They got to watch it on TV

THE BIG FORUM. Last night, at OC Weekly’s “Navel Gazing,” reporter Eleanor Carmichael posted an amusing account of her big Saddleback Church adventure (RIDING LOW IN THE SADDLEBACK).

Carmichael explains that “OC Weekly usually gets identified as ‘alternative’ media.” For last night’s extravaganza, it was demoted to “auxiliary,” which meant getting stuck in some obscure room somewhere to watch the Big Event on TV.

Heck, she shoulda stayed home and watched CNN.

Evidently, included in the “auxiliary” category were the San Francisco Chronicle, KNX Radio AM 1070, and the Register.

"So there I was, in the same building (or at least the same 120 acres) with the candidates, the cleric, and 3,000 folks who could either afford the ticket prices or had it in good with Rick Warren (not a big Obama crowd, to say the least.)"

The crunch of traffic and warm bodies after the forum was so bad that she didn’t even get to see what little protest action there was.

She seemed to appreciate the pizza and Coke, however.

MEANWHILE, AT THE REG: Over at the OC Register’s ”Orange Punch,” the Reg’s summer editorial intern, one Mandie Russell, offered her impressions of the event. (Maybe she was sitting next to Carmichael in that little room. Dunno.)

She characterized Obama’s remarks as “smooth” and “down-to-earth,” though somewhat lacking in substance. He definitely “charmed the audience,” she says, despite its skewage rightward.

What about McCain?

”McCain made a point of addressing issues concisely, and with very clear stances, as opposed to Obama’s general attempts to go without offending either side. He definitely had, however, much more of a tendency for tangents, almost always involving war stories. Though usually applicable, these seemed more like prepared speeches, as opposed to on-the-spot answers to the specific questions…McCain did, however, certainly win the crowd-cheering contest, with most of his policy answers instantly obscured by applause.”

UPDATE: Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn’t in a ‘Cone of Silence’
OC Reg: McCain and Obama civil, not too revealing at church forum
VIDEO: The question of "evil"

REACTION: I actually missed most of the forum, having entirely forgotten about it until the last minute. Still, I did watch the instant analyses provided by the usual suspects on CNN and MSNBC. The conservatives among them seemed dazzled by McCain's "black and white" perspective on issues and his speed and decisiveness.

I kept thinking, "Um, you can be very black 'n' white, very fast, very decisive, and dead wrong." Evidently, the "right or wrong" question didn't come up for 'em.

Are we a nation of morons or what?

Meanwhile, some of the more liberal Opiners seemed impressed by Obama's "charm" and "humility," though somewhat uncomfortable with his stopping and thinking and actually responding to Warren, not the audience.

Evidently, McCain pretty much used Warren as an electronic prompt, repeatedly turning away from the fellow and toward the audience—to tell his stories.

"Americans like stories," said one of the Opiners, clearly impressed by the Republican candidate's "performance."

Near as I can tell, the forum was indeed civil, but also about worthless.

THE BIG CARNIVAL

Very apt: scene from the great "Ace in the Hole" (1951):


Ace in the Hole is Billy Wilder's exploration of some of the acreage on humanity's dark side. About a small-time newspaper that hits a big story, it's amazingly hard-boiled, cynical, and funny. The hotshot newspaperman is monstrous, the public is moronic.

The other title to the movie: "The Big Carnival." You know, like the big forum.

My favorite line from the movie: the character Lorraine (played beautifully by Jan Sterling) is asked to put on a show by praying for her man, who is stuck in a collapsed mine. Her answer:

"I don't pray. Kneeling bags my nylons."

In another scene, she says this about the reporter:

"I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you—you're twenty minutes."

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "sweet impossible blossom"

Rebel Girl has returned from her sojourn up north and she is trying to get back into, as they say, the swing of things. Her summer was full of so many things: people, their words, water, fire, fish, stars, the death of a little boy, her friend's son, whose family and friends are remembering him by placing flowers in the seats of swings. Thanks to Chunk for holding the fort.

Here's a start.

A poem by Li-Young Lee, about peaches, about summer, about hope, which she and so many need. Eat a peach. It helps.

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.


From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.


O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.


There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.