How to Lose Your Party a Senate Seat: Alaska Edition
-
Trying to trick voters isn’t nice. Getting caught trying to trick voters
isn’t smart.
9 hours ago
Friday, September 26, 2008
Literally the Most Fun Presidential Debate Drinking Game Ever
Okay so I've been looking all morning for a good drinking game to play tonight with my nerdy friends as we spend our Friday evenings in front of the television watching the presidential debate instead of hitting up the hoppin DC bar scene. I don't think many people were posting their game rules this morning because it was still up in the air whether McCain was going to show or not, but now that Magoo is coming (supposedly, unless the bat signal reappears), several sites have published their drinking game rules. But I just decided to make my own because it's straightforward and, I think, actually playable.
Literally the Most Fun Presidential Debate Drinking Game Ever
-As a warm up, chug your drink if both candidates show up.
-Take one sip of the drink of the person to your right every time McCain starts a sentence with "my friends"
-Take one sip of the drink of the person to your left every time Obama starts a sentence with "look."
-Take one sip every time McCain contradicts a statement he made earlier in the week.
-Take a sip every time McCain says "reform"
-Take a sip every time Obama says "change"
-Take a sip every time either candidate says "same old failed policies"
-Give the tv the finger and take a sip every time either candidate compliments the other.
-Trade your drink with someone else and chug it whenever the figure $700 billion is mentioned.
-Drink the entire length of every pause Obama takes between the subject and predicate of a sentence.
-Drink for 2 seconds every time Wall Street and Main Street are mentioned in the same sentence.
-Drink for 4 seconds every time either candidate blames the media for misrepresenting him.
-Drink for 5 and a half seconds every time McCain mentions being a POW. If you finish your drink, break the can/bottle/glass on your forehead.
-Drink for 7 seconds every time McCain can't remember how many houses he owns.
-Toast your neighbors and drink for 8 seconds every time Obama compares McCain to Bush.
-Get on your knees, look to Russia, make the sign of the cross, and chug your drink whenever Sarah Palin is mentioned.
-Waterfall every time McCain says Rezko, Wright, or Ayers.
-Waterfall every time Obama says Davis, Fiorina, Gramm, or Keating.
Literally the Most Fun Presidential Debate Drinking Game Ever
-As a warm up, chug your drink if both candidates show up.
-Take one sip of the drink of the person to your right every time McCain starts a sentence with "my friends"
-Take one sip of the drink of the person to your left every time Obama starts a sentence with "look."
-Take one sip every time McCain contradicts a statement he made earlier in the week.
-Take a sip every time McCain says "reform"
-Take a sip every time Obama says "change"
-Take a sip every time either candidate says "same old failed policies"
-Give the tv the finger and take a sip every time either candidate compliments the other.
-Trade your drink with someone else and chug it whenever the figure $700 billion is mentioned.
-Drink the entire length of every pause Obama takes between the subject and predicate of a sentence.
-Drink for 2 seconds every time Wall Street and Main Street are mentioned in the same sentence.
-Drink for 4 seconds every time either candidate blames the media for misrepresenting him.
-Drink for 5 and a half seconds every time McCain mentions being a POW. If you finish your drink, break the can/bottle/glass on your forehead.
-Drink for 7 seconds every time McCain can't remember how many houses he owns.
-Toast your neighbors and drink for 8 seconds every time Obama compares McCain to Bush.
-Get on your knees, look to Russia, make the sign of the cross, and chug your drink whenever Sarah Palin is mentioned.
-Waterfall every time McCain says Rezko, Wright, or Ayers.
-Waterfall every time Obama says Davis, Fiorina, Gramm, or Keating.
Hooray! My Friday Night is Saved!
Thank heavens! John McCain will come down to Earth from his very important position as Economy Messiah and grace us plebeians with the gift of his opinions in a live studio event. The debate is on.
