Nate Silver became the most trusted voice in statistics in the 2008 elections via his blog Five-Thirty-Eight which applied baseball stat numbers crunching to polls to craft a big picure of where the primaries and presidential election was going. And he was right. So much so, the New York Times adopted Nate and his blog Five-Thirty-Eight blog under their roof. Did he sell out? I don’t think. Unless we want to say “cashed in.” Nate is all about the numbers. Of course, he’s about the deadline now, but Five-Thirty-Eight is only as valuable as Nate’s numbers. This week Nate was promoting his new book on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. He missed his Wednesday deadline for this. If there’s any TV worth watching, this interview is in that column. What Nate has to say is so important, it can sell his book without mentioning the title.
You will be comforted by just how much anonymous goodness there really is in the world. You read about these people and realize that people you don’t even know are leading lives of real dignity and goodness, and you hear about crazy, but it’s rarer than you think.
At the end of his comments Monday evening, Jon Stewart said his monologue was probably more helpful to him than to us. Actually, Jon, what you said is helpful. A must watch.
I really appreciate Jon Stewart’s earnestness about the importance of people respecting each other’s points of view and being able to work constructively together. I too believe in treating everyone, including my political opponents, the way I would want to be treated, with respect and courtesy no matter how heated the debate. But to hold a rally the weekend before the election, and never once mention voting, was fundamentally wrong.
–Mike Lux, Huffington Post
Jon Stewart made a nice speech Saturday. And the 215,000 turnout (per CBS News estimates) is encouraging for…I’m still not sure. Comedy Central? Restore Jon Stewart’s sanity? DC business? I agree with Mike. Not mentioning voting skipped a significant beat on the democratic process which protects free speech. Saying the four letter V-word does not break your pact with sanity or fear.
VOTE
But I give a harrumph to Jon on this point: The country’s 24-hour politico pundit panic conflict-onator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems and illuminate problems heretofore unseen, or it can use its magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous-flaming-ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.
Don’t just watch and complain. Participate. Use the one power you have. Believe me, if voting wasn’t powerful, people wouldn’t spend so much money, energy. and time to persuade or deter you from using it.
If the National Mall is considered the “prime time” for rallies, then Comedy Central was not ready. I can’t say what happened, what was funny, or what was what on the stage where Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert MC’d because I couldn’t SEE or HEAR anything.
Since there was no way to get past the wall of people heading towards the Mall area, I had to go to the back of the stage, where it was pretty quiet near the production trailers and the limos parked in back. Note the word “quiet.” All the noise was on the Mall. Fortunately, I did hear the strains of the national anthem which was sung quite well by….I have no idea, because I couldn’t see anything. I did sneak a peek of the teleprompter facing the stage. Gee, it sounds funnier than it reads I guess.
There were only two Trinitrons on each side of the stage. Were they expecting 500 people and not tens of thousands? A television monitor was set up in a tent behind the stage and limos to handle “overflow.” If you weren’t within 100 yards of a giant Trinitron, you probably saw very little. I eventually squeezed my way to the south west side of the Mall. By then I could see a little bit of Ozzy Osbourne and Jon Stewart on one of the monitors, and the O’Jay’s singing “Love Train.” And I heard it too.
Overall, considering the size of the crowd and the lack of community organizing to move people around, there was a sanity to the madness. I’m sure the yelling behind closed doors will start next week when the city unpacks its figures for crowd control, transportation rerouting, street closings, and the four people who fell to the bottom of the Metro entrance because the escalator couldn’t sustain that many passengers.
Wish I had more glowing reflections of the event. A few interesting signs were carried around. Some people showed up in Halloween costumes, or maybe not. For me, the crowd provided most of the entertainment. Comedians do better on small stages. Rallies do better with more community organizing.
The President’s Weekly
The President did have his one-on-one with Jon Stewart in a smaller venue, but also had his weekly closeup to in anticipation for the day after November 2nd…and after the recounts.
Whatever the outcome on Tuesday, we need to come together to help put people who are still looking for jobs back to work. And there are some practical steps we can take right away to promote growth and encourage businesses to hire and expand. These are steps we all should be able to agree on – not Democratic or Republican ideas, but proposals that have traditionally been supported by both parties.
And for readers in the U.S., eclectique916.com asks you to
Earlier I mentioned my widening enthusiasm gap for Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” October 30th. But now that the location has been revealed (between 3rd and 7th Streets, NW – west of the U.S. Capitol I’m guessing); and the benefactor announced, I’m feeling perky again. No pun on the final punch line in this clip. Keeping up the symbolic sacred grounds of free speech is also included in the price of the freedom ticket.