Phinally, The Baseball Season Is Over

Before the Major League Baseball playoffs began, everybody assumed that a certain franchise with a history of losing would finally break through and win a championship. And that's exactly what happened, though it wasn't the team everyone thought it would be.

The Philadelphia Phillies, the only American sports team to lose 10,000 games in its history, are this year's World Series champions. They defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, another perennial sad sack franchise (though they've only been around for ten seasons), in five games. The only other time the Phillies stood on top of the mountain was in 1980, the year Ronald Reagan was elected president.

This was not a flawless World Series by any means. The umpires blew some calls, the play was erratic, and the weather in Philadelphia was better suited to an NFL game between the Eagles and the Buccaneers.

Game 3 on Saturday was delayed for two hours by rain. It started at 10 p.m. in the East, and ended at close to 2 a.m. By the time the game ended, Fox's only competition was infomercials and reruns of Larry King Live.

It was nothing compared to Game 5, which began on Monday evening. By the sixth inning, the rain was making play hazardous. If B.J. Upton of the Rays hadn't scored the tying run, Major League Baseball and its commissioner Bud Selig would have been scorched for awarding the Phillies the title in a rain-shortened game. Wisely, they chose to make this the first suspended game in World Series history.

Two days, 46 hours and one Barack Obama infomercial later, the game resumed in the bottom of the sixth, and Philadelphia went on to win the game 4-3.

Thanks to the lousy weather conditions (which wasn't a problem when the first two games were played in St. Petersburg, Florida. In a domed stadium.), sports pundits have been advocating that MLB should go the way of the Super Bowl and the college basketball Final Four and play the World Series at a neutral site. Purists say no way. But as the Series creeps closer to Thanksgiving, and there's no chance the regular season or playoffs will be shortened (too much money involved), MLB may have to seriously consider the idea.

Philadelphia fans had better enjoy this championship. Who knows when there will be another one?

" . . . And I Approved This Message".

Under the category of Stuck For a Topic, we thought we'd monitor one of the local newscasts in the Twin Cities to see how much political advertising they could cram into 35 minutes. We chose WCCO-TV's 10 p.m. newscast for Tuesday, October 28, though to be honest, virtually the same ads could be seen on every other station. They make tons of money for the stations, which is an important thing to consider in these tough economic times. Our discomfort is their gain.

Our unscientific timeline is as follows:

10:09 Senator Norm Coleman talks about his leadership, and his efforts for bipartisanship in the halls of the U.S. Senate. This is one of the "sincere" ads Coleman's been running since renouncing the attack ads. Oh, and he also touts his endorsement by nearly every major newspaper in Minnesota. Even the Star Tribune.

10:10 An ad urging folks to vote yes on the Clean Water Amendment, so more money can be raised for our environment and the arts.

10:22 Challenger Al Franken claims Coleman takes money from lobbyists and supports President George W. Bush most of the time. Then a Democratic group tells us Franken (whose picture makes him look like Ozzie Nelson) is "The Only Choice For Change".

10:24 In an ad for a Democratic organization, they claim GOP Sixth District Rep. Michele Bachmann took money from Wall Street interests.

10:27 In an ad for a Republican organization, they claim Third District Democratic congressional candidate Ashwin Madia would raise your taxes. Then GOP representative John Kline asks voters to sign an online petition urging Congress to cut wasteful spending (we take it Kline isn't too worried about his re-election chances).

10:28 According to Bachmann, Democratic opponent El Tinklenberg hired cronies when he was head of Minnesota's Department of Transportation and increased taxes as mayor of Blaine, all done in the style of a silent movie comedy. (KSTP gave this ad a D grade) Then Republican Erik Paulsen claims his opponent Madia lied about not raising taxes and not voting for Bush.

10:29 See a pattern? Madia will raise your taxes. Then we see one telling us that Franken is unfit for office because he wrote jokes offensive to women and minorities.

10:30 Madia jogs while telling us he joined the military because he "wanted to give something back".

10:31 Franken will raise your taxes!

10:32 John McCain would tax your health care benefits, according to Barack Obama. Interestingly, it sounds as if McCain has given up on Minnesota, judging from the lack of advertising that's been on the local airwaves lately. Obama, on the other hand, has outspent his Republican opponent in the state by a 2-1 margin.

