Worship According To Their Own Beliefs, And Solve Crimes

The Jamestown, Mayflower Daughters of the American Revolution Preservation Society, I don't know, the Thanksgiving Revolutionary War Reenactment. It's a festival feast of some kind. Who cares?

Thanksgiving fun from The West Wing. Love it.

The Top Twelve

Jonathan Bernstein, who blogs at Bloomberg View, is my favorite political blogger. He's a political scientist with a doctorate and prior to his blogging gig at Bloomberg, he was a professor at the University of Texas. He's keeping a close eye on who the potential 2016 presidential candidates are and in a post today says that the Republican nominee will probably come from this list of twelve:

Jeb Bush
Chris Christie
Paul Ryan
Rick Perry
John Kasich
Mike Pence
Marco Rubio
Bobby Jindal
Scott Walker
Rob Portman
Mike Huckabee
Rick Santorum

In my So Who Is Running For President In 2016 post from November 5, I had these 12 names plus six more (Sam Brownback, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, Rick Snyder) that Bernstein doesn't consider to be viable or plausible. In particular, he says that neither Rand Paul nor Ted Cruz, who are on or at the top of many of the current "possible" lists, are viable:

No, I didn't forget Senators Rand Paul or Ted Cruz. They are running serious campaigns, but I don't think they are viable nominees. Paul isn’t within the party mainstream on several issues, most importantly national security. As for Cruz, it isn't just that he has annoyed far too many party actors. The failure of the government shutdown he spearheaded in 2013 surely convinced others that he can't be trusted to look out for the Republican Party. ...[W]ith a full field of serious candidates already in place, the winnowing is probably just around the corner. Read the entire post here. 
Let the winnowing (and the announcing) begin! 
Days until election day: 714

The Cover Story

People's new cover is out early again this week, and there's Bill Cosby. In the Guessing Game post I had begun to formulate in my head, Mr. Cosby was at the top of my list of potential cover stories, although at age 77, he is way, way outside People's target demographic, not to mention that's he's now most famous for being an accused rapist. I figured it would probably be a sidebar story, but People goes for it, putting Cosby front and center. They didn't, however, use a current photo; the cover pic is from 25 years ago ("... at the height of his fame.")

As many of the current news stories have pointed out, some of these accusations have been around for years, they just didn't get traction and widespread coverage until now. In fact, People had a long article about it, titled "Bill Cosby Under Fire," in the issue dated December, 18, 2006, and a lot of it sounds very familiar:

What Cosby never mentioned [during a performance on Nov. 10, 2006] was the civil lawsuit he settled just two days earlier with Andrea Constand, 32, a former Temple University employee who claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Constand's lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz ended up with 13 witnesses, most referred to in court documents as "Jane Does," who came forward voluntarily with strikingly similar claims of drugging and or abuse by Cosby. Terms of the settlement, reached before any of the women could testify, were not disclosed. But PEOPLE reporters have interviewed five of the women and share three of their stories now. 

But none of them stand to profit from suing Cosby for monetary damages; the statute of limitations on all their charges has expired. And their stories, which take place in several cities and span two decades, illustrate the same pattern of behavior, primarily the accusation that Cosby, then one of the most powerful entertainers alive, targeted them because they were vulnerable and gained their trust by promising to help their careers. PEOPLE contacted Cosby to get his response to the allegations; through his longtime publicist David Brokaw, Cosby said he had no comment. 

Read the entire article here.

How will this end? No way to know. As lawyers are pointing out, Cosby is almost certainly not in any legal jeopardy, and since the women are telling their stories publicly, there's no incentive for him to buy their silence. It's also unlikely that he'll submit himself to any kind of "purge and redeem" interview with Oprah, Matt Lauer or Anderson Cooper. I'm hoping that very soon he'll tell his lawyers to shut up and stop spouting nonsense, cancel his remaining "appearances" and disappear from public view. Let him spend the rest of his years quietly pondering the good, the bad, the ugly and the indefensible of his legacy.

