First off, lots to say about the last night of the convention but the bottom line for me is that I feel better about Obama than I did before the convention started: better about voting for him, better about his chances of winning... the whole shebang.
And how about Don getting his pick w/ Sarah Palin? The only possible explanation is that McCain is a regular reader of PhillyWill, in which case I have to say -- "John, I tried the best pickle last week!" (he loves pickles)
In any case, Palin balances out the 'Bold and the Beautiful' and 'Young and Restless' quotient on the ticket, just as Biden did in reverse for Obama. Another oldish white male would've sunk the GOP unless he had been a cant-miss pick, and none of those existed. She's also got a muckraker reputation and can definitely play up the Washington-outsider card. However, the flip side of that is that if something happens to McCain, she'll take over with Geena Davis-level of national experience. I'm going to give McCain the benefit of the doubt and NOT assume he thinks Palin will win over former Hillary supporters. Palin's pro-life-ness would clearly negate her gender-ness on that front. But what about the 'independents'? The jury's out on that one.
I guess when it's all said and done, I feel better about all four of these folks than Bush/Cheney, so there's progress.
8/28/08
Rocky Mountain High ...
...was probably Tuesday night, but since I haven't caught up yet, I'll have to go with last night. Bill kicked ass as expected. I was impressed with Kerry, too, who was clearly getting out some pent-up frustration.
Biden was fine; my only complaint was the obviously-intentional Bush/McCain 'Freudian slip.' Kerry did the same thing earlier and it sounded stupid the first time. Anyway, Biden was energized but sane and shared the spotlight well. The intergenerational family theme was genuine; when 'We Are Family' came on, I believed it.
I am starting to get a little queasy about the roiling storm of the Repub convention. The 'he's not ready' and 'wrong ticket' themes are going to bludgeon us and will probably score some points; going second is a huge advantage here for the GOP. (I guess waiting til after Obama's acceptance speech before getting my panties in a wad makes sense too). One hope is that McCain picks someone goofy and he/they has to spend much of the convention explaining the choice. I guess I'm having trouble imagining a non-goofy choice, come to think of it. McCain is so clearly a superior candidate to his party-mates it seems hard to imagine how far from the nomination he was at one point.
Biden was fine; my only complaint was the obviously-intentional Bush/McCain 'Freudian slip.' Kerry did the same thing earlier and it sounded stupid the first time. Anyway, Biden was energized but sane and shared the spotlight well. The intergenerational family theme was genuine; when 'We Are Family' came on, I believed it.
I am starting to get a little queasy about the roiling storm of the Repub convention. The 'he's not ready' and 'wrong ticket' themes are going to bludgeon us and will probably score some points; going second is a huge advantage here for the GOP. (I guess waiting til after Obama's acceptance speech before getting my panties in a wad makes sense too). One hope is that McCain picks someone goofy and he/they has to spend much of the convention explaining the choice. I guess I'm having trouble imagining a non-goofy choice, come to think of it. McCain is so clearly a superior candidate to his party-mates it seems hard to imagine how far from the nomination he was at one point.
8/27/08
Priorities
I haven't seen Hillary's speech yet. The plan was for the Phillies to make quick work of the Mets at the Bank and get back in time for the actual or recently TiVo'd start of the speech. Well, wouldn't you know it, the Phils spotted the Mets 7 runs through three, then held them scoreless for the ensuing TEN innings to finally win it in the 13th on a bases-loaded Chris Coste single.
It was a weird one: 7-0 Mets innings 1-3. 8-0 Phils innings 4-13. I got home just in time to watch the re-cap as the lead story on 1 a.m. Sports Center. Another shout out to Harsha who not only stayed for the full 13 but also biked home with me, protecting me from some thugs who started shouting 'tightie whities' at us. (Harsha's Indian and I was wearing boxers so I'm not sure what that was all about).
After last season's epic collapse and then this game, you gotta wonder where the Mets' heads are right now. The literalists might say "at the tops of their necks."
Did Hillary really make a 'Sisterhood of the traveling pantssuit' joke?
