Quick Hits

The Substitute here.

While BWD takes a holiday to fracture the quiet of Yellowstone and frighten the bison with his two-stroke snowmobile, it's time for the kids to throw a little left-leaning party. Some shooters and jello-shots to get things going...

1) This Super Tuesday night is a hodgepodge mess. And I LOVE IT! American politics should be an amazing, chaotic, jumble that produces a battle-tested nominee and eventual winner. Anybody that can navigate the minefield of American presidential politics to gather the required share of electoral votes is deserving of at least a little admiration, given all they go through. A state primary should be part of a vast nation-wide jigsaw puzzle that forces the American voter to struggle and think about where his vote might fit in the grand scheme of things.

2) More importantly, tomorrow is college football Letter of Intent Day. And nowhere in America will it be more interesting to witness the results than in Los Angeles. The dawn of the Rick Neuheisel/Norm Chow Era in Westwood is the best thing to happen to college football since the days of the three Florida schools going at it during the 80's. SC-UCLA games may finally even eclipse the amazing OJ Simpson v. Gary Beban national championship/Rose Bowl showdown of the late 60's.

3) The Dem candidates are much more inspired and effective speakers than the GOP candidates, who almost look tired and unsure of themselves by comparison.

4) One of the more fun things about watching CNN tonight as the results pour in is watching William Bennett. The guy, while an unabashed conservative, is just fun to listen to. He has excellent insight, analysis, and anecdotes. For example... He told a story of a conservative dinner he was asked to host in NY a few weeks back. It was a Giuliani-dominated affair, but McCain showed up by himself, made a speech, and left just as quietly to an appreciative crowd that couldn't believe he showed up against such odds. Of course, we know what happened to the NYC mayor. It's the type of thing that paid off for him in the Empire State tonight.

5) Ron Paul. God love that guy. Lord only knows how many more votes the populist maverick would have got if there were no such things as political parties.

6) CNN coverage. One of the unfortunate things about Super Tuesday is that there are so many contests going on that a lot gets lost in the shuffle. The geo-political lessons they have given on the telestrater have been excellent. But they don't have enough time to show where the various factions of a party break down in North Dakota. It was one of the strengths of CNN in New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina. It's lacking tonight as CNN tries to keep up with breaking developments.

Keg's in the back.