Mr. 9/11 and That "Two Americas" Guy Drop Out. Paging Mr. Nader?

A few days before Super Humongous Tuesday, voters and caucus-goers in 22 states are finding fewer items on the presidential menu, with the departures of John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani.

In any other year, Edwards would have been the Democratic nominee with his message of protecting the poor and middle class from the big, bad special intersts. Unfortunately for the former North Carolina senator, he got sandwiched in between two history-making candidates--a woman and an African-American. Finishing third behind those two in the primaries didn't help, either.

Giuliani's fall was more dramatic, considering the former New York City mayor was leading in the polls before people actually voted. Why he chose to compete only in Florida's GOP primary and not in the earlier ones is known only to him. Mr. 9/11 hit so many people over the head with his national security cred that he failed to notice it's the economy, stupid. Also, no conservative would have wanted to vote for a candidate who's on his third marriage.

So here's what we have left: For the Democrats, it's Hillary Clinton, a senator and former First Lady whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, seems to be the power behind the throne. Her remaining opponent is Barack Obama, the charismatic senator from Illinois, whose relative youth and inexperience in national politics could help or hurt him at the polls.

On the Republican side, we have John McCain, the maverick Arizona senator whom conservatives can't stand. Challenging him are: Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor for whom money can't buy him anything but second place, and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who doesn't seem to understand that people get turned off by his fire and brimstone approach.

It's your choice, America. If none of them appeal to you, there's always Ralph Nader. We hear he wants to run again.

Primaries, Dynasties And A Lame Duck

Arizona Senator John McCain won all 57 delegates in the Florida Republican presidential primary, turning back former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. What's more, McCain might be getting a bonus. According to several broadcast reports, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani--who put all his electoral eggs in Florida's basket, only to finish a poor third--is going to drop out of the race and support McCain.

Meanwhile, Senator Hillary Clinton won Florida's Democratic primary. But it might as well be a glorified straw poll with no delegates at stake, because the party took them away when the state dared to run its primary before Super Humongous Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the wonderful world of politics:

In a previous post, we talked about Barack Obama running not just against Hillary Clinton, but also her husband, the former president. Now the Illinois senator has his own political dynasty to back him up. He's been endorsed by two living relatives of President John F. Kennedy--his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts (who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1980 before losing to incumbent Jimmy Carter) and his daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. This is seen as a rebuke to the questionable campaign tactics of the Clintons, as well as the proverbial passing of the liberal torch.

Hillary Clinton counters that she's got some Kennedy family support of her own--Robert Kennedy's, who was also a New York senator who ran for president. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert Kennedy Jr., RFK's kids, are supporting Clinton.

With polls (which have been known to be wrong) showing Clinton leading in most of the Super Humongous Tuesday states, Obama needs all the help he can get. But you have to wonder if the Kennedy name is still relevant in presidential politics.
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The presumably final State of the Union address of George W. Bush's presidency contained the usual laundry list of things he wants Congress to pass (most of which won't get done), repeating the same claim that we need to stay in Iraq because "Al Qaeda is on the run . . . and this enemy will be defeated" for the umpteenth time, and hearing the choreographed standing ovations from fellow Republicans and silence from sitting Democrats. You could set your watch by all that.

One word that kept popping up during the President's address was "trust". As in "we must trust people with their own money", "trust American workers to compete with anyone in the world", and so on. This comes from an administration that, among other things, spies on its own citizens, classifies previously available public documents, and treats everyone like criminals at the airport. In turn, if you believe the polls, most people don't trust Bush (or Congress) to get anything done. So trust works both ways.

While it may be true that President Bush is still in charge, it should be noted that two of the three lawmakers who would like the opportunity to give the State of the Union address a year from now--Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (John McCain was too busy campaigning in Florida)--were in the House chamber listening. That is, unless Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have other plans.

All In The (Political) Family

In Saturday's Democratic primary in South Carolina, the last one before Super Humongous Tuesday, Illinois Senator Barack Obama once again defied the experts and overwhelmingly defeated New York Senator Hillary Clinton and former North Carolina senator John Edwards.