Please Don't Go Shopping On Thanksgiving Day

I just saw a commercial for Walmart in which they promoted their Black Friday shopping deals, and in particular the fact that the deals actually start at 6.00 p.m. "Thursday." The commercial was over before I realized that although it talked about shopping on Black Friday and on "Thursday," never once did it acknowledge that the Thursday they were talking about is, in fact, Thanksgiving Day.

Please, please, please don't go shopping on Thanksgiving Day. If we all stay home, pretty soon it won't be worth it for brick-and-mortar stores to open on the holiday and all their employees will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving in whatever way they choose.

Really. Don't go shopping on Thanksgiving.

Note: this post has been corrected. In the first sentence I originally referred to "Good" Friday. I meant Black Friday, of course.

Innuendo?

Do you know what innuendo means?

From The Merriam-Webster Dictionary: by hinting. Hint, insinuation, esp a veiled reflection on character or reputation.

From Webster's New World College Dictionary: an indirect remark, gesture, or reference, usually implying something derogatory; insinuation.

From dictionary.com: an indirect intimation about a person or thing, especially of a disparaging or a derogatory nature.

I asked the question, and answered it, because apparently Bill Cosby doesn't know what innuendo means. Here's what he said Friday night, referring to the 15 or so woman who have accused him of rape or sexual assault:

"I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn't have to answer to innuendos," he said this weekend. "People should fact check. People shouldn't have to go through that, and shouldn't answer to innuendos."

Just to be clear, Mr. Cosby, these women are not saying that you "may have been inappropriate in possibly, maybe a sexual way." That's innuendo. 

On the contrary, Mr. Cosby, they say you drugged, raped and/or sexually assaulted them. That's not innuendo. It's not anonymous accusations and it's not extortion. These women are speaking out publicly, on the record, by name, with no hope or expectation of financial gain. If you have any hope of clearing your name against these very specific allegations, you're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than saying "a guy doesn't have to answer to innuendos."  

For the record, I don't think you can. 

Not Deeply Tasteful

A few posts ago I said that a full frontal naked picture is crossing a line, even for Kim Kardashian. Does Vogue editor Anna Wintour agree? No way to know for sure, but she did take a subtle shot at Kimye earlier this week. Regarding the infamous Vogue cover with Kim and Kanye in wedding clothes and the hashtag #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple, Wintour sprang forth with this:

I think if we just remain deeply tasteful and just put deeply tasteful people on the cover, it would be a rather boring magazine! Nobody would talk about us. It's very important that people do talk about us. 

I'm not going to post the naked picture but I will re-post this one, to help you make up your mind about just how deeply tasteful Kim and Kanye really are. 

And They're Off!

The 2016 presidential race is officially underway! The first candidate in the race has announced an exploratory committee, the devil's-in-the-details first step to actually running for president. Surprisingly, it's a Democrat - Jim Webb, Vietnam-era Marine Corp veteran, former Virginia senator and Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan. Realistically, he's a long shot, even if Hillary opts not to run and an exploratory committee is slightly less official than actually saying "I declare my candidacy..." but still, it's a traditional first step and sure to be the first of many. Here's how cnn is covering it, and here's a link to Webb's on-line announcement.

Days until election day: 718

What I Know About Bill Cosby

In the early 1980s I was living in New York City and working as a flight attendant. I shared an apartment with three other flight attendants, one of whom was having an affair with Bill Cosby. I think she met him on a flight but I don't remember that part for sure. I even spoke to him on the phone once. In those pre-cell phone days, we had one landline phone and we all used the same phone number. I answered the phone one day and it was Mr. Cosby, looking for my roommate. I advised him that she wasn't home at the moment and I would give her the message. He said thank you and that was it.

Unlike rape, infidelity isn't illegal and cheating on his wife doesn't prove that he rapes women. On the other hand, when The Cosby Show hit it big in 1984 and Cosby became America's warm, wise, cuddly role model husband and father, I had personal evidence that his private life didn't match his public image.

