Completely Conspicuous 165: Same Old Song and Dance

Part 1 of my podcast conversation with special guest Eric Convey as we discuss the familiar themes of American political rhetoric. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



The show notes...

Topics:

- Eric's Managing Editor of the Boston Business Journal

- Worked for congressman in DC in early '90s

- It was a contentious time

- In '94 mid-term elections, Newt Gingrich led the Republican takeover of the House

- Big Clinton tax increase didn't go over well

- Convey: There's always a backlash in mid-term elections

- In '92, local Democratic congressman was indicted on corruption charges

- Convey got gig as press secretary for the new Republican congressman

- "I was nowhere near cynical enough."

- Eric was good at political spin

- After a few years, he made the jump back to newspapers

- Eric was a master of political spin

- Eric: Don't think the rhetoric now is no worse than '94 or 2000

- Rhetoric raises money

- The two-party system sucks

- Eric: Parliamentary system is better

- Nowadays, everybody is more concerned with themselves than politics

- People are more likely to read viewpoints they agree with

- Too many distractions; our attention span is shrinking

- Eric: Giffords shooting was caused by a disturbed person, not political rhetoric
- Eric turns to the Washington Post for the most fair political reporting

- Jay and Eric reminisce about their days covering local politics

- There were a lot more sources of local news 20 years ago

- The public doesn't trust journalists anymore, mainly because of TV news

- Recalling Eric's tormenting of a rival press secretary

- Back then, the newspapers were the main conduit for news for political campaigns

- Now campaigns can use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter to get their message out

- The Palin phenomenon

- People in Middle America relate to her

- Jay: Suspicious of every candidate

- Eric: Wish politicians would have the guts to say things people don't want to hear

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Sloan - Follow the Leader

The Dodos - Don't Stop

Sunny Ali and the Kid - I oh you

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The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The Sloan song is on the forthcoming album The Double Cross on Yep Roc Records. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at SloanMusic.

The Dodos song is on the album No Color on Frenchkiss Records. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

The Sunny Ali and the Kid song is available for free at Bandcamp.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.