Throughout the campaign, Obama has been running on the promise of hope and change in Washington. He's also been running against his lack of experience, the perception that being African-American is a big stumbling block, and (to some people) the fact that his last name rhymes with Osama bin Laden.

But there's one other thing that could be Obama's downfall. He's running against the Clinton family--a former First Lady who wants to be president, and a husband who's already been one.

Usually, former presidents remain in the background, quietly supporting whoever is his party's nominee. Not Bill Clinton. While Hillary is out making stump speeches and pressing the flesh, Bill is playing attack dog, puncturing Obama's "fairy tale" candidacy and having a few bones to pick with the media for the way they've been covering the campaign.

Lately, the former president's needling of Obama has become so virulent (sometimes crossing the line into racism) that other prominent Democrats have reportedly told him to either dial it down or knock it off. But he can't help himself. He loves to campaign. And if that helps Hillary get elected, then so much the better.

Nepotism is not limited to the Clintons. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney's father George ran for the party's nomination in 1968 before dropping out.

In the last century alone, dynasties such as the Roosevelts, the Kennedys and the Bushes have dominated presidential politics. They put the lie to the notion that anyone can grow up to be president. Today we know that if you were born into certain families with a silver spoon in your mouth, you have a better than average shot at the White House.

If Hillary Clinton is elected president, will the Republicans--out of spite--propose a constitutional amendment barring former presidents' relatives from running for the White House? That would spare us the sight of watching Jeb Bush or Chelsea Clinton taking the oath of office.

Then again, such an amendment might backfire the way the two-term limit for presidents did for the Republicans when they got the law passed after Franklin Roosevelt's four terms, only to wish that Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan had stuck around a little longer.

Of course, if Obama or any of the GOP hopefuls win, we can look forward to maybe seeing their relatives and offspring follow in their footsteps in the future. And the cycle continues.

And The Award For Boosting Minnesota's Self-Esteem Goes To . . .

At the risk of sounding like one of those insecure rubes who'll trumpet anything that comes out of Minnesota, congratulations are in order for Diablo Cody and Joel and Ethan Coen, who have scored Academy Award nominations for the films Juno and No Country For Old Men, in that order. They join Michael Clayton, Atonement and There Will Be Blood for Best Picture honors.

Juno, about a pregnant teenager who gives up her child for adoption, is also nominated for Best Actress (Ellen Page), Director (Jason Reitman) and Original Screenplay (Cody).

No Country For Old Men's seven other nominations (for a film involving a drug deal gone bad) include Javier Bardem for Supporting Actor, and the Coens for directing and for adapted screenplay (based on a Cormac McCarthy book).

Cody, as we have already noted in a previous post, has been getting more attention than what is considered normal for a screenwriter. Now she's becoming insufferable, babbling in Hollywood-speak about how 'awesome' and 'amazing' her colleagues are. Go listen to Colin Covert's interview with Cody on startribune.com (or any other media interview, for that matter), and you'll find yourself rolling your eyes. Maybe she should start writing again.

The Coens, on the other hand, have been around the block a few times, with films such as Fargo (for which Frances McDormand got a Best Actress Oscar), Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Being that they're from St. Louis Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), their next movie involves the old Red Owl supermarket at Knollwood Plaza where they used to hang out.

As for the films' chances, the Academy has been giving its nod for Best Picture in recent years to heavy dramas such as Crash in 2005 and The Departed in 2006. Comedies such as Juno don't meet Oscar's emphasis on acting skills and social message, so No Country For Old Men and the other dramatic films have a good shot.

Now let's all see if there's actually going to be an Academy Awards ceremony. The Writers Guild strike has crippled Hollywood to the point where one awards show was scrapped and the other had to be pretaped. There is the hope that the Directors Guild's settlement with producers and networks might lead to an agreement with the WGA, thereby saving the Oscar telecast. Otherwise, all bets are off.

But then again, Minnesotans are used to being disappointed.

