A Chill In The Air

Today was one of those interesting weather days that you get from time to time. A nice warm start early and then the bottom drops out. Here's how it played out:

(temp) (wind) (humidity)
8:00 am 59 F SSW 19-26 75%
11:00 64 WSW26-45 30%
11:25 57 W 25-44 32%
12:25 32 NW 29-36 71%
I looked at the temp map right now (12:30) and the front is bisecting Missouri from the northeast to the southwest and has, obviously, past us here in Springfield - it’s 18 in Kansas City and 70 in St. Louis. The temps continued to fall throughout the afternoon, though less rapidly, until:
3:00 21 WNW23-44 56%

As Col. Henry Blake once said, "Better bring the brass monkey in tonight!"

Also chilling, McCain wins Florida.

Here's what I wrote this afternoon before we knew tonight's results:
Paul Mirengoff of Powerline in his post “Simplified But Not Simple” expresses what many who call themselves conservative have been going through for many weeks now. I won’t recap it here, but please read it, you vast numbers of Central Standard readers, ahem.

I do have this, though. I don’t understand the assumption that only McCain can ward off the liberals come the fall. It has been in vogue, since about 1992, for party nominees to tack to the middle in an effort to win the presidency. This has resulted in Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush. Clinton had the blowout and Bush barely survived using this model. I’m not convinced that trying to be moderate is a winner for Republicans. I know the media like McCain in the primary, but I don’t think that’ll carry over to the general. The things that agitate us about McCain now will be on display for all to see come the fall. I actually think McCain would wind up looking frail, bitter, old and out of touch in the general election, especially against Obama. McCain-Obama would be the rout that Mirengoff, and the rest of us, fear. Is this why the NY Times endorses McCain?

I liked Fred best and Rudy’s a fighter, but it’s going to boil down to Romney, I believe. I think Romney is the engine that could. There has been quite a lot written about why he’s not the guy and he can’t win and the media doesn’t like him, etc, etc. All he does is win and pick up delegates. Oh, by the way, he leads in delegates on the Republican side. (And he’s supposed to drop out?)

Watch his speech about faith if you haven’t seen it. It’s simply one of the better speeches I’ve heard in a long time. Romney looks inevitable to me and I don’t just mean for the Republican nomination. I think he’ll be underestimated all the way to the White House.

Just like a recent governor of Texas.

I still believe what I wrote earlier. Obviously the delegate math has changed but still, I think Romney will pull it out and I think McCain is brittle. When you think McCain '08, you should think Dole '96.

Now here's some opinion from a couple of guys who actually know a thing or two - Ruffini - Hewitt.

News, Weather and Sports

I have never seen a feeding frenzy before, but there is one going on now in Democratic politics – the Clintons are being eaten alive by the party they have led for 14 years. Stories here and here.



I think, though, one probably shouldn't write Billary off just yet, but I would have never forseen the rejection they are experiencing just now. I wonder if some of the machinations of Dem politics are merely being carried to the logical conclusions. Politics on the left is, among other things, characterized by segmenting the population into women, black, Latino, handicapped, gay, poor, uninsured, etc. groups. They've catered to and enabled these groups and now, lo and behold, a woman is running against a black man for the nomination. Look out!

It also occurred to me that Bill Clinton is being thrown overboard, along with his wife, by vocal and influential members of the Democratic Party. It’s as if party leaders are saying, “Thanks for the ride, Bubba, we got what we wanted, see you later!” It’s almost like they’ve been using poor Bill all this time, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe like a philandering executive would use a young intern.



What do I do with these invitations to join groups? I got one today for LinkedIn. What is that? I never heard of it. Reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin gets the chain letter and he freaks out over the imagined doom headed his way if he breaks the chain.



So do I have to answer the invitation? Is it rude not to? I barely know this person. Will I have bad luck? Does so and so really consider me such a valued asset that they will be hurt if I decline? Is it dumb to accept?

So it just sits in my inbox, unopened, unresponded to.



Happy Birthday to Legos! Fifty years old today, that makes us roughly the same age. Yep, me and Legos, sturdy, delightful, colorful!


Number one son came in the room and asked about the weather for later in the week. "Mom said one day would be nice." I'm not sure when that day is, but it's not tomorrow. Temps dropping all day from a start in the 50s. Nasty.


