GioBlog

The political significance of Obama’s Rev. Wright problem

Here's what I think is the political significance of Obama's "Rev. Wright problem."

As far as most voters are concerned:

-If Obama was aware of Rev. Wright's views and implicitly endorse them through church membership, attendance and giving, Obama is too radical to be president.

-If Obama was aware of Rev. Wright's views and didn't think they were problem enough to change churches over, Obama doesn't have good enough judgment to be president.

-If Obama was aware of Rev. Wright's views and is trying to finesse the issue to preserve his political viability, Obama is too dishonest to be president.

-If Obama attended Rev. Wright's church for 20 years and wasn't aware of Wright's positions, Obama is too stupid not observant enough to be president.

Clearly, Obama choose to attend a large black church pastored by a radical pastor because it enhanced his local political viability.

But in the presidential campaign, Obama has been trying to sell himself as a "different kind of" black leader. He's succeeded wildly at this positioning move, but the Rev. Wright problem has revealed that, if Obama isn't just another radical black liberal, he certainly spends his time with them.

And the mainstream voters who have been attracted to Obama as a symbol aren't down with the radical agenda Obama is now, for the first time, associated with.

Why do Cowboys abandon the run down 4 points with plenty of time?

My greatest frustration about the Cowboy's unnecessary loss to Philadelphia yesterday is this: Why did the Cowboys abandon the running game only down 4 points with half a game left to play?

The Cowboys attempted only 15 rushes the entire game. But Marion Barber averaged 4.6 yards per carry for his 7 carries. Shouldn't Barber have been handed the ball a few more times, especially only down 4 points and Romo obviously having a horrible day throwing the ball and with a hurt throwing thumb?

Lots of accolades have been heaped upon Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett this year, and rightly so. But Garrett called a clunker yesterday.

Patriot fans are certifiably insane

I knew there was something wrong with Patriot fans. Now we know.

Anglicans must be proud

References to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the world's Anglican community, came across my desk several times this weekend.

I hope Anglicans are proud.

First, of course, is Rowan Williams attacking U.S. foreign policy, glossing over British imperialism, and doing all of this in an interview with a Muslim magazine without apparently having any problems with Muslim foreign policy.

Second, in my research on the Golden Compass movie and its controversy, we find that the Philip Pullman novels, which are written by an aggressive atheist as an attack not only on theism but also as an attack on and a counterpoint to C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, are widely recognized by Christians as an attack on their faith (and on theism in general), but Rowan Williams has no problem with them.

However, Pullman has found support from other Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. These groups and individuals point out that Pullman's attacks are focused on the constraints of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not Christianity itself. Dr. Williams has gone so far as to propose that His Dark Materials be taught as part of religious education in schools.

Imagine--the author himself acknowledges the novels as an attack on Christianity, and Christians around the globe recognize them as such, but the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks they're great.

The final novel features a battle to pull down and destroy God--and Rowan Williams has no problem with that.

I hope you Anglicans are proud.

We have a guy in the U.S. named Barry Lynn, or more accurately the Rev. Barry W. Lynn. Anytime anyone is looking for a supposedly religious person to say something critical of Christians, or traditional Christian values, they can always count on the Rev. Lynn.

Apparently, Rowan Williams is aspiring to give Barry Lynn some competition in the field of religious leaders who can be counted on to actually stand against almost everything religious people believe.

Rio de Janeiro travelogue-1

Some non-policy photos from my trip to Rio de Janeiro for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Nov. 12-16, 2007.

The view from my window at the Intercontinental Hotel Rio:

Op/ed in DC Examiner, "A Tale of Two Climates"

I had an op/ed on global warming, "A Tale of Two Climates" in the DC Examiner a few days ago.

An excerpt:

"...So why it is considered a global catastrophe now that the glaciers are receding, and the land is being freed? Are we, like the people displaced by the glaciers, captive to the arrogance of the status quo? Do we assume that the conditions that exist during our lifetimes are the way things always have been, and the way things always should be?

Or is it possible that we, like they, simply happen to live during a climate tipping point, where the results of immutable climate cycles are simply becoming manifest?

Why do we assume that having massive amounts of the earth's surface covered in a thick sheet of ice is a good thing? We're accustomed to seeing glacier-filled valleys and snow-covered mountains, but is that necessarily the ideal state of the earth?

Is it better for Greenland to be green, or to be covered in an ice sheet? Is it better for Canada's northernmost territory to be useless, or productive?"

Visit the DC Examiner to read the full article.

Right on the Bears, we’ll see about the rest of the Cowboys schedule

Well, I was right about the Cowboys vs. the Bears, though I didn't get to enjoy the game because I'm overseas and didn't see a single play.

