Thursday, September 4, 2008

From USC to the RNC

USC has leap-frogged Georgia and Ohio State to gain the number one ranking in the latest USA Toady Coaches poll.
I'm a huge USC fan (No, I didn't go to USC, I went to BYU-Hawaii Campus for ummm..."vacation".). Living in Texas, all I hear is how Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl for the national title -three seasons ago.
Fans tend to talk more (ish) than the players who were actually involved in the game. Bush (Reggie not George), Leinert, and Vince Young often speak of each other with admiration and respect. We fans can talk all we want but we lack the better understanding of those we follow. Only those players involved truly understand the trials and sacrifices made to reach the position of being one of the top two contenders in the country.


When the issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy was brought up to Barak Obama, Mr Obama told reporters (looking for a juicy soundbite) that it was Mrs. Palin's family's business and a personal matter. He even pointed out the fact that he was raised by a single mother.

When Barak Obama capped a successful and celebratory convention with an inspirational speech, John McCain congratulated him on a great job done.

Most of the "news" that we'll hear over the next month will be hyperbole, conjecture and opinion. All of the players involved in this year's election understand the game better than most of us sitting back and watching the events unfold.



Random Observations From the RNC

Spit as gel - Must be from Alaska. One must made-do with what one has.
Juneau = Juno - Quite the coincidence that the name of a movie about teenage pregnancy and the name of Mrs. Palin's pregnant teenage daughter's school were both Juneau (Juno).
Speeches - Was McCain really checking out Palin's b'dunk-adunk?
Fred Thomas - Where was this passion and energy during his campaign?
Mike Huckabee - He almost had me voting for him.
Mitt Romney - He seemed to be campaigning for himself in 2012.
Rudolf Guilianni - A bunch of catch phases with no substance. And at one time, he was the front-runner.
Bush (George not Reggie) - Like Rudy, he's still trying to bring up 911.
Sarah Palin - Mmnumm...mmnumm...mmnumm. (Me eating my words). Damn, Wonder Woman delivered. How much substance and truth were involved is subjective but it seems like McCain picked the right "pit bull in lipstick".


Mendacious Minds:
No, not lying, just a bit misleading. While not endemic to their party, the Republicans seem to have studied Machiavelli's philosophies (The primary duty of political leaders is to secure and maintain power. Sometimes the necessity to put aside moral considerations will arise when the ultimate goal of winning will be of more importance.). Contrary to the family values/ abstinence only philosophy of the party - Mrs. Palin's situation demonstrates the family values of keeping a baby born out of wedlock. Troopergate - Republicans circled the wagons to deny that any abuse of power ever took place in the on-going investigation. In "War Secrets Senator John McCain Hides" by Sydney Schamberg; Mr McCain is portrayed as having secrets to hide from his fellow servicemen and American citizens. Mr Obama says that he will never question McCain's patriotism and Vietnam Veterans are paraded out to speak of John McCain's courage (even though the article and John McCain's book "Faith of My Fathers" portrays McCain as the "Crown Prince" and having been treated more lenietly than his fellow POW.

Are people lying or covering secrets? Sure, it's part of the process.
In our age of blogs, the National Enquirer, TMZ and the Internet - "facts" are easily found. If we had had all of these tools available to us in times past, we would probably have never elected Reagan, JFK, Lincoln or FDR. Some secrets just are not that important.



In all honesty, I hope that nothing bad comes out or proves to be true about any candidate.
In a time when our country is so badly in need of change in the right direction, I hope that the best of the two political teams win. I've been surprised by all of the candidates. Mr McCain's hail-mary seems to have worked (not for a touchdown - but they are at the seven yard line). I just hope that neither team drops the ball.

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