Another Fearless Prognostication Sure to Go Wrong

As this article from today’s San Diego U-T sports section would suggest, the conventional wisdom is that Charger back-up tight end, Brandon Manumaleuna, will have to step up his game if Pro Bowl starter Antonio Gates is not able to answer the bell because of a sprained left big toe.

While this may be true, we are going to throw in our wild card. The gentleman pictured at right is Legedu Naanee, the Charger’s rookie hybrid TE/WR (to reduce the team's roster-spot footprint) out of Boise St. He didn’t get a whole lot of playing time this season but we liked what we saw when he did.

At 6-2 and 226 lbs. we like Naanee for this match-up as he has the speed and athleticism, more so than the Big Samoan, to get upfield on those seam routes to which cover-2 defenses are at times vulnerable. The Colts D will be occupied taking away the outside threats of Chris Chambers and Vincent Jackson so we’re hoping this leaves the middle portion of the field open. The onus will be on Philip Rivers to drop the ball in over the linebackers but underneath the safeties.
So there you have it… we’re getting our marker in early. If the Chargers are to beat the Colts on Sunday, we believe Naanee will be the ‘X’-factor no one anticipated going in.

Hey, Wait a minute. We know that Guy.

Article here from Slate.com suggests that Barack Obama was felled in New Hampshire by good ol’ fashioned white liberal guilt. The article trots out the political phenomena known as the “Bradley effect”, named after former Los Angeles mayor, the late Tom Bradley who lost the California governorship in 1982 after polling data predicted he would win.

As the phenomena applies to the primary, poll-goers will tell the pollster they are voting for Obama so as to not appear bigoted. This phenomena takes on a much more dramatic dynamic in Iowa as the caucus rules dictate that one has to openly declare for their respective candidate at the precinct caucus. This supposedly results in neighbors wanting to “out-progressive” one another by voting for the black candidate… “Oh yeah....? Well, if there were two of them there fellers.... we'd vote for 'em both!"

Of course, the alleged Bradley effect is muted as one’s bigotry is kept perfectly secret in the anonymous voting booths of New Hampshire.

As far as we’re concerned, we’re not so convinced. Upon further review, it appears some good ol’-fashioned big city machine politics was more responsible for Hillary’s “comeback” than anything else. If anecdotal evidence and license plates are to be believed, Clinton Inc.'s “get out the vote” drive reached across state boundaries to Massachusetts and Vermont to take advantage of New Hampshire’s lax voting regulations.

Can We Go Back to Detesting Her, Again?

A few thoughts on last night’s New Hampshire primary…

- We’ll freely admit it: Even us cold, cruel rape-pillage-and-burn conservatives felt a twinge of sympathy for ol’ girl before last night.

- How could the polls get it that wrong on the Democrat side while pretty much nailing the eventual Republican results? A quick perusal of the message boards revealed a majority opinion: Fraud!

- Huckabee was supposed to be in trouble in New Hampshire because the Granite State was allegedly all “no tax, no government”. So to confirm this point, the voters go out and give McCain 37% of the vote and the victory….? Then again, since none of the Republican candidates outside of Fred (who didn’t campaign there) have been espousing anything resembling a coherent conservative message, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the results.

- Sean Hannity is a tool. We find Fox’s house lib, Alan Colmes, infinitely more likeable than that smug little punk.

- Laura Ingraham is a babe.

- We think Brent Bozell and NewsBusters serve a useful purpose but, honestly… why bother when you have completely unabashed, unashamed admission like this.

- So… Is Iowa wrong, again?

- Back to our 2nd point… How does this happen? Everybody was in the tank for Obama, it was Obama 24/7 for the past week, it was all but a foregone conclusion, a double-digit walk-in-the-park for the Dem's "rock star".… people writing Hillary’s obits… only a few people like Dick Morris and Bob Shrum (Bob Shrum!) were saying she still had a shot. How? How did it happen?

- If you haven’t seen it, here’s the “tears” felt across the nation. The YouTube clip doesn’t do this justice. The lighting is perfect, the audio crisp, the camera angle and close-up flattering and Hillary has this weary but warm glow about her. We saw it in HD last night and we were absolutely mesmerized. And this was supposed to have been an unscripted moment captured by a free-lance photographer? Right. Classic. Clinton.

- We brought up a while back (here) how Hillary was going to play both sides of the gender coin and be successful doing it. Whenever it suited her, she would play either the tuff chick or the vulnerable lady. A few people who will go unnamed, doubted the effectiveness of this strategy. She played the road-weary but idealistic lady on Monday, knocked it out of the park and walked away with the New Hampshire primary. How do ya like her now?

- For posterity’s sake: We don’t ever remember primary season being this fascinating, this compelling, this entertaining and this downright fun… and doggone, if Democracy can’t be fun then what’s the use?

