If You're Still Bitter About Bonds I've Got Your Solution

I can't really work up any ire over Barry Bonds breaking the home run record. I guess my feelings on Bonds are best summed up by this quote from Samuel L. Jackson;

"Guilty, innocent, whatever, you know? Barry still hit the ball out of the park. The ball's been hit out of the park that many times by this particular guy, so they can put asterisks by the record if they want to, or whatever, but it doesn't change the fact that he did it."

But, there are people who are really upset by Bonds taking over the record. As a public service I have devised a way for these people to regain their love of baseball. My solution minimizes the incentives for current players to take steroids and doesn't celebrate former steroid users.

The answer is simple, let's only celebrate inside the park home runs. Sure, chicks dig the long ball, but with the right promotion this just might work. We can build off of Ichiro's MVP earning inside the park home run in the All Star Game. We can probably get Bob Costas on board too. In my head I can already hear him covering the biggest story in sports, whether or not this is the year that some major leaguer will break Sam Crawford's single season record of 12 inside the park home runs.

Speaking of Crawford, he's also the career leader in inside the park home runs with 51. So spread the word, Sam Crawford is the "new" home run king.

Substance? I Like Substance.

This morning I found this article by Paul Krugman about how much (or little) substance there is currently in the primary campaigns.

The way I see it, the substance on the Democratic side has been spurred on by John Edwards need to find a foothold against Obama and Clinton.

On the Republican side there isn't quite as established a hierarchy. Sure, Rudy Giuliani is the front runner, but some of his more liberal stances make him vulnerable. Without any Clinton or Obama like front runners there is little incentive for a 2nd tier candidate to put forward the substance of their policies since it would just be dissected by the rest of the field. I hope we'll see more substance from the republicans as the primaries start to rank the pecking order of candidates and it becomes more advantageous for somebody needing a boost in the polls to push for more substance in the campaigns.

Bob Dole And George McGovern

It looks like this blog's theme of the day is to highlight Bob Dole in peculiar pairings. This time he's being paired in an ideological odd couple with George McGovern on the issue of having a "means test" which would allow rich retirees to opt out of the program, allowing money to be diverted towards care for children and infants. Sounds like a good idea to me.

As I was writing this I just found that this McGovern-Dole alliance has deeper roots than I thought. The clip below shows them combining their senatorial-super-friend-powers on the issue of school breakfasts.

I find it funny that these two failed presidential candidates have link themselves on some issues much like Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush did in 2006 and early 2007. Is there some unwritten rule that presidential election winners and losers can only join forces with others of the same electoral fate?

As of now I don't have any Dole-McGovern World Tour shirts, but who knows, maybe one day. For now you can settle for a regular Dole-Kemp shirt, or the always classic McGovern '72 shirt.

Court Rules That Man Can't Name His Racehorse "Sally Hemings"

Not only is the subject matter of this case interesting, but the judge was also able to work in a quote from a song by the band America.

From CNNSI.com
"The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that The Jockey Club can legally bar horse owner Garrett Redmond of Paris, Ky., from naming his 4-year-old horse after Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave, who was also reputed to be his lover."

"Because The Jockey Club is a private organization with power delegated by the state, it may restrict free speech so long as it doesn't discriminate against a specific viewpoint, Batchelder wrote."

"The Jockey Club forbids horse owners from using names of famous or notorious people without special permission. The organization's rules also say that "names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups" won't be approved."

George McGovern's Heirs And Arnold Schwarchenegger As A Nixon Republican

As you can tell by the fact that we run a blog, website, and MySpace page devoted to old political campaigns, we find the lineage of political ideologies pretty interesting. So, clearly this article about “McGovern heirs” putting their stamp on the 2008 campaign was interesting for us.

Since we’re talking about old politicians influencing today’s political leaders I do have to mention what I think is one of the most bizarre instances of this. It happened during the 2004 Republican Convention. In Arnold Schwarchenegger’s speech he reminisced about hearing Richard Nixon in the 1968 Presidential Debates.

“Then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, I said, "What party is he?" My friend said, "He's a Republican." I said, "Then I am a Republican." And I have been a Republican ever since!”

With these words he became one of the world’s few admitted “Nixon Republicans.” That’s not a knock on Nixon’s accomplishments in office, it’s just that after Watergate I didn’t expect to have such a high ranking Republican embracing Nixon at the National Convention.

If you want to proclaim yourself a “McGovern heir” or “Nixon Republican” feel free to head over to the shop and pick up a Nixon or McGovern shirt.

Will 2008 Finally Be The Year For A Senator?

In this article Martin Frost takes up an issue I've always found interesting, the difficulty that sitting senators have had getting elected president since 1960. While it's a decent sketch of the topic Frost offers little more than the usual explanations as to why this has been the case; i.e. the troubles of juggling both a senate schedule and a presidential campaign combined with the many controversial votes that senators have to cast that come back to haunt them.

This trend could come to an end though, as the 2008 has more legitimately viable senators running for the presidency than any other race in recent memory.

Republican Debate Recap

The Republican candidates debated today in Iowa. From the coverage I've seen there were a couple major themes;

-First, there was the debate on the abortion issue, with Brownback and Romney going at each other before turning the focus to Giuliani's pro-choice stance.

-Secondly, the candidates were able to stay focused on their differences with the democratic challengers even as they debated within their own party. Here are a couple of samples;

"In four debates, not a single Democrat said the word, 'Islamic terrorists.' Now that is taking political correctness to extreme" -Rudy Giuliani

"I mean, in one week he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies, I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week." -Mitt Romney on Barack Obama

Condensed Yearly Kos

David Weigel at Reason Magazine blogged the democratic candidates statements at Yearly Kos. It's a pretty good read, particularly the candidates answers on an early question about the deficit and Hillary's defense of some Washington lobbyists which drew negative responses from the crowd.

"Nattering Nabobs Of Negativism"

Yesterday Variety posted this article about John Edwards' squabbles with the media. The author admits that most of Edwards' attacks are directed at Fox News, not exactly a risky tactic for a Democrat, and then hearkens back to the days of Nixon and Agnew to put Edwards' relationship to the media in perspective.

The reference back to Agnew was great, not for perspective it brought, but so the author could use one of the best political quotes of all time "nattering nabobs of negativism." I think we need to do a shirt that works that quote in somehow. For more Spiro Agnew awesomeness click here, the man was a sound bite machine.