Thinning the Campaign Herd

As Super Humongous Tuesday (also known as February 5) approaches, the Democratic and Republican candidates for president are starting to thin the herd.

Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucus for the Democrats, but Barack Obama got the most delegates for some convoluted reason. Mitt Romney got the GOP nod there, while John McCain won in South Carolina.

Fred Thompson, who apparently would rather be reading scripts than campaigning, has dropped out of the Republican field after poor showings in the primaries.

John Edwards could be next if the CNN-televised Democratic debate from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was any indication. Both Clinton and Obama sucked the oxygen out of the auditorium with charges and counter-charges against each other, leaving Edwards to helplessly watch moderator Wolf Blitzer lose control over the proceedings. And some people are touting Clinton and Obama as running mates?

All the Democratic candidates agreed in the presumption that McCain is going to be the GOP nominee. Of course, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee may have something to say about that.

Let's talk about McCain for a moment. The former Vietnam POW has been getting strong support from conservatives and independents, in part because his steadfast backing for the military's "surge" in Iraq is paying off in terms of the country becoming a little more peaceful. But there's always the possibility of violence flaring up again, not to mention President George W. Bush picking a fight with Iran. And that could sink the Arizona senator's candidacy.

Reports are that Clinton is conceding Saturday's Democratic primary in South Carolina to Obama, which is why she's campaigning in the Super Humongous Tuesday states. McCain and Giuliani are seen as the favorites in Florida's GOP primary. And then comes February 5.

A Bogey in Race Relations

Over fifty years ago, an African-American woman refused to sit in the back of the bus. The military had to be sent to Little Rock, Arkansas so some black students could enroll in an all-white high school. And a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. started making waves in the name of civil rights through a policy of non-violence.

In 2008, we are commemorating the birth of King with a federal holiday. Barack Obama, who is part African-American, is a U.S. Senator running for the White House. It has become commonplace for minorities to succeed in positions where they once wouldn't have been welcomed.

So why are we seeing a hateful symbol of the Jim Crow South and the Ku Klux Klan--the noose--popping up all over America? Are things so bad that we have to resort to denigrating minorities' accomplishments by bringing up their painful pasts?

The latest example of white people who just don't get it is a woman named Kelly Tilghman, an anchor for the Golf Channel. Filling time during coverage of a tournament in Hawaii, she and analyst Nick Faldo were having a seemingly lighthearted discussion about what it would take to rein in the dominance of the PGA Tour by Tiger Woods. In the middle of all that, Tilghman jokingly used the word "lynched" to describe what should be done with Woods, who is part African-American.

Had this poor attempt at humor been uttered by loose-cannon network golf commentators such as Johnny Miller, David Feherty or Gary McCord (who was banned from covering The Masters for describing the greens at Augusta National as bikini waxed), they would have been fired. The relatively obscure Golf Channel suspended Tilghman for two weeks, for which she should consider herself lucky.

Tilghman apologized not only on the air, but also to Woods, whom she considers a friend. Woods accepted, saying it was no big deal. Really? Friends don't let friends say stupid things and expect to get away with it. (May we suggest an appearance on Don Imus' radio program for Ms. Tilghman?)

Since then, Golfweek magazine weighed in on the controversy by putting a noose on its cover. After Tim Finchem, the head of the PGA Tour, complained, the editor who had that bright idea got fired.

The rise of Woods as the most dominating figure in golf in the last decade is without question. But it has yet to lead to an increase in African-American golfers trying their luck in an otherwise lily-white sport. So far, the number of black golfers who have followed Woods onto the PGA Tour can be done with one hand.

Woods has described himself as a 'cablinasian', a mixed bag of races resulting from being the sole offspring of an African-American father and a Thai mother. He is married to a Swedish woman, and the couple just recently added a daughter. He might think that, just because he's rich and famous, he should be above racial prejudice. One look at him, and you wish that were true.

Oh, by the way, Woods competes in his first tournament of the year this weekend at the Buick Invitational near San Diego. And Tilghman will be there to cover it.