10:33 A Tinklenberg ad takes Bachmann to task for her "anti-American" comments, and for her undying support of Bush. Then, an ad for Democratic congressional incumbent Tim Walz notes that his GOP opponent would vote the party line every time.

And there you have it. In these ads that mostly point fingers at the other guy, we found that:

• Republicans hate taxes and people who write dirty jokes for a living.
• Democrats dislike Bush supporters and anyone who took money from special interests.
• Most ads are shown between the weather and sports segments.

There's one more week of these enlightening ads to go. Then it's time to bring out the holiday ads.

Timberwolves: Same As It Ever Was

There has been so little buzz about the Minnesota Timberwolves this season that you would be forgiven if you thought they, not the Seattle Supersonics, had moved to Oklahoma City.

While the Sonics traded in Seattle's lattes and rainy weather for whatever it is that's in Oklahoma, the situation remains the same in the post-Kevin Garnett era for the Wolves. Same owner (Glen Taylor), same GM (Kevin McHale), same coach (Randy Wittman), and same arena (although we hear Target Center is due for a fixup). About the only change is in the Wolves' logo and uniforms, commemorating their 20th NBA season.

Otherwise, the Wolves' chances of improving on last season's 22-60 record hinge on how well two new acquisitions from Memphis fit in with their new star, Al Jefferson. Mike Miller and rookie Kevin Love from UCLA came in the draft day trade with the Grizzlies for O.J. Mayo, the phenom who treated USC like a way station to the NBA. Also, the team needs a little help from the likes of Sebastian Telfair, Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.

Change may be coming to Washington, but not to the Timberwolves. They won't make the playoffs this year, either.

As for the rest of the NBA, here's who we think will make the playoffs.

EAST Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards.

WEST Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Hornets and Utah Jazz.

Political Rundown (And Runover)

A 21st Century McCarthy

By now everyone's heard about Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's adept insertion of foot into mouth during her appearance on MSNBC's Hardball.

The Sixth District Republican, prompted by host Chris Matthews, was "concerned" that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama might hold anti-American views, and that there needs to be a media expose of Congress to determine which one's a patriot and which one isn't.

Bachmann isn't the first to suggest that the Senator from Illinois is anything but the Typical American she claims to represent (and, unfortunately, she won't be the last). As for that expose, would Fox News be interested?

Bachmann has a history of making idiotic statements, but this one might end up costing her a second term in Washington. Elwyn Tinklenberg, her Deomocratic opponent, just saw his long shot candidacy get a major boost from contributors to the tune of a million dollars. And a national Republican organization has pulled its money and ad support from Bachmann.

Since her MSNBC appearance, Bachmann has been distancing herself from the things she said on Hardball. But the damage has been done. In this election year, being a big fan of President Bush (she voted with him nearly 90% of the time) and raising the ugly specter of Joseph McCarthy isn't going to win you any friends.

I don't live in Bachmann's district, but the things she says and does should be an embarrassment to all Minnesotans.

Palin Dresses For Success

There are reports that the Republican National Committee shelled out $150,000 so vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin could dress better than Tina Fey. The Alaska Governor has been supposedly getting her clothes from such stores as Neiman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Wonder how that will go over with folks who, if they shop at all these days, do so at Wal-Mart and Target?

Will It Be "Dewey Defeats Truman" All Over Again?

In spite of the double-digit leads Barack Obama enjoys over Republican John McCain in most of the major polls, we still think the election could go either way between now and November 4. So for all those of you who are figuratively measuring the drapes in the White House in anticipation of Obama's arrival, we have two words for you: Thomas Dewey.

Dewey was the Republican presidential nominee whom everybody (meaning newspaper and radio commentators and the polls) considered a shoo-in to win the 1948 election over President Harry Truman, who was not a popular man at that point. But a strange thing happened. Thanks to vigorous campaigning in the closing weeks, Truman was able to stage one of the greatest upsets in American political history.

Obama, to his credit, is taking nothing for granted. McCain, to his credit, is publicly embracing his "underdog" role. Let's all wait and see if history does (or doesn't) repeat itself.

