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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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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.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
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... Friday, October 01, 2004
I Feel Good (Didn't Know That I Would)
What did I tell you? It's Kerry's James Brown moment. He cast off the towel and sang from the soul again. If Republicans want a liberal conspiracy theory, they could reasonably argue that Kerry has been hiding his (limited) light under a bushel all these months deliberately, lowering expectations as far down as he could get before the debates. But I don't think that's going to help them. That, after all, is exactly the tactic Bush used in 2000.
Gosh, but it was a cathartic experience watching Kerry kick ass tonight. I was in a short story class in Palo Alto at the time; below our teacher's office was a bar showing the debate. Sometimes we couldn't hear ourselves talk for the cheers. These were cheers of relief that someone was, at last, telling truth directly to power -- even though the rules forbade them from talking to each other, Kerry managed to make his message loud and clear and put a petulant President on the defensive. Then I came back home, watched it on TiVo while simultaneously checking reaction on the web, and cheered heartily myself. They were cheers of relief that even the deepest red of the red meat conservative bloggers were unable to spin this one; they had to reluctantly call the debate for Kerry. Daily Kos has the best summary of conservative blog reactions, with links.
Can the GOP do it? Can they possibly spin their way out of this one? Can they focus attention on Kerry's mistake in saying "Treblinka Square" when he meant "Lubyanka"? Could they make the heartland think Kerry doesn't care about the victims of Treblinka? No, not even the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth could make that one stick. Will they simply do an anti-spin, arguing that it doesn't matter, that it's too early in the debate season? Will they focus attention elsewhere? Would this be a good time to launch an attack on Fallujah? Or will Karl Rove pull off the most daring spin of all -- that Kerry won, that he's the better debater, and that Bush has absolutely no chance of stringing together a coherent sentence in the next two debates?
All I know is, I feel a heck of a lot better now than I did at the start of the day. This was the one; Kerry's last chance to turn around the electoral college math, to win back security moms. Too early to say yet, of course, but it passes the gut test, the alpha male test. He looked stronger, sounded more confident. For the first time I feel people will vote for Kerry rather than against Bush. I get a good feeling, one I never had after the Gore-Bush debates, or Bush-Dukakis. I think this one is going to filter down to the swing voters, assuming enough of them were watching in the first place.
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