quarter23cd

Nobody expects politics to be pretty, but it takes some effort to be surprisingly ugly. Divide and conquer might be a great political strategy--god knows it has worked wonders in recent elections--but how much farther can we go with the whole "demonize your opponent" thing? Evidently its not enough anymore to be better than your opponent or even "more patriotic", now we've come to outright charges of terrorism. Are you kidding me? This is politics now? Somebody is going to lose this election--right now it looks like McCain. And if so, where does that leave this country when he's been te

Yep. Its all or nothing for him at this point, because I think he has pretty well eviscerated his reputation with anybody who wasn't already firmly on his side to begin with in this election. Which is kind of sad, really, for a guy who has long had a pretty decent reputation across the board. McCain the presidential candidate is barely recognizable, at this point, from who I thought he was at the beginning and my opinion of him has plummeted. Is it really him we've been seeing over the past several months or has he just given in to campaign advisers who tell him "this is how Republicans wi

Are you talking about Obama himself or his supporters? In music terms, do you hate the band or do you just hate the fans? Because Obama himself has been cool as a cucumber, as far as I can tell. At least compared to Admiral Angst over there.

Yeah, but if you'd been watching them thus far this year, this was still very much up in the air. The O-line played much better this week against Sparty. Somebody finally lit a fire under their butts, which is good. That line has been the weak link for a while now and is the biggest reason OSU has fared so poorly against "the best in America" in recent years. Its like a sieve.

Thanks for always being there as the voice of reason, Pat. You can smell the panic in the air, but I fully agree that this thing ain't over yet, for all the reasons mentioned above and then some. As good as things are looking, I can't imagine anybody being complacent at this point.

My neighbor bought a piece of used exercised equipment recently and drove out to a small town to pick it up. The yard of the person's house had McCain/Palin signs about every 3 inches and as an added "bonus" present they offered to throw in a "NOBAMA!" yard sign for free with the treadmill. She wanted to tell them where they could stick that yard sign, but she wanted help carrying the treadmill to the truck, so she didn't. So she is now the proud owner of a "NOBAMA!" sign that is almost too amusing to simply throw away. I suggested that with a little DIY work it could easily be turned in

Ummm, yeah. I'm giving up predicting things. Until next week.

What is Newt doing??

Heh. Palin was selected as veep for one reason--it pisses off the left. That's it. Nobody has any delusions about her qualifications. The people with the Palin signs up mostly want to see her win because liberals will disembowel themselves in disgust (figuratively, I hope). I honestly think the GOP only put her there because they can. Because they can do something this ridiculous and have a half-decent shot of getting away with it. For everybody who has bemoaned 8 years of Bush and thought the end was in sight--here comes a giant Alaska sized middle finger for ya. It might not work.

Alcohol: America's best chance at reconciliation. The next time I hear somebody talk about reaching across the aisle, I hope it is because they are a handing somebody a frosty mug. This is the America I believe in.

Agreed. While I welcome Sparty's ascension to the Big Ten "elite" (hope Dantonio sticks around a while--I'm a fan) and think its exactly what this conference needed (along with PSU's re-emergence), the schedule for this season suddenly looks a lot tougher this year. MSU and PSU back to back could be killer for the Bucks right now.

I haven't watched MSU's D enough to judge their "leakiness". From all reports, the team seems to be buying into Dantonio's system, which means I fully expect their D to be tough as nails. Heck, at least they will be tougher than Purdue, who stymied OSU all day last Saturday. Purdue! Oy. Still shaking that one off. Ringer is a stud. Can you imagine if he had come to Columbus and shared a backfield with Beanie? I mean, granted, that wouldn't be fair to either one of them to have to split the spotlight like that, but damn, as a fan...that would've been sweet. Unless somebody (Wells, Pry

I think the rational thinking is that if either candidate wins by a sizeable margin there shouldn't even be a question because it should be beyond the rather smallish scope that any tampering could effect. But both sides have a paranoid edge about them. The left is still wigged out by some of what was perceived to have happened in Ohio and Florida in recent elections and the voter-purges that are continuing to go on. The right, on the other hand, is setting up the ACORN angle as a way of de-legitimizing an Obama victory. Really, the only way to stop that kind of speculation is for one cand

No good. Picture roving bands of machete-wielding thugs chopping off tattooed limbs on election day. Do you want that on your conscience?

Should be a nice RB showcase game there with Wells and Ringer. I expect an ugly, low-scoring affair--which probably means it will be shootout, so who knows? I feel for you having to deal with a family full of revenge-starved Sparties.

Party affiliation?

Another Top 10 team loses? Excellent.... (sorry, I had to get one last one in there before Javon Ringer and JoePa rip us a new one the next couple weeks)

Aping NIN might have seemed like a good idea in the mid-90s, but if that's where this record is still at after a decade of work......wow. I dunno, it really does feel like forever ago that GnR was even remotely relevant to me and its not a musical period I look back on too fondly--even if there are a few songs that still hold up. I see these GnR "release date" announcements every so often and there's a trainwreck-curiosity about this record, but there is a less than zero percent chance of me buying this. Axl is probably better off to keep postponing this and keep this record "mythical".

Evidently he doesn't pay his taxes, anyway. http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2060108...&refer=home Who is this guy? Crap, now I feel like a tool for not watching the debate. I'm missing this whole big cultural moment here. Its like living through the '80s and not understanding why people keep asking "Where's the beef?"

The Ohio primary this spring was my first experience with a touchscreen. It was okay except for the part about not really knowing if anything was recorded or not when I was done. Previously, in Connecticut, I used a lever system that was developed in the Bronze Age. The first time I used one of those, it made such a racket when I pulled the lever that I wasn't sure if I had voted correctly or if I had broken it. In college I always did absentee ballots since I was out of my home state. Paper ballots are nice. Unless you don't trust the Post Office to not lose them. Or somebody on the

I didn't watch either of the last two debates. Neither candidate has said much recently that I haven't heard before and I'm personally taking a giant step back from being consumed by the horse race. Can we please just get this over with?

"Nice picture, John!"

I agree with the "vision issues". He appeared conflicted the other day. His first few games his instinct was to tuck it and run as soon as he felt heat and he sometimes didn't see guys who were wide open. I'm sure they talked to him about this while watching films and now he's got it in his head that to take the next step as a QB, he needs to start making those reads--which is absolutely true, but on Saturday he seemed to be over-thinking those run/pass decisions and wanted to throw when there was nothing there. He'll get more comfortable, in time. I think it is fine that they didn't take

It would have been better if he had made those comments to the wack-jobs showing up at rallys before he was publicly admonished for his previous silence by several sources. I also don't doubt the Secret Service has had something to say to him about the rhetoric employed at his rallies lately. My wife works at a childrens' museum in Columbus and the area she runs happens to have a direct view of the park that Obama gave a speech at on Friday. She described the Secret Service presence at her workplace as "rather intense" that day. I don't doubt it, with some of the crazies coming out of the w

Predicted final score of this year's OSU/UM game: OSU: 7 UM: 3 OSU will score in the opening minutes, then look like shit for the remainder of the game, as is becoming custom for them. Michigan will still lose because that's just the kind of year it is shaping up to be.