And not only that, but McCain already won! Huzzah! At least says the Wall Street Journal in this ad on their website:
[Thank you Christina and Wonkette]
And not only that, but McCain already won! Huzzah! At least says the Wall Street Journal in this ad on their website:
[Thank you Christina and Wonkette]Let's Put This All Together Now
Okay so this financial crisis is complicated, confusing, depressing, and frustrating. Fun times in America! None of what's happening in the economy is made any easier by the fact that we are in the home stretch of a very important presidential election. Double yay!
In order to try to make some sense of what's happened, I'm going to give you a basic outline of what's been going on, as I understand it. Let me stress as I understand it. If this is totally wrong, please, someone speak up and edumacate us all.
1. Okay so because our government has been run by firm believers of absolute free markets, banks have been generally deregulated over the last decade. The government says, go ahead guys, do your thing, we trust you and we don't want to interfere. So banks and investment firms and the like were like, cool, thanks, we're going to do kind of what we want now.
2. When someone buys a home and uses a mortgage to finance the home, a commercial bank gives the mortgage to the homebuyer at a certain interest rate through which the bank makes money. The bank then turns around and sells those mortgages (the principle amount plus the interest they earn) to a bigger bank, who sells it to someone else, and so on and so forth up the line. In order to sell more of these mortgages, banks were offering mortgages with low interest rates, attracting more people to get mortgages who normally wouldn't really afford them, except that these low interest rates had the possibility of increasing. People took them anyway, even with the risk, because they wanted to buy a home. These are the subprime mortgages. Okay, so we have banks selling mortgages to people who can't afford them and people who can't afford mortgages taking them from the banks. And the government isn't watching what's going on.
4. So then the interest rates on these subprime mortgages go up and suddenly these people who could afford their mortgages at the primary rate can no longer afford them. So they start missing mortgage payments and defaulting on their loans. This is where people start losing their homes. Furthermore, if the people can't pay their mortgage, the originating bank can't make good on the debt they sold to the banks up the line. So there's a shortage of cash flow reaching all the way through the system. Banks suddenly have way more debt than they have capital (which is bad) and everything starts collapsing very quickly as they realize what the deal is.
It's like a series of bouncing checks. I write a check to my landlord for my rent. He deposits it into his account and then pays the contractor working on his kitchen with the same money I just paid him. The contractor pays the lumber yard with the money my landlord paid him, and so on and so forth. But it turns out my check is no good and bounces. So the money my landlord thought he had and used to pay his contractor is no longer there and his check bounces. So then the contractor's does too.
5. Okay so then Hank Paulson steps in as Secretary of the Treasury and is like whoa whoa whoa whoa. This is crazy. So he starts bailing out individual companies, covering their bad debt. He has to get the banks back on their feet by lending them some cash to cover the bad debts so that they have some money to work with. Because the money that banks earn from mortgages and selling mortgages is the money they use to lend us other loans like credit cards and auto loans. If the banks owe more than they make, there's no way they can give us any of the loans we rely on on a daily basis.
6. As Paulson saw the possibility of this happening to many many banks, he decided to step in and just try to fix it all at once instead of as each individual bank was on the brink of disaster. So he proposes this plan to spend $700 billion buying the bad debt from any bank that needs to get their books in the black. He says that if the bill doesn't get passed soon that the whole thing will fall apart. What does that look like? So if the banks can't give you a credit card loan or a car loan, then small business who rely on these loans on a daily basis for their inventory and such cannot operate. They lose and we lose because we can't get the goods and services we need to to survive. And those of us employed by small business may find ourselves out of jobs. If it gets really bad, then even existing credit--your credit cards and loans--will be cut off, leaving people without ways to pay for basics like food and gas. This is what Paulson is trying to avoid.
Oh and the stock market is screwed too. No investor confidence and a shortage of money means your 401k and your stocks and your retirement are quickly diminishing.
