As much as I agree with August's overall post, I fear that his statement, "McCain has decided to destroy with one pick the three talking points he had as an advantage over Obama," may be incorrect.
At a message board I frequent, when the experience question was put to the in-house die-hard Republicans, they quickly went "Doesn't matter" and moved on. Remember, IOKIYAR. They will have no cranial disconnect whatsoever in criticizing Obama's supposed lack of experience, yet stating their VP candidate's even greater lack isn't an issue. And our oh-so-liberal-media will have no problem with that, either. Same goes for the "Celebrity" talking point, though I never thought that was going to be much of an issue.
As for the Moderate Female Voters point... I'd like to think that disillusioned Hillary supporters won't just reflexively reach for the lever that has a woman on the ticket, not without thinking about the policy positions first. But considering that the last two elections were decided largely on bullshit like "I'd rather have a beer with Bush than the other guy!" instead of on policy debates, I put nothing past our mush-brained electorate anymore.
I didn't watch the DNC this week, because it's preaching to the converted. Ezra's take seems sound. I do think the Dems need to make good use of this chart.
Plenty o' sports items this week. Posnanski (who you all read regularly, right? RIGHT?) has a phenomenal post on coming home from the Olympics and going straight to a Springsteen concert. 13-year-old hockey goalie practices with pros. And while I really don't give a crap about Jay Marriotti, it's always gratifying to see Roger Ebert give someone a sound thrashing in print.
Lastly, the wacky: unfortunate potential hyphenated names.
Back when MTV rolled out many moons ago, there were rampant predictions that the music industry would be forever changed, especially in that the cosmetic appearance of the performers would be more important than ever. "No way a guy like Christopher Cross could get a major-label gig now," they said.
Here in the 21st century, I'm afraid they're right. During stray moments of channel-surfing, I've found cable channels that actually show videos, like MTVU and MTV Hits (so can we stop with the "Golly gosh, remember when MTV actually showed videos?" stuff for a while?). And I have this confusion around stuff like Mariah Carey's latest video, or anything by the Pussycat Dolls or their ilk. Am I supposed to dig Mariah Carey because she's a good singer with good songs, or because she's hot? If the latter, how does that work when I'm putting a CD in my car stereo? Same goes for Katy Perry or any number of female artists. The looks have altogether trumped the music. But if I want to look at hot chicks, I'll pick up a copy of Maxim or Playboy, thanks. I'd prefer to, you know, see videos for good songs when I turn on an MTV affiliate.
(Some male friends I've brought these up with don't get it. "Why are you complaining about Mariah Carey being hot? I mean, she's hot!")
On the other hand, a couple weeks ago I caught this video by a group called the Bridges. Hey music industry: these women who play their own instruments and write their own songs are only several hundred times more attractive than the hottest member of Danity Kane.
(Ten gets you twenty Neddie agrees with me on this.)
WARNING: does not contain any cookies
It's hard to get one's hopes up for a Nationals game these days. Fortunately, I'd watched the Dodgers lose to Philly Monday night and knew their offense was just as dreadful as the Nats', so maybe, just maybe, they could pull out a win.
And indeed, this game was all about the futility of LA's line-up. Derek Lowe pitched a damn fine ballgame, going the distance and giving up six hits and a walk. Unfortunately for him, one of those hits was a home run, and the Nats scratched out another run in the third on a single, a sac bunt, a groundout and another single. That would be enough, because while the Nats didn't pitch particularly great, the Dodgers just couldn't get a damn run home when they needed it.
Milledge was named player of the game for his home run, but really, Zimmerman was the star of the game. He's having a down year with the bat, but he's still as great in the field as any third baseman I've ever seen (and I grew up watching Mike Schmidt). He was in on four double plays last night, and it should have been five had Flores not had a brain lock on the bases-loaded play in the fifth that yielded the Dodgers' only run (sacks filled and no one out, Zimmerman snagged a sharp grounder to third, stepped on the bag and threw home. Garciaparra was out by a mile, but the ball just popped off Flores' glove. From the looks of it, Flores didn't realize the force was off and he needed to make a tag). Zimmerman was charged with an error in the 6th when a throw to second pulled Bonifacio off the bag, but he made up for it a moment later by snagging a line drive and doubling Manny off of third.
