Author: opinionstogo

CNN-YouTube Coup

Like some of you, I suspect, I tuned in to that CNN/YouTube presidential debate the other night out of curiosity. I’ve certainly seen plenty of these over-hyped, sound-bite circuses that are top-heavy with too many candidates and too many pundits explaining too much of what we just saw and heard. And, imagine, there’s another 16 months to go before we actually sort all this out and elect one of these candidates president.

So, a lot of us doubtless wondered if the inclusion of cyberspace cadets would be an improvement. Indeed, was hipper better? Would platitudinous candidate-speak be lessened? Would all candidates have to answer the same question? And would Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich still be confined to the literal fringes of the eight-candidate lineup?

For the idealists, more democratization in the process was one obvious spin. Skeptics could focus on the blatant gimmickry and note the promotional coup for both CNN, where Anderson Cooper could earn his presidential-candidate moderator chops, and the gravitas-craving video-sharing website YouTube. And, yes, the querulous Gravel and the quixotic Kucinich did, indeed, bookend the proceedings.

The net result: less scripting and an unpredictable dynamic that included animation. And better television. Comfort-zone glibness couldn’t totally carry the day.

There were predictable inquiries – from a predictable, heterogeneous mix of questioners — about Iraq, health care, education, gay marriage, the environment and a military draft. On balance, and the loon with his assault weapon “baby” notwithstanding, the personal touch worked. Real people, impacted by really salient issues, wanting real-world responses. They even got a few.

To be sure, there were the quirky and sometimes inane questions surely chosen by CNN because this is prime-time TV and not a Lincoln-Douglas sequel. That said, it’s still hard to believe that if you only had a couple dozen videos to show, you would choose one about reparations for slavery. Only Dennis Kucinich and maybe the Uhurus of St. Petersburg think that has any merit. But that’s an agenda question, not a sophomoric one.

Examples of the latter were “my favorite teacher” and an assessment of the fellow candidate “to your left” as to what you “like” and “don’t like” about that person. Such piffle should be saved for “Miss America” — not a presidential-candidate crucible.

However, what CNN wanted was a show-biz mettle detector in front of a live audience that wasn’t told to rein in its partisan feelings. The “like-dislike” responses ranged from a sense of humor (John Edwards disparaging Hillary Clinton’s choice of frock color and Joe Biden noting approval of Dennis Kucinich’s winsome wife) to a sense of pique (“ridiculous exercise”) from Biden.

In the end, Clinton continued to help herself. She’s prepared, poised and hardly quip-challenged. Obama is good, but not Clinton good yet. Edwards, the populist class-action attorney, still has the $400 haircut/anti-poverty crusade dichotomy. And Biden remains the most passionate, the most candid and the most internationally insightful of the Democratic lot – for what that’s worth.

CNN said it was pleased that the format drew 2.6 million live viewers. It trumpeted a somewhat younger demographic – and intimated that perhaps it would translate into more YouTube-generation voters.

That’s debatable, however, unless those new viewers didn’t notice that there were still too many candidates; not all of them got to answer the same question; and none were held accountable by interactive follow-up questions. And self-serving bridges to rote talking points were still in evidence.

And, frankly, when it comes to “debates,” whatever the format, I still miss Howard K. Smith.

Tampa Bay Tops List

According to Kipplinger.com, the Tampa Bay Area ranks number one as the best “city” for retirees and number six for the retiree-empty nester parlay. “This is Florida’s finest venue to kick start a second or third act,” notes Kiplinger.

It cites St. Petersburg for its mix of “good living, arts, culture and entrepreneurship.” Tampa notables include: the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, “downtown condos (springing up),” “riverfront development (reshaping the city),” “chic Hyde Park” and “sprawling ‘burbs” that offer sizable, reasonably priced homes.

It also quotes Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership: “We’ll have that urban vibe in five to 10 years.”

Gratuitous, Misguided Bathos

Anybody else have this reaction? Last week a page one (local/state section) story in a Bay Area daily (ok, it was the St. Petersburg Times) ran a story that carried the headline “Teen Shot in Store Robbery.” Would that such a story were rare – and truly page-one news — but that’s another matter.

What truly caught my attention, as it was supposed to, was the accompanying, four-column photo above the fold of another teen crying. This 18-year-old was tearing up because his 17-year-old cousin had been shot. Above the photo was a quote: “He was my cousin, but he was like a brother to me.”

There are all kinds of reasons why newspapers run a photo. Often it’s because, well, they have one. Hopefully, it’s also because it helps to tell the story of what happened. Presumably it provides pertinent context.

Let’s be kind and call this one gratuitous, misguided bathos.

