Learning From Past Mistakes

New RNC Chair Michael Steele did the talk show circuit this morning, and has presented the nation with his new vision for the Republican Party...except that it's the same as the current vision of the Republican Party.

I can't say this astonishes me. But does anyone out there feel like the reason the Republicans were just handed their electoral heads has a lot to do with their "failure to lead," Steele's stated reason?

It seems to me like they did rather too much leading, and most of it in direction I would categorize as "very wrong." No need to learn anything from that NYT map showing you with 5 states still in the Republican column, or the voices even from within the party suggesting you're in danger of becoming a regional rather than a national organization. Haven't you noticed how much your delegation has appreciated being included in governing decisions by President Obama this past week?

Enjoy your time in the wilderness. You might want to start getting comfortable.

How Not To Be Good

There was history in the air in Detroit yesterday as the Lions met the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, where they were defeated 31-21 to complete the NFL's first winless season since the extension to 16 games. Hampered by completely avoidable penalties, the Lions certainly gave the game their all, but in some way that just made the spectacle worse. It was obvious that they were overmatched out there. Indeed, the season has made clear that there are more than a few players in Lions uniforms who wouldn't make the cut on any other team in the NFL.

I watched the game in one of Detroit's best sports bars, Coach's Corner on 7 Mile, which deserves the free publicity. It was packed with local fans, faithfully decked in Honolulu Blue, most of it showing obvious years of wear. You could feel the resignation mingling with the cigarette smoke- even when the Lions made decent plays, few seemed to believe that they could possibly add up to victory.

Truly, the Lions have earned their place as the worst football team ever to take the field. Yes, they have gone 0-16 this year, but they have only won 10 games in the last three years, and it has been 372 days sine their last tally in the W column. The only silver lining to this cumulonimbus cloud is the schadenfreude merchandising: see rebuilding since '57 (yes, that's 1957, but only because there was no football in the 19th century), or Detroit Lions: Pre-Season Champs. Also see the Detroit News' retrospective, "A Season To Forget."

Incredibly, there was serious debate yesterday as to whether or not Coach Rod Marinelli would keep his job after three years of consistent failure. In point of fact they did fire Marinelli this morning, but team owner William Clay Ford (yes, that Ford) comports himself like a hermit, and the Detroit faithful have no idea who he will hire, when, why, for how long, or according to what logic.

I want to end this piece on an upbeat note. There is only one way to go from here, or they can't get any worse. But truly, there is little to suggest that optimism is warranted. I had a serious debate with a fan a few days before the game, regarding the ambivalence of the Lions actually losing em all. In a way, it would be more Detroit-esque to win that last game, to snatch notoriety from the jaws of just another horrible season. While no team has ever managed to concentrate their failure into a single year so effectively, the Lions have been stumbling through professional sports for as long as I've been alive. Well, enjoy this one, Detroit. No such thing as bad press, right? Right? Hello?

Oh, and seriously, Mr. Ford, you need to think this over. Your ticket buying public isn't kidding anymore.

Please, Don't Quit Your Day Job

I watched the Obama ad. You can too, here.

Good lord. I can't imagine what his satellite television channel must be like.

I won't lie, this was hard to sit through. Most of it was pitched at the level of the worst moments of a state of the union address. You know the ones, where the president pauses to acknowledge some "real" person uncomfortably seated in the gallery with the secretary of state and his wife? (what do you chat about in that crowd?)

I would much rather have seen Obama actually pull out some graphs, Ross Perot style, and wade into his economic plan, or suggest some of the programs likely to be modified during his line-by-line review of the federal budget than attempt to embrace real people worried about the price of milk. He will have to worry about the price of milk, but being that personal about it isn't a good use of his limited time. The idea that it would be actually seems a little condescending. Heck, the cuts away to earlier live events at least let you revisit some of the seminal moments from earlier in his campaign, and made him look far more presidential than he did wandering around the hotel from Twin Peaks with an American flag lurking over his shoulder.

I return to a point made earlier- the real intention behind this ad was to dominate (purchase?) a news cycle, and to underscore that Obama has more money than God. It must be tearing the McCain people up something horrible to know they haven't the funding to respond.

Example #832 That Life is in No Way a Meritocracy

Apparently there was a special series of shows on Jeopardy in 2004 (and perhaps after that) called "Power Players" in which the show was filmed in Washington, and the contestants were a bunch of political and media heavyweights. Alex Trebek had this hilarious quote in a USA today story:

Most of the regular Jeopardy contestants have read many books. Most of the power players have written many books. But will it make them better players? We'll see.

Well, I saw, and I can tell you that it most certainly did not. The show I viewed had Anderson "Back to you guys in the Hacienda" Cooper, Maria Bartiromo (you'd know her if you saw her) who's still on TV anchoring a bunch of those CNBC business/stock shows, and Kweisi Mfume who was President of the NAACP at the time.

It was painful. For one thing they dumb down the questions for these guys, like they do in celebrity Jeopardy or the ones where they have kids. Think of it, these people make policy and report meaningful events to the public and they have to make the questions less difficult than normal Jeopardy players.

Only Anderson had a positive amount of money after the first round. Despite the nature of the questions Mfume had only amassed $4000 by final Jeopardy and poor Maria (who was somehow still in the red) had to be given $1000 just so that she'd be able to participate in final jeopardy (talk about adding insult to injury). Just remember that the next time she's giving you stock tips. And, please don't be decieved by Anderson's shellacking of his opponents, or by this hilarious gloating column he penned for CNN, he was far from impressive. Thanks to the miracle of the Interweb you can see the questions and answers here.