We have taken a few steps toward the society King dreamed about back in 1963, but the journey is by no means complete. As long as ignorant people inhabit the earth, the goal will always be a little further down the road.

Facebook: Trust and Consequences

Last week, it was reported that administrators at Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota got wind of pictures of students allegedly drinking at parties that turned up on Facebook, which is one of those social networking sites you've probably heard about. They pulled 42 students out of class for interviews, then disciplined 13 of them.

Believing that their privacy and civil rights had been violated, approximately 15 students dared to walk out of the school in protest. Some parents are threatening to take legal action because the suspensions might do irreparable harm to their kids' chances of getting scholarships, not to mention the parents' reputations.

Before we go too much further, a disclaimer: I am a graduate of Eden Prairie High School, which in my case was located in the current middle school, and not the educational fortress that rises above Valley View Road today. (President George W. Bush spoke there a few months after the 9/11 attacks, which explains volumes) I do not have kids who are past or current students of EPHS.

Was the administration, who had claimed that they don't go snooping around Facebook or My Space the way the tabloids stalk Britney Spears looking for dirt, right in disciplining the students? There is a trust factor involved here, and the administrators stepped over the line. Also, they might have gotten their information from kids who wanted to get back at a classmate or two for some slight.

The front page headline in the 1/17/08 edition of the Eden Prairie News asked the question:
"Has Facebook exposed culture of drinking?" The short answer is yes. There has always been a culture of drinking and substance abuse, whether it's at EPHS or anywhere else. The same parents who tell their kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol are hypocrites because they probably did it themselves once upon a time. That's part of the reason why we have an addiction problem in this country, and you don't need Facebook to tell you that.

We're not condoning underage drinking, which has gotten a lot of attention around here lately with the deaths of local college students who imbibed way too much. But if you're going to engage in reckless behavior, at least have the sense not to brag about it or publish pictures of yourself and your friends quaffing brewskis on your web site. Because you never know who might be looking in, whether it's your parents, college recruiters, future employers or law-enforcement personnel. (Actually, that's good advice no matter what your age.)

Too often, people (such as the Star Tribune's schoolmarm columnist Katherine Kersten) underestimate the ability of teenagers and young adults to make the right choices in life, with or without the help of their parents. If we can't trust them, how can they trust us?

Romney Rolls In Michigan, Democrats Deal In Vegas

While most of you were watching Simon, Randy and Paula suffer through bad singing on American Idol, the good folks of Michigan braved snow and ice to go to the polls in their state's presidential primary.

Mitt Romney, son of the former Michigan governor and 1968 presidential candidate, picked up a needed win on the Republican side to keep his campaign going. John McCain was second, and Mike Huckabee came in third.

Hillary Clinton was the big winner in the Democratic primary, though it was kind of misleading. Since the party penalized Michigan for daring to move its voting ahead of Super Tuesday by stripping them of delegates to the national convention (they did the same thing to Florida), no other major candidate bothered to put their name on the ballot.

Instead, Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards were in Las Vegas for yet another televised debate, this one for MSNBC (Dennis Kucinich tried to sue his way onto the stage, but a judge ruled in favor of NBC News' keeping him out). After Clinton claimed over the weekend that President Lyndon Johnson had more to do with the 1964 Civil Rights Act than Martin Luther King, Jr., leading to hard feelings in the Obama camp, the two made nice on the race relations front just in time for King's actual birthday (the federal holiday is Monday).

Other than that, the only real news to come out of the debate was Edwards' stating that in his first year in office, all combat troops would leave Iraq. Clinton and Obama said much the same thing, but didn't go as far as Edwards did.

Nevada and South Carolina are next.