7. So Paulson presents this deal to Congress, who needs to pass the bill in order to make it happen. Congress sees a few things wrong with it, besides the fact that it's $700 billion courtesy of the taxpayers. Namely, a) they want there to be provisions providing for more oversight and accountability for the Treasury as to how they are spending the $700 billion b) they want to give the government (and taxpayers) some ownership over these companies who they are bailing out--no freebies here and c) they want to cap executive compensation packages at $400,000 so the filty rich fat cats who head up all of these belly up companies don't get rewarded for their reckless behavior.
8. Okay so Democrats in Congress are like, okay, look. We don't know why we should trust you, Hank. This administration has kind of screwed the pooch in the past and $700 billion is a lot to be responsible for. But we're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, save for some negotiation on certain details, that we need to do something quickly and this seems to be the only plausible option on the table. So they start working it out with Republicans on the deal because, even though the Dems could pass the measure on their own, they want GOP support so that a) if it doesn't work out, it's not just the Dems fault and b) so that a very national problem can get solved in a bipartisan manner. On Wednesday night reports were coming from negotiations that they were close to agreement. Huzzah!
9. And then John "I Don't Know Shit About the Economy" McCain is like, wait! I will come to Washington and selflessly cancel all of the events I was really looking forward to (Dave Letterman, the debate, the election) so that I can insert myself in a nonpolitical way into a deal I have nothing to do with except that I might have to take over this thing in a few months. So George Bush is like, okay fine, Barack, you come over here too and we'll talk this out with John and other congressional leaders. (Meanwhile, McCain's "suspended" campaign continues to take donations, run attack ads, and send its surrogates to all the talk shows.) John McCain says nothing at this meeting and by powers of the force, single-handedly stalls the whole deal. All of the sudden, even though nothing of this plan had been noted at the meetings that had occured over the last several days, congressional Republicans decided they had a better idea than the plan being worked out. They're not going to tell much of the details except that it has to do with providing guaranteed insurance to banks in trouble instead of just handing them the money. Makes sense, but would have been useful 3 days ago. Meanwhile, Washington Mutual collapses, becoming the largest bank failure in US history. McCain hasn't really said anything, except that he will support whichever plan is going to pass. He came to speed the process, reach a concensus, but will not aid in the negotiations or give an opinion, just support whichever team wins.
And now we wait to see what comes out today, if we're all going to hell in a fireball before or after the NFL games on Sunday, and if the presidential candidates in our Bestest Democracy In the World for the People will actually come and talk to we the people tonight or not.
The end.
In order to try to make some sense of what's happened, I'm going to give you a basic outline of what's been going on, as I understand it. Let me stress as I understand it. If this is totally wrong, please, someone speak up and edumacate us all.
1. Okay so because our government has been run by firm believers of absolute free markets, banks have been generally deregulated over the last decade. The government says, go ahead guys, do your thing, we trust you and we don't want to interfere. So banks and investment firms and the like were like, cool, thanks, we're going to do kind of what we want now.
2. When someone buys a home and uses a mortgage to finance the home, a commercial bank gives the mortgage to the homebuyer at a certain interest rate through which the bank makes money. The bank then turns around and sells those mortgages (the principle amount plus the interest they earn) to a bigger bank, who sells it to someone else, and so on and so forth up the line. In order to sell more of these mortgages, banks were offering mortgages with low interest rates, attracting more people to get mortgages who normally wouldn't really afford them, except that these low interest rates had the possibility of increasing. People took them anyway, even with the risk, because they wanted to buy a home. These are the subprime mortgages. Okay, so we have banks selling mortgages to people who can't afford them and people who can't afford mortgages taking them from the banks. And the government isn't watching what's going on.
4. So then the interest rates on these subprime mortgages go up and suddenly these people who could afford their mortgages at the primary rate can no longer afford them. So they start missing mortgage payments and defaulting on their loans. This is where people start losing their homes. Furthermore, if the people can't pay their mortgage, the originating bank can't make good on the debt they sold to the banks up the line. So there's a shortage of cash flow reaching all the way through the system. Banks suddenly have way more debt than they have capital (which is bad) and everything starts collapsing very quickly as they realize what the deal is.
