Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Notes 9/7/11: Presidential Football Preview

·         It’s not like I thought he could win or anything, but having just read a breakdown of his campaign on Slate.Com, I’m now more convinced than ever that Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign is dead in the water.

·         While we’re on the subject of politics, I’ll tell you that I downloaded Mitt Romney’s 59-point plan for fixing the country today, but that I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.  That said… how many other people are go get and actually read this thing?  I mean, I’m planning to skim it and offer a synopsis as best I can, but the thing is LOOOONG, even for a political junkie/college European History major like me.  Ugh. 

C’mon, Mitt.  For a smart guy, releasing this huge tome was an awfully DUMB move.  Nobody reads anymore, big guy.

·         Last thing on presidential politics for the day: The big Republican debate is tonight.  You’ll recall that that’s the one that Speaker John Boehner protected by refusing President Obama’s request to speak to a joint session of Congress about a prospective jobs and public works proposal.  Thus, we had the ugly spectacle last week of Obama’s request to speak to the nation being denied by Congress so that it now conflicts with the first game of the new NFL season.  And I think most folks who pay attention recognized this as a rather transparent attempt by the White House to simply overshadow the Republicans.  So although I don’t usually like Boenher a lot, I thought his response here was the right one, really the only one he could give.  That it happened to embarrass the Hell out of the President was simply a nice bonus

If you’re wondering, I don’t plan to watch either the debate or the speech on Thursday, mostly because I find it easier to read the synopsis in the New York Times the next day.  Politicians tend to use so many words to express so few actual ideas after all, and the Times’s summaries are usually both fairly complete and inclusive of some context when necessary. 

Still, the debate might get interesting.  It seems that everyone in the field now has a vested interest in tearing down Rick Perry while Perry himself looks more and more like the only guy in the race with an actual clue about how to run a successful campaign.  Personally, I’m expecting fireworks.  With any luck, either the stage itself will spontaneously combust, or they’ll scrap the format altogether and let the candidates go straight at it, Thunderdome style.

·         I’ve been working a little around the edges with my friend Alan Evans on a potential new comic project.  There’s not much to it yet, but I’ve enjoyed the chance to work on creative writing a little bit.

·         Finally, Tennessee Titans football starts this Sunday.  With that in mind, here’s my really, really quick season preview:

Game
Prediction
@ Jacksonville
W
Baltimore
L
Denver
W
@ Cleveland
W
@ Pittsburgh
L
Houston
L
Indianapolis
W
Cincinnati
W
@ Carolina
W
@ Atlanta
L
Tampa Bay
L
@ Buffalo
W
New Orleans
L
@ Indianapolis
L
Jacksonville
W
@ Houston
L

If you’re wondering, that’ll put the team at 8-8.  Not a bad record, all things considered. 

Of course, there are games in there that could easily go either way—Cleveland, Indy (depending on the state of Peyton Manning), etc—but I think you can count on winning a game or two you think you might lose and losing a game or two you ought to win.  So… 8-8.  That’s my official prediction.

That’s all I got.  See ya tomorrow!

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