Just So You Know

We've been experiencing technical difficulties in getting this blog out to you. Joe the Plumber did not take a pipe to the site, nor did Michele Bachmann issue a witch hunt against us.

We just thought you'd like to know. A real post is forthcoming, so hang in there.

This Old Debate

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain squared off for the final time Wednesday night in Hempstead, Long Island. Not far from there is the New York Stock Exchange, where the Dow fell more than 700 points, losing more than a trillion dollars.

So naturally, the economy was Topic A. Both presidential candidates trotted out their by-now-familiar positions on how to fix it, before things really get out of hand.

If anything new was added to this debate, it was McCain's inclusion of Joe Wurzelbacher, a supporter from Ohio he met along the campaign trail. "Joe the Plumber" was used as an example of how small business people like him would be hurt by Obama's tax proposals. Then both candidates were talking about "Joe the Plumber" as if he were a real person. (It must be true. ABC's Nightline interviewed him by phone after the debate.)

Moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News asked better questions than his predecessors of Obama and McCain, who were sitting beside each other, in a format that seemed like an extended version of Face The Nation (which he hosts on Sunday mornings).

For instance, Schieffer got them to talk about the negative campaigning that both of them had been running. McCain kept bringing up Obama's connection to William Ayers,a 1960s-era radical (now considered a terrorist) whose violent methods were repudiated by the Illinois senator. ACORN, an organization that's been accused lately of getting out the vote for Obama through phony names and payments, was also brought up. Obama, for the most part, simply shrugged them off. But McCain did back off on Reverend Wright.

McCain did a much better job this time, but the split-screen reaction shots on TV told you all you really needed to know about both candidates. McCain was the animated one, ready to freak out at a moment's notice. Obama remained calm and collected throughout. Which one would you rather have in a moment of crisis?

Considering the fact that McCain now trails Obama in most of the major polls with less than three weeks to go, we wonder if the Arizona senator's performance will make any difference. It's going to take more than "Joe the Plumber" to fix his leaky campaign.

Three Weeks To Go

In the days before the final presidential debate on Wednesday night, things are getting downright ugly on the campaign trail. In this case, it's not just the economy, stupid.

The polls tell us that Democratic Senator Barack Obama has opened up significant leads in key states over Republican Senator John McCain. But not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a biracial man with an exotic name as President of the United States.

At McCain's campaign rallies, the tone has lately become more bellicose against Obama. If Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, isn't accusing Obama of "palling around" with 1960s-era terrorists, then audience members stoked on too many McCain campaign ads were more than happy to supply their own epithets--possibly to the point where certain federal agencies should get involved.

The Senator from Arizona must have noticed the harm this was doing not just to his campaign, but also to civil discourse. At a rally in Lakeville, Minnesota, McCain called Obama a "decent family man" to a woman who thought his opponent was "an Arab".

Governor Palin's problems haven't helped the campaign, either. An inquiry into the dismissal of Walt Monaghan, Alaska's public safety commissioner, found that while she may have abused her power in this matter, she was in the right to fire Monaghan. And she also got booed at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game, where she dropped the ceremonial first puck (Big deal, They boo everybody in Philadelphia, regardless of political affiliation. Even Santa Claus.).

Things may look bleak for the McCain campaign right now, but there is still time to turn it around before November 4. The economy could improve. Obama could make a major mistake that costs him votes. And Osama bin Laden might decide to stick his nose into the campaign by releasing a tape, just like he did before the 2004 election, cementing another four year term for President George W. Bush. Hey, anything can happen.

Norm Coleman: No More Mr. Mean Guy?

It's amazing what's happened to Senator Norm Coleman this election year. He has transformed himself from just another Republican politician in thrall to President George W. Bush's administration into Mr. Bipartisan, selling himself to Minnesota voters as a man who seeks support from Democrats to get important legislation passed in this era of bad feeling between the two parties.

Recently, Coleman decided to drop those ads trashing his Democratic opponent Al Franken, citing the worsening economic situation. Which means that we won't be seeing any more of those ads depicting Franken as a raving lunatic who wrote sex jokes and doesn't pay his taxes. They've been replaced by new ads featuring his daughter and a cute kid living with cancer. Who knows? The Bowling Alley Guys might stage a comeback.