Good stuff. Now SCORE SOME MORE RUNS, fellas.
Oh, one more thing: interesting, and kind of cool, to hear the Roots' "Din Da Da" during pre-game warm-ups.
Via Neddie, Tom Frank drives around NoVA/DC and talks about the state of things. Interesting in a different way when you live and work in the middle of it.
John McCain, regular American! not actually rich at all! But he was a prisoner of war, so it's OK if he doesn't know how many houses he owns.
Love the "word cloud" that breaks down the two campaign web sites. Says a lot about how little McCain has to actually run on.
Behold the stunning lameness of GM.
Sports: I agree with Gary Kamiya's assessment of the women's beach volleyball gold medal winners. It's easy to dismiss the sport as cheesecake, but in fact they're incredibly skilled.
Lastly, as a part-time Philly fan, I gotta say that the reaction to the Jimmy Rollins "front-runners" quote is just asinine. Attention, Philadelphians: you're proving his point. Do you really want to run the NL MVP out of town? Do you have any clue who would take over shortstop and how big a drop-off that would be? Do you wonder why free agents don't want to come to Philly?
God forbid that our presidential candidates be presumptuous. That's pretty much the worst thing ever.
Reports on the Russia-Georgia conflict have been very short on causation. Pretty much just "Hey, Russia invaded Georgia, how about that," and you have to dig to find out why. The typically sound-minded Editors weigh in on the conflict.
Sports: As is so often the case, Olympic tickets are expensive and hard to get, leading to many empty seats. Yay Olympic spirit! Hooray for the common man!
Lastly, allow me to quote today's Las Vegas Advisor Question of the Day, since it will be gone tomorrow. Short and to the point.
Q: I have noticed recently that you are reporting information, with a drop-down heading, for Gay and Lesbians. Are there that many in our society that this has to be listed too?
A: Yes.
Obviously from the episode where pigs took over the entire show. The stand-in sounds an awful lot like Cookie Monster.
Have I mentioned lately that one could make a case against the Iraq war based on the economics alone?
All those Priuses would certainly help us use less gas. But apparently using less gas is for wimps. We must increase offshore drilling, even if that has no realistic chance of reducing gas prices. After all, real men don't think things through!
Hey, I love elephants as much as the next guy, but the idea that the zoo is sending away their hippo (and has already booted the giraffes) to make more elephant space strikes me as somehow wrong. I want to see a variety of species when I go to the zoo, not just all elephants and pandas all the time.
And lastly, sports and wackiness rolled in to one: The Nats' trip to Milwaukee this weekend could be interesting.
Having trouble deciding where to go on vacation this summer?
Bob Carpenter, end of the 4th: "The Nats make two baserunning errors in the inning; you hate to see that happen when you're ahead in the game."
Ooh, yeah. You know when else you hate to see that happen? When you're behind in the game. Or when the game is tied.
I'll be damned if I remember ever eating these, or even seeing them in a grocery store.
Missed the Wednesday Cookie Break because I was in St. Louis for a conference. Travel was full of minor annoyances, but nothing overly tragic.
What is tragic is the overuse of tasers in this country. It's been pretty well proven that when you give the cops shiny toys, they'll use them, often unnecessarily. Take SWAT teams, like this one in Maryland that invaded the mayor's house and shot his dogs. But, you know, what do you expect from America these days.
And remember, if you don't like right-wing talk radio hosts saying liberals should be shot, you have no sense of humor.
But enough complaining! Dirt cheap Paul Westerberg albums for everyone! Davy Crockett in Outer Space! Baseball is awesome!