Sullivan and Ambers, #2

Andrew Sullivan and Marc Ambinder had another of their chats at The Atlantic. I critiqued their first one. This one, I am pleased to report, is much better. First, the dialogue is a tad more even, more from both, rather than Sullivan mostly providing his opinions. That's good, although I also enjoyed the first one. It's the difference between an interview and repartee. Also makes more slightly more interesting editing.

The big problem of the production design has been addressed. Much better this time around. First, there is no large blank space behind Ambinder. The pile of books is a good call, adds a bit of visual depth without clutter. The framing of the two of them seems more even as well, to the benefit of both. I also like Sullivan's background, particularly with an Obama item to his left and a book about McCain on his right. Nice touch.

The lighting, however, still needs some work. This is actually slightly worse for Ambinder this time around. Apparently someone is paying more attention to the lighting, but not getting it right. First, there are two colors of light on him; a normal yellowish tint on his face, but then a bright white light from behind. The bright white is very noticeable, and unfortunately ends up highlighting the left side of his face, and his neck just below his ear in a couple of shots. Not a great look.

This bright light behind Ambinder is a contrast to Sullivan, whoses side facing the camera is actually slightly darker than the rest of him. A minor detail, but it could be fixed. The lighting on Sullivan does, however, mix together much better than it does for Ambinder. The lighting seems to change a tad when he leans forward, which I found just the tiniest bit distracting.

As for the content, I agree with Sullivan on the trivial nature of the Jim Johnson mini-mini-mini controversy. It's a couple of days past, and I am already forgetting it. And I even spent a summer living a couple of blocks from the Fannie Mae HQ in DC, so I even have a visual aid when it comes up. One point neither of them brought up: I have been thinking of this issue in terms of "where there's smoke, there's fire." My suspicion is that if it had gone on much longer, someone would have dug up some dirt on Johnson. This way, the world will never know what dirty laundry he might have.

I also agree with Sullivan that it is "disgusting and wrong" to challenge McCain's dedication to the troops. They discuss the fact that there are a number of Democrats - Howard Dean, Rahm Emanuel - whose job it is and will be to take on Republicans, and that Obama can't really control them. On this I disagree, and I would like Obama to be a little more forward on this. Obama has said repeatedly that he respects John McCain's service. However, when there is a news item like this, I think it would be helpful for Obama to make it clear that he does not question McCain's commitment to the troops. A moment or two of grace would be good.

As for the ending: brilliant. Great way to end this segment - just how smart is John McCain? Good question, and now is the time to start answering it. I have been starting to wonder that myself. My guess is that he's smarter than Bush, though of course that's not saying much. But grasp of policy is clearly not his strong suit, and I think that will be a decisive difference between the he and Obama. I seem to recall that McCain graduated 894th out of 899 at Annapolis. Even if he was a partyer, as he has said, a rank that low says something about his natural abilities.

All in all, a marked improvement over the first one, and I am looking forward to the next one, hoping that Ambinder wears a shirt that is something other than white or off-white.

One very minor note about the ad proceeding the discussion: I like the fact that it is from BP, fka British Petroleum, and its American division (bp.com/us), because that captures Sullivan's geography in just a few letters: England and America. Utterly intentional, I'm sure, but somehow appropos. Although it is always a little jarring to try and associate happy music and pleasant graphics with an oil company.