The whole sordid Cosby story appears to have hit the "tipping point." Yesterday NBC canceled plans to make a new sitcom starring Bill Cosby. AP released the unedited version of a Nov. 6 interview with Cosby and his wife, in which he says "I don't talk about it," referring to the rape accusations, then asks the reporter to "scuttle" that part of the interview. At The Daily Beast, entertainment blogger Mark Ebner has a devastating article titled "I Warned You About Bill Cosby" that refers to a story first posted on his blog in 2007. The entire article is fascinating and horrifying; you can read it here. If you're wondering how there can be such a disconnect between a famous man's public image and his private actions, the final paragraph provides a clue:

As is equally clear from his shambolic talk-show appearances and his extemporaneous attempts at social commentary in a public forum, Bill Cosby has long existed in a bubble. You don’t create movies like Leonard, Part 6, a catastrophically conceived 1987 James Bond parody in which the comedian at one point rides an ostrich, and not be dangerously out of touch with the world around you, or protected behind layers of hierarchy and protocol. With this much darker turn into pathology and alleged predation, it appears that for the entire 45 years of his public life, Cosby has been, in Shawn Upshaw’s words, “an incurable womanizer,” adulterer, and accused serial rapist—alleged actions in which his media champions were complicit. Moreover, the duration and degree of these incidents suggest a parallel history, one that once revealed in all its explosive detail, may render what we now know so far merely the tip of the iceberg.

Read the original story from January, 2007 here.

The Sexiest Man Alive

People goes with Chris Hemsworth, who I had barely heard of before this morning. If you're in the mood for a review, here's a list of all the previous winners.

1985 Mel Gibson
1986 Mark Harmon
1987 Harry Hamlin
1988 John Kennedy, Jr.
1989 Sean Connery
1990 Tom Cruise
1991 Patrick Swayze
1992 Nick Nolte
1993 Sexiest Couple: Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford
1995 Brad Pitt
1996 Denzel Washington
1997 George Clooney
1998 Harrison Ford
1999 Richard Gere
2000 Brad Pitt
2001 Pierce Brosnan
2002 Ben Affleck
2003 Johnny Depp
2004 Jude Law
2005 Matthew McConaughey
2006 George Clooney
2007 Matt Damon
2008 Hugh Jackman
2009 Johnny Depp
2010 Ryan Reynolds
2011 Bradley Cooper
2012 Channing Tatum
2013 Adam Levine

To do some demographic sorting, two of the men on this list have died (JFK, Jr. and Patrick Swayze,) three have appeared twice (Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Johnny Depp, plus Richard Gere, once as part of a couple and once by himself,) and only one, Denzel Washington, is black. Two, Gibson and Nolte, definitely haven't aged well. You can see all the actual covers here.

If you're interested in how People decides who gets the nod each year, and how that process has evolved, check out a great article at slate.com. I love their description of current and recent winners:

The Sexiest Man Alive of this moment is reliably white, straight, mid-30s, handsome to women, relatable to men, ideally suitable for both your grandmother’s coffee table and your niece’s Tumblr, mired in no known scandals, famous enough to have starred in a blockbuster film or high-rated television show in the past year, but desperate enough to agree to subject himself to a revealing shirtless pictorial and embarrassing psycho-sexual interview in People’s pages. 

I had suggested Bill Cosby, Solange Knowles and Honey Boo Boo as possible sidebar stories, but people went with a Dead Blonde Girl, Diem Brown.

The Guessing Game

There's no suspense about the cover story this week - the so-called Sexiest Man Alive will be announced this evening on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Who will it be? Not sure. Right now Brad Pitt comes to mind, with the whole dedicated-husband-and-father thing he's got going on. Beyond that I'm not sure. I'll update this post if I think of anyone else. In the meantime, people.com has a fun retrospective about Sexiest Men past; you can read it here.

BTW, do you remember who last year's sexiest man was? Adam Levine.

There probably won't be any non-sexy sidebar stories, but if there are, Bill Cosby, Honey Boo Boo and Solange Knowles are possibilities.

Another thought: Last week, at least for a few weird moments, you'd have thought that Kim K's naked body was the most important news story on the planet. I'm happy to report that when I first starting thinking about who might be on this week's cover, my brain had repressed the whole "glazed butt/naked body" thing from last week. Now it's back and yes, People might want to jump on the bandwagon, just a few days late, and put a (probably not naked) pic of Mrs. West on the cover. We'll know soon.

