Money wants what it can’t buy

SHE’S the voice of Manhattan women, the soul-mate who understands their see-saw love lives, the queen who knows all about shoe porn and toxic bachelors.

Candace Bushnell, in person, is a lovely sight and perhaps another symbol of the blurred line between fact and fiction.

Creator of the awesome foursome in Sex and the City, she was at Barnes & Noble in Union Square on Monday evening for a reading of her latest book One Fifth Avenue.

That’s the address of a grand Art Deco apartment building on Fifth Avenue, inhabited by the social haves and coveted by the ambitious have-nots.

“Real-estate envy is universal,” Bushnell said. Even in the earlier days, “somebody realises that somebody else’s cave is bigger.”

A roof over your head is basic but much more so in New York City, where home ownership is premium.

“It’s wired into our DNA about seeking shelter,” Bushnell said, “but for some people, the more glamourous the shelter, the better.”

By using the venerable address as the setting of this book, Bushnell has finally acknowledged that the one thing more significant than sex in this city is real estate — and the two are, in more cases than not, intertwined, according to the book review in The New York Observer.

That newspaper, by the way, was the start of Bushnell’s Sex and the City column in 1994 that led to the TV and movie versions.

Bushnell seems like any other writer who aspires to be a great author.

“If I could be Evelyn Waugh, my life would be perfect,” she recalled telling herself when she was younger, as she had deeply admired the British author.

These days, Bushnell has been compared to Henry James and Edith Wharton. “That’s really flattering and nice but they write much better than I do,” she said.

Last week, Page Six Magazine put her on the cover wearing a US$5,500 (RM18,700) Bill Blass dress, calling her “Big Apple Babe” and quoted the “former party girl” as saying that “there’s nothing harder than being single”.

Bushnell, who will hit the big Five-0 in December, acknowledged to the magazine she had had botox treatment and that she was not the least bothered about being labelled a cougar. Hubby, a ballet dancer who is 10 years younger, was at Monday’s book reading with her. They married six years ago.

The audience that evening, mostly women, evidently adored her. They devoured her latest book while waiting for her arrival.

“I have loved her since Sex and the City. I like the fact that she is not afraid to show the weaknesses and the strengths of women,” said Dynelle Skinner, a 32-year-old in-house PR executive for a cosmetic company.

Through Bushnell’s writings and the TV series, Skinner said, she had learned to be more creative and bold; both in fashion and sexuality. “We are not afraid to approach men. We can be romantic, we can be aloof.”

Furthermore, Skinner acknowledged a problem with shoe shopping.

“There are times I would tell myself that the bills can wait. I just have to buy that pair of shoes!” she said, laughing.

Bushnell told her fans that her mother’s death from breast cancer led to a period of mourning. “I was depressed, thinking about life and loss, and what life added up to,” she explained.

“Here in New York, the old is replaced by the new. People come to New York. Everybody has a story. You need to figure out what your story is, who you are, and where you are on the ladder of success.”

One Fifth Avenue, she said, was an actual building which she used to walk past, fantasising that she would live there one day.

“Fantasies do nourish you. It keeps people going but as you grow older, you might wonder whether it is worth it,” she said.

Her favourite character in her latest book is the 43-year-old Mindy Gooch who, as head of the apartment board, is so ambitious and hell-bent in wanting it all that “she forgot to smell the roses along the way”.

Through her readings of classics, Bushnell said she found that people had not really changed. “All these are stories about people in the city. I am struck by the similarity of people then and now.”

In a way, that means that people have never learned their lessons. And, in the pursuit for social prominence, a character in One Fifth Avenue put it well: Money wants what it can’t buy. Class and talent.

It's the economy, stupid

DUSK was settling in but the mood at Columbia University was bright as the campus awaited for America’s two most watched men.

The Ivy League school was playing host to a forum for the ServiceNation Summit on Sept 11; Barack Obama and John McCain would discuss volunteerism and national service.

A large screen was erected near Low Library. The crowd of students began to swell long before the simulcast of the forum began.

One female undergraduate posed with a life-size cut-out of the Democratic contender. Others clapped whenever Obama’s name was mentioned by a speaker.

The mood was infectious; there was hardly a poker-face in sight.

“It’s predominantly for Obama,” Tara Machen, a final year Arts undergraduate, said of the campus population.

But, she assured, there had been no fights between Obama and McCain supporters among the students. “We enjoyed the diversity of views,” she maintained.

Youthful enthusiasm aside, the mood of the country remains negative.

Neil Newhouse, a co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, said their latest survey found that at least 67% of Americans felt that their great nation was on the wrong track and George W. Bush was getting the thumbs down as President.

