Ross Douthat opines: It’s possible to be a celebrity and a serious politician at the same time: Barack Obama’s career proves as much. But Obama’s celebrity status is frequently a political liability, and he’s (usually) wise enough to know it. That’s why he plays the wonk as often as he plays the global icon. For now, no Republican leader projects… Read more »
On the USC football team’s official blog, Ben Malcolmson goes there: Stanford’s loss to California on Saturday further muddied the Pac-10 race and also caused several people to scratch their heads in confusion. What is going on in this conference? USC beats California by 27 points, Stanford beats USC by 34 points and then Cal goes out and beats Stanford… Read more »
It’s official: the Angry Right of 2009 is verifiably more insane than the Angry Left of 2001-2005. How do I know? Because of this poll: The poll asked this question: “Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?” The overall top-line is legitimately won 62%,… Read more »
On Monday, NPR aired a story on the question of what’s the proper way to pronounce the year 2010. Is it “two-thousand ten,” or “twenty ten”? To me, the answer is obviously the latter. The only reason we’ve been saying “two-thousand one,” “two-thousand two,” etc., is because it feels awkward to say “twenty-oh-one,” “twenty-oh-two,” and so forth. (For some reason,… Read more »
Should they? Of course not. Will they? Quite possibly, writes Stewart Mandel: Is the loser of the Pitt-Cincy game really going to end up in the Meineke Car Care Bowl? Really?? — John, Chicago If Notre Dame finishes 7-5 [or 8-4], most likely. The Gator Bowl has first choice of Big East teams after the BCS, but it’s also allowed… Read more »
But Gandalf Ralph Wilson lifted up his arms and called once more in a clear voice: “Stand, Men of the West[ern New York]! Stand and wait! This is the hour of doom. … The realm of Jauron is ended!“
I just got through watching the Gonzaga-Michigan State game — it ended more than two hours ago, but because it conflicted with the girls’ bedtimes, I had to TiVo it and watch it on a delay (sequestering myself from the Internet so I wouldn’t accidentally learn the result) — and, like Zach at The Slipper Still Fits, I’m not quite… Read more »
Courtesy of Scout.com’s Matt Zemek: The commissioners of the Mountain West, Western Athletic, and Pac-10 Conferences (especially new Pac-10 boss Larry Scott) need to create their own answer to the SEC and Big 12 title games on the first weekend of December: Have the champions of the three leagues and one at-large second-place team compete in two made-for-TV games. Call… Read more »
On the eve of ESPN’s ridiculous/awesome 24-hour marathon of wall-to-wall college hoops, a bit of November Madness courtesy of, well, Wall: That’d be Kentucky’s John Wall, kicking off his college career in style. Here’s the same play, without the awful play-by-play announcing, as seen from the crowd: P.S. “Charlie Coles finds your question absurd.” Heh.
Unfortunately, the scenario involves Wazzu winning, so it ain’t gonna happen. But Ken Stern can dream: [T]here would have to be a 6 way tie for the conference lead (with 6-3 records) among Oregon, Arizona, Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and USC. Under that scenario the first tie-breaker is the record against those teams and USC, Oregon State and Arizona would… Read more »