A Cheeky Little Minx At The Top Of Her Game, A Beautiful Anime Character Come To Life

The title of this post refers to the woman with the butt seen 'round the world. The first part is from Piers Morgan, writing at dailymail.co.uk, with an interesting perspective on Mrs. West. Hint: he likes her. The second part is from the article at Paper magazine, almost certainly to be read by almost no one. This time it really is about the pictures.

Morgan is entitled to like her if he wants to, of course. He says he's met her several times and he perceives her to be "a warm, unpretentious, honest and rather charming young lady." (Minor quibble from me: young lady? She's 34.)

I could deconstruct the article, sentence by sentence, 'graph by 'graph, but I've reached my limit of Kardashian-think, at least for the moment. Other than one last thought, I'm going silent on the Ks for a while, with my usual caveat that if something even more outrageous happens in K-world I may once again be compelled to break out in blogging.

As for that last (multi-part) thought, here goes:

Statement from Kim, quoted by Piers: "I think I promote a healthy, natural body image." (Reminder from me: This is from long before she proved that she can balance a champagne glass on her butt.)

Then this, from Piers: She admitted to using Botox, Spanx and the odd piece of masking tape... I have studied her face up close and see nothing to contradict this; Kim's a natural beauty. (Snarky question from me: Really, Piers? Really? A natural beauty? Is it possible that while evaluating her face you were distracted by other body parts? Just asking.)

Finally, this, from the article in Paper magazine, just before they get to the part about her "two hours of hair and make-up every day": Her black hair is thicker than any you have ever seen, her lips fuller, her giant Bambi-eyes larger, their whites whiter, and the lashes that frame them longer. If some of this is the result of artificial enhancement -- does anyone else have eyelashes that resemble miniature feather dusters? -- none of it seems obviously ersatz. But that's not to say it looks real, either. She is like a beautiful anime character come to life.

Healthy, natural body image, or anime character come to life? You decide. You can read Piers' article here and the Paper article here.

Why?

I spent yesterday trying to decide if I had anything original to say about that picture of Kim Kardashian's naked backside. As the day went on I decided that I didn't. The picture had generated the full spectrum of wailing, complaining, mocking, twitter shaming, and of course, copying (yes, it's everywhere, but not here. Just go to Google.)  Then this morning people.com had a headline announcing that Mrs West had gone gone full frontal naked. Yowza.

Thoughts:

I know I'm not the prime audience for this stuff but still, I have to say that the "Kim's butt" picture just isn't that attractive. It's not sexy or even erotic and to my eyes it doesn't look natural. Brian Moyland, writing at time.com yesterday said her butt looks like a "glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut," and I agree. I also think the waist has been seriously photoshopped. The whole thing just doesn't look real to me.

Then there's the full frontal naked shot. Is this really what Kim wanted? Did she really want that picture to go public? Did Kanye? The magazine is saying that Kim was really into it during the photo shoot and that she suggested the naked shot, but the whole thing just feels off to me. The goofy expression on her face, for one thing. It doesn't even look like her. I'm also surprised that as far as I can tell, as I'm writing this at 2.00 p.m. central time, neither Kim, nor her mother nor Kanye have commented since the naked picture was released. Usually they can't take to Twitter fast enough when a new picture of Kim comes out.

Finally, at least for now, what does this do to the Kardashian brand? How does their employer, the E! network, feel about it? Is there some kind of morals clause in their contract? Kim's body has always been a big part of her public persona, and lately she's been wearing outfits that don't leave much to the imagination, especially above the waist. Do I sound like an out-of-touch old biddy if I say that even in this day and age, full frontal nakedness crosses a line and I'm wondering why, exactly, Kim did it and what she thought the benefit (to her) would be. Once the picture's out there she can't get it back and I think it's at least possible that she'll come to regret it. Stay tuned.

Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields gets the main cover story this week, as part of a PR campaign for her new book. Ebola survivor Amber Vinson is back after first appearing in a sidebar story on the Oct. 22 cover. I've never heard of Marnie the dog.