Writers Strike Continues

With the Writers Guild of America's strike against the movie studios and TV networks into its third month with no end in sight, the effects continue to show up not just on your TV screen, but also at the multiplex. A roundup:

• The Golden Globe Awards, that informal gathering of movie and TV stars boozing it up at a ballroom somewhere in Hollywood, was reduced to a nationally-televised news conference because no movie or TV star would be caught dead crossing a picket line. Before that, the People's Choice Awards changed from a live telecast to a pretaped highlights show aired on CBS. We might be watching the wave of the future, because networks are increasingly reluctant to risk heavy fines caused by some awards winner or presenter lobbing an F-bomb or a crude sexual reference on live TV.
• People are already asking if the Academy Awards will meet the same fate if the strike continues. Count on it.
• All the late-night talk show hosts are back, whether they have writers or not. Jay Leno does his own jokes, even though the union tells him not to. Conan O'Brien spins his wedding ring on his desk. David Letterman shaves his beard. Leno and Jimmy Kimmel appear on each others' shows. Now that's entertainment.
• American Idol returns as scripted shows run out of original episodes.
• Following the lead of Letterman, Tom Cruise's United Artists and The Weinstein Company (all independent producers) made separate deals with the Writers Guild to get their people back to work.

Read any good books lately?

Minnesota Wild Sold: Fool Us Once . . .

The Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League have been sold to Craig Leipold, who up until recently was the owner of the Nashville Predators. Bob Naegele, Jr., who has been the majority stockholder in the Wild since the team's inception in 2000, will remain as a minority investor.

Leipold, who is from Racine, Wisconsin, said there would be no immediate changes in the team on and off the ice once the purchase is approved by the NHL.

Forgive our skepticism, but when it comes to out-of-town businessmen like Leipold who have purchased the local NHL franchise in the past, we've seen this movie before. And it had an unhappy ending.

Remember Norm Green? When he came down from Calgary to become the new owner of the Minnesota North Stars in the early 1990s (taking over from the Cleveland-based Gund brothers), he made all sorts of promises such as bringing a Stanley Cup championship to the state (which almost happened in 1991, losing in five games to Mario Lemieux' Pittsburgh Penguins), or building a shopping complex next to Bloomington's Metropolitan Sports Center (which became the Mall of America, though the Ghermezian brothers from Edmonton got the credit for that one.).

But then the North Stars floundered on the ice and attendance--which was never that great to begin with--suffered. Green started making noises about getting out of the Met Center lease and moving into Target Center in Minneapolis, but couldn't make a deal with city leaders. Then he started talking to cities like Anaheim and Dallas, before the NHL told him he could go anywhere he wanted, as long as it wasn't Anaheim (which eventually got its own team). Then came the sexual harassment suit and it was goodbye Minnesota, and hello Dallas. Which is where the Stars in 1999 finally won their Stanley Cup.

Leipold founded the Nashville Predators in 1997 in a city that's better known for country music than for hockey. They've had decent teams, and have even made the playoffs a couple of times. But attendance started dropping and the rumors began: Kansas City or Hamilton, Ontario? Eventually, the Predators were sold to a local group, where the situation remains precarious.

Which raises the question: How long will it be before the Wild leave the State of Hockey? Even though they're one of the NHL's most successful franchises, that may not be enough for Leipold. If there's anything less than a sellout at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, Kansas City, Hamilton, Winnipeg and Las Vegas beckon.

We have every intention of believing Leipold will do right by the Wild and its fans and not screw up a good thing. But then we believed Norm Green, Howard Baldwin and the Gund brothers. Minnesota hockey fans weren't born yesterday.

Shock! Surprise! Clinton and McCain Win in New Hampshire.

By now we've all seen the sound bite of Senator Hillary Clinton choking up as she explained why she was running for President: "I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see it fall backwards". Was it a genuine moment for the former First Lady, or was it calculated to show the voters that she didn't come from the Candidate Factory (which is not located in China, just so you know)?

Whatever it was, it must have worked because Clinton won the New Hampshire Democratic primary in a stunningly close fashion over Senator Barack Obama, who was ahead in all the polls prior to the voting. John Edwards, who's going to lose voters if he insists on keeping John Mellencamp's "This Is Our Country" (also known as the Chevy Trucks ad) as his theme song, finished a distant third.

How did Obama lose New Hampshire? He's been getting the rock star treatment ever since his win in Iowa, including the cover of Newsweek magazine. But this time more women came out for Clinton than for Obama. Was Oprah Winfrey busy this week?

