Quick Hits from an Insomniac

Hey all,

I spent the entire day cooped up doing a book review and some other research, and now its 2AM and I'm nowhere near tired, so I thought I would pop in and throw out some quick discussion points that are running through my head at a hundred miles per hour. Give me some responses to let me know what you think - let's get the discussion going!

I. Political Notes

a. I don't get the Barack Obama "bitterness" furor. What did he say that was wrong? Wouldn't you be bitter after three decades of hardships and broken promises? I wish some Pennsylvanians would stand up and say "Hey! He got it right! I AM bitter! Now FIX it!" I'm bitter about a lot of things regarding politics and I'm only 22. I can't wait for the day when we can actually admit how we feel.

b. Hillary can't keep her own husband quiet and she's going to run our country?

c. One would think being associated with Bush would crush anyone's political future, but a new poll suggests having Condoleeza Rice on the ticket could help McCain beat any type of Obama/Clinton ticket in true blue New York. Go figure THAT one out.

II. The Sports Report

a. The coverage Tiger Woods gets is incredible. I wonder if anyone would pay any attention to golf at all if it wasn't for ESPN and SI's obessive discussions over each shot, and debating whether he's falling apart or the greatest golfer ever, based on his last round's score.

b. Andruw Jones will figure it out.

c. I'm not that sure about the Tigers.

d. I can't say I pay much attention to hockey all that much, but it's my experience that the NHL playoffs might be one of the most exciting sports events of the year. Those guys leave it all out there every game, and each one is edge-of-your-seat stuff. If you haven't given it a shot, now's a good time.

Talk to you all soon enough!

A Month of Motion and We're in the Same Place

Hey all,

Obviously it's been a long time since I've last posted, and as I started to prepare to write this entry, I was wondering about all of the things that have happened over the last month in both politics and sports - countless primaries, the Roger Clemens hearing, more NFL Spygate stories, John McCain clinching the Republican nomination - and then it occurred to me that in the grand scheme of things, we're largely in the same place we were a month ago!

This isn't to discount the importance of what has happened over the last month; especially concerning the upcoming election, but let's look at things in a broad sense - Obama and Hillary are still virtually tied and the momentum is swinging back and forth like a pendulum, we STILL don't have proof over whether Clemens did steroids (but we saw how partisanship can even be an issue when sports and Congress collide) or whether the Patriots are worthy of their Super Bowl titles, and McCain was the front runner after Super Tuesday anyway. A huge amount of pomp and circumstance (and money spent) just to tread water, wouldn't you say?

I think, in fact, that this stagnation might be part of the problem with our political election process. With campaigns starting earlier and earlier each cycle, it feels like there is a lot of dead time with nothing going on but the candidates spitting on each other. It's obviously beneficial to have more time to learn about each candidate, but really, how much name calling do we need? How many times can I hear Hillary question Obama's experience, and listen to Obama call for change? I GET IT - now let's get on with the show. Now, we have SIX WEEKS before another meaningful primary - I know Pennsylvania wasn't supposed to have an impact, but you think maybe someone should have planned for a close race. Now we are all going to be subject to the same droning on about the issues we've already beaten to death, and frankly, who wouldn't be sick of the whole thing by the time we hit the convention?


On the other hand, while I might be less disgusted with John McCain by the time the general election starts, I do think that his clinching the nomination while the other two continue to fight will actually hurt him, if only because he will be out of the public eye. I think he could ask Rudy about how important public awareness and momentum are in these types of things. So maybe this whole thing is a vicious cycle - the more intrusive your campaign, the more people get aggravated with you, but the less intrusive, the more people forget about you. Which is the lesser of two evils?

I'm about to dive into "Why Americans Hate Politics" by EJ Dionne; a subject I've always been interested in myself. I think the items mentioned above might have something to do with it, but I'll keep you posted on anything interesting from the book. However, the idea that we've spent a month dealing with all of this to no real end certainly makes me aggravated.

Or maybe I'm just trying to run away from my guilt of not posting in a month by blaming the political system. You can be the judge.