Finally, a man (besides myself) who understands the place of football in the world. Translation: the game is very caught up with the notion of its own self-importance. Good article.

Mr. Seahawk

Mr. Seahawk is flying the coop. This article has the story.

When I was a kid we had a store in Branson called Cardin's Insurance Salvage. Cardin's was (and is) a store (warehouse) filled with salvaged items. A truck might wreck and insurance covered the whole thing. The usable goods went to Cardin's. A store might have a fire or a flood and the usable merchandise might wind up at Cardin's. You can pick up some real bargains.

So one day I came home from Cardin's with replica Seahawks jersey, number 10, quarterback Jim Zorn's number. What a find! You have to understand, this was the late 70's and nobody was wearing caps and jerseys as a part of their wardrobe and they weren't in any store. You couldn't find this stuff at the mall or anywhere else. Maybe you could order some replica jerseys from Sears, but not all the teams were available. This was big deal!

Anyway, I followed the Seahawks and liked Zorn a lot. He's a lefty like me and gosh, those Seattle teams were a blast in the late 70's. There was no telling what they might try.

Zorn was Seattle's first starting qb and he played from 1976 to 1984. He is Mr. Seahawk, but now he's moving on. He will move to Washington to be the Redskins offensive coordinator and I hope he has great success. However, working for Daniel Snyder is a dicey proposition. The coaching carousel spins so fast there it glows.

Seattle's coach, Mike Holmgren, is only on board for one more year and the heir apparent, Jim Mora, is already on staff. It could be that Zorn thought this was the time to move.

But, I don't like it. Zorn is a Seahawk in my mind. I hope he is a great OC, I just wish it could be in Seattle.

Not What It Appears

Last night I wrote a post that would have been in this slot on my blog. After posting it and laying down to sleep I began to wrestle with regret. I began to feel dishonest and slimy for having written something so purely speculative about people I don't know. I honestly felt as if I had attacked someone.

I am sorry and I apologize. I am hopeful that because of the lateness of the hour and the short lapse between posts that few, if any persons, actually read what I wrote. (Of couse it helps that hardly anybody looks at the Central Standard.)

So, that post is gone. I started to do an update and correction on the same post and I realized, "Hey, Doofus, by doing this, the post you say you feel so bad about is still up." In other words, "Here, please read what I should never have written and now apologize for!" So, as I said, it's gone.

However, after reading this story in the light of day, I don't feel nearly so bad.

Meaty bits:
On the weekend before his State of the State address, Gov. Matt Blunt convened his campaign team for a strategic retreat at a luxury Ozarks resort just south of Branson.

Confidence filled the room. Blunt's trusted advisers discussed a fundraising goal that could have shattered the state record, developed a TV ad blitz to begin airing before spring and honed a campaign message for a competitive challenge from Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon.

Although the Republican governor never said so directly, he left little doubt: Blunt was running for re-election, and he was running to win.

So perhaps no one was more shocked than those in Blunt's inner circle when, just 10 days later, Blunt announced his exit from the race.

And:
Blunt's message, as sharpened during the meetings, would proclaim he converted a $1 billion inherited shortfall into three straight years of budget surpluses, significantly boosted education spending, presided over the creation 90,000 new jobs since he took office and transformed a broken health care system.

Finally:
"When you saw the story that could be told on an election campaign, you began to see the road map to victory very quickly," (consultant John) Hancock said. "You just looked at that message and you said, 'Yes, that's how you can get elected,' and everybody felt it."

Something happened in the few days between "Here's how we get re-elected!" and "Eh, never mind."

So let me re-state what I said last night in a way that doesn't leave me feeling like a stringer for the National Enquirer.

Gov. Blunt's somewhat less than satisfying explanation of his reasons for not seeking re-election create a vacuum which his friends and foes alike are eager to fill. I succumbed to the temptation last night. I don't believe, as some Dems have been yelling, that the governor is about to get busted. This seems kind of obvious to me, but just because I disagree with someone, I don't reflexively want them incarcerated. Anyway, I don't think it's that.

I am of the opinion that Gov. Blunt has gotten wind of another opportunity and it's just not time to say what it is.

And the silence you hear is the sound of the other shoe not dropping yet.