Bold Prediction: Romney Will Win NH

B-Daddy here. In an attempt to add to my long string of poor electoral predictions, I am predicting a win for Mitt Romney over John McCain in the New Hampshire Republican primary. I believe that the independents that John McCain needs to win in New Hampshire will be going wild for Obama, depriving him of his left of right base. I am not saying that Mitt Romney deserves to win. He has had an opportunity to define himself to voters and chose instead to stay away from a single theme that would capture the imagination of America. Too bad, because he seems like a decent guy. But by failing to bring his candidacy into focus, he looks like a typical waffling politician. Regardless, I think the combination of Romney's very good debate performance Sunday and Obamamania will sink McCain. OK, New Hampshire, go out and prove me wrong....again.

As an aside, while everyone else is looking for the return of Ronald Reagan, I think the Republican party needs the return of Barry Goldwater. This is because he drew sharp distinctions that laid the solid foundation for what the Republican party became in later years, when it achieved success for itself and for America. Further, I believe that Goldwater's thinking would be much more accepted by the America of today than of 1964.

The BCS: Sucking the Fun out of Life since 1999.

Despite the coaching advantage Ohio State held over LSU, it was evident as the game last night dragged on that, once again, a top-flight SEC team just has more athletes and more play-makers across-the-board than a top-flight Big 10 team.

We commnented to Mongo last night while watching the game that because of the long period of inactivity prior to the game where the two participants have not taken the field in anger for well over a month, the BCS championship game was turning into what the Super Bowl can often be characterized as: All sizzle, no substance. This ain’t no coincidence, folks. Two straight BCS championship games a full week after New Year’s, two straight flat, uninspiring games.

…. or maybe its because one of the 2 teams had no business being there…

Are we going to relent and admit we were mistaken when we predicted that neither LSU nor USC would win the BCS championship? Sure. LSU won it. We were wrong. But we would also like an admission from the BCS that Ohio State was not the #2 team in the land. Afterall, that’s what they promise us every year and it seems that much more often than not, they get it wrong.

Outside of the greatest college football game ever played 2 years ago when Texas beat USC, 41-38 and after the ’01 season when Ohio St. upset heavily-favored Miami, the remaining 8 games have been remarkable only in their unremarkableness. In fact, the average margin of victory in the 10 BCS title games since its inception has been 16 points (35-19) and since the BCS expanded to 5 bowl games 2 years ago the average margin in those 10 games is 18 pts. (38-20)… hardly the stuff of legend.

And this is what frustrates us about all this: We love college football more than any other sport… we start looking forward to the upcoming season beginning with spring practices and really start ramping up when the college previews start coming out in June and we are absolutely beside ourselves by Labor Day when the season kicks off… and each year, it seems, we are left uninspired and unfulfilled at the end of the season by horrible bowl matchups and legitimate questions regarding who is truly the best team in the nation.

College football needs to fix this. Despite the talking heads at Fox and ESPN/ABC who are paid to lie to us by claiming “the system works”, its clearly not. Scrap this foul non-sense known as the BCS and go to a play-off system or back to the old bowl format. Quit wasting our time with our game.

Programming Alert

We'll be in and out all week as entertaining out-of-town guests will be the first order of business. B-Daddy will be here to guide you through the choppy presidential primary and post-college football waters.

Pastor Mike wants to get something off his chest… because he feels just terrible about it

Hi, I’m Mike Huckabee. You can call me “Mike” or “Mike, the bass player” but I’d prefer you call me “Mike, the Republican presidential candidate who is a pious, morally-upright evangelical Christian and wants your vote because of it”.

Now, I caused a bit of a dust-up last week just prior to the Iowa caucus by pulling an ad that I concluded was too negative towards one of my Republican opponents. As I told everyone, going negative (this early) is just not what I’m all about. Its not how my campaign should be run… I’m trying my level best to raise the level of discourse in these primaries.

But after my big victory in Iowa, I think its time to turn my attention to my potential adversaries on the other side of the aisle, the Democrat candidates. And similar to what happened last week on the eve of the Iowa caucus, I’m here today to tell you that I am not going to do what I had originally planned.

Just a few hours ago, I had planned on making some snarky comments about the way Hillary was extending out her right arm during the Democrats’ New Hampshire primary debates over the weekend… made it look like she was doing the “Sieg Heil” thing. I’m sure she didn’t realize she was doing it but still… anyway, that’s what I came here to tell you… that on the way over in the car I came to the realization yet again that you, the American voting public deserve more of me, a devout Christian, than for me to draw comparisons, however tongue-in-cheek, between Hillary Clinton and the Nazis… I mean c’mon, that’s just a little bit over the top dontcha think?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. I can’t help but think you feel the way you do because I’m a Christian and that your criticism is generated from within the belly of the Beltway establishment beast to take down a true outsider like myself. Does my overt evangelicalness scare you? Well, there’s nothing that I can do about your hostility except pray…. pray for wisdom, understanding and compassion…. your’s that is.

I’m Mike Huckabee and I approved this message.

(Yawn)

Well… Its finally here. Can you feel the excitement? We’re of the opinion that playing the BCS championship game on Jan. 7 is an absolutely horrible idea. We understand the calculus but it doesn’t resonate with the college football fan in us.