As a pollster, Newhouse has done research in countries such as Bulgaria, Jamaica and Venezuela “but I have not had numbers that are as negative as what we are seeing currently.”

The economy is the priority of the American electorate now, he said, instead of Iraq which was once the burning issue at hand.

In a sense, the Democrat Party has an edge over its rivals.

“The biggest doubt about McCain is that he will continue Bush’s policies,” said Stan Greenberg, CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, who has served as pollster for leaders like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela.

Look to the 2006 US midterm elections, he said, as a backdrop. “It was like an earthquake then when the Republicans lost control of the House Representatives and the Senate.”

Prior to Monday’s collapse of Lehman Brothers, Greenberg said Obama had a mere three point advantage over McCain.

“Obama has energised the young people but I believe that economic issues are not his passion,” he said.

Hillary Clinton, for comparison’s sake, had eyed more the blue-collar workers.

Both Newhouse and Greenberg were at a discussion on “Post-Convention, Pre-Debates: A Look at the Race to the White House in Key Battleground States” organised by the Washington Foreign Press Centre on Tuesday.

The Republican camp, according to Newhouse, had been hit by “Palin mania”.

“I can’t tell you how excited they are. She is getting numbers that comes to almost unanimous in terms of polling,” he said.

Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, has the highest positive rating for a vice-president contender since Al Gore in 1992. But the question remains: Will the numbers stay strong for her?

“So, the vice-presidential debate on Oct 2 between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will be a lot of fun,” he remarked.

The last couple of weeks revealed “a clear sense that McCain has the wind at his back,” he said.

Polls conducted during the first week of the month showed that he was gaining ground more than Obama.

But neither Obama nor McCain was particularly strong on the economy.

“The first one who finds a voice on this (the fall of Lehman) in the next 72 hours will have an advantage,” Newhouse said.

In a way, both candidates “even each other out,” he added. According to him, Obama has his biggest edge “ vote for change" but the Democrat’s main weakness, his inexperience, is McCain’s biggest strength.

Still, Newhouse refused to read the tea leaves for the outcome of the battle for America’s highest office.

“It is still up for grabs. This is an extraordinary election with more twists and turns to come. Issues have zig-zagged. This is not a campaign that goes on a straight and narrow path,” he said, “so I don’t even dare to predict it.”

Let’s see who’s voted off

IT’S been called the ultimate reality show, Made-in-America (where else), and as the world awaits who gets voted off, the glitter of the main star attraction seems a little less shiny for now.

Democratic contender Barack Obama, taunted by the John McCain campaign as the biggest celebrity on earth, isn’t occupying the prime spotlight currently; a mother of five from Alaska seems to have stolen the thunder, at least for the moment.

But a largely pro-Democrat audience who turned up for a Tuesday talk, Inside the News: Race and the Race, organised by The New York Times, was clearly rooting for their man.

“It’s not that we are desperate for a black president, but we want justice,” said an African-American woman during the Q and A.

Alluding to last week’s Republican National Convention which was attended mostly by white delegates, she asked: “Was that America?”

To her, the Democrat Party was more reflective of the diversity of the United States.

But in reality, there are only 10 states that are in play in the general election. These are the swing states, among which are Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

“We are not seeing the campaign the way the swing states see it,” said NYT op-ed columnist Gail Collins. For example, New York, a true-blue state, will hardly see Obama and his Republican nemesis John McCain in the next few weeks before election day.

The two African-Americans on the panel – professor of humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr and NYT columnist Bob Herbert – felt that Obama had not “connected” with the working-class American yet.

According to Gates, it was too simplistic to dismiss a white voter as racist if he did not pick a black candidate.

The point is: create empathy and convince people that he is on their side; these voters are waiting to be wooed.

“It is incumbent upon Obama to do what John F. Kennedy did in West Virginia,” he said, turning to 1960 history when Kennedy, a Catholic, won the support of the mostly Protestant state.

Herbert, declaring that he did not trust most polls, said he believed that Obama was even further behind McCain than was reflected in the surveys now.

He said Obama must pursue the working-class American who has to struggle in these days of an economic slump.

“He has not done so in a compelling way. There is still a certain stiffness and reservation in him, an almost professorial approach from him,” he said.

In that sense, Gates said, “looking back, Hillary Clinton would have made a better candidate.”

“The working class responded very well to her. Obama hasn’t found his voice yet,” he said.

Both panellists – Obama supporters – felt that although Hillary seemed cold at the beginning of the primary campaign she later became very effective in conveying the message that she felt the pain of those struggling over bread and butter issues.

“She would have also done better in distinguishing her job and policies from McCain’s,” Herbert said.

Still, it was a credit to the Obama campaign for succeeding in snatching the nomination from Hillary, which was hers to lose.