Here we have a story about a 17-year-old who walks into the neighborhood convenience store, east Tampa’s Yasmin Food Market, wearing a mask and brandishing a gun. He confronts an employee and a state lottery technician. He’s robbing whoever’s there. A struggle ensues and the 17-year-old is shot with his own weapon.

The victims had been confronted by a masked, gun-toting thug and were forced to respond to the barrel of a gun. It was, however short lived, a mini nightmare. Their lives will never be the same.

To reiterate, the photo is of a weeping youth disconsolate over his hospitalized cousin. Two men were forced to confront the possibility of their own imminent deaths and families left fatherless, and the pictorial empathy is of a weeping cousin of the would-be murderer? Did the Times think no one would notice – or care?

Bulls Ditch Rivalry Game

Speaking of USF, the Bulls have some good reasons for ending the commitment to play the University of Central Florida in football after the next two (2007-08) games. They’re just not good enough reasons.

USF has to play UCF as part of its exit agreement with C-USA in 2004. As soon as the obligation ends, USF will replace UCF with bigger name schools (including North Carolina, Kansas and Indiana) in home-and-home series. It’s a sign that USF is increasingly a player at the major college level and can command such parity scheduling from big-name opponents. Which UCF is not.

What UCF is, however, is something that the UNCs, KUs and IUs can’t be for USF. A low-overhead opponent that will bring a ton of fans to Tampa or Orlando. In 2005 the USF-UCF game drew more than 45,000 to Raymond James Stadium. That’s the third largest home crowd in USF history. Anyone think Indiana will top that?

The big-draw, Interstate-4 rivalry game is exactly what a tradition-challenged program such as USF needs. But will no longer have after the 2008 season.

Anti-Terror Grants Cut

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that anti-terror grants have increased substantially for San Diego, Phoenix and Denver, which might make those cities feel a bit safer. However, Orlando will be cut by a third ($3 million) and Miami by a fourth ($4 million).

The good news: DHS thinks Orlando and Miami are likely safe enough to withstand substantial budget cuts. The bad news: DHS just told everybody.

The Plant Way

We know that South Tampa’s favorite football team, Plant High , is the defending Class 4-A state champion and has enough talent returning to possibly enable Coach Robert Weiner’s Panthers to make another run. That’s pretty heady stuff.

What’s no less important is that Weiner’s efforts to hone championship skills and inculcate a winning football mentality are only part of his charge as he sees it.

Last week Weiner, the English teacher/head coach, once again did what he’s done for the last 27 years: volunteer as a Muscular Dystrophy Association camp counselor. One of his assistants, T.J. Lane, has been doing it for 15 years. And this summer Weiner brought along two of his blue-chip Plant players, wide receiver Derek Winter and quarterback Aaron Murray.

“I tell my football players all the time that we have campers who would literally die to do what they do, who would die for one moment to run through the goal posts, through the smoke with the cheering crowd, and not even play a down,” explains Weiner. “Too often we take things for granted

Rooting For The Home Team

Note to Yankee and Red Sox fans at Tropicana Field: If you’re down here on holiday, then by all means root away for your Yanks and Bosox. You support your team on the road. It’s what hard-core fans do. And, by the way, thank you for visiting the Tampa Bay Area and attending the game. The Devil Rays can use the attendance boost. And win or lose, please come back.

To those Tampa Bay relocatees from New York and Boston who retain childhood allegiances and persist in putting them on display at Rays’ home games: Hey, you live here now. By choice, presumably. Act like it.

And, no, I don’t root for the Phillies, Eagles or Flyers when they’re in town to play the Rays, Bucs or Bolts. There’s a reason I no longer live in my home town of Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay has everything to do with it. But you do have to be born somewhere.

Of course, once the Rays get competitive, and tickets aren’t so easy to come by, such issues become moot. Remember those hordes of New York Ranger and Chicago Bear fans at Lightning and Bucs’ games, respectively?

Winning ultimately conquers all. And that’s on the home team.

Naming Rights’ Wrongs

Was that the perfect naming-rights storm or what? The deal to put the name of Tampa-based Academic Financial Services on the University of South Florida Sun Dome had no chance. The generic national scandal involving the student loan industry and higher education was beyond awful timing. And from the standpoint of AFS, the episode aired the company’s — and the founder’s — considerable dirty legal laundry, resulting in a public relations nightmare.

But USF, which would have realized about $2 million net on the ill-fated deal, still needs a Sun Dome sponsor, ideally one that is relevant to the college-student experience. Fortunately, that leaves Hooters, Budweiser, Trojan, Lou’s Tattoos, Apple i-Phone and Cliff’s Notes still in the hunt.

Tampa’s Sanchez On An Obama Mission

The epiphany was palpable that summer night in Boston in 2004.