The Guessing Game

Who will be on the cover of People magazine this week? Possibilities:

Jennifer Aniston: Oscar buzz for a new movie, not married yet
Joan Rivers: New info about botched operation,
Jennifer Lawrence: A new Hunger Games movie
Will, Kate and/or Prince George: A trip to America in December
Beyoncé: Forbes top-earner in music
Joni Ernst: A new senator from Iowa
Chelsea Clinton: Glamour Woman of the Year award, new pictures six weeks after her daughter was born
Taylor Swift: She's everywhere
Lisa Kudrow: Her comeback show, The Comeback, is back
Bill Cosby: Possibly not such a nice guy after all

Presidential Succession

As a result of the mid-term election, the Republicans will become the majority party and Mitch McConnell will become the senate majority leader. The majority party switch also has an impact on presidential succession. No change to the first and second in line, of course; Vice President Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner aren't going anywhere. Do you know who's third in line?

It's the President Pro Tempore, or President Pro Tem, of the Senate, which by custom is the senior senator of the majority party. Currently it's democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont; when the new Senate is sworn in, republican Senator Orrin Hatch, age 80, will assume the title. After the VP, the House Speaker and the President Pro Tem, cabinet secretaries come next, in the order in which their department was created. The first five places in line look like this: 

1. Vice President Joe Biden
2. Speaker of the House John Boehner
3. President Pro Tem of the Senate Patrick Leahy, soon to be Orrin Hatch
4. Secretary of State John Kerry
5. Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew

You'll notice that all five are men. A few years ago, Senator Robert Byrd was the President Pro Tem. When he died in June, 2010, there was a brief period of time when that position was vacant, with the result that #2 in line was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the temporary #3 was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. To put it another way, #2 and #3 were women, which I thought was cool. Right now the highest ranking woman is Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, at #8, but when Loretta Lynch becomes Attorney General, she'll slot in ahead of Jewell at #7. 

I know this is total Social Studies nerdville. I think I've written before about how I got interested in presidential succession: it was a plot point on The West Wing. At the end of season 4, President Bartlet temporarily steps down when his daughter is kidnapped. The Vice President had recently resigned due to a sex scandal, so the Speaker of the House, played by John Goodman, is sworn in as the temporary president. That makes the President Pro Tem next in line. Here's the scene:

Note: I just noticed the typo in the word "relieved" in the title below. That's not me, I lifted it intact from YouTube. 

  

Christie For President?, Part 2

A cartoon from New Jersey's largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, referring to the guv's return to the state after traveling the country during the election  in his role as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Click here to read the story at Andrew Sullivan's The Dish. And don't forget, the Star-Ledger endorsed Christie in his re-election bid in 2013, then changed their mind, saying "We blew it" when BridgeNado broke in January.

Is this my last post about Chris Christie? Almost certainly not. In my mind he's one of the most interesting and intriguing potential GOP candidates for president in 2016, not to mention one of the most entertaining. Is he the next President of the United States? I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't think so. I once said that Sarah Palin was "an opposition researcher's wet dream," and I'm having the same thoughts about the NJ governor. Am I right? We'll know in 730 days.

Media Literacy: Is This News?

Warning: rant ahead. I'm stewing about another incident of dumbed down/sexed up this-isn't-really-news news on a news show.

I don't usually watch the network evening news shows, but last night I happened to see a segment on ABC that struck me as strange. It had something to do with a criminal in Australia who initially confessed to a reporter while crying, then pointed a gun and drove away in the reporter's van. I didn't watch the whole segment, but even so I found myself thinking, really? This is important enough, here in America, to rate a mention on a network's flagship evening news show? After that thought, I didn't think anything more about it until I saw the same segment on the local news this morning, then again, the very same segment on Good Morning America. You may have heard something about a member of AC/DC getting arrested for attempted murder, but this has nothing to do with that. The man with a gun in a car wasn't famous.

So why is this Australian criminal getting so much coverage here in America? Because there's video. CNN has the story too; you can see it here.

And You Thought Prince Charles Doesn't Have A Sense Of Humor

Check out this hilarious video as Prince Charles and an Australian reporter remember a really awkward interview back in 1977.

So Who Is Running For President in 2016?