It's like a series of bouncing checks. I write a check to my landlord for my rent. He deposits it into his account and then pays the contractor working on his kitchen with the same money I just paid him. The contractor pays the lumber yard with the money my landlord paid him, and so on and so forth. But it turns out my check is no good and bounces. So the money my landlord thought he had and used to pay his contractor is no longer there and his check bounces. So then the contractor's does too.
5. Okay so then Hank Paulson steps in as Secretary of the Treasury and is like whoa whoa whoa whoa. This is crazy. So he starts bailing out individual companies, covering their bad debt. He has to get the banks back on their feet by lending them some cash to cover the bad debts so that they have some money to work with. Because the money that banks earn from mortgages and selling mortgages is the money they use to lend us other loans like credit cards and auto loans. If the banks owe more than they make, there's no way they can give us any of the loans we rely on on a daily basis.
6. As Paulson saw the possibility of this happening to many many banks, he decided to step in and just try to fix it all at once instead of as each individual bank was on the brink of disaster. So he proposes this plan to spend $700 billion buying the bad debt from any bank that needs to get their books in the black. He says that if the bill doesn't get passed soon that the whole thing will fall apart. What does that look like? So if the banks can't give you a credit card loan or a car loan, then small business who rely on these loans on a daily basis for their inventory and such cannot operate. They lose and we lose because we can't get the goods and services we need to to survive. And those of us employed by small business may find ourselves out of jobs. If it gets really bad, then even existing credit--your credit cards and loans--will be cut off, leaving people without ways to pay for basics like food and gas. This is what Paulson is trying to avoid.
Oh and the stock market is screwed too. No investor confidence and a shortage of money means your 401k and your stocks and your retirement are quickly diminishing.
7. So Paulson presents this deal to Congress, who needs to pass the bill in order to make it happen. Congress sees a few things wrong with it, besides the fact that it's $700 billion courtesy of the taxpayers. Namely, a) they want there to be provisions providing for more oversight and accountability for the Treasury as to how they are spending the $700 billion b) they want to give the government (and taxpayers) some ownership over these companies who they are bailing out--no freebies here and c) they want to cap executive compensation packages at $400,000 so the filty rich fat cats who head up all of these belly up companies don't get rewarded for their reckless behavior.
8. Okay so Democrats in Congress are like, okay, look. We don't know why we should trust you, Hank. This administration has kind of screwed the pooch in the past and $700 billion is a lot to be responsible for. But we're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, save for some negotiation on certain details, that we need to do something quickly and this seems to be the only plausible option on the table. So they start working it out with Republicans on the deal because, even though the Dems could pass the measure on their own, they want GOP support so that a) if it doesn't work out, it's not just the Dems fault and b) so that a very national problem can get solved in a bipartisan manner. On Wednesday night reports were coming from negotiations that they were close to agreement. Huzzah!
9. And then John "I Don't Know Shit About the Economy" McCain is like, wait! I will come to Washington and selflessly cancel all of the events I was really looking forward to (Dave Letterman, the debate, the election) so that I can insert myself in a nonpolitical way into a deal I have nothing to do with except that I might have to take over this thing in a few months. So George Bush is like, okay fine, Barack, you come over here too and we'll talk this out with John and other congressional leaders. (Meanwhile, McCain's "suspended" campaign continues to take donations, run attack ads, and send its surrogates to all the talk shows.) John McCain says nothing at this meeting and by powers of the force, single-handedly stalls the whole deal. All of the sudden, even though nothing of this plan had been noted at the meetings that had occured over the last several days, congressional Republicans decided they had a better idea than the plan being worked out. They're not going to tell much of the details except that it has to do with providing guaranteed insurance to banks in trouble instead of just handing them the money. Makes sense, but would have been useful 3 days ago. Meanwhile, Washington Mutual collapses, becoming the largest bank failure in US history. McCain hasn't really said anything, except that he will support whichever plan is going to pass. He came to speed the process, reach a concensus, but will not aid in the negotiations or give an opinion, just support whichever team wins.