Tampa’s Frank Sanchez, a political shaker who once worked in the Clinton Administration and ran for mayor in 2003, was among the enthralled thousands at the Democratic National Convention who were moved by Barack Obama’s mesmerizing speech to the delegates.

At a gathering that was viscerally united in whom it was against, Obama clearly stole the show by projecting a positive, charismatic persona, one that would have been easy to rally around that very night.

“There was definitely this feeling,” recalls Sanchez, 48, “that this was a guy who might one day run for president. I just assumed it would be 2012 or later.”

Fast forward three years later. The rally is on.

Obama, 45, is a rookie senator from Illinois who is heavily in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanchez is a key policy adviser on Latin America. He’s also the Obama campaign’s finance chairman for the seven-county Tampa Bay region and a member of Obama’s national finance committee.

To date, Obama, a competitive second to Sen. Hillary Clinton in most early polls, has raised more than $56 million through the first two quarters of 2007. Moreover, that figure reflects a donor base of some 260,000. Clinton has raised nearly as much but from less than half as many donors, many of whom are now tapped out. At a comparable point in 2003, the “phenomenon” that was Howard Dean had 70,000 donors.

“I was confident he would do well,” says Sanchez, “but no idea it would be this quickly. The Clintons have been developing a national network for 25 years. Senator Obama’s had a national network for six months.”

Sanchez, the CEO of Tampa-based Renaissance Steel, a growing, regional player in the Light Gauge Steel building business, concedes that the roles of busy executive and campaign adviser/financial guru have been taxing. “I wouldn’t kid you,” he acknowledges. “It’s been a real challenge to juggle. I try to limit the campaign work to after hours, weekends, some lunch time and the occasional call at the office.”

Sanchez is one of those indispensable, go-to sorts that national campaigns require. He’s at home in corporate suites or hustings haunts. He has that killer rolodex and access to activists with money. He can delegate; he’s likeable; and he’s Hispanic. And this, of course, is Tampa Bay, which you must have to win Florida, which you must have to win the nation.

“I do it, frankly, because I enjoy the process, it’s worth it to make a difference and I can’t remember the country being more divided,” explains Sanchez. “I consider it a mission.”

A mission, he underscores, to help elect someone who is more than Democratic boiler plate in an intriguing, bi-racial package. Someone who is the antithesis of divisive and polarizing. Someone, he says, uniquely positioned to send a signal to the rest of the world that they do, indeed, misperceive America as an arrogant, hypocritical hegemon.

“He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” states Sanchez. “A defining characteristic is that he’s an amazing listener. He’s not some superficial glad-hander. And he’s perfect for a time when people are genuinely sick of Washington politics.

“He’s also perfect from the international perspective,” adds Sanchez. “He would be our strongest voice overseas. He’s intelligent, has lived overseas and has a sensitivity to points of view outside the U.S. I think it would speak volumes that we would elect someone of his background and world view. That’s a very positive message to the world.”

Campaign Outtakes

*Florida commitments. July 22 – Obama (and Hillary Clinton) will address the Hispanic-affiliated National Council of La Raza in Miami. August 24 – Obama in Tallahassee. Late September – Obama in Tampa for a private fund-raiser with a public component.

As to the uncertainty surrounding Florida’s early Jan. 29 primary: “We’re still formulating our resources,” says Sanchez. “But put it this way for now: This (state) is too important not to compete.”

*Media. “Obama genuinely likes meeting people,” says Sanchez, “and yet he feels there’s this element in the press that invokes ‘gotcha politics.’ So you have to be careful. But to his credit, he hasn’t lost his authenticity.”

*Trade. Obama voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement two years ago. “He’s hardly for reversing globalization,” notes Sanchez, “but he doesn’t want to give lip service to labor issues and environmental concerns.”

*Latin America. Overriding theme of Sanchez’s advice: “For starters, we need to re-engage with Latin America. Brazil and Chile come readily to mind. For the last six years we’ve ignored Latin America – much to our detriment.”

*Cuba. Do not expect any dramatic policy shift from Obama beyond making the case for reversing the travel ban for Cuban-Americans. Sanchez is certainly not recommending any bold initiatives on the embargo, which he considers “leverage” for changes on the island.

“Thoughtful” and “inclusive” and “incremental” are the watchwords of caution and calculation. Don’t anticipate a diplomatic stroke that would “turn on a dime.”

*Iraq. In a recent TV interview, Sanchez had noted Obama’s position to “redeploy out of combat by March ’08.” He’s reluctant to speak definitively on the core issue that is as protean as it is controversial. But he does say this: “Obama was against the war six months before it started – and foresaw the consequences. I am very comfortable with that.”

In fact, here’s what Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war.