Fox has been using the NFL playoffs to cross-promote this game which not coincidentally is being played in the Monday Night Football time slot the night after the NFL’s wild card round concludes and in which Fox has a stake.

But that’s just the problem: the reality is that once the NFL playoffs start, nothing else matters. Talk radio and cooler talk at work was 80/20 NFL playoffs/BCS title game today…. how is that a good thing?

Fox and the BCS are banking on the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between the college and pro games but its apparent that Fox is not merely content to let the two entities stand on their own merit but have succeeded with Fox’s signature promotional and production style/techniques to effectively blur the distinctions between the two brands. And its brutally obvious by watching the bowl games that Fox has televised thus far (including last year’s), they have zero feel for the college game. Again, how is that a good thing?

Whatever interest they may have generated in this game tonight has to be offset by the fact that its is being played a week after the last (in)significant bowl game on New Year’s Day. Jan. 7? We’re so over college football. This game would’ve been much better served being played on Jan. 3 (Thurs. a good T.V. night we are told). This simultaneously maintains momentum from the New Year’s bowl games without getting drowned-out in the wake of the NFL playoffs. Now, how is that a bad thing?

Change the oil, change your underwear, change your mind… Change the Channel!

B-Daddy had his thoughts on the Republican New Hampshire primary debates, here. We’ve been trying to catch up on the Democrat side via You Tube and Hot Air. You know, every time we start getting a little bummed-out about our options on the Republican side, we watch the Democrats… and feel even worse.
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Click on image to hear Mr. Elizabeth Edwards kiss Obama’s rear end while making his case that he’s the real agent for change. No, he isn’t… yes, he is… No, he isn’t… yes, he is.. By our count, Johnny-boy uses the word “change” 7 times in that 68 second clip. And can we assume that Hillary is the Death Star of the "Forces of status-quo"?

Convinced? Ha! You think Edwards is the true agent for change? Please. Hillary absolutely kicks lil’ Johnny’s ass by using the term 10 times in this 67 second clip. 10 times! Poor Johnny didn’t know what hit him.

Unintended Consequences of a Noble Fight

More Bush news…. tough. Like his predecessor, its apparent Bush is in full-blown legacy mode as his Presidency winds down but perhaps unlike his predecessor’s legacy, Bush is hoping to receive a little more good-will because of it. Bush is pushing Congressional lawmakers for a $30 billion/5 year commitment towards combating AIDS/HIV in Africa. Read article here.

Of course, any such well-intended efforts like this will always have to negotiate roadblocks as those put up by Democrats who are insisting Bush drop the prudish abstinence training and needle-exchange ban elements from his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief thereby refusing to acknowlege it becomes far, far more difficult to acquire the HIV virus if one does not engage in sex or intravenous drug use.

As such, it also becomes far, far more difficult for us to believe the “cake and eat it too crowd” both here and abroad possess any real desire to actually solve some of this planet’s most pressing concerns when we read about this crap.

Aside from doing battle with nit-wits like Congressional Democrats, there seems to be unintended consequences, as well, to the global battle on AIDS/HIV as this article from the L.A. Times points out. Bill and Melinda Gates have poured billions of dollars of their own personal treasure into Africa to fight AIDS/HIV but according to this article, the War on AIDS has come at the expense of other health care needs as a disproportionate amount of money going to the AIDS/HIV fight has diverted attention and thus resources from things like basic pre and post-natal care as well as food and dietary needs.

"Don't make me do 'something' about it... You Don't Want to Go There"

Along with unemployment hitting a 2-year high of 5%, the credit crunch and the housing slump are all indicators a recession is a near certainty we are told regardless if President Bush does anything about it.

“Jobless rate up as Bush considers rescue plan” was the headline in yesterday’s U-T and it struck panic in our hearts as we envisioned Bush doing something retarded like opening up the Federal oil reserves or similar.

Congressional leaders like Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) certainly think something needs to be done… Frank: “… public policy response is needed to help the economy recover more quickly.” Some impressive Socialist wonk-speak, there.

And Chucky: “If there were ever a shot across the bow to this administration to get off its laissez-faire boat and start helping the economy, this is it.” What… no further lame analogies like “bailing water out the boat” or the “sinking boat” or “a faster-paddling public policy response”…? So many gems left at the ummm… pier.

For his part Bush, is considering a recovery package, the center-piece of which will be…. You got it… Tax cuts! This is so great. The silver lining in this economic downturn is there is now an economic situation by which to put Congress on the spot… a Congress that has already effectively raised our taxes by refusing to extend the Bush tax cuts of ’01 and ‘03 that are set to expire starting within the next calendar year.

As with us, Bush believes tax cuts are the right thing to do but as with us also, we imagine Bush relishing a fight with Congress…. Afterall, they are demanding he do “something”, so here it is. What say ye, Congress?

We look forward to seeing how this will play out, especially with respect to its impact on the Presidential races.

Thanks to B-Daddy for simultaneously posting while we were at Tequila Club AND quelling a near-riot situation at his house last night.