Et Tu, Jon Stewart?

Sorry for the light posting last week. Had a good time in Los Angeles this weekend, checking out the Eddie Izzard concert at the Nokia Theatre -- that place is incredible. Seats 7100 people. Go, if you ever get the chance.

Meanwhile, our friends at the Washington Post muse about the sudden shift by Jon Stewart into making fun of President Obama.

Stewart has been lampooning Obama over the use of a teleprompter in a classroom. Obama's defenders are trying to play down the image and excuse it away, but we should reflect a bit on Presidential images over the years: LBJ holding up a beagle by his ears, Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater during a Presidential address, George H.W. Bush going to a grocery store and not understanding about scanners. Images speak volumes and the Obama photo )which we even had fun with) underscores a weakness to Obama -- he can't think on his feet. He has a dependency.

But the Washington POst has a field day with Stewart -- as far left as you can get -- making Obama the butt of his jokes. It is an interesting cultural moment when even the most friendly of comedians turns on you. Check out the article.

Teleprompter Man Returns

Write your own caption for this photo. Let's see how creative our bloggers can be.

A Big Win for the Tea Baggers

Well, there's no way around it. Our Tea Bagger friends are cheering from Philadelphia to Phoenix, ecstatic in the victory of Republican Scott Brown in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts. Brown is the first Republican to be a senator from that state since 1972. As Jeff Bliss made clear on the show tonight, this race was one of the more historic elections of the decade.

Of course, the Democrats can come up with all sorts of excuses and finger pointing, but it doesn't matter. They blew it. Again. Obama doesn't have many chances left. What will happen now on health care? What will happen on the rest of the Obama agenda?
Should Barbara Boxer start worrying about Tom Campbell? Tonight's election breaks off into so many interesting permutations.

But tonight, the Tea Baggers showed they were no-flash-in-the-pan. It's a genuine populist movement, headed up by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Conservatives would be foolish to count Obama out. 2012 is a long ways off. Clinton came back. Obama can, too. I would look for some kind of shake-up in the days to come.

Conservatives speak out on Haiti

There is no denying the tragedy in Haiti. The numbers are still coming in, but there is no good news in terms of death and devastation. This is certainly one of the great disasters in modern times.

On one hand, it's wonderful and encouraging to see so many Americans come together in an international response. Across this country, millions of dollars have been raised to assist the people of Haiti. We've been featuring daily updates from the Red Cross daily on our show.

But then there's Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and Chuck Devore. They sort of make you scratch your head and say "huh?"

Rush accuses Obama of trying to politicize the relief effort ---he's using this to remake his image.e can't wait to get out there," argued Rush about President Obama. Even George W. Bush has stepped forward to defend Obama. After all, whar would Tush have the President do? If he does nothing, or takes his time, Rush criticizes him. If he's quick to respond, Rush accuses him of grandstanding. Not fair.

Pat Robertson is barely worth discussing, insisting that the earthquake can be explained because Haiti "made a deal with the Devil" to get out from under French rule. Please.

Then there's our own Chuck Devore, conservative, running in the Republican primary to challenge Boxer. He has a key staff adviser who apparently supports the relief effort, but then wants the U.S. to run away.

Hmmmm. So explain something to me, folks. When an earthquake like this strikes, what exactly is our obligation? I'm curious.

Stay Dry

Just want to take a moment and reinforce what John LIndsey discussed on Friday's show -- get ready for major rainstorms throughout the week.

As I sit here in Nipomo, it has been raining all day. John says this will continue through Monday, with a brief break Monday evening, followed by a second major storm on Tuesday. A third major storm -- expected to be the worst -- follows on Wednesday and Thursday. All told, we're expecting about 5 to 10 inches of rain before next weekend.

If it's any consolation, be glad you're not in southern California -- they're going to get hit far worse.

So stock on supplies, drive carefully, and expect power outages. We'll be providing regular weather and emergency information throughout the week on both my show and the Morning News with King Harris.

Stay dry.

The Curse of Cuesta College

Baseball buffs are familiar with the “Curse of the Bambino.” True believers insist that the Boston Red Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series as punishment for selling Babe Ruth, “The Bambino,” to the New York Yankees in 1919.

I submit that there has been a similar “Curse of Cuesta College,” that dates back to 2000, the year Gil Stork was passed over for the presidency of the school.

This was not a good decade for Cuesta. Most, if not all, top managers put in place by former president Grace Mitchell in the ‘90s, bolted for early retirement, or other jobs. Faculty morale plummeted. Critically, the major effort to pass a new bond measure was soundly rejected by voters. A Cuesta Trustee caused a minor brushfire when he wondered publicly whether a black person would be comfortable living in San Luis Obispo.