And now we wait to see what comes out today, if we're all going to hell in a fireball before or after the NFL games on Sunday, and if the presidential candidates in our Bestest Democracy In the World for the People will actually come and talk to we the people tonight or not.
The end.
So Close, Yet So Far
Hey! The Phillies didn't lose last night!
You may say: "that's because they didn't play last night." I just prefer to remain positive, okay?
There's not a lot to think positively about in terms of the Phils right now. Although the Phillies had a day off, the Mets and Brewers did not and they both won (thanks a lot, Chicago). That means that the Phillies are only 1 game ahead of the Mets. The Mets and the Brewers are tied for the Wild Card. There are 3 teams and 2 spots, so someone is getting screwed here. We may be in the best position, but this weekend is going to be a veritable mess of last-series-of-the-season-oh-my-god-anyone-can-make-the-playoffs-now-because-the-Phillies-didn't-win-last-week. So yeah, the Mets now play the Marlins at home, the Brewers play the Cubs at home, and the Phils get the Nats at home. We definitely on paper have the easiest team to play at this point, but the Nats have really given us trouble this whole season. I think (and hope and pray) that the Marlins are the toughest challenge because they too have been tough this season. Although the Cubs are the best team of the 3, I doubt they will play up to full potential because they have already won their playoff spot and can just phone it in. So on Monday I may be elated or furiously depressed.
In terms of other sports this weekend, Penn State (12) plays Illinois (22) tomorrow in their first real challenge of the season. It's the sexy prime-time game on at 8 on ABC. On Sunday, the Eagles also get the prime-time slot against Chicago.
You may say: "that's because they didn't play last night." I just prefer to remain positive, okay?
There's not a lot to think positively about in terms of the Phils right now. Although the Phillies had a day off, the Mets and Brewers did not and they both won (thanks a lot, Chicago). That means that the Phillies are only 1 game ahead of the Mets. The Mets and the Brewers are tied for the Wild Card. There are 3 teams and 2 spots, so someone is getting screwed here. We may be in the best position, but this weekend is going to be a veritable mess of last-series-of-the-season-oh-my-god-anyone-can-make-the-playoffs-now-because-the-Phillies-didn't-win-last-week. So yeah, the Mets now play the Marlins at home, the Brewers play the Cubs at home, and the Phils get the Nats at home. We definitely on paper have the easiest team to play at this point, but the Nats have really given us trouble this whole season. I think (and hope and pray) that the Marlins are the toughest challenge because they too have been tough this season. Although the Cubs are the best team of the 3, I doubt they will play up to full potential because they have already won their playoff spot and can just phone it in. So on Monday I may be elated or furiously depressed.
In terms of other sports this weekend, Penn State (12) plays Illinois (22) tomorrow in their first real challenge of the season. It's the sexy prime-time game on at 8 on ABC. On Sunday, the Eagles also get the prime-time slot against Chicago.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
There Is Just Too Much To Say Today
Just how did the Treasury come up with $700 billion figure for the bailout? A complex algorithim? Carefully analyzed financial data? An estimate of the overall loss of assets of major financial institutions?
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Please wake me up, this cannot be our reality right now.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Please wake me up, this cannot be our reality right now.
Pardon My Incredulousness
Okay, I know a lot of blogs are posting this today, but my god. I didn't think it would be this bad. I mean, I knew she wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but I thought she could at least speak coherently.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Wonkette has great coverage of this and of the subsequent Four Questions journalists were allowed to ask her today.
Let me ask you this. Can you identify which statement was made by Governor Sarah Palin, vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party, and Ms. Lauren Caitlin Upton, former Miss South Carolina?
a) I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade -- we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.
b) I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as. And I believe that they should, uh, our education over here! In the U.S. should help the U.S., or, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
And let me ask you this: if you hadn't watched the Miss South Carolina video over and over last year (or whenever it was), would you have known the difference?