Could this kinder, gentler approach have anything to do with Coleman's poll numbers, which are now falling behind Franken and just ahead of Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley? Naah!

Coleman's opponents aren't buying this Mr. Nice Guy act. Among other things, they say, the Senator has been in Bush's back pocket way too much, takes favors from special interests, and--along with the rest of Congress--has been asleep at the wheel when it came to reining in those Wall Street executives getting rich off of other people's money. Even those independent organizations who support Coleman have yet to back off from their negative advertising.

Whether the new-and-improved Coleman convinces enough voters to give him another six year term remains to be seen. He's gone through more changes than David Bowie: Brooklynite to Minnesotan, campus anti-Vietnam War activist to conservative U.S. Senator, Democrat to Republican, etc. It's hard to know where Norm Coleman the Chameleon ends and Norm Coleman the man begins, and that's why he's an election target.

Minnesota Wild: Shoud Gaborik Stay, Or Shoud He Go?

The Minnesota Wild starts the 2008-09 NHL season with a dilemma: Should they sign their biggest star Marian Gaborik, trade him, or let him go to free agency next year?

We in Minnesota have been down this road before: Letting go of a big-name player because he has either become too expensive for a small-market team, or has become frustrated with his situation in which the team will never move forward as long as he's still there. That's why the Twins parted with Johan Santana, and the Timberwolves said adios to Kevin Garnett.

In Gaborik's case, he's a prolific goal-scorer stuck on a defensive-minded team coached by Jacques Lemaire (who also has to decide whether he wants to stick around). And for the first time in anyone's memory, Gaborik played a whole season without doing some kind of damage to his groin.

The defending Northwest Division champions have a goal of getting past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs--something they haven't done since the spring of 2003. To accomplish that, they brought back Andrew Brunette from Colorado and Owen Nolan from Calgary to help out Gaborik, and said goodbye to Brian Rolston (to New Jersey) and Pavol Demitra (to Vancouver).

Depending on what the Wild decide to do with Gaborik, they have a decent shot at making the playoffs again. The division title, however, will go to Calgary.

NHL 2008-09

The season actually began last weekend in Europe, as the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators played games that matter for paying customers in Prague and Stockholm. The NHL is considering expanding to the Continent sometime in the near future, once they settle their differences with a Russian-based superleague. Why do that when they're having problems growing the game in certain parts of the United States?

Self-described "hockey mom" (and vice-presidential candidate) Sarah Palin will drop the ceremonial first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers' home opener. Does this mean that Barack Obama might do the ceremonial tip-off at an NBA game?

The Chicago Blackhawks are apparently back from the dead, getting big crowds at United Center to watch a much-improved team. They will host this year's outdoor game on New Year's Day at Wrigley Field (curse alert) against Detroit. And Chicago superstation WGN will be televising some of their games. Unlike other leagues, the NHL must be thrilled to get all the extra exposure.

The Detroit Red Wings are everybody's choice to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, which would be quite a feat since the Wings were the last team to do that--ten years ago. It's hard to see how, with an aging roster and the letdown that inevitably follows a championship. The Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost to the Wings in six games last spring, are more than ready to take that final step.

Here's who we think will be spending their spring on the ice instead of the golf course:

East Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres.

West Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks.

Nashville Snooze

Once again, a presidential debate failed to live up to the hype. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain sparred verbally for ninety minutes Tuesday night in Nashville, but neither really slipped up nor had a knockout punch.

The format this time was supposed to be like one of those town hall meetings McCain's so fond of, moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC. Instead of a lively debate, what we got was a pre-screened audience with prepared questions who might as well have been sedated before the broadcast began. Was this being sponsored by Ambien?

Another problem is that, if the candidate answered a question from someone in one half of the audience in a theatre-in-the-round setting, they'd be turning their backs on the other half.

Questions on the economy and foreign policy, not on rehashing ancient history as far as the candidates' relationships with alleged domestic terrorists and scandal-plagued bankers were concerned, dominated the proceedings. Both Obama and McCain stuck to their familiar talking points without really answering the questions. Sometimes they rambled on for so long that Brokaw had to remind them that they were straying off the agreed-upon format.

