The United Blue States of America

Yesterday was kind of a television feast for myself. I got back from work, did a quick work-out, ate some dinner, and then settled down to watch the Barack Obama half hour TV program. As you read yesterday, I didn’t have high expectations but I came away very impressed. As a pupil in the history of political science, I could not help but be reminded of how similar Obama’s “infomercial” was to Ronald Reagan’s way of campaigning. Reagan almost never made personal insults directed at his opponent and instead inspired America with positive rhetoric. Don’t get me wrong. I think Reagan was an atrocious president, but I admired his style of campaigning. After the Obama infomercial, I watched the movie Recount, before catching a little Timberwolves/World Series. It was a good night.

1. Wow! I LOVED the movie Recount. Starring Kevin Spacey, Ed Bagely Jr, and Dennis Leary, Recount is a moved based on the 2000 Presidential election between the time the voting concluded, and Bush was sworn in. I give the movie an A+. The acting was superb, and despite me knowing the ending, I was mesmerized and inspired. I also learned quite a bit about how slimy Florida politics were and how Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and others basically handed Gore his defeat. I had read great things about Recount online but I didn’t know much about it. It was an HBO movie a few months ago and because I don’t have HBO, I couldn’t see it. Please go rent it. In case you are wondering, because of the 2000 election, the McCain/Obama teams have hired 4000 attorneys to make sure everything runs smoothly.

2. As all of you know, I love hot weather and I could move to many Southern states including Florida, North Carolina, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and possibly even Tennessee. However, I could never live in the Deep South. CNN polled the state of Texas to see what religion Obama practiced. The heavy majority got his religion correct, but 23% erroneously said he was a Muslim. How is that possible! How can 1 out of 4 Texans think he is a Muslim? I could never live in the Deep South because of the people. Obama has talked openly and proudly about his Christian faith and yet a quarter of Texans think because he has an African name, or because he is not white, that he must be a Muslim. The South just continues to amaze me.

3. I received an interesting email that mocked the idea of what would happen if the South won the Civil War. That email has inspired talking point number three. I used some of their statistics as well. I actually thought about this last night quite a bit. I will call us the United Blue States of America vs. The United Red States of America. Here is kind of how the Blue States vs. Red State countries would look. We get Hawaii, the North East, and all of the Blue States in between. You get Oklahoma and your other slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Microsoft. You get Worldcom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss. We get 85% of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. Our divorce rate is 22% lower; we get happier families. You get sexually repressed bible thumpers. We will be pro-choice and anti-war. So we are going to need our kids back from Iraq… now. With the blue states we will have 80% of the fresh water, 92% of the fruit, 95% of the wine, 90% of the cheese, 90% of the tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans, most of the coal, redwoods, sequoias, IVY League schools plus MIT, Cal Tech, and Stanford. You will get University of Alabama. Oh c’mon Red States, you will get something. 88% of all obese people, 92% of mosquitoes, 90% of the hurricanes, plus 99% of the televangelists, and Rush Limbaugh live in your states. We will keep Berkeley. You can have Bob Jones University. I think we will keep Yosemite and Hollywood thank you very much. 38% of Southerners believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale. 44% say evolution is a theory. 53% say Saddam was partially responsible for 9/11. Red States, I do wish you look on your continual quest to find Weapons of Mass Destruction, but we here in the Blue States we will spend our Tax money protecting the environment, giving our citizens adequate health care, and providing exceptional education. Enjoy your NASCAR.

4. You can't make it up. Mike Singletary lost his debut as 49ers head coach, getting waxed by a Seattle team that entered the game with only one victory. Yet Singletary's post-game rant and his decision to send Vernon Davis to the showers was cheered from coast to coast, resonating with a nation of football fans tired of all the thugs, punks and bonus-baby divas in the NFL. The whole story is even more bizarre. At halftime of that game, Singletary called for the attention of his players. He then dropped his pants, turned around and pointed to his backside. He used this occasion and that visual to describe what happened to his team in the first half. A NFL source inside the room confirmed the story with my radio partner, XTRA 910 football guru Mike Jurecki, and added that Singletary then addressed the team for 3-4 minutes with his pants around his ankles. The 49ers trailed 20-3 at halftime. They would lose the game, 34-13.
-- Arizona Republic