I've been saying that the 2016 presidential election starts today and I saw an interesting article at the Washington Post, written by Republican Ari Fleischer, titled "What the GOP must do to win in 2016." My favorite sentence in the entire article goes like this: People simply won't vote for you if they think you don't like them. (He's referring to latino, gay and younger voters, and what the party must do to appeal to them.) Read the entire article here.

Fleischer also says that by his count, approximately a dozen Republicans are considering running for President, including six governors, a former governor, three senators, a former senator and one physician. When I tried to figure out who he's referring to I came up with Ben Carson (the doctor,) Jeb Bush (the former governor,) Rick Santorum (the former senator,) Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio (the three senators) and Chris Christie, Bobby Jindall, Scott Walker, Rick Perry and John Kasich (five out of six governors.) Number six could be Mike Pence, Rick Snyder or Sam Brownback. I'm not sure. Other names I've seen on various lists or mentioned in the press, prior to yesterday's election, include Mike Huckabee, Paul Ryan, and of course, Mittens!

In alphabetical order, here's the list of everyone mentioned in this post. I'll update it as people either declare or decline to run, or if another credible candidate floats to the surface. Two years (and the clock is ticking) until Election Day, 2016!

Sam Brownback
Jeb Bush
Dr. Ben Carson
Chris Christie
Ted Cruz
Mike Huckabee
Bobby Jindall
John Kasich
Rand Paul
Mike Pence
Rick Perry
Rob Portman
Mitt Romney
Marco Rubio
Paul Ryan
Rick Santorum
Rick Snyder
Scott Walker

BTW, according to website 270towin.com, there are 733 days until Election Day, 2016.

Wednesday night update: I thought of one more name, which I've added to the list, Senator Rob Portman.

Please: Enough With The Duggars

Matthew McConaughey gets the main cover this week but I'm more interested (and not in a good way) in the top sidebar. Really? Really?? Another story about a Duggar wedding? Please make it stop.

I'm curious to see who the forgotten Kennedy sister is. Either Rosemary, the mentally disabled sister of JFK, or Kathleen, the sister who married the heir to the Duke of Devonshire then died in an plane crash in the late 1940s, would be my guesses.

The Day After

The race for governor in Illinois is being treated as a done deal, with pretty much all the media reporting that Bruce Rauner, a Republican, has beaten incumbent Pat Quinn. The weird part is that Quinn is refusing to concede. I understand that after pouring your heart and soul into a race, and especially when the polls have been so close, with the race labeled a tie going into election day, how devastating (and unbelievable) it must be to lose. Still, come on, governor. Face the facts and be gracious. It's time to move on.

Scott Brown, who won a special election in Massachusetts to replace Senator Ted Kennedy after his death in 2009, then lost to Elizabeth Warren in 2012, tried again and lost again. His loss to incumbent senator Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire gives him a special place in election history, i.e., he's the first man to lose to two women in two different states. The best part of this story: the hilarious tweets about where he might run next. Connecticut? Maine? Stay tuned.

Ted Kennedy Jr. was elected to the state senate in Connecticut and Joe Kennedy III was reelected to the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Bobby Shriver lost his bid for a seat on the LA County Board of Supervisors, so the Kennedys went 2 for 3. George P. Bush, grandson of 41, nephew of 43 and son of (maybe) 45, was elected Texas Land Commissioner.

A mixed result for two of the congressmen we've been following on this blog. Vance (kissing/caught on video congressman) McAllister was defeated; Michael ("I'll throw you over the balcony") Grimm won relection.

Finally, my home state of Oregon has voted to legalize recreational marijuana.

And with that, on to 2016!

Guessing Game?

Not this week. Actually I have no idea who will get the People cover this week. As soon as the new cover posts at people.com, I'll post it here.

Election Day

It's election day and somewhat to my own surprise, I've become something of a political junkie, although I'm less interested in mid-terms and more interested in looking ahead to the 2016 presidential race. There is some suspense here in Illinois because as of this morning, our candidates for governor were tied in a race deemed to be too close to call.

Still, I'd rather look ahead. Just as the start of the holiday shopping season creeps ever earlier, so does the start of the next presidential race. Will Hill run? Will Jeb? Chris Christie? Ted Cruz? Sarah Palin? Just kidding about Palin (#palinbrawl!) Regardless of how many time she teases her supporters (and squeezes them for money) about a possible run, she's a television personality now, not a politician.