Obama, Herbert said, should have however steamrolled ahead now with his adorable family, projecting the image that he knew about raising a family and getting to college.

The US media has scrutinised speeches made at the recently concluded party conventions and found that Republicans mentioned God most often, followed by words such as taxes, change and business.

Democrats, on the other hand, spoke most frequently about “change”. Other oft-used terms were McCain, energy, Bush and jobs.

Gates, on his part, found it odd that Obama made no mention of Martin Luther King Jr during his address at the party convention, although that day was the 45th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

These days, nothing about the candidates escapes public scrutiny. Body language is one favourite subject.

“When Sarah Palin and John McCain make an appearance together, there’s always a brief hug, but no kissing,” late-night show host David Letterman joked. “It’s just like Bill and Hillary.”

Democrats, who have been chanting “eight is enough”, simply can’t wait to bid farewell to the two terms of the Bush administration.

Will it be goodbye Bush, hello Obama? Americans will decide in less than eight weeks.

Sarah Barracuda is fair game

IN Desperate Housewives, Bree Hodge faked a pregnancy to protect her teenage daughter Danielle, who gave birth to a boy.

Wisteria Lane shenanigans, apparently, has a mirror site in the wild, wild world of rumour-mongering that is now targeting Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Suddenly, all the buzz on last week’s Democratic National Convention, when Barack Obama was crowned the first African-American presidential nominee, seemed so yesterday.

Within two days of Palin’s appointment as the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, the chatter began that her five-month-old son was not hers, but the child of her unwed eldest daughter Bristol.

The rumour was quashed when news came that 17-year-old Bristol is pregnant and Palin is due to become a grandma at 44, just in time for Christmas, as they say.

Americans have been riveted with guilty pleasure over tales about Palin’s past. She was a former local beauty queen and was once a fearsome basketball player, with the nickname Sarah Barracuda.

At the age of 24, Palin eloped with her boyfriend as they were cash-strapped for a wedding.

Now, her significant half has not been spared the public scrutiny either. Her husband, the “First Dude”, reportedly did not complete his degree and was arrested for drunk driving 22 years ago.

There was an account, too, of how her Wikipedia entry was somewhat mysteriously spiced up just hours before the official announcement of her vice-president candidacy.

And what about Bristol’s teenage boyfriend? His MySpace page has been removed and reporters who went to his mother’s house, according to an Anchorage local daily, found that the place was just like any other Alaskan home – decorated with moose and caribou antlers.

Nothing has been spared in the search for skeletons in Palin’s closet; even her social security number has allegedly been stolen. Entertainment magazines which usually put celebrities first have placed her on their cover, though not necessarily in a positive light.

“No one heard of her before last week,” said Kelly McBride, The Poynter Institute’s ethics group leader.

“Now, people are digging deeper because you’re talking about someone who has the potential to become the vice-president. The stakes can’t get higher than that.”

However, McBride felt that the media scrutiny should be in the right manner, to protect people such as Palin’s children.

“We must minimise harm to them. These matters must be handled with care,” she said, noting also that the twin daughters of President George W. Bush received much coverage last time for their antics.

Much of the public debate has focussed on whether Palin, as a mother of five, can handle the heat that the job of vice-president brings.

They ponder whether she should have taken up the VP offer, as it could mean lesser time for her family, especially her youngest son who has Down Syndrome.

“Certainly, these are questions that would not be asked if the candidate is not a woman,” McBride said. “But in reality, women play a different role than men.”

(American society, in a way, is still traditional. Marriage announcements in The New York Times would include whether the bride is keeping her name or not. This, surely, is no longer a question that arises anymore for Malaysian women.)

Just like Hillary Clinton – critics poked fun at the way she laughed – Palin is now under the microscope for things such as her hair and spectacles.

As one TV news commenter put it, unfortunately some people found it intolerable that a woman with big hair and librarian glasses could be governing them one day.

But even in the blue state of New York where Obama fans are aplenty, Palin’s family problems merely made her more human to them. To them, it does not speak lesser of her as a mother or an individual.

“So what if her eldest daughter is pregnant? Her children has nothing to do with it. Lots of American girls get knocked up at an early age,” said Kimberly Blackette, a law student and Obama supporter.

Palin, in an e-mail sent out to supporters on Aug 30, wrote: “Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case for me.

“I never set out to run for office. But life has taken me on a course that first led to the Alaska governor’s office and now the country’s first female Republican vice presidential candidate.”

Palin power, as the Republicans called it, resonated the following day after her acceptance speech at the party convention.

For those on her side of the fence, one headline went to the extent of saying that “a star is born”.

And messages of encouragement have appeared everywhere from T-shirts to thongs in Alaska. One declares: “Our mama beats your Obama.”