Thursday, October 30, 2008
Your Morning News: 10.30.08
Posted by Josh in Barack Obama, David Tennant, Dr. Who, Election 2008, Federal Reserve, Josh's fanboyism, Philadelphia, phillies, voting, World Series
There is your Barack Obama’s Variety Funtime Half Hour, which ran last night before the World Series. This was the first time in 16 years that a presidential candidate had aired a pro-longed campaign commercial in primetime. It ran on seven networks and was estimated to cost the Obama campaign between $3.5 million and $5 million. I haven’t seen any word on ratings and you will have to judge for yourself whether or not the ad itself is effective. My take: he appears to have gotten the guy from Lord of the Rings to do the score, but I still may have teared up a little.
Congrats to all Phillies fans out there! After the campaign commercial, the Phillies and the Rays finally played the second half of Game 5. It was an action-packed 3 and a half innings that saw the lead change hands several times, but in the end Philadelphia pulled it out and won their first World Series in 28 years.
As expected, the Federal Reserve cut its interest rate by half a point yesterday. The move is designed to get banks to lend money to each other and the market was buoyed by the news. However, many experts are beginning to say that Fed cuts and the bank bailout will not be enough to keep the country out of recession.
The New York Times leads with a story about early voting, which has surged in popularity this year. Among some of the 32 states that allow their residents to vote early without an excuse, either by mail or in person, the verdict is already in from a full quarter of registered voters — well into the millions. The best part is that the article sort of points to annoyance as the reason so many people are voting – they think that if they vote, they can finally stop paying attention to the election.
Finally, because I am a huge nerd, David Tennant is going to be leaving Dr. Who after this season. Tennant has been playing the iconic science fiction character for 3 years and is one of the most popular actors to play the role in the show’s 48 year history.