Win Place And Political Show

“Horse race” is a phrase often applied to political campaigns as candidates slog through primaries jockeying for position. Never more than this Republican Presidential race.
Is it Mitt or Newt or Ron or Rick? This week, according to the latest polls, Rick Santorum has the inside track. Only last week Mitt Romney seemed like a shoe-in. But the polls also reflect a growing concern about all if them.
To continue the analogy, Frank Bruni in the New York Times called it the “do over derby” as in candidates claiming “do-over” for things they’ve said or written on the record; reneging on positions they’ve taken; recanting on things they’ve stood for all in the guise of political expediency. Flip-flopping is a staple of politics but this group appears to have taken it to a new level giving some Republican voters second thoughts about who they choose to lead the Republic.
For now, this is the Republican field but the smart money—the mother’s milk of politics—may be looking elsewhere.

My iPhone

Enuf Of This Super Bowl Stuff

I’m a huge football fan, my team is in the big game but even I’ve had enuf. Play the game already!
This two week hiatus virtually guarantees a tepid display of football. Many players have already lost their edge.
The media—stretching story lines to the max—is obsessed with whose legacy will be enhanced, whose will suffer. Who cares? Play the game already!
Sports reporters on radio and TV row are interviewing themselves in lieu of “big gets” such as real players and coaches. Former players and coaches come out of the woodwork making the rounds of every conceivable show picking the winner and promoting their particular products or causes. Play the game already!
Will the Giants vaunted defense hold the great Tom Brady in check? Will Eli Manning revert to his old ways? Will wily Bill Belichick out scheme Tom Coughlin? Will Gronk be Gronk? Will Madonna flop at halftime?
One way to find out—play the damn game already!

“Tis A Puzzlement”

What is puzzling to this crossword puzzler is the disparity of difficulty offered by the New York Times daily puzzle. The Times puzzle is generally regarded as the “gold standard” of crossword puzzledom.
So why are the Monday and Tuesday editions often less challenging than a TV Guide puzzle? Why is the Wednesday puzzle often inane, even silly?
I once had occasion to pose these questions to renown Times editor Will Shortz. His answer—it’s to get potential puzzlers into the tent. For my money, I retorted, keep the tent small and the puzzles hard.
I then offered him my personal appraisal of the degrees of difficulty: Friday is the toughest, second is Saturday, Thursday is third followed by Sunday,Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday. He basically agreed questioning the order of one and two.
Friday’ s puzzle, in my opinion, is the most arcane; Saturday’s usually contains a series of long but ultimately recognizable solutions for which persistence pays off.
When I began puzzling in the Margaret Farrar era, the NYT Sunday puzzle had no peer. Today it’s a snap.
Its high time the Times reconsider it’s outdated puzzle policy? Will it? For that answer I have no clue.

NCAA: “The Gestapo”?

Three cheers to New York Times columnist Joe Nocera for his recent exposé of the NCAA. He has exposed the NCAA for what it truly is—a vindictive, secret police force, mandated by the big-time college hierarchy to protect its bottom line at all costs—“student” athletes and their families be damned.
In a Times Magazine piece and two subsequent columns(one today), Nocera describes an organization which unabashedly ruins kids lives and harasses their families with no hint of due process. He provides evidence of disdain by the Colleges for the athletes who are nothing more than profit centers
When the question arose during the current Penn State/Sandusky child abuse investigation—Why hasn’t the NCAA gotten involved—I thought to myself—It’s because he wasn’t accused of buying a kid a suit or getting him a job at the local hardware store. A moribund joke but, in my mind, indicative of this group’s reason for being
As one parent wrote to Nocera: “the NCAA is like the Gestapo,”…..”we all fear it…..it is all powerful and follows its own rules and makes them up as they go along. Who are they protecting? The same thing the Gestapo protected: themselves.”
Great reading!!

Richard Threlkeld 1937-2012

Dick Threlkeld was killed in a car crash today near his Long Island home. He was 74.
I had the privilege of working with Dick when he was a correspondent for ABC News during the 1980s. He was a consummate broadcaster, a compelling storyteller, a master wordsmith and had a distinctive delivery like none other.
Describing a scene in Dehli in which a cow crossed a crowded street he narrated—“where in India the only sacred cow(sound up MOO)…….is a sacred cow.”
Dick made his bones in Vietnam and became one of the great combat correspondents of his generation covering war and conflict across the globe.
In the 80s, Dick and I covered the war in the Falklands and the tragic 8.0 earthquake in Mexico.
At the ruins of a public housing project where thousands died, Dick’s instincts took over as we scavenged thru the rubble. He reconstructed the lives of some of those killed by using their family photo albums, their kids homework, their unsent love letters.
Condolences to his family especially his wife Betsy Aaron
Dick Threlkeld was a true pro…..and a true gentleman.

Stu Schutzman
Retired Senior Producer ABC News

The Bain Of His Existence

Mitt Romney’s past may be coming back to haunt him—at least as his Republican rivals attempt to haunt him with it.
Romney’s job as head of Bain Capital was to buy up companies, streamline them and sell them for profit. And a lot of profit he did make.
As tomorrow’s New Hampshire Primary approaches, other GOP candidates are pouncing on Romney’s record in the private sector
with eyes focused on his hefty lead. In this current populist, anti-corporate environment, they accuse Romney of being the Anti-Christ, the cold hearted job cutter who put profit over people’s lives.
“I like firing people” Romney said……sort of.
“What’s clear,” said former Utah Governor John Huntsman, “is he likes firing people.”.
“Creative destruction” is how Romney himself reportedly described his handiwork.
Newt Gingrich called Romney a looter who “leaves thousands of lives behind.”. A Gingrich supporting PAC has produced a film which claims to have found many of those destroyed lives.
And Texas Governor Rick Perry, campaigning in South Carolina, jumped on the pile pouncing on another Romneyism in which he said he was afraid of getting fired himself. “I had to shake my head” quipped Perry pointing out the Romney family millions.
For the record, Romney actually said he liked firing service companies which underperformed—a kind of consumer protection. His campaign calls the attacks from his rivals “desperate”, something the Democrats would do. But for now the Democrats don’t have to.

Tim Tebow is certainly not the only athlete to invoke God’s largesse for his cause. But he is the “chosen one” de jour. The lightening rod who sparks heated debate between his supporters and detractors around the dial around the clock.
Tebow famously wears his faith on his sleeve. His “kneel down” after a touchdown is both cheered and mocked. He is often picked on mic singing hymns on the sidelines. More power to him. But is God actually listening? His fans would say he’s got the miracles to prove it.
Players petition for Divine Intervention all the time; a timely hit; a clutch catch; a winning free-throw. Sometimes God hears their prayer; sometimes he apparently does not. Or is that the opponent’s prayer was just more convincing?
The debate—“free will” vs “determinism”—has been on the table for centuries. Does God determine our every move or does He extend to us the free will to navigate our own path.
Does he anoint some with wealth while others suffer in squalor? Some with good health and others with disease. And some with the winning touchdown while many of us scratch our heads in disbelief. Questions of faith.