Month: November 2008

If I weren’t sitting on a hard airlines terminal floor I might write my own riff about the passing of the revolting and homophobic Proposition 8. But it’s very difficult to be focused and productive in such a physically uncomfortable position. (Plus I’m too angry at Continental Airlines to think straight anyway.)

So let’s just say I’m also wondering, as Kris Tapley did earlier today, if an earlier release of Milk — which deals in part with the campaign against the homophobic Briggs Amendment (i.e., Prop 6) in ’78 — might have somehow raised consciousness and perhaps helped defeat Prop 8. I know, I know…pipe dream. The Orange County and San Joaquin Valley yokels would have rallied hard for Prop 8 no matter what.

“Some of the film’s most inspiring and, indeed, captivating moments come during the sequence that details the Prop 6 fight,” Tapley notes. “Consistently, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn ‘s career-best portrayal) makes the point, to paraphrase, ‘We have to make them understand that they know us.’ That message, I think, might have carried a lot of heft if voters had made it to the polls four weeks later.”

But I’m not a studio head and I don’t make these decisions. A studio’s priority is, of course, to shareholders, and “Milk” is likely to make more money in its current release plan than something earlier in the season. But you can’t help but wonder what might have been. And you can’t “give ’em hope” after the fact.

Continental Airlines did its casual best to put me there. I helped out some, I’ll admit, but it was mainly their doing. That’s how I see it, at least. It’s always “their” fault, right? The long and the short is that I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor at LAX, my initial flight long gone. Don’t ask, the milk is spilt, the day is shot. But you have to roll with this stuff.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough exhibited shock and remorse a few minutes ago upon learning from The Page‘s Mark Halperin that Barack Obama‘s chief of staff will (according to the D.C. rumble) be Rahm Emanuel. “He is a partisan,” said Joe. “He’s Ari Gold‘s brother. Rahm Emanuel? Wow. Wow!”

I’m off to LAX and New York. I won’t be posting again until sometime this evening. Okay, maybe something from the lounge. I’m easy either way. Great day, great mood, all is well.

Spike Lee joked a little bit this morning on MSNBC about Jesse Jackson‘s tearful moment last night. It was a bit ironic, I thought, given Jackson’s “I wanna cut his nuts off” remark about Obama, which he was overheard saying last July. Nonetheless, Jackson’s heart had a lot of company last night. We were all feeling it, all one.

There’s an indication, at the very least, in a story posted last night from MSNBC “health writer” Melissa Dahl that the “Generation of Shame” was redeemed yesterday by voting in proportionately significant levels. I think I owe the under-25s an acknowledgment of this, given my suspicious attitudes about their commitments levels. They’re no longer the bad guys in my book. To go by Dahl’s piece, I mean. She’s saying they didn’t cop out, stood up, did right.

Dahl says they “voted Tuesday in higher numbers than in the last presidential election — and they voted more Democratic. Youth turnout appears to be exceeding 2004 levels, which was itself a year with a big surge in voters ages 18 to 29.

“What’s more, young voters may prove to have been the key to Barack Obama‘s victory. Young voters preferred Obama over John McCain by 68 percent to 30 percent — the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of Americans between ages 15 and 25.”

“The effect that this election has had on me and on so many people is extraordinary,” Dustin Hoffman said late yesterday morning in his office. “[And] you naturally analyze why everyone feels this strongly.” It’s payback and redress for the malignancies of the Bush poisonings, of course, but, as Hoffman said, “There are so many layers, that this day in America, after eight years — we’ve paid our dues for today.”

This quote is from a Politico story by Jeffrey Ressner that went up last night, which is fine in itself, but I wanted to also re-boot Hoffman this morning because the Last Chance Harvey interview piece I posted yesterday afternoon was buried by last night’s Obama triumph. So here it is again.

I can’t say this with any more urgency. Somehow, some way, Peter and Bobby Farrelly have to get Russell Crowe to play Moe Howard in their Three Stooges movie, now that it’s finally been greenlit by MGM. Crowe is one of the funniest big-name guys out there. He knows what insanity is. He embraces it. I mean that as a compliment.

The Farrellys “will polish the script they wrote with Michael Cerrone and will direct the picture,” Variety‘s Michael Fleming wrote earlier today. The un-shot pic will open on 11.20.09.

The Root‘s Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson have posted a list of five things that white people don’t want to do in the wake of Barack Obama‘s victory:

1. Don’t personally congratulate all your black friends. Black people are not a sports team, and Obama did not win the Super Bowl.

2. Don’t declare that you “never thought you’d see the day.” You never thought you’d see the day?

3. Don’t start crossing the street in order to walk next to a black person. President Obama is glad you support racial reconciliation, but he takes a hard line against jaywalking.

4. Don’t name drop “Dr. King.” If you absolutely must make some comment about how this is a victory for civil rights, pick a marginally less obvious figurehead.

5. Don’t use the phrase “white people” in any way that suggests it doesn’t include you. Contrary to popular belief, having voted for Obama does not make you even “semi-down.” Sorry if there was any confusion there.”

McCain’s concession speech was, I have to say it, moving. He was classy. He was choking up a bit. “The failure is not yours,” he said to the faithful, “but mine.” The right-wing crowd booed, of course, when he said that Obama had triumphed because they’re crude, low-life brownshirts. But McCain said “please” and — you have to give him this much — conceded with dignity. His eyes were moist. His voice cracked just a bit. I slightly felt for him.

MSNBC has just called the election for Barack Obama. Daily Kos is reporting that reporters have been “called out to the lawn” in anticipation of John McCain’s concession. Right after the West Coast tallies are announced, I presume. The rancid has lost. The stupefying Palin ugliness has been put in its place. As Keith Olbermann just put it, this is a “Man on the Moon” moment straight out of 1969. There is a God. I’m getting all choked up.

“Even if your candidate didn’t win tonight, you have reason to celebrate,” Arianna Huffington wrote a little while ago. “We all do. Barack Obama‘s impressive victory says a lot about America. Because tonight voters decided that they didn’t want to look back. They wanted to step into the future. The history of America is studded with great breakthroughs followed by decades of consolidation and occasional regression. Tonight’s victory proclaims the end of the dark years of the Bush regression. It’s time for another American breakthrough.”