Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I wonder if Barack Obama publicly supporting the Blackhawks will hurt Ed Markey in his bid for the Mass Senate seat among Bruins fans. I hope it does... Lost in the Tim Tebow hoopla was the fact that the story of him signing with the Patriots was broken by Ed Werder. Does that mean Werder is Belichick's "go to" reporter?... Speaking of Tebow - the Angels wanted to draft him... Obama to announce that he is changing the name of PRISM to SkyNet. What could go wrong?... Cool photo of a lightning strike in Chicago last night... I wonder how many Michael Angelo's there are in the phone book. Are phone books even a thing any more?... 36 made in Massachusetts summer beers... The more I do my own laundry - the more I find myself not wearing underwear...  Interesting read on "Incarcerated Bob". Bottom line - you are a fool if you pay for picks... The only silver lining about the NSA monitoring all calls story is the ability for parents to warn their children not to send nude pics because the government will put them on the Internet. Maybe that will do the trick. Sad reflection on our liberty but we've gone from telling children to be good because Santa is watching to adults thinking "holy crap - there really is someone watching to see if I'm naughty or nice"... Interesting stuff - 22 things you may not know about the Stanley Cup...

The Official Rock Song of Massachusetts

There's a movement to make the Modern Lover's Roadrunner the official rock song of Massachusetts.

I'd be 100% behind this idea.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Woman solves Wheel of Fortune puzzle with one letter

- Sweet collection pop icons in a different light

- My reaction to this was "Holy sh*t!That's wicked cool"

- Massive voting fraud reported in Massachusetts

- Sad Wade Phillips

- "Wouldn't Dutch a homoerotic." Auto-correct fail.

- Chalk Dust Torture

Very Telling Difference

Senator John Kerry is on Twitter (@JohnKerry) and has 4,395 followers but is ONLY following Al Gore and Barack Obama.

Newly elected Senator Scott Brown (@ScottBrownMA) has 19,498 followers and is following 2,754 people on Twitter.

I think that is a very telling difference. John Kerry needs only listen to Gore and Obama while Scott Brown is actually listening to every day people.

Unintended Consequences

I travel a lot but I made sure that I wasn't traveling this week because I wanted to vote for Scott Brown in person. I wanted to feel the thrill of finally voting FOR someone - not just voting.

There is an unintended consequence to consider here. Scott Brown has made it a point to express that his will be a victory not just for the average citizen but also a victory against the Democratic Party Machine. This is a point worth considering.

It was the Massachusetts Democratic Party Machine that gave us Martha Coakley. The backroom deals and endorsements that put her in place was perhaps the fatal flaw that put this sequence of events into motion in the first place. Scott Brown is a good man and a good candidate but I can't help but think that if the Democratic Party Machine in Massachusetts let the people pick the candidate in the first place then it could have been Scott Brown against Congressman Mike Capuano or Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca and in that case the results from today's election could have been very different today.

One more thought - Martha Coakley is now my favorite Democratic candidate.

Scott Brown and the Average White Guy Vote

It seems you are allowed to poll every demographic except the "average white guy" vote. Well I took an informal poll this weekend of 20 white guys and two black guys - sorry no women were polled because there was football on all weekend. All but one of the 22 polled plan to vote for Scott Brown because they've had enough. And the one guy who is not voting for Scott Brown won't because Brown is a Republican and he just can't cross that line (for some in Massachusetts that's a family taboo). The really interesting thing is the guy who won't vote for Scott Brown doesn't plan to vote at all. Martha Coakley just isn't worth his effort.

More evidence that Scott Brown has the "average white guy" vote is the fact that Doug Flutie is voting for Scott Brown. Flutie is a life-long Democrat who campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton when she was running for Senate in New York and Flutie was playing for the Buffalo Bills. If the Democratic Party has lost Doug Flutie that's just another piece of evidence that the "average white guy" vote is completely swinging to Scott Brown.

I really wish I could bet on this election because I'd load up on a Scott Brown victory.

Schilling for Senate

There has been a move afoot spurred by radio station WEEI to get Curt Schilling to run as a Republican challenger in 2008 for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently held by John Kerry. I think this is a great idea.

John Kerry is very vulnerable and if a candidate with positive name recognition were to run against him - then Kerry would most likely lose (because that's what he does best). Since winning the Democratic Nomination by beating Jim Shannon in his original run for the Senate - Kerry hasn't faced any real competition in his quests for re-election to the Senate.

Curt Schilling helped bring a World Series Championship home to the Red Sox for the first time in 86 years. This will be his last season (he's retiring at the end of the year) and a move into politics couldn't be timed any better. Schilling is also known for his charitable causes like fighting against ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and skin cancer (his wife is a skin cancer survivor). On the campaign trail if Schilling just spent most of his time smiling, shaking hands and signing autographs - he'd be in. Kerry would almost certainly make a fatal gaff in his campaign. Just Kerry being Kerry and having the charisma of the tin man on Valium would be enough to get Schilling elected.

For Schilling to win - I would propose a three prong strategy:

1. Say "Yes I am a Republican but I am very much pro-union." He could talk about how he's been a dues paying member of the MLB Players Association for over a decade and how he recognizes the importance of collective bargaining. This would help make it easier for hard-core Democrats to vote for him on election day.

2. Stress that he'd show up for work to represent the people of Massachusetts every single day. That taking pay for a job that you never show up for is morally reprehensible. This would certainly have Kerry backtracking and on the defense. Schilling could stress that he'd show up every day to help protect and further the interests of the State of Massachusetts instead of skiing in Idaho or traveling to countries like France trying to get them to like us.

3. Stress low taxes. Low taxes give Democrats another reason to cross the aisle to vote for a Republican. Massachusetts is a dominantly Democratic state but when it comes to money - we like Republicans watching the purse strings (witness Republican Governors Weld, Cellucci and Romney).

The hardest part for Schilling would be to just shut up and let Kerry defeat himself. If Schilling followed the strategy set out above and just kept quiet about everything else - then he'd be sure to win.

Curt Schilling in 2008. He's got my vote.

EDIT: I stand corrected - it was WRKO and not WEEI who started the ball rolling.

You can sign a petition urging Schilling to run here.