Groan.

Still think my evaluation of Dallas and my predictions are on-track. To recap:

But a team with a good quarterback will pick the Dallas secondary apart. And that means 6 teams the Cowboys will face.

Tom Brady will pick the Cowboys secondary apart on October 14th. McNabb will pick them apart on November 4th, and maybe on December 16th. Farve will pick them apart on November 29th.  Kidna will pick them apart on December 9th. And Delhomme will finish the job on December 22nd.

That gives the Cowboys a 10-6 record. True, something odd will probably happen and they'll win one of the aforementioned games, but something odd will probably happen in one of the other games that will cause a loss.

Where I may be off is that it's possible that Dallas will win both Philadelphia games. My prediction above had them losing both games, but now I think they'll win one and maybe both.

Of course, injuries to great quarterbacks will affect this prediction, but not so much injuries to wide receivers. I think the Cowboys secondary is so bad that a great quarterback will still pick them apart, even with modest receivers.

But it looks to me at this point like the Cowboys are a likely NFC champ, even with a suspect secondary.

The wild card is that the Dallas offense looks so potent that, even with a suspect secondary, they may still be able to get in an offensive horserace with some of these teams.

After 2 Games, Cowboys are winners but the plan has failed

After 2 games, the Dallas Cowboys are winning, and stand alone at the top of the NFC East, but the Big Plan and off-season changes are failing in a surprising way.

Let's remember that in 2006 the Cowboys scored plenty of points and had a potent offense, but the defense collapsed in the 2nd half of the season.

In fact, the defensive collapse in 2006 was notable. For the first half of the season, Dallas had one of the top ranked defenses. But during the 2nd half of the season, the defense collapsed. The collapse occurred concurrent with the injury to defensive end Greg Ellis, but it's hard to believe that the loss of a single player, especially a non-dominant player like Ellis, could have been responsible.

What is much more likely is that a coach on his retirement tour simply didn't have the energy and creativity to make the kind of continual adjustments and changes during the season that are necessary. Once opponents had a few games worth of film on the Cowboys defense, they pretty much knew what they were going to do, and could game plan accordingly.

So the Big Plan in the offseason was to fix the defense. A tired, empty coach was driven off and replaced by a guy with a reputation as a defensive genius (Wade Phillips). The assumption was that if the defense could be fixed, the Cowboys would have something.

Coincidentally, Jason Garrett became offensive coordinator. Actually, Garrett wasn't even hired as offensive coordinator; in fact, he was hired for an undefined position, and eventually ended up as offensive coordinator after Phillips was hired as coach.

Now that the recent history bit is out of the way, here is what is interesting about the Cowboys so far this year: Even though the Big Plan was to fix the defense, it appears that the defense is actually much worse this year than it was last year.

In fact, it doesn't appear that the Phillips hire has had any beneficial impact at all on the Cowboys. What has made a difference, however, is the new offensive coordinator.

The Cowboys thus far are statistically worse than last year on defense, but stastically superior to last year on offense.

The defense is so bad, in fact, that the only reason the Cowboys have won their first two games has been mistakes made by the opposing teams.

What this means for the rest of the Cowboys season is ominous. They'll probably defeat the Bears, since the Bears have no other offense than their punt returner.

The Cowboys' offense is too much even for the vaunted Bears' defense, and the Bears' quarterback is worse than Trent Green, who couldn't damage even the questionable Dallas defense. So the Bears can't compete with Dallas on either side of the ball. The only advantage Chicago has is their kick returner, but Dallas has the best punter in the league, which should for the most part negate Devon Hester's phenomenal skills.

But a team with a good quarterback will pick the Dallas secondary apart. And that means 6 teams the Cowboys will face.

Tom Brady will pick the Cowboys secondary apart on October 14th. McNabb will pick them apart on November 4th, and maybe on December 16th. Farve will pick them apart on November 29th.  Kidna will pick them apart on December 9th. And Delhomme will finish the job on December 22nd.

That gives the Cowboys a 10-6 record. True, something odd will probably happen and they'll win one of the aforementioned games, but something odd will probably happen in one of the other games that will cause a loss.

So look for 10-6, which will probably give them a good enough record to win the NFC east, but they'll lose to Green Bay in the playoffs, and Green Bay will lose to New England in the Super Bowl, unless the football gods intervene on behalf of Brett Farve, which I hope they will.

Mavericks humiliation is almost complete

Well, my Dallas Mavericks' humiliation is almost complete.

Remember, this is the team that won 67 games, and had one of the best regular seasons in NBA history, and could have won 70 games if they had tried.

But that then lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Why is the Mavericks' humiliation so great?

Because the Mavericks lost the losers' bracket.

