Weekend Off-Topic

Football, primaries, etc.

• Brownback -- the anti-Kerry
  You remember John Kerry, right, the guy nobody liked but talked themselves into supporting becaise he was "electable?"
  
  Meet Sam Brownback. Almost everyone I've read on the right seems to like Brownback, but pooh-poohs their own support because they see his candidacy as hopeless. Via Andrew Sullivan, here's a prototype.
  
  Now, don't get me wrong, it's probably true that Brownback will have a hard time winning the vote of anyone who can't refer to the "culture of life" without irony, which seems to be a sizable portion of the electorate. But is does seem odd to see so many saying, "I like this guy, but nobody else will."
  
  
• My ranking
  For what it's worth, here's my rough preference of the current likely candidates:
  
  1. Brownback
  2. Obama
  3. McCain
  4. Giuliani
  5. Richardson
  6. Romney
  7. Clinton
  8. Kucinich
  
  There's probably someone I'm missing.
  
  
• The Sullivan-Kaus brouhaha
  While I'm at Sullivan's site, there's a little tiff between Sullivan and Kaus over Sullivan's characterization of a video from Iraq.
  
  The interesting part to me is the last link Kaus provides outlining the problems inherent in bloggers embedding YouTiube videos. Though I'm not sure the motivations are any different from blogging in general.
  
  Except for one thing --I don't know about most people, but I rarely play YouTube videos embedded in blogs, and do tend to take the blogger's word for it on the contents (at least insofar as I'd generally take that particular's word for anything). It seems one could create a meme by embedding a video and claiming it was footage of something boring but newsworthy. Something that people would believe but not interested in seeing with their own eyes. Nothing pops into mind right now.
  
  
• The post-prime champions
  If the Colts win next Sunday, it will continue a trend of teams winning championships after they had seemed to pass their peak -- this was not the best season of the Colts' run, similar to the Steelers the previous year. The Cardinals' best year was 2004.
  
  Not sure I have a point, other than that there may be hope for other teams who may think their window is closing.
  
  
• Young coaches
  Prediction -- Many of these recently hired young coaches will flop (not because they're young coaches, but because I'm not sure anybody could turn around teams like the Raiders and Cardinals), and someone like Marty Schottenheimer or Mike Shanahan will win the next Super Bowl and the conventional wisdom will shift to how teams need experienced head coaches.
  
  
• Spanking in my craw
  It's curious why that spanking article stuck in my craw so much. It's not that I want to spank my kids, and I think those so inclined should be discouraged from doing so.
  
  If I wanted to puff myself up, I would say it was a principled stand against government intrusion, as well as an allergic reaction to sloppy argument.
  
  But if I were honest, I think it's because the article deployed many arguments that are ridiculed from the pages of publications like Slate when used in the service of things I support, like abortion restrictions.