Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Wrestlemania 28: Rock VS Cena - White House 45: Romney VS Obama Wallpaper

WrestleMania: White House XLV Romney VS Obama Wallpaper
Just like Rock VS Cena for WrestleMania 28, its seems like Romney VS Obama has also been a year in the making.

Some Handy links looking back at the 2008 Election Season:
- View all the Art of the Primary PPV Posters
- Relive the struggle Between Hillary Clinton and Obama in the Democratic Primary
- Watch the main event between Barack Obama and John McCain
- Watch the rise and influence of Saturday Night Live
- Watch the entertaining sub plot involving the Vice Presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden

Update: John Cena and Mitt Romney pose for photos at Daytona 500 in Florida. Find more photo photos from AP here - Romney takes campaign detour to Daytona

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney with Wrestler John Cena

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Laughspin: Marc Maron gets his own show on IFC

Though Marc Maron has well and truly stepped away from the Political Talk arena, this is welcome news for fans of comedy and podcasting.
IFC greenlights Marc Maron show straight to series (Exclusive)
MARON explores a fictionalized version of Marc's life, his relationships, and his career, including his incredibly popular WTF podcast, which features conversations Marc conducts with celebrities and fellow comedians. Neurosis intact, Maron is uniquely fascinating, absolutely compelling and brutally funny.
Produced for IFC by Fox Television Studios and Denis Leary and Jim Serpico's Apostle, MARON (wt) is directed by Oscar® winning director Luke Matheny (God of Love) and executive produced by Marc Maron, Denis Leary, Jim Serpico, Olivia Wingate, and Duncan Birmingham, who also serves as the series' writer.
- Listen to my 2008 PunditFight interview with Maron here, NerdsGoneWild presents: A conversation with Marc Maron
- Marc Maron's WTF podcast Ep 23: Wyatt Cenac talks pundits and professional wrestling
- Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt talk about Right Wing pundits and bad comedians

Monday, March 12, 2012

Newt Gingrich and Hulk Hogan are "Real Americans" but only one has a sex tape

Hulk Hogan put Professional Wrestling on the map, during the height of his fame his iconic entrance theme sent fans into a frenzy. President Obama used it for comedic effect at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner and now Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has adopted it also:
Newt Gingrich Looks to Hulk Hogan for Inspirational Georgia Win
What do Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich and the "Immortal" Hulk Hogan have in common? Well, they're both "Real Americans." Newt Gingrich bounced out to Hulk Hogan's epic 80s theme song when he was introduced to a crowd of supporters in Georgia on Monday. Apparently Gingrich is hoping that, much like the theme song helped inspire "Hulk-a-Mania" in the mid 80s, the song will inspire "Newt-a-Mania" on Super Tuesday in Georgia.
Professional wrestling and American politics make strange bedfellows...
Check out Talking Points Memo's tongue-in-cheek gallery - Newt Gingrich, Real American: An Anthem In Pictures

For those in the know, there is an amusing layer to Gingrich's mistimed use of the song as it coincides with rumors of a Hulk Hogan sex tape surfacing. Newt Gingrich has had a patchy Family Values history, having been married three times amongst other indiscretions.   

The folks at Live Audio Wrestling capture it succinctly:
Mar. 11 Edition of The LAW w/ Steve Austin, Vader
JASON AGNEW: As the story of the Hogan sex tape was breaking, US Politician Newt Gingrich used the Real American by Rick Derringer to come out for his Post-Primary win in Georgia on Tuesday night. What a - just not informed.
DAN LOVRANSKI: I thought that was pretty funny yes
APF's own Sam Seder talked Wrestling and Politics, largely at the insistence of his producer Matt
VIDEO: Newt Gingrich: The Pro Wrestler of Politics

Find related posts below:
- Real American: Jon Stewart, Sarah Palin and Hulk Hogan
- Hulk Hogan brings change to 'TNA Total Nonstop Action' Wrestling
- Mike Huckabee Wallpaper - Huckamania!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Dean Barnett, Hugh Hewitt, Mitt Romney and PunditFight