Senator John McCain won the Republican primary, just like he did in 2000, over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Like Clinton, all the pundits counted McCain out after their relatively poor showings in Iowa. This time, McCain got more votes from independents than Obama did.

Romney's reason for losing might stem from New Hampshirites' familiarity with him in next-door Massachusetts--in this case, they've probably seen too much. Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, finished third. The other guys (Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, etc.)? They were nonfactors.

It was either Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews on MSNBC who hit the nail on the head concerning the significance of the past week: For the first time, presidential candidates who happened to be African-American and a woman won a caucus and a primary, in that order.

Come to think of it, maybe Hillary Clinton was on to something.

NFL 2007: Almost Perfect--One Way or Another

As the 2007 National Football League regular season ended, the New England Patriots went 16-0, besting the 1972 Miami Dolphins by two games, forcing some of the surviving members of that team to keep their champagne on ice. Coach Bill Belichick's team may have been perfect, but certainly not flawless. Witness the close calls in games against Philadelphia, Baltimore and the New York Giants where, instead of running up big scores like the Patriots did to some teams, they scored the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

At the other end of the spectrum, the 2007 Dolphins almost made pro football history of their own, one loss shy of being the only other team besides the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to lose every game. As it was, the Dolphins' only victory was against Baltimore. As punishment, well-traveled taskmaster Bill Parcells was brought in to see if he could right the ship.

The biggest surprises in the NFC were the Green Bay Packers, with another record-setting year for quarterback Brett Favre, and the Washington Redskins. After what they've been through, with the murder of Sean Taylor, they could have fallen apart and missed the playoffs. But they didn't.

On the public relations front, letting CBS and NBC simulcast the NFL Network's telecast of the Patriots-Giants game was kinda puzzling. For weeks, the NFL was roundly ripped for keeping a potentially historic game on a channel that was having problems getting on most cable systems because of an access dispute. Then they relented, making the NFL Network seem weak in the process for not sticking to its guns in the eyes of cable. But the ratings were huge, so nobody really minded. (By the way, the NFL claimed that the first Super Bowl was a simulcast between CBS and NBC. But both networks used different announcing crews, so it really doesn't count.)

The Minnesota Vikings finished with an 8-8 record, losing their last two games to fall out of playoff contention. Really, folks, the lousy first half of the season they had killed any chances of getting into the playoffs in the first place. Quarterback Tarvaris Jackson is still learning on the job. Adrian Peterson had a great rookie season until injuries and better defenses slowed him down. And coach Brad Childress continues to be outsmarted and outcoached by wily old veterans such as Joe Gibbs of Washington and Mike Shanahan of Denver--and in some cases, not-so-wily coaches--when it comes to replay challenges. But owner Zygi Wilf insists he's committed to the team he's put together, and won't hesitate to spend money on better players. We shall see.

Our Super Bowl matchup: New England vs. Dallas.

Politics '08: Obama, Huckabee Win in Iowa

Finally, after what seemed like an interminable number of debates and campaigning, the good people of Iowa got together and decided on their own who they thought should run the country for the next four years.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was the choice among Iowa's Democrats, which is a pretty amazing feat considering how overwhelmingly white the state is. Or maybe they were just under the spell of Oprah?

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and former senator John Edwards were neck-and-neck for second place. For Clinton, this is a major letdown considering that she was the front-runner a few weeks ago. For Edwards, he's got to feel good about how far he's come.

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, was the surprise winner edging out former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Seems Iowans are more comfortable with an evangelical Christian they know than a Mormon they don't know. And Huckabee's appearance the previous night on Jay Leno (was the candidate aware that he crossed picket lines?) didn't seem to hurt him.

Slugging it out for third place are Senator John McCain of Arizona and Fred Thompson, the former Senator from Tennessee, who should feel fortunate that he's still in the race. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani chose to campaign in Florida instead.

Dropping out after poor showings: Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, both Democrats.

Next stop: New Hampshire on Tuesday.