Knowing When

in , , ,
image.jpg

After the Primary debates ceased to be fun anymore and I suspended my political campaign, I've been getting more and more excited about the upcoming NFL season.

Outside of rooting for my fellow Penn State alum Christian Hackenberg to get drafted by a decent team tonight, I care as much about the NFL Draft as I do about fantasy football. Which is zero.

With the almost-certainty of Jimmy Garoppolo playing quarterback for the New England Patriots while Tom Brady serves his four game regular season suspension, I can't wait for the new season to start.

image.jpg

NFL training camps will open in about ninety days, just after the Republican convention in Cleveland. TB12 will only have played his first couple of regular season games and we will have a good idea of whether or not this will be the "Fuck You" season that Patriots fans had hoped for last year, one that ends with another Super Bowl victory.

And not long after Brady returns from his suspension, we will finally know whether the next President of the United States will be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. 

As it was for me during the late 1960s, I am once again blessed to live in interesting times.

Rhyming History

in ,

 

History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme when the topic turns to TV careers and Republican politicians. From 1956 to 1962, Ronald Reagan hosted General Electric Theater and had his image beamed into more than 20 million homes every week. The successful run on TV gave Reagan a connection with American voters that his movie career never could. By the time Reagan ran for governor of California in 1966, the GE host was a household name. Reagan’s landslide victory shocked elites in and out of the political class and launched a conservative revolution that would last a generation.

50 years later, that revolution is being undone by another TV star who has been underestimated by elites while being elevated by working-class voters. The question now is whether Trump can prove his critics wrong again by winning the nomination and then defeating Hillary Clinton in the fall. The odds may be long for the New York developer and reality star, but no longer than the ones he faced last June when he first sought the GOP nomination.

[Joe Scarborough in The Washington Post today.]

image.jpg

I Am Suspending My Campaign

in ,
image.jpg

I'm announcing this morning that I am suspending my campaign. Not that I was running for office, or supporting any particular candidate during this Primary season. Instead, my campaign was to help generate some sort of rational, informed dialogue about politics, but it has become clear to me now that this is no longer possible.

So it's back to sports, drugs, and rock and roll, with a very occasional helping of political circus.  (Note: you can continue to raise money for my PAC.)

And as The Band and I are fond of saying: "Look out, Cleveland!"

Last Night's Democrat Debate

in ,

I thought that this was a defining moment, in terms of personality and leadership style, during last night's debate (from The New York Times):

image.jpg

 Asked whether she would fire the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to remedy water problems in Flint, Mrs. Clinton gave a nearly 200-word response emphasizing the need for a full investigation to “determine who knew what, when.” Mr. Sanders’ 16-word response drew enormous applause: “President Sanders would fire anybody who knew about what was happening and did not act appropriately.”