I've been away from the noise for a few days so I am catching up with the happenings of the last few days by watching TiVo, reading the Sunday New York Times and phoning up a few of my good 'ol boy buddies. So after consulting with my advisers and two very large cups of coffee here are a few of what were, at the conventions called "red meat" observations.

I watched a little TiVo-ed news from the weekend. I watched as much CNN as I could stand. Anderson Cooper was so apoplectic about the new political star Sarah Palin I was expecting him to stand up and shout out his love for Barack at any moment. He was having so much trouble keeping his veneer of impartiality up I almost felt sorry for him. I can't wait for election night! When the returns start coming in and the defeat of Obama/Joe is looming I think he's gonna go Howard Beale.

You really gotta respect Barack Obama. He's got cajones the size of cantaloupes. Only a man with monumental chutzpah could come out here to Flyoverland, Terra Haute, IN to be exact, and tell us uninformed rubes that he was the one getting beat up last week. Sarah and Rudy make him the brunt of a few punch lines at the GOP hoedown and suddenly he's the victim of abuse. Maybe if there had been major magazines stories about his questionable marriage, reports on his minor children's behavior, blogs about incest in his family, the parentage of his children and God knows what else I could work up a tear for him. He's crying because two politicians made fun of his lack of accomplishment, past work history and inflated ego. Where is your humanity right wing nut jobs?

The New York Times on the other hand has already let go even the pretense of fairness. Exhibit one: allow me to present the twelve-page "Week in Review" section. Here we have what seems to be a paid advertisement for the Democrats with five negative articles on either McCain or Palin, four political cartoons three bashing Palin and one bashing Bush, five jokes from late night comics four bashing Palin and one bashing Bush and one giant front page article bashing Republicans in general for having the nerve to point out that the major media outlets lean left. Those heartless right wing nut jobs!

Finally, could the John McCain campaign please hire someone who knows something about staging, camera angles and color? After the hideous green background in New Orleans awhile back you'd think that someone on the bus might call a friend with a theater or television background. There he was on the last night of the GOP soiree with another big green screen behind him! Then, after what I'm sure was a backstage panic when they saw it on TV, they went to blue, much better. I thought the idea of pushing the podium out into the crowd was to get shots of him speaking with lots for cheering faces in the background. Yet there he was for most of the speech face on to the camera with a flat blue DMV background.