In the end, both candidates played to their strengths: Obama was stronger on domestic issues, while McCain touted his experience on international affairs. But two days of a tanking stock market--bailout or no bailout--have cast a looming shadow over anything the two presidential candidates said Tuesday night.

Three Headlines

Besides watching football and the baseball playoffs (Cubs out? Already?), there was plenty of news on this fine fall weekend. Enough for this, the 200th post.

The Chicken Little Bailout Passes

That $700 billion plan to "rescue" Wall Street passed the House of Representatives Friday, 263-171, then was signed by President Bush. It was really over $800 billion, thanks to the inclusion of congressional pet projects (also known as 'earmarks' and 'pork') both legitimate and not-so-legitimate. It won't solve America's economic woes, at least not right away. But it's the first step in admitting there's a big problem out there.

Star Tribune Poll Gives Obama and Franken Double Digit Leads

Well, the newspaper had to do something to offset reports that they are on the verge of bankruptcy. But this is definitely something that makes you go huh? The Minnesota Poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain in the presidential race 55 percent to 37 percent, while Al Franken leads Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate race 43 percent to 34 percent, with third-party candidate Dean Barkley getting 18 percent. Every other poll in the state has Obama and McCain running neck and neck in the presidential race, while Coleman has been leading Franken by 10 points.

The economic crisis has obviously helped Obama's cause, in spite of being nonexistent on the ad front when compared to McCain (although that's changing, we understand). But what to make of Franken? Seems people really are being turned off by the ads both Senate candidates have been running--particularly Coleman's, which are getting increasingly desperate. Depicting Franken as someone who wrote jokes on rape and goes on profanity-laced tirades is old news, and exploiting a cute kid with a fatal disease just to win votes is offensive. And why Franken's wife chose this time to reveal in an ad that she's a recovering alcoholic is puzzling.

Incidentally, we all knew that the Hubbard family, which owns KSTP-TV, are in the tank for the Republicans. But interrupting an ABC News report on the bailout vote for a McCain ad was just tacky.

O.J. Simpson Convicted of Armed Robbery and Kidnapping Charges

The fact that the verdict came in the middle of the night in a Las Vegas courtroom was telling. We suppose stealing sports memorabilia isn't as sexy a story as the murder of Simpson's wife and her friend, complete with racial implications. Maybe we've seen too many African-American athletes paraded in front of courtrooms on various charges, ranging from the heinous to lapses in good judgement, to see this as anything but just one more. Or maybe we're so over O.J. Simpson.

Biden vs. Palin: Style and Substance in St. Louis

To everyone's relief, tonight's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis between Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska wasn't the train wreck it could have been. Both of them did rather well.

Biden, Barack Obama's #2, did not make any outrageous statements, nor did he act in a condescending manner towards Palin. John McCain's running mate came across less like the head of a state than as the candidate from Lake Wobegon, but at the same time shed her Floyd R. Turbo persona, a deer-in-the-headlights character Johnny Carson once did on The Tonight Show.

At times, it was Palin who blew Biden off the screen, talking directly to the TV audience instead of to moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS. She even ignored some of Ifill's questions, as if to say, "I don't have to talk to you, you smug, inside-the-beltway know-it-all who wrote a book about my opponent." Now who's the condescending one?

As for the substance of the debate, Biden kept hammering away at McCain's being in lockstep with President Bush on many issues. Palin recited many of the Republican talking points, injecting Reaganisms such as "shining city on a hill" and "there you go again", and Bushisms such as "nucular" whenever possible. Other than that, she stuck to what she knew, steering the conversation over to her experience as a reform-minded mayor and governor.

On international affairs, Biden seemed more comfortable talking about what he and Obama would do to get troops out of Iraq, and to improve relations with countries that McCain and Bush alienated. Palin resorted to accusing Biden and the Democrats of surrendering when victory in Iraq is close at hand, believing in the fiction that they are the central front in the Bush War on Terror.

Call it a draw, folks. Biden won on substance. Palin won on style. As for how this affects the polls, in which Obama now leads by as many as ten points over McCain in key states, the numbers won't change much until after the next presidential debate on Tuesday.

Now that their one and only debate is finished, Biden can go back to stumping for Obama. Palin can go back to the protective cocoon the McCain campaign has been keeping her in for weeks, at least until after the election.