ABC Evening News: ‘1972 VP Drama’

Source:ABC News- anchor Howard K. Smith in 1972.

Source:The Daily Journal

“This is a rare color clip of the 8-28-72 Edition, of the ABC Evening News. This is about the struggles of 1972 Democratic Nominee Thomas Eagleton, who was the VP nominee until he was dropped for mental health issues.

This is the first of a series of Videos, ending with Election Night 1972 from ABC News, which I will upload sometime.” 

From EFAN

George McGovern did a lot to bring in new voters to the Democratic Party by reaching to African, Latin, Asian, and Jewish Americans. As well as women and suburban voters, after the civil rights movement of the 1960s with a large number of Southern Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans heading to the GOP because of civil rights. And you could credit Senator McGovern with even saving the Democratic Party because without these new voters, all of these new people would’ve ended up Republicans, or not voting at all.

Without George McGovern we would’ve seen Republican Congress’s, not just a Republican Senate, but the GOP would’ve won back the House and Senate well before 1994. Perhaps even by 1980 with the Reagan Revolution, because the Democratic Party would’ve been left with a large hole to fill. With all of those Southern voters heading to the GOP, without other voters heading to the Democratic Party. So by bringing in all of these new voters to the Democratic Party, Senator McGovern deserves credit for saving the Democratic Party. From future losses in Congress and the White House after 1972.Democrats added to their majorities in Congress in 1974. And they won back the White House while holding both the House and Senate in 1976.

The Democratic Party paid such a heavy price for it in 1972, yes President Nixon was pretty popular, but they were a very divided party between establishment Progressives who wanted a united party to face the Republicans in the fall and the anti-war New-Left Socialists that wanted to take over the party and return it to where it was in the 1960s and build on the New Deal and Great Society. And George McGovern also deserves credit for running the most disorganize convention in the TV era.

Even if Senator Tom Eagleton didn’t have the pass mental health controversy going on, George McGovern not just loses, but loses going away. The Eagleton Affair (as it was called) was just another reminder of how disorganized the Democratic Party was in the early 1970s. And it’s until 1975 or so after the Watergate affair that the Democratic Party finally recovered at the presidential level, from what went on in the late 1960s. 

Salon Magazine: Willa Paskin: 'Breaking Bad's" Anna Gunn: Skyler might kill Walt'

Source:Salon Magazine- actress Anna Gunn.

"Things are pretty bleak for "Breaking Bad's" Skyler White, played by Anna Gunn. Trapped in her marriage to Walt, her increasingly malevolent, manipulative meth-lord husband, she's terrified for the safety or her children, but unable to see a way out. With just two episodes left in the first half of "Breaking Bad's" fifth season, it is simultaneously hard to imagine how things could get much worse for Skyler, and even more difficult to think that they could get better.

Gunn spoke to Salon about Skyler, her predicament, her depression and the possibility of her killing Walter White.

I’m extremely worried about Skyler. It’s getting really stressful to watch her. Was it stressful to be her?

It was. It really was. There were days on set where it was like, “Wow, it’s hard to live in this place.” And thank God for Bryan Cranston being so hilarious and great, and pretty much our whole cast and crew, so we have a lot of levity. But I had to dig deep into some pretty black stuff this year. As an actor you wait for this kind of material, but it can also be very emotionally exhausting." 

From Salon Magazine

"Moderator David Kronke (Media Critic) asks Breaking Bad's Creator/Executive Producer Vince Gilligan about the affect of keeping Anna Gunn (Skyler White) in the dark about Bryan Cranston's (Walter H. White) drug dealing. Vince discusses how he and the writers finally decided to address this issue." 

Source:Paley Center- actress Anna Gunn.

From the Paley Center

One of the cutest mommies you'll ever see. 

Skyler White (played by the beautiful and adorable Anna Gunn) comes off at least what I believe as a 'babe in the woods' (great Goodfellas line) in Breaking Bad. At least in the first season. I didn't become a regular viewer of this show until the third or fourth season. And Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) doesn't start off as a criminal. He's someone who get into the meth business to save his life and get the treatment that he needs for his cancer, as well as to support his family. 

Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) is woefully, underpaid, middle-age, science teacher in New Mexico. And goes into the meth business to again save his life and support his family. Skyler, his wife starts off this series as a homemaker, who other than her husband's cancer, believes he's a good, honest, man, living a normal life.

As the first season moves along the White Family, Walter, Skyler and their son, are essentially broke. Walt, is bringing in the only income to the family, forty-thousand-dollars a year as a high school science teacher. 2008-09, the start of the Great Recession and when it was at its worst, no economic or job growth, even with Baby Boomers retiring. So Skyler goes back to work as an accountant. 

Skylar is an accountant, not some former stripper, bimbo, (not that there is anything wrong with that, if that's who you are) married to one of her former clients that she fell in love with. She's an educated, an intelligent person and knows her family is going to need money and a lot of it. Especially with her husband in the hospital on a regular basis getting treatment. The accountant part is key here, because she figures out her husband has extra money here. Which is where this series gets very interesting.

This is when Walt is getting is meth business going and becoming successful with his high school dropout partner. She figures out that he's in the drug business, but doesn't turn him in. Maybe she's worried about what will happen to her if she does that. Maybe she's worried about what will happen to the father of her son who has cancer. Maybe she doesn't want to lose his income from his business, because again they need the money. 

The White Family, which was pretty normal pre-cancer, now becomes very stressful and Skylar and Walt, now are arguing on a regular basis and even separate, but never actually divorce. 

This is really a great and funny crime drama with all sorts of great characters. And Skylar White played by Anna Gunn, is a huge part of that.