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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Edwards for President
On Inauguration day, January 2005, get ready to watch the swearing-in, by whomever happens to be Chief Justice at the time (please, God, not Scalia), of Chief Executive no. 44: John Edwards. Yep, you heard it here first. Or perhaps you saw the normally skeptical and sanguine commentator Christopher Hitchens extol Edwards' virtues in Vanity Fair and on Dennis Miller Live. Or perhaps you read the glowing New Yorker profile. In any case, a consensus is clearly starting to form around the junior senator from North Carolina, a nascent awareness that he's the Democrats' best shot at beating Bush in 2004. And that maybe, just maybe, he'll become that most elusive of creatures, a good President.
He's young. He's smart. He's telegenic. He can work a room like Clinton, only thankfully a little more low-key. He's got a beautiful wife, impeccable Southern credentials and a made-for-TV family story that ensures no Republican will attack him on the character issue (you don't question the family values of someone whose 16-year-old son was killed in a tragic car accident). He has a popular pet project -- a bill to lower the cost of generic prescription drugs -- that just passed the Senate today, 78-21. And even arch-conservative George Will has a hard time saying anything bad about him. Sure, he used to be a trial lawyer, but in these days of big corporate crime it doesn't seem so ridiculous to make a living screwing out-of-control corporations on behalf of the little guy. When it comes to the whiff of scandal, as Will says, he's Mr. Clean: the only legitimate charge against him is that he's relatively inexperienced, and thankfully the very presence of George W. in the West Wing just about wipes that out as a campaign issue. By 2004, Edwards will have served as many years in the Senate as did Poppy's boy in the governor's mansion.
We've got a few years to go, of course. There are many opportunities for Edwards to stumble, self-destruct or even suffer a bimbo eruption. This is bound to make him nervous. The higher his profile gets at this stage, he will be reminded, the more opportunity GOP strategists have to train their mudslinging guns on him. Clinton, the very model of a winning candidate (if nothing else), didn't really burst onto the American consciousness until the beginning of '92. Any pundit will tell Edwards he has a fine line to walk between proving his worth and keeping his head below the parapet. And yet part of me wants to scream at him not to worry about mudslinging, and not to worry about being a latecomer like Clinton. Just go ahead and work up a storm, John; do your damndest to get your ideas out there. Remember, that's what happened the last time this country elected a Senator named John. He was a member of that elusive breed, too.
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