Golden State was too much for the Mavericks in Round 1, but they weren't too much for Utah, which lost in convincing fashion to Phoenix, which was beaten by the Spurs.

So the Mavericks' bracket turned out to be the losers' bracket, and the Mavericks were the ultimate losers.

The reason the Mavericks' humiliation is not yet complete is that the Spurs are going to win the title, which means that the Mavericks had simply won the losers' bracket, they had a great chance of going to the Finals.

Jeez . . .

Dirk is soft

Write it down in 3 inch tall letters: Dirk is soft.

From here on out, he is just a jump shooter. That's all. A jump shooter is is on sometimes, and off sometimes.

He doesn't have the heart of a champion. I hope for his sake he isn't the MVP. It would be too embarassing for him and for all of us.

What a colossal letdown.

And we're not talking about just one bad game. We're talking about a bad series.

Congratulations, Dirk, on a really good regular season. Enjoy looking at that big trophy for having a good regular season.

Get me some players with heart.

Dallas: Think Small, or sometimes don’t even think at all

Coming back to Dallas on an American Airlines flight from London last week, upon landing a promotional video for the city of Dallas begin playing on the 777's video screens.

I've taken this flight many times in the past, but have never seen this video before.

The video was to promote Dallas' new public relations slogan: "Live Large, Think Big."

But when the words were pasted on the video screen, I heard titters on the plane, which reflected my reaction as well.

The reason is that Dallas most definitely does NOT think big, and this is the week we've all been reminded of that.

You see, Dallas, though no actions whatsoever of the its current or former elected officials, happens to be the home of one of the most storied sports franchises in the world, the Dallas Cowboys.

A couple of years ago, when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones approached the city with his proposal for an incredible new sports palace, he was given little more than a rude brush-off by the city's loser mayor, Laura Miller.

And several years before that, when the owners of the hockey and basketball franchises approached the city, they got almost the same reaction. But that arena got built somehow anyway, and it's become the centerpiece and anchor of a new urban revitalization that is going on in a former abandoned warehouse district just barely to the north of downtown.

What Jerry wanted to build was nothing short of the most amazing sports complex in the world. It will draw not only Super Bowls, but also political conventions, basketball tournaments, probably a BCS college bowl game--in short, a true economic magnet, and an architectural wonder.

It's nothing short of amazing. It will be one of the major draws in the entire nation.

And it's under construction, right now. But in Arlington, not Dallas. And all it took was a half-cent sales tax increase, which Arlington voters strongly endorsed before Dallas officials had a chance to recognize the magnitude of their mistake.

This week, the board of the Cotton Bowl voted to move the game from the historic Cotton Bowl stadium in downtown Dallas to the new Cowboys stadium, beginning in 2010. It was the right and the only rational decision.

But it's the end of a 70-year tradition in Dallas, and it didn't have to be. It's Dallas' fault. It's Laura Miller's fault.

This week begins the era of bashing Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, and she will be joked about and bashed in Dallas well after she has moved on out of office, and well after she moves on from this life.

She really should move to a different state when she leaves office. The appreciation of the magnitude of her incompetence will only grow with time.

You want an example? While Cotton Bowl officials were announcing their decision to leave Dallas, Mayor Laura Miller was thanking homeless people for their patience.

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller thanked the several homeless people in attendance for their patience, noting that the center has been discussed and debated for the last five years.

Holding out for Newt

Regarding the field of possible Republican Presidential nominees, put me in the camp of people who are still holding out for Newt.

And so I'm encouraged by Dick Morris' column today in The Hill.

The irony of the GOP field at the moment is that while most Republicans are conservatives, the two frontrunners — Rudy and McCain — are moderates. And this isn’t Nelson Rockefeller’s Republican Party anymore! Gingrich is filling a real political need and if he moves out smartly and files his paperwork, takes his announcement bows, and journeys to Iowa and New Hampshire as a candidate, he might well be a contender.

Morris is right. Neither Romney nor McCain nor Giuliani are capable of garnering broad conservative support. Remember that it was the South Carolina primary where Bush passed McCain in the last Republican Presidential primary race, never to look back. Ask yourselves, "Which of Romney, McCain and Giuliani are South Carolinians most likely to be fired up about?"

Answer: None of the above. Same is true of Texans.

Gingrich, despite his caricature, will trounce them all in debates. Gingrich is the sunny, optimistic one. Gingrich is the only true political intellectual in the possible field of candidates.

Am I concerned about Newt? Yes. I'm worried that he's not self-disciplined enough, and I worry that he can't delegate. But I'm willing to take that chance after having watched Bush masquerading as a conservative for eight years and squandering everything we have been working toward.

Get in, Newt.