Watch CBS Videos Online
Wonkette has great coverage of this and of the subsequent Four Questions journalists were allowed to ask her today.
Let me ask you this. Can you identify which statement was made by Governor Sarah Palin, vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party, and Ms. Lauren Caitlin Upton, former Miss South Carolina?
a) I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade -- we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.
b) I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as. And I believe that they should, uh, our education over here! In the U.S. should help the U.S., or, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
And let me ask you this: if you hadn't watched the Miss South Carolina video over and over last year (or whenever it was), would you have known the difference?
Onion Article That Made Me LOL
Cash-Strapped NPR Launches 'A Couple Things Considered'
WASHINGTON—Facing major cutbacks, National Public Radio has been forced to retool and relaunch its popular program All Things Considered as a truncated newscast that now only considers a couple, maybe three things per show. "We'd love to consider all things, but the reality is we no longer have the resources necessary to do so," host Michele Norris said following the new show's first broadcast, in which rising gas prices and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis were considered. "We'll still be able to mention six or seven things, gloss over four, and reference five, but we cannot afford to give every single thing our full consideration. Perhaps we were biting off more than we could chew in the first place." A Couple Things Considered is just one of many new shows brought about by budget constraints, along with NPR's recently launched Bicycle Talk and Public Radio International's This Tri-State Area Life. 
I Went to a Hip Hop Show
So I went to a show last night at the 9:30 Club. Not just any show, a hip hop show. Yes, I do believe that nabs me two more points on Stuff White People Like (see #71 and #107). I was surprised to see that not only was I not the only white person there, but I wasn't even the whitest white person there (and neither were my white companions). This may have something to do with the fact that it was a producer battle. It's a known fact that white people can't rap and often look stupid doing so, but it's acceptable for them to at least try to come up with some good beats for other to rap over (see: Mark Ronson). So these producers went head to head with their beats, the first producer playing his beat and then his opponent playing his, and then they go back and forth again. Then the crowd voted and the winner moved on to the next round.
It was fun! The beats were fairly simple enough that I could bob my head in rhythm. There weren't any words, so I couldn't feel stupid not knowing the lyrics or feel uncomfortable not understanding references. It was probably the best white-girl's introduction to live hip hop. And then Wale came on to rhyme a little bit. He was actually who I came to see, but wound up missing. I had to go home early because I have a knee injury and the couple of hours of standing was starting to hurt me. But I heard he was good, albeit brief. And everyone went home happy. The End.
It was fun! The beats were fairly simple enough that I could bob my head in rhythm. There weren't any words, so I couldn't feel stupid not knowing the lyrics or feel uncomfortable not understanding references. It was probably the best white-girl's introduction to live hip hop. And then Wale came on to rhyme a little bit. He was actually who I came to see, but wound up missing. I had to go home early because I have a knee injury and the couple of hours of standing was starting to hurt me. But I heard he was good, albeit brief. And everyone went home happy. The End.
American Exceptionalism
Roger Cohen has an editorial in the NYT today that really resonates with me. It's a topic I've been thinking a lot about recently and always seems to become especially apparent during general election years; Cohen calls it "American exceptionalism." In my head, it sounds more like American superiority complex, but that's why Cohen writes for the NYT and I don't. His piece delves briefly into the topic, drawing comparisons between what American exceptionalism means to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. I think it's a pretty objective analysis, but I'm biased myself, so who knows. But yeah, worth a read.
Better Have Your Tee-Times Reserved
Long story short, the Phillies lost to the Braves again last night, an abysmal 10-4. Brett Myers has returned to Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jeckyll and is pitching horribly. The hot hitting of the past few weeks from some players has just cooled off terribly, save for Mr. Ryan Howard.Earth to the Phillies: you are not the Mets. So stop blowing this playoff chance and start playing hungry. Yeah, we felt comfortable a few days ago at 2.5 ahead of the Mets for the NL East and the Brewers for the Wild Card. But now that lead has shrunk to 1.5--and that's only because the Cubs saved you last night by beating the Mets in extra innings.
