Rosa sat so Martin could walk so Barack could run so our children could fly.
I wanted to start out by thanking everyone for their really nice voicemails, texts, and emails. I am feeling much improved and I am finally back on work, making the Man some much needed money.
1. There is no doubt that Barack Obama has a huge money advantage over John McCain. Generally, I think he has done a marvelous job spending his money and his campaign has been nearly flawless. I am unsure though of the effectiveness of a nationwide 30 minute “commercial” today. Tonight, Obama has bought 30 minutes of airtime on CBS, Fox, and NBC. (Poor ABC) Is this Obama being too extravagant and doing the ol’ putting the cart before the horse? I don’t know.
2. I rented the movie Mr. Woodcock last night. I give it a C+/B-. It’s not a bad rental. Billy Bob Thornton is fantastic as the asshole P.E. teacher and Amy Poehler nailed the role as a neurotic publicist. However, the movie moved really slowly.
3. I read an interesting piece this morning online about how John McCain has actually been too nice during the campaign. Let me explain. Karl Rove is in my opinion the most brilliant political tactician in the American political history. He had an uncanny ability to figure out regional wedge issues and drive them home successfully. He was smart enough to know that if there were actual policy debates that John Kerry and Al Gore would win. And by all accounts, Kerry and Gore dominated Bush during the presidential debates. In 2008, John McCain has unsuccessfully so far tried to battle Obama about the “real” issues. Let me give you an example. Some states like Tennessee, Virginia, and Iowa were states that John Kerry could/should have won. In 2004, Mr. Rove blasted John Kerry on issues like gun control daily. I should know, I was a student at Iowa State during that time and received several pamphlets about how John Kerry would take away my right to own a gun. This is of course blatantly un-true but the truthiness of a fact never mattered much to Karl Rove. Rove was really good at convincing rural and small town Americans that Bush was one of them and Kerry was an out of touch, big city, elitist. Barack Obama is liberal… quite liberal in fact. John McCain has not hammered him on the issues that make conservatives and independents leery of liberals – Gun Control, Abortion, et cetera. Not that I mind one bit. But I have a feeling this type of “mistake” will not be repeated in 2012.
4. If you enjoy politics, then please go to NBC.com and see the latest SNL’s skit, “Barack and Michelle’s Variety Show.” It’s also very good. As is the latest jibjab.com skit, “Time for campaigning”.
5. I could not believe my ears. I was flipping channels last night and I saw Bill O’Reilly on Late Show with Dave Letterman last night. I don’t want to say that he endorsed Barack Obama (he has a policy of not endorsing any candidates) but he said Obama is sincere, honest, and a good man. O’Reilly doesn’t say that about many politicians, let alone liberal politicians. I was actually really impressed with O’Reilly yesterday. He was modest, humorous, and a good sport while being the butt of many of Dave’s jokes.
6. The Minnesota Vikings are done. Two of their starting defensive linemen, Pat and Kevin Williams, who both went to the pro-bowl last year, were suspended for four games for testing positive for an illegal substance. Kevin Williams is the best defensive tackle in the league. To me, it’s not even a debate. His loss will be huge. It doesn’t help when our starting middle linebacker, and his back-up, are both out with season ending injuries. Every team will easily run up the middle. Thank goodness basketball season begins soon.
7. If there is any further question of how big of idiots the Minnesota Twins are, take a look at what is happening in Philadelphia. By idiots, I mean the Twins are building a new baseball stadium that will open spring of 2010 without a retractable roof. Baseball is a warm weather game. It is not meant to be delayed because of Sleet – like what happened in Philadelphia. Baseball is not football. If the ball becomes slippery, or pitchers’ arms get cold, it could really mess up the game.
posted by cyclonejohn @ 3:23 PM
4 Comments:
Don't forget, I heard Obama is on the Daily show tonight.
Clips
1.) George Stephanopoulos referred to Obama's 30-minute commercial as a "virtuoso performance." I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but I did think it was an effective campaign tool. It was well presented, to the point, and free of anything that might alienate independents and/or undecided voters (if indeed there can even be any such person this late in an election cycle!).
2. I gave Mr. Woodcock 3 stars (out of 5)...in all honesty it probably only deserved 2, but some of the gym class scenes were just funny enough to bump it up a notch.
3. I must take issue with your classification of Karl Rove as the most brilliant political tactician in American political history. I agree that, at some level, one must acknowledge Karl Rove's effectiveness as a political tactician. But even the term "effective" is relative. Matt Taibbi made an interesting point in Rolling Stone a couple weeks ago when he said that one is tempted to call Rove's brand of manipulation "brilliant," except that it isn't brilliant at all, any more than pointing a gun at a Korean store owner is a "brilliant" way to make $135. What he essentially argues is that just because Rove was successful in manipulating the political media and intentionally misleading the American public doesn't necessarily mean that he is a political genius - it just means that he is completely and totally immoral.
4. The Obama Variety Show was good, but did you see the Bush/McCain skit on Thursday night with Will Ferrell? "When you're in the voting booth, just remember this face..." :)
5. I think O'Reilly's interview with Obama in September really left a lasting impression on O'Reilly; even though they disagreed on certain policy issues, O'Reilly's respect for Obama grew tenfold throughout the course of that interview, and it has not waned, even after two months of fierce campaigning and political attacks by both sides. O'Reilly expected to skewer Obama when he came on The Factor, but instead I believe he was left with a feeling of reserved admiration, and I so I wasn't at all surprised to hear him go on Letterman and say that Obama has run the best campaign he's even seen.
6. NFC North final standings: Packers, Bears, Vikings, Lions. The top two spots will be close, but I think the Pack can pull it off. Do you think the Lions will win even ONE game this year??
7. The roof issue isn't about idiocy as much as it is about frugality...no one who lives beyond 100 miles of the Twin Cities metro area wants to pay for a roof, so, therefore, you don't get a roof. But yes, I agree, you will all LOOK like idiots when, god forbid, it's November 7th (target date for a potential World Series Game 7 in 2009) and the Twins and Brewers are trying to play baseball in 20-degree weather and six inches of snow.
Hey Mike,
Great comments! I will try to answer some of them in my blog later today.
This is going to come as a shock, but I KNOW! It's SO STUPID that they're not building a roof onto the new stadium. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? It's SUCH A BAD IDEA.
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