HE WAS, AS WE’VE ALL NOTED, a much-changed Barack Obama during last night’s second debate with Mitt Romney. But it was a familiar setting for him — something many in the assembled media teams would not remember.

He debated John McCain there, in the Sports and Exhibition center of Long Island’s Hofstra University — albeit then in a chair and desk-bound one-on-one session with his Republican opponent, and with CBS‘s Bob Schieffer asking the questions.              Continue reading “Obama’s Style – Aggressive Now, Always Colored by a Hero” »

CANDIDATES’ DEBATES have since 1960 become indispensable media elements in a presidential campaign — and so too have the full dress-rehearsals held in secret before them.

Last night’s first-of-three prompted me to tally up how many role-playing exercises, across three continents, I have engaged in ahead of such broadcasts.     Continue reading “Limits to Make-Believe Prepping for Big Debate” »

One such remarkable if understated individual was the dogged and sharp sportswriter Linton Baldwin (1926-2012) — pictured here in a recent caricature — whose life was celebrated this week at a New York memorial service.

Dateline: Lancaster, England – THE WHOLE WORLD’S EYES, as they say, have been on Britain. And Britain’s own scrutiny of itself has also been intense – encouraged by an orgy of self-absorption among the British media.

The conclusion it has reached has proven somewhat unexpected, at least for this supposedly reserved and modest populace. Commenting on this week’s effervescent end to the London Olympics and Paralympics, The Guardian, the nation’s leading soft-left paper that I once wrote for when I lived here, said “Britain was forced to look in the mirror – and saw something it rather liked“. Continue reading “Brit Media Crow Over Triumphs – But Tensions Beneath?” »