It was a weird one: 7-0 Mets innings 1-3. 8-0 Phils innings 4-13. I got home just in time to watch the re-cap as the lead story on 1 a.m. Sports Center. Another shout out to Harsha who not only stayed for the full 13 but also biked home with me, protecting me from some thugs who started shouting 'tightie whities' at us. (Harsha's Indian and I was wearing boxers so I'm not sure what that was all about).
After last season's epic collapse and then this game, you gotta wonder where the Mets' heads are right now. The literalists might say "at the tops of their necks."
Did Hillary really make a 'Sisterhood of the traveling pantssuit' joke?
8/25/08
Biden time
By now I'm sure you've all heard that Obama picked Joe Biden to fill out the ticket. Great move, I think. He reminds me of Lloyd Bentsen: conviction, pragmatism, experience. Of course, there are some negatives -- saying Obama wasn't ready to be president jumps to mind -- but, hey, if there were a perfect choice it probably wouldn't have taken til the weekend before the convention to name him/her.
Speaking of which, I was pleased to get an email from Sen Clinton Saturday saying she thought Biden was a great choice and she'll support the ticket fully at the convention. No doubt there will be some dissent amongst her die-hards but I just don't see them getting much traction with the leaders presenting a united front.
The Repubs were up early Sun morning getting the spin out -- if Obama got 50% of the vote and Clinton got 50%, not picking her as a running mate was bad/weak/whatever. This sound-byte didn't have much oomph to it, especially from Giuliani -- c'mon, dude, your election strategy opinions are suspect at best. You could almost feel that their better ammo would've come if he had picked her (It's 3 a.m., we don't want either one of them answering the phone...)
Speaking of which, I was pleased to get an email from Sen Clinton Saturday saying she thought Biden was a great choice and she'll support the ticket fully at the convention. No doubt there will be some dissent amongst her die-hards but I just don't see them getting much traction with the leaders presenting a united front.
The Repubs were up early Sun morning getting the spin out -- if Obama got 50% of the vote and Clinton got 50%, not picking her as a running mate was bad/weak/whatever. This sound-byte didn't have much oomph to it, especially from Giuliani -- c'mon, dude, your election strategy opinions are suspect at best. You could almost feel that their better ammo would've come if he had picked her (It's 3 a.m., we don't want either one of them answering the phone...)
8/21/08
Bass-ackwards
Wait...we won women's soccer gold and lost softball? to Japan? Didn't we invent softball?
8/19/08
Update
The streets of Brooklyn were hopping last weekend prompting Owen to observe wide-eyed: "Now I know what it's like to be out in New York on a Saturday night."
O started a week of soccer camp on Monday. UK elite's "Coach Matt", actually of the UK, was running the 6-and-olders through some drills, shouting out instructions, not particularly concerned if they were following along or not. I guess that's the only way to do it without going nuts. I'm going to stop back by on Friday for the scrimmage, hopefully getting some pictures.
In other news, Jack and Sam are out on assignment, attempting to rid Julie's house of mice.
Reports are that they are doing a lot of lounging around
but the hope is that their pheromones alone will do the trick, though recent reports suggest that it may only make the mice 'macho.' I'm sure Julie would appreciate if at this point I mentioned that her house is not overrun with mice; in fact, there's only marginal evidence of their/its presence.
O started a week of soccer camp on Monday. UK elite's "Coach Matt", actually of the UK, was running the 6-and-olders through some drills, shouting out instructions, not particularly concerned if they were following along or not. I guess that's the only way to do it without going nuts. I'm going to stop back by on Friday for the scrimmage, hopefully getting some pictures.
In other news, Jack and Sam are out on assignment, attempting to rid Julie's house of mice.
Reports are that they are doing a lot of lounging around
but the hope is that their pheromones alone will do the trick, though recent reports suggest that it may only make the mice 'macho.' I'm sure Julie would appreciate if at this point I mentioned that her house is not overrun with mice; in fact, there's only marginal evidence of their/its presence.
8/16/08
Instant classic
You have to see "Tropic Thunder" ... funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Robert Downey Jr started the summer w/ "Ironman" and ended with this one -- he's on a serious roll.
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