We're back, looking at the state of the primaries and talking about whether the press is trying to cut the race short:
Feel free to mock our personal appearances in the comments section and make us cry.
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New Table
24 Jan 2008 05:06 pm
Comments (53)
I hate the tie.
Why are you all wearing the same outfits as last time if this is a new recording session for the Table?
Five bucks says you two tease Ambinder to tears on a daily basis about his inability to grow a neckbeard. Although it does say something that the most imposing physical specimens at the Atlantic are a female economist and a middle aged man with AIDS
I stand corrected. You've just re-used the cheez-ball opening credits montage.
You're fat, and your head is shaped like a peanut M&M.
I love them, the sweater vests!
No, really. I do.
_________________________________________
Jack: hahahahahahahahaha
JH: Better, you could do.
Yay! It's the same cute sweater/shirt combo from your bloggingheads.tv appearence!
Who's idea was it to add the sexual tension at the end?
A pretty transparent, cheap ratings ploy.
You guys all need to go outside and get some exercise!
wow. What a teaser for tomorrow's episode. I guess I have to wait all night to find out if you are gay Matt.
This is really weird, my computer slows this video to about half speed, but only when MY is talking. It has the effect of giving him a deep voice, and making him sound either contemplative or slow, I can't decide which.
When do we get to see Uncle Andrew Sullivan shaking his booty among the big boys?
Don't worry - there's nothing I can do to make you guys cry that your thyroid glands and neck follicles haven't done already.
Matt:
Lose the beard and go with muttonchops.
matt:
your head turn in the beginning lacks rigidity. it's too soft. not kitsch enough, man!
why don't you tell Marc Ambinder that ostensibly neutral members of the press covering the race based on what "the press wants to see" is unethical?
Feel free to mock our personal appearances in the comments section and make us cry
A cheap attempt at fake-out irony to make it seem that you're not affcted by the barrage of "you're so ugly" comments that you're guaranteed to get. But your commentors are smarter than that.
you should really invite Jonah Goldberg to these things. I think you guys would "outfox" him for sure.
"But your commentors are smarter than that."
Oh really?
Is it just me, or does the intro/outro music have a sort of 80's daytime PBS, 'reading rainbow' feel to it?
is that a canadian dictionary behind mark?
and what's the deal with all the empty space at the end?
What was the whole deal with the Ross Douthat . com and the laughing?
I like the way you regain your composure, though. Very professional.
Love the intro. The head turns are sooooo natural. And Matt's sweater is straight gangsta. As far as the primaries go, it is tough to see a path to the nomination for Obama, but he still has time to expand his reach. If the current media storyline of "Bill as attack dog" keeps going, Hillary is going to see a backlash. Obama's one consistent argument through out the whole campaign is the "Turn the page" argument, and Bill is playing directly into it. Bill has built up a lot of goodwill as an ex-president, but that goodwill is slowly receding. I'm not saying that he hasn't been effective, but his outbursts and direct confrontation with Obama are going to become cliche, at which time the ugly side of the 1990's will be what is remembered. But all of this is mute if Obama doesn't restart his "hope" message. Peace.
Can you put up a nerf hoop in that room with 'The Table' and discuss politics while playing a game of 21? Preferably shirtless. Ambinder has a little James 'Buddha' Edwards thing going on, Douhat looks like he's a dirty player ala Bruce Bowen, and you look like a smooth amalgam of Agent Zero and Bill the Cat. All in all it was a good episode.
I'll bookmark 'mattyglsias.theatlantic.com' for future reference.
OK, here's my problem with believing that the press really wants it to end early: Isn't that like believing that David Stern wanted the Spurs to sweep the Cavs in the Finals? If it's all over on February 5th, are people still going to be tuning in to Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann nightly through the spring?
Marc,
The combination of your new hair-do (is it meant as a joke?), your sleeveless vest, and your rather robust figure make you look like that kid who arrived at summer camp without a pair of shorts or sneakers, and who always dressed, well, exactly like you do. Oy. And tell your mom to stop preparing your outfits for you - it's time already.
Matt,
I don't know what it is that you do with your voice, or maybe it's just resilience and a polite form of bullying, but you manage to ram your way into the conversation whenever and however you want. I hope that it's apathy that encourages Ross to let you do that to him over and over again, and not just helplessness - that would be pathetic.
Ross,
Get in there buddy - you can do it. And cheers on the self-referential plug "on the first table blah blah". And have a look at a map "of the union" every so often - it'll prevent you from sounding like Fred Thompson with all the pauses between words.
Dang but you guys are really dressing down for these things now. Matt, that shirt is just plain shameful.
Nice horse race commentary. It's just like a brainless Sunday morning show with slightly better informed talking heads.
Given that appearance really can matter, I'd advise you to lose the striped sweater and go with a plain color beneath the jacket.
Also, how did Obama win Iowa if he can't win working class white people? Not saying it isn't true, but it kind of hangs over the conversation and was not addressed.
I think Matt is beautiful
Ambinder sort of misuses 'panopticon', the buffoon
Yer mama dresses ya funny.
Bonus hurtful critique: what's with the John Steed Swipe Your Head at the Camera move?
Actual books or just a Potemkin library???
Is the 2 minutes of dead air at the end left to allow us to pretend to share our voice at "the table".
Matt- lose the Grover sweater.
Vermando is almost there but still not to the point.
Am I the only one noting that Barack Obama is winning non-affluent white voters, just not in the metropolitan areas? The reason Obama has more delegates (supers excluded) is that he's winning the rural areas. It's fair to say that, in the first three states, those voters are pretty white. What's rarely discussed is that, in his Senate campaign, Obama did extremely well with downstate Illinois voters. Trust me, they're conservative and they're white.