Hugh Hewitt, who has been gracious to this blog in the past recently referenced PunditFight as he laid out his delegate hypothesis to his peers. Not surprisingly its Pro-Romney.
What Just Happened? Punditmania 2012
I will test this conclusion against a line-up of guests from the Daily Mail's Toby Harnden, to Michael Barone and Conn Carroll of the Washington Examiner, AEI's James Pethokoukis, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard, Chris Cillizza and Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, Commentary's John Podhoretz, and the original dynamic duo of on-air blogging and punditry show-downs, Glenn Reynolds and Mickey Kaus.
Interestingly on this day, I was compelled to reference an old interview I did with the late Dean Barnett, a good friend and occasional fill-in for Hugh. Though this blog has always strived to be post-partisan, I recalled Dean's statement about wrestlers warring on screen but being cordial in the lockers. How civility may not always be possible but that it wasn't as heated as the audience were led to believe. These reflected my own personal thinking during my time away from full-time pundit watching.

My published transcripts didn't say as much as I remembered however I did find some endorsements of Mitt Romney that might be relevant for this time.
A PunditFight conversation with Dean Barnett
APF: It seems to me that Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson had the most compelling conservative credentials but there was a disconnect somewhere personality wise.

DB: One of the things that still irks me, is I don’t think the true Mitt Romney ever really came through to the electorate. If it did, this is a guy who worked for a big Company. Everybody who worked with him, everybody that did business with him loved him. Universally respected, universally liked.

I remember I was in Washington during the Primary season having lunch with another conservative writer and the name Mitt Romney came up, he’s question about Mitt Romney was "how come nobody like him". The people who know him like him but its true – and I’ve overstated it a lot – bur Mitt Romney didn’t quite connect with the electorate. Part of it was Mitt’s an idea guy. Mitt’s not a pound the lectern kind of guy. He’s an idea guy. He’s a thinker. He’s not a technocrat in that he’s also warm and outgoing and engaging guy. He is at his core an idea guy, I think if ran a campaign that communicated that side of his nature rather than what he did I think it might have gone differently. I hope he stays involved in public life because he has a lot of ideas and especially with the economic problems we’re having right now. He has a lot of ideas that should be heard, it’d be nice to have someone in politics who understands something about economics.

APF: It was certainly more pronounced in the case of Fred Thompson and we’re seeing the opposite with Palin. Do you think that kind of deficiency in the minds of voters can be overcome.

DB: To use your wrestling analogy, on the one hand you’re born with what you’re born with. On the other hand there’s a craft of getting through to people. You look at some wrestlers who get so much better – look at Hulk Hogan in his initial incarnation didn’t go over at all. But in his latest incarnation after Rocky III he was the biggest thing since sliced bread. They can develop their craft to become better and better. I think the same is true of politicians. They can learn what works, they can learn what doesn’t work they stay away from their weaknesses, they can emphasize their strengths. As you point out there is no substitute for - if you’ve got someone who can deliver a speech like Barack Obama, if you’ve got someone with the charisma and personal appeal of Sarah Palin. That’s being born on third base in a political sense with that kind of talent.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Atlantic: Rush Limbaugh Should Be Shamed Into Debating Rachel Maddow

'The Atlantic' Promotions presents:
Rachel Maddow VS Rush Limbaugh
Conor Friedersdor does some Political Wrestling fantasy booking for the Atlantic. With all due respect to Conor, this proposal has 0% chance of happening as Rush knows his power lies in the fact that he's capable of constructing his own Matrix, his "Aura" is amassed by never entertaining challengers. Heck Rush rarely has guests on, I remember him once interviewing then-VP Cheney for a rare PR offensive. Otherwise Rush has always taken the stage on his own, he knows that as the undisputed Top Dog sharing it would only surrender his power.
Rush Limbaugh Should Be Shamed Into Debating Rachel Maddow
... Instead of apologies, why not demand that future Limbaughs submit to a public debate? Let the object be to hash things out, not to signal contrition that most people are going to doubt anyway. 

In this case, I'd nominate Rachel Maddow as his interlocutor. She's smart, informed, and adept enough at the broadcast medium to hold her own on a stage with one of America's most technically proficient communicators. She'd need to be prepared, for this wouldn't be a one-sided inquisition.