One Cuesta president ended up being shown the door. Another president barely made a footprint, hurrying for the exit, so desperate to leave Cuesta that he took a position in the Middle East. Worst of all, there are those who now look south, to Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, for a model of what a local community college can be.

To me, it is nothing less than a curse, a payback to those who conspired to deny Stork the job he sought, and deserved, after Mitchell retired in 1999.

Stork first came to Cuesta in 1967 as a math instructor, a graduate of Cal Poly, a survivor of the horrific Poly football team plane crash in 1960. He has been with Cuesta since their third year in existence. Can you imagine the institutional memory this man must have? Over the years, Stork filled a variety of positions in both the classroom and administration, being groomed for the top job by his mentor, former Cuesta president Frank Martinez.

His chance finally came in 2000. Stork applied and was interviewed, making it as I recall as far as the semi-finals before being cut. The faculty union was against him. Several of the Cuesta Trustees apparently had their own agenda. Ignore the guy who knew Cuesta, the man who had been groomed to take over and lead. Better to bring in an outsider, The Powers That Be decided. So they stuck it to Stork and looked north.

There isn’t much point in rehashing the obvious, but the hiring of Dr. Marie Rossenwasser turned out to be a complete and total disaster on every level. The woman, despite having a degree in Communication, somehow managed to alienate nearly everyone she contacted. Her top administrators quickly bailed. The bond failed. Cuesta started sinking and Rossenwasser was forced into retirement.

Enter Dave Pelham, the new president, in 2007, The Man From Weed, who looked around and decided he didn’t like much of what he saw. He tried to fire staff and make deep cuts. When the Trustees rejected his attempts, Pelham responded by applying for a job in…Alabama? That’s pretty harsh. That job fell through, but Pelham jumped ship anyway, and headed overseas.

The Trustees finally got their act together and Pat Mullen called Stork and offered him the position of interim president. Stork wisely insisted that his contract be for twelve months. He also wanted real authority to govern, not just be a figurehead.

There you have it. Ten lost years. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 years down the drain. Cuesta has no one to blame but themselves.

So here’s the question: Are the Trustees going to waste more time and more money in doing yet another national search, and taking yet another gamble on an Unknown Candidate? As far as I’m concerned, the most qualified person to lead Cuesta College currently has the job. The Trustees would be wise to make it official and extend Stork's contract through 2015, Cuesta's 50th anniversary.

Time to end this curse.

A Mini-High School Reunion

Charlotte and I ducked out after the show Wednesday night and headed to the Del Monte Cafe for dinner. Great restaurant. All the locals go there. We met up with Terese, in town from Chicago. Terese and I were at Maine West High School in Des Plaines long, long ago, but we had never met before (our class had 835 students). However, mutual friends in Chicago got us together and it was fun comparing memories of high school. Charlotte snapped the photo.

Year One

First, on a personal note, thanks to everyone for their continued support of KVEC. The ratings came out and we had another strong showing--finishing first among the AM stations, and holding our own against our FM colleagues. And our 19th season on the radio is off to a very strong start with heavy phone calls and great discussions on everything from marijuana legalization to President Obama's handling of terrorism, to keeping San Luis Obispo safe. I think that January is my favorite month for the show -- we always seem to burst out of the gate with renewed energy. Lots of good segments coming up on Hometown Radio.

So January marks 19 years for me and one year for President Obama. What a year it has been: pirates, bailouts, stimulus packages, health care, tea baggers, more health care, terrorism, global warming, Nobel Peace Prize. The Democrats seems to have their backs to the wall -- Harry Reid slipping away. Massachusetts in play. Obama taking it on the chin in the polls.

We've gotten to see Obama in a variety of situations, but I wonder how much we've really gotten to know the man this first year. My impressions of him as an individual remain positive and hopeful. As a president, he's starting to remind me of Woodrow Wilson or Adlai Stevenson -- an intellectual who struggles to connect with the common person. He is clearly willing to tackle the important issues of the day, he has surrounded himself with smart people, but something doesn't seem to be clicking just right at 1600. It will be interesting to see how the second year unfolds. Any predictions?

Finally, I've been reading excerpts of this GAME CHANGE book now out. Critics are pouncing on the Harry Reid "Negro" remark, though apparently it's OK for RNC Chair Mike Steele to make a public promise by saying "Honest Injun." More interesting to me in the book is the meltdown of John and Elizabeth Edwards and the utter disregard that the McCain staff had for Sarah Palin.

Happy reading!