Volume 4 Issue 9
January 31, 2007
It's Getting Super
The ads, the primaries, and the Eagle's prey
So in what has to be a frightening development, in watching TV tonight I saw not one but TWO "preview" ads from companies, previewing their ads on the Super Bowl this Sunday. That's right - they are previews...for ads. I suppose this was inevitable, but still, it's a bit disturbing. I just hope that there aren't preview ads in print as well in the paper later this week.
Look Who's Voting for President: The debate about the primary calendar continues. E.J. Dionne discusses why he thinks California and its brethren moving up is a good idea. While I admire Dionne's writing, and he makes some decent points in the article, there are some flaws in his argument. Towards the end he has a list of contests recently that he says may have been closer if the big states had voted earlier. Two of the races he discusses are Gore-Bradley in 2000 and Kerry-Dean-Edwards in 2004.
But in both of those cases, an early primary would not have mattered at all. Bradley lost to Gore in NH after being up there by as much as a dozen points, and thus could not compete financially in the next wave of primaries - which were a month away. Having had the next big races sooner with less money would have helped him? In 2004, Dean was pretty much dead, yet he was the only candidate who could compete financially with Kerry - which is why Edwards lost, even after putting up a good fight.
Dionne concludes that the citizens of California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Florida deserve a voice in the Presidential Nomination process. Agreed, but if they move themselves up, what happens to the citizens of Missouri, Texas, and Pennsylvania? Do they now not deserve a say? I agree that there may be problems with our current system, but the solution is a systematic reform like the American Plan or the Delaware Plan, not just encouraging more of the same arguments we seem to have every 4 years -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901446.html
Look Who's Voting for President 2: Jonathan Alter weighs in on the primary debate as well. Alter suggests that the Internet politics pioneered by Howard Dean may not put candidates like Edwards and Bradley at a disadvantage after all. He also discusses the dynamics of the race with so many candidates...and speaks the words that send political junkies everywhere salivating..."contested convention". With no winner-take-all primaries this year (at least on the Dem side), who knows? - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16841359/site/newsweek/
Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:
Maybe...my...hand...can...block...the wind....from deforming my....face!
The National Icon: A large portion of Alaska's capital, Juneau, had an up close look at nature this weekend, when a Bald Eagle caused a power outage. What caused this majestic bird to crash into a power line, taking it out? Perhaps it had something to do with the deer head it was carrying -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16875766
And No Decaf this time, damnit! Alaska seems to have a bunch of problems this week. In Anchorage, police are dealing with a man who has robbed at least 5 coffee shops in the last 48 hours. Oh, and he's been robbing them through the drive-thru -
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/8601246p-8494127c.html