As I anticipate elections yet to come I've also been feeling some nostalgia for elections past. In 2012, I was in Portland, Maine on election day, working with a client. I flew home that evening and was getting ready for bed when the election was called for Obama. In 2010 I volunteered on a congressional campaign and spent the day making "get out the vote" calls. 2008 was the coolest for me - I was visiting friends who were living in Dubai. They had just moved into their apartment and didn't have their cable TV hooked up yet. With the time change, it was Wednesday morning when we fired up my friend's laptop and learned that Obama had made history as the first African American president-elect. (I voted for him so it was a good morning for me. My hosts voted for the other guy [and his ridiculous running mate] and were not happy.)

So on to 2016. Something tells me it's going to be a doozy!

Chris Christie For President?

Maybe not. We've always known that he has a temper and is prone to hollering at anyone who questions him. In his first term as NJ governor his staff would gleefully post in-your-face video clips on the guv's personal YouTube channel, which helped to build his reputation as a take-no-prisoners tough guy, perfect for New Jersey.

As talk about a possible presidential run bubbles up, however, his temperament is a concern. Is it presidential? Would "Sit down and shut up" play in Iowa? In New Hampshire? Does "straight-talking tough guy" in New Jersey translate to "bully" on the national stage? This week Christie provided evidence that maybe it does. His most recent on-camera tirade against a heckler was so over-the-top that even the Morning Joe crew, normally big Christie cheerleaders, wondered if he needs "anger management classes." Mediaite has the video.

And another thing about Chris Christie, that I had forgotten. In anticipation of Wednesday morning, when the 2016 presidential campaign will kick-off in earnest, I've been re-reading "Double Down," the how-it-happened book about the 2012 election by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. H and H provide a lot of details about Mitt Romney's process for choosing a VP candidate, including the fact that the campaign took a close look at Christie. What didn't get a lot of attention in late 2013 when the book came out, but may come back to bite him if he runs in 2016, is the fact that Christie didn't pass the Romney campaign's vet.

From the book: "For the past two and a half years, Christie had received skin-blanching exposure from the klieg lights of the national media. But the vetters were stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record."

From a 2010 Dept. of Justice Inspector General's investigation of Christie's spending patterns in his job as a U.S. attorney to the fact that Christie worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Securities Industry Association at a time when Bernie Madoff was a senior SIA official to Christie's decision to steer hefty government contracts to donors and political allies, there was a whole lot of info that gave the vetters pause. And all of it was in addition to concerns about his weight, his health and his temperament and a couple of years before Bridgegate hit the fan.

One member of the vetting team told his colleagues, If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him - he wouldn't be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, he added, it's not pretty. (For the entire story, see Double Down, hard-cover edition, pages 349-356.)

If the Romney campaign was able to find all this stuff, the Rand Paul, or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz campaigns will be able to find it too, way before any Democrat has to worry about Chris Christie. (Not to mention that they've probably read the book.) At least superficially, Christie appears to have survived Bridgegate and is talked about as a top-tier potential candidate in 2016. Political junkie that I am, you bet I'm going to be watching to see how this plays out. It all starts Wednesday morning.

College Football's Coolest Team

What a great picture, taken from a Wall Street Journal article about the Oregon Ducks, which declares that the Ducks are college football's coolest team. And yes, they beat Stanford yesterday, 45-16.

Things Happen

A few posts ago I wondered what John McCain thinks about the infamous "#palinbrawl," and now we know. Or at least we know what's he's saying publicly. On Friday Senator McCain told local station KTVK in Phoenix that, "things happen in people's families, I'm not excusing it, I'm not condemning it." Regarding the possibility that Palin would run for office again, he says, fairly faintly that "I think it's great." He goes on to say, "I had hoped she wouldn't have stepped down when she did," which isn't the same thing as saying she's a credible candidate for anything in the future. The reporter goes on to note that many pundits are pointing out that Palin has teased a political comeback before and nothing ever comes of it. TalkingPointsMemo has the video.