Let's also remember the increasing number of red-state party leaders who've endorsed Obama. Though many pooh-pooh endorsements, it may behoove us to consider that senators from Missouri and Nebraska - not to mention conservative Dem Tim Roemer - have all stepped behind Obama.
Granted, I do not expect this trend to continue in the South. Call my cynical but I don't think the time has changed THAT much. It could be a factor, though, outside of the South and in areas not controlled by pro-Clinton party machines.
I'd love to see someone investigate if my rural hunch on Obama is well-grounded.
Thanks!
New Table! Man I love the Table. More Table. Mooorrrree Taaaabbbbblllleee!
Holy Shit! This is the most brutal and funiest comment thread eva!
Honestly I think you guys should show up in ripped jeans and sex pistols t-shirts next time.
Actually maybe really hot eye candy babes on each guys arm (2 for each), stogies, green felt, poker cards, different varieties of malt liquor and pimp outfits with lots of bling. At least one of you guys has to have a light colored hat with a feather in it. You could make your points as you make you bids, toss off asides to the eye candy women.
I think Marc is right that at this point, minus some surprises in S. Carolina exit polls, the demographic trends favor Hillary. I've been saying as much since NH matched IA.
I am actually very discouraged by the tone the Obama camp has taken these last few days with the whole pre-emptive mudding by accusing the other guys of naughtily mudding. On Reddit this has tended to bring all kinds of right wing proxy accounts to jump on Hillary while pretending to be Obamanians.
And this is the real question. How many Obama people could honestly go to McCain or Romney over Hillary? I mean what kind of dem are you if you would pick Obama and then jump to McCain-Lieberman? You're the anonymous internet right wing proxy kind of Democrat obviously!
So it seems that Matt is still in love with Obama. If you really want to keep Obama running stop the horse race coverage and start aggressively challenge Hillay on her unstated positions. Obama wants to alter the presidential records act and make certain coorespondences public, while Hillary doesn't explicitly talk about the secrecy overreach; many look back to Bill's FOIA and secrecy repeals as proxy for those statements and expect the same thing. Make her say so explicitly.
Since Team Hillary's web operation is actually kind of lousy you could take the Obama policy positions pdfs against the high level ones Hillary web site provide and force her to suss out at each area of mismatch.
Considering FISA is the current left web sphere non-presidential interest; by starting with the Hillary "plan for government reform" v. Obama "restoring trust in government transparency" you would dove tail nicely ahead of the rest of the sphere. Don't forget to compare Edwards positions as well given so many bloggers calling for him to explicitly force Obama and Hillary onto the FISA boat.
There's nothing happening but a spin/whine war at the moment campaign wise. You guys at the Atlantic could take the high ground and really force the coverage back to the issues. Plus in doing so you may actually sway some uncommitteds enough to want to keep things going beyond February 5.
I like Matt's look. But I am confused by the prominently displayed Canadian dictionary behind Marc.
I love the cliffhanger of "Matt Are You Gay?"
It's like Who Shot J.R.
I guess I have to wait all night to find out if you are gay Matt.
d00d, i've been speaking truth to power on this for years....
I told Ross to wear his honey-colored silk and the pearls, but the silly little boy just didn't try to carry it off. As for Yglesias, he still doesn't get the idea that he fits his bondage gear like a glove, while Ambinder really needs to break out a pale blue chiffon and buy some kinky goldrimmed glasses, and, of course, better lipstick.
"Hello, I'm calling with an important message for you about Matthew Buttsex Yglesias..."
"making him sound either contemplative or slow, I can't decide which."
Trust me, it's slow.
I still want to know why Ross always looks "ghetto" with his eyes - Matt lending him his crack pipe before these tapings?
I'm waiting for Omar to come in and waste these dudes...
I'm going to come out with an unpopular opinion here: The sweater has merit.
I demand a new batch of head swiveling, not these warmed left-overs from the previous Table episode. Frankly, it's the only reason I watch the damn things, and I was quite disappointed this time around.
I think you should go the other way with the wardrobe on these things. Try having themes. Next week dress like different members of the the Flinstones, then pirates, then Scooby Doo gang (RD as shaggy, MA as Fred, MY as Scooby/Wilma depending on the results of the final Q.)
have you guys thought about radio?
gardening my misguided We used that day. chunk my dad
and every living up to along
black in a hollow natural then. my first attempt. done it. a pair
Personally, I wouldn't have a conversation with Andrew Sullivan. In my book, he removed himself from polite society with his post-911 remarks about decadent enclaves on the coasts. He should be shunned, not tolerated. Plus, he's a fucking idiot.
Oh, maybe that's not Andrew Sullivan. I didn't actually watch the video.
I still wouldn't talk to Sullivan anyway.
OK, I watched a minute of it. The fat guy in the middle, Flounder, or whatever his name is has good teeth.
on a more serious note, I really don't think the media gains anything but cutting this short...
but my first reaction, after watching the video was..."give me your lunch money"
What's disturbing is that at some point, someone who makes the decisions around there was shown that intro and he/she said, "Yeah, I really like that one...let's go with it. Approved."
Comments closed February 07, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Feel free to mock our personal appearances in the comments section and make us cry.
I like how that statement at once is literally suggesting that you are sensitive; but transparently is meant ironically, so that you're saying that you aren't sensitive and don't care what you say; and yet to me suggests that you actually are sensitive about it, because you feel the need to demonstrate that you aren't. It works on so many levels.
Posted by Freddie | January 24, 2008 5:13 PM