents. It was just him and his piano... and his half-glasses. His voice sounded strained and whiney. His song sounded stark and simple. He sang more to the ivory keys than to the audience. When he finished, he looked around like he had just awakened from a deep sleep. Liza seemed to like it just fine. I thought he was strange.

Later that same summer, I enjoyed the Three Dog Night hit, "Mama Told Me Not To Come." Little did I know it was written by that same strange looking and sounding man. On early FM, I heard the same whiney voice singing "Political Science". Boom goes London. Boom Paree. Was this guy serious?

The more I listened, the more I liked. He was an English major's dream: multi-faceted lyrics, direct, but cloaked with ambiguity. The role of song narrator as distinct from the songwriter was particularly appreciated. The absence of a band served to spotlight the lyrics and the strength of the song structure. And it didn't hurt that so many of his songs had a funky New Orleans piano roll, recalling Fats Domino, Professor Longhair and Huey Smith.

The more facts I discovered about Newman, the more amazing he became to me. He wrote music for the old "Dobie Gillis" TV show. He arranged the music for Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" It seemed like he was the go-to-songwriter-guy for singers everywhere.

In the fall of 1974, I was lucky enough to see Newman perform solo, along with a similarly solo Ry Cooder, at the Amazingrace coffee house. (Newman headlined.) What I strongly recall, apart from the brilliance of his song list, was the sophisticated stream of humor he employed between songs. His timing and delivery was as polished as a Milton Berle.

By the end of the 70's, Newman was bailing out of "rock". He devoted much more of his time crafting movie soundtracks, like his uncles Alfred, Lionel and Emil. He began a string of 15 Oscar nominations, and no wins, for Best Film Score or Best Song. Think of Pixar flicks, Ragtime, Pleasantville, Awakenings... think of the heroic french horns as Roy Hobbes lofts an improbable fly ball into the stadium lights in The Natural.

When he finally won the Oscar (for a song from Monsters, Inc. that he thought was fairly second-rate) the Academy crowd gave him a standing ovation as he climbed the stairs to the microphone. Looking out across the crowd, he said, "I don't want your pity." When the pit orchestra started to play their cue to cut his remarks short, he glared into the pit and groused, "Hold it!! I'm not done. And if any of you want work from me ever again, you'll wait until I'm through!"

To truly appreciate the scope of Newman's work, check out the Wikipedia entry for him:

Randy Newman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here is Newman describing his creative process:

YouTube - The Randy Newman Writing Style

And now for some musical selections from our Guest Star. But before we get into his own performances, let's enjoy Joe Cocker perform a Newman standard:

YouTube - Joe Cocker - You Can Leave Your Hat On

SOOO over the top. Here is a Randy Newman radio channel, courtesy of Last.fm:

Randy Newman – Listen free and discover music at Last.fm

And here is Newman performing some of his classics:

YouTube - Mr. Randy Newman - Rednecks Live

(I remember being astounded by this song at the Amazingrace.)

YouTube - God's Song (Randy Newman) - The Truth

(Everyone's favorite God as Atheist song.)

YouTube - My Life Is Good.

(What a slam on the Life of Privilege... and The Boss!)

YouTube - Randy Newman - Political Science

(As apt today as when it was written in 1972)

And for our Quote of the Day, yes, it's Randy Newman, but in the form of a song. The lyrics were printed as an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times:

YouTube - Randy Newman - A Few Words in Defense of Our Country

Why Bipartisanship Doesn't Come Easily

Noted political philosopher Ringo said it best: "I don't ask for much, I only want your trust, And you know it don't come easy... Peace, remember peace is how we make it, Here within your reach If you're big enough to take it..."

Yes, it don't come easy. For those who thought this era of collected national and international crises would instantly transform Washington into a bastion of bipartisanship, vote for Ringo next time. Hard-edged and toxic partisanship is too ingrained within our nation's capital to be quickly scrubbed away. Many Obama-sponsored cocktail parties and dinners will be necessary to graft a spirit of comity among our opposing political leaders.

Moreover, Obama-sponsored management retreats for our leaders may be in order. What a scene: 535 members of Congress at Wintergreen Resort, role-playing, offering critiques, going through trust-building exercises, sharing their inner thoughts and recipes... I say put them all into Primal Scream therapy and let 'er rip!

One of my favorite examples of why bipartisanship is so difficult today lies within the personage of Grover Norquist. For those unfamiliar with Grover, here are two links, one being from his own "think tank":

ATR: Staff: Biography of Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For a one-trick pony ("less taxes") Grover has wielded huge influence on the Republican party over the last 20 years. He's one of the 800 pound gorillas behind the curtains of Republican thinking. Anyway, here are a couple of favorite quotes of his:

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

and this, speaking of Democrats in 2002:

"Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they've been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go around peeing on the furniture and such."

Understand that Grover Norquist is one of the Go-To Guys in the Republican Party. When flummoxed by reality, our Republican representatives go to Grover for advice. But "Cut Taxes" and "Screw the Democrats" can only go so far.

An example of the sea change that has shifted political reality came a couple of weeks ago or so on a radio talk show where Grover was one of the guests. It was a forum on the Economic Debacle before us and what to do about it. When his turn came, Grover got on his hobby horse again and claimed that the real reason the economy turned so sour last fall was that the Senate voted to not extend the Bush tax cuts.

There was a stunned silence from the forum audience (from American University). Then disbelieving gales of laughter. Finally another guest spoke up, saying "I'm delighted that Grover Norquist is a part of the panel here today. He offers us all a glimpse into a dying dogma."

But when it's the only dogma ya got, it won't die easily. Until Republicans determine they need to adjust, you'll continue to see Grover Norquist-style political posturing and thinking from Red State Reps. This doesn't mean that Democrats are filled with The Truth (far from it). It just means that Republicans won't be responding to reality until they get another broad spanking by the public. If Obama continues to make his bipartisanship efforts, and Democrats continue trying Big Things, and Republicans respond like they have, the voting public won't be happy - in a national emergency they will vote for the party that is trying to do things, not for those who get in the way.

And today's musical accompaniment is provided by conservative rockers, The Ramones, performing a terrific rant from the classic dumb-movie, "Rock and Roll High School":

YouTube - I'm Against It by the Ramones

Today's Quote of the Day:
"If you want to get along, go along." -- Sam Rayburn

The Failed Obama Presidency

Nearly three weeks into its tenure and the Obama Administration is being characterized as having a Life-or-Death moment. It is true that the Stimulus/Recovery bill that faces Congress will be important for our nation's economy. But really... three weeks and it's Political Existentialism time?

By all accounts this bill is flawed. It's too big. It's not big enough. Too many spending projects. Too much tax cuts. It's tilted toward a medium-term recovery. There are too many short-term throwaways. The bipartisan criticisms go on and on, and the more the opposites reflect against each other, the more I kinda like this bill.

So what happens next? We get to see the Obama Road Show again and recall the powers of this persuasion. We get to experience the intransigence of a newly-"principled" Republican party who sense political opportunity while the country circles the drain. And we understand anew the enormous difficulty of achieving true bipartisanship and the art of compromise in an era of toxic and scorched earth politics. A unanimous House Republican "no" vote says business as usual in that wing of Congress. Three Republican senators are willing to cross over ... it's a start.