The Mets play today while you have off. If they had won last night, you would be tied. Hear that? TIED. This is somehow reminiscent of last season, except now you are the team with everything to lose. The Mets are the ones who are supposed to fail, not you. You all are saying "One game at a time," "we're not looking to the playoffs," and "let's not get ahead of ourselves." Well, maybe you should start thinking ahead if it will make you play a little better; stop expecting little of yourselves because we, the fans, expect everything.
There are three games left. We can't afford any more losses. On your day off today, see how it feels a little bit. Do you like sitting at home watching other teams play? Because that's what you're going to be doing in about a week when the playoffs start if you don't start playing like the great team we know you can be.
Bullet Thoughts
Okay so the McCain campaign suspension thing happened pretty quickly yesterday and I've been busy (I went to a hiphop show, watched Project Runway, and slept...more on these things later), so I have had a lot of different gut reactions and brief analysis going on in my head about the whole thing. I can't seem to form a coherent essay about it at the moment, so I'll just give you the bullet points:
Now I know this all sounds like ranting, and it is. I'm not pretending to be completely objective here, but this is how I see it: McCain's campaign has turned this crucially important election in the middle of major major problems into a circus of stunts and gimmicks.
Josh Marshall at TPM says it best I think:
"One of the advantages of running a presidential campaign is that roughly half the country is deeply committed to believing or at least saying that virtually anything you do or say makes sense. And so it is here. But, look, if you were living in the real world, if you were some hotshot young executive at a Fortune 500 company trying to rise in the ranks, and you pulled some whacked crap like this, it would probably get you blackballed permanently. People would think you were either deeply unreliable or maybe just had a screw loose. And yet here he is -- is he kidding? He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog at my homework' in history."
- Suggested moving the debate to October 2--the date of the VP debate--and then moving the VP debate to an unidentified later date. Isn't that convenient? He's afraid his gimmick VP pick will not perform well, even after her foreign policy crash course photo op this week, that he needs to reschedule the last crucial weeks of the election campaigns.
- The American people deserve to hear from the horses' mouths exactly what the candidates think and say about the issues. That's what the debates are for. This especially goes for McCain, who has seemingly flipped on a lot of issues in a short amount of time, and who prefers not talking with reporters and only giving recorded statements without the opportunity for questions. It's time for him to start being accountable.
- I agree with Letterman--you can't take a "time-out" as President. A good leader surrounds himself with competent team members who could foreseeably take over if necessary. McCain doesn't trust Palin to take over his "campaign" for a few days? What does that say about her? More importantly, what does that say about his leadership skills?
- He never actually stopped campaigning--only canceled Letterman, went on Katie Couric, still has other speeches, hasn't stopped collecting campaign money, hasn't stopped ads.
- McCain admittedly knows little about the economy--how is he going to all the sudden step up and save it?
- Another note on leadership---you have competent people on committees for reasons. Those on the congressional committees are working on the bill because that's what they're good it. As a good leader, you let the people who have the expertise and step in only when there is a standstill. There was no standstill in Congress, they just weren't sure how people would vote.
- Barney Frank came out and said they were pretty much done and were just working out the small details--what would McCain be able to do?
Now I know this all sounds like ranting, and it is. I'm not pretending to be completely objective here, but this is how I see it: McCain's campaign has turned this crucially important election in the middle of major major problems into a circus of stunts and gimmicks.
Josh Marshall at TPM says it best I think:
"One of the advantages of running a presidential campaign is that roughly half the country is deeply committed to believing or at least saying that virtually anything you do or say makes sense. And so it is here. But, look, if you were living in the real world, if you were some hotshot young executive at a Fortune 500 company trying to rise in the ranks, and you pulled some whacked crap like this, it would probably get you blackballed permanently. People would think you were either deeply unreliable or maybe just had a screw loose. And yet here he is -- is he kidding? He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog at my homework' in history."
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