Saturday, October 30, 2004

Lighter Notes on a Grayer Day
As we lefties are evidently wont to do, I'm starting to think I over-reacted to the bin Laden tape release last night. Though a Bush advisor referred to the tape as "a little gift," early polling samples aren't showing that it's helping Bush much at all--in fact, the opposite might be true. Check out Josh Marshall's site for the details, including some numbers.

Crazy media moment of the day: watching TV this afternoon, I saw a Citibank commercial that featured as background music a song by the Feelies titled "Slow Down", from the 1986 album The Good Earth. Now I need to remember if it was the same company that used the rare Camper track "Guardian Angels" in another ad. If so, they've got some ad guy, or gal, with a very worthy music collection.

Meanwhile, I don't know if Curt Schilling joined the Red Sox for their victory parade today, but despite a media report from Thursday, he didn't join George W. Bush on the campaign trail in New Hampshire yesterday, on doctor's orders. Curt had blurted out an impromptu endorsement of the president on morning TV a day earlier. Here's his subsequent statement (sorry, no link):

"I am now not medically cleared to do anything until I see Doc on Sunday, so I cannot travel with President Bush tomorrow (Friday). Second, while I am a Bush supporter, and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong. While I hope to see him re-elected, it's not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinons unsolicited. I am proud we have the right to vote, and the message I wanted to send but didn't, was that regardless of who you are voting for the bottom line is that you MUST vote. You must vote because there are millions of Americans who have given their lives before us, and will continue to give their lives after us, so that we can remain free to make the choices we need to make when it comes to electing our Nation's leaders." -- Curt Schilling

I appreciate the sentiment, if not the choice. As with John McCain before him, and also some family and friends, I think the supporter far exceeds in worth the man he's backing.

In fact, the news of Curt's voting choice got me thinking about how the world, and this political and baseball year, might be different if the two men switched jobs:

--->President Schilling might well have invaded Iraq, but based on the pattern he's established throughout his baseball career, he would publicly held himself accountable for the screwups--and taken steps to correct them.
--->He would have tried to let the public know what was really at stake and called for sacrifices to achieve our ends. Probably on afternoon drive-time radio shows and various internet sites.
--->You know he would have been all for medical research.
--->The son of a military man himself, President Schilling would have attended military funerals, honoring the sacrifices of our dead, rather than barring cameras from doing so, out of fear that it might cost him politically.

and then there's the flip side:

--->Based on his business career, Bush the pitcher might well have gotten a massive, lucrative contract from the Red States--I mean, Red Sox--but he probably would have preceded this with a career's worth of Paul Abbott-level performances. No ballplayer has ever matched the prez with as large a gap between performance and success, though Chan Ho Park (of the Rangers... hmmm) has come pretty close.
--->Pitcher Bush's whole argument for his worth as a ballplayer would be based upon his post-game statements after the worst performance of his life... which he'd then seek to blame on the guy who pitched the day before
--->The playoffs: Bush certainly wouldn't have pitched, but nor would he have taken any responsibility--blame the doctors, the fans, the liberal baseball media, the cold and damp Boston weather.

Pitching, after all, is "hard work."

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