By Jeff Smith, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 4:30 PM ET  It does bring him closer to the nomination, due in no small part to his uncanny good fortune. Let’s review.
The woman who rose meteorically to take the Iowa straw poll collapsed upon the entrance of a governor who offered the veneer of tea party rhetoric as strident as hers, but had the backing of mega-donors from the state with more Republican money than any other outside California.
That governor, who was thought to be his leading conservative opponent, turned out to have spent about as much time preparing for the campaign as my students spend preparing for pop quizzes.
When the governor’s lack of preparation became obvious, he was replaced briefly as the national frontrunner by a former pizza executive who made the governor look like Thomas Jefferson.
Read the rest of…
Jeff Smith: Is Romney the GOP Nominee?
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET  The Politics of Tech If you have not yet heard, the file sharing site MegaUpload has been taken down by the FBI. Seems like they didn’t need SOPA and/or PIPA after all. [TechCrunch]
Users of MegaUpload are planning on suing the FBI as the feds are planning on deleting all the data associated with the file sharing practices of the website. [TorrentFreak]
Universal Music Group has abused Youtube video takedown powers because it seemingly stopped a rap group from uploading its own songs. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Neil Young has waded into the piracy debate stating “Piracy is the new radio.” [The Verge]
Here is a pretty interesting report that includes that IM chat of Mark Zuckerberg in which he hashes out his ideas for Facebook. It’s amazing that this was only in 2003. [Business Insider]
Finally, a cool article on why e-books cost what they do. [MSN Money]
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Thought for the day.
This comes from a story I’ve retold many times. It’s a good story and may or may not be true. I just can’t recall clearly. But it’s plausible it happened the way I recall.
But, as the saying goes, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
So, here goes…
When I was a boy I collected baseball cards. The cards had quotes by the players on the back. My favorite was a quote be Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee, outspoken and colorful pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Lee was quoted as saying,
“Sometimes I pitch myself down 3 balls and no strikes, just to make it interesting.”
I was fascinated by that quote. I loved it and saw something in it that was profound–yet funny.
Do you do this in your life? Out of boredom, create a difficult situation you must extricate yourself from–just to “make it interesting?” Just for the adrenaline rush?
I have to admit I do on occasion. And I regret it…and am going to try not to do that today.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET  The Politics of Pigskin As we all know the final football game, the biggest TV extravaganza, and what is practically a national holiday is this Sunday. Of course I’m referring to the Super Bowl – this year being played by the New York Giants and New England Patriots. There is so much coverage of this game that I could write a 2000 word post and not even scratch the surface of all the stories being written. However, a good start is CBS’s Super Bowl central. [CBS Sports]
Here are 12 of the most important things you should know about the highest profile player in this year’s game, Tom Brady. [ESPN]
If you are not familiar with the story of Mark Herzlich then you’re missing out. His tale of battling back from cancer to playing in the Super Bowl is just fantastic. [Sporting News]
The Giants’ defense is really good and it starts with their spectacular defensive line. [CBS Sports]
Sure, gambling on football isn’t exactly legal. But that doesn’t make looking at prop bets any less fun, right? [Football Outsiders]
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Wednesday was national signing day for college football. Click through to see where your alma mater finished in the rankings. [Scout.com]
By Artur Davis, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  The defining issues of our time ought to be why an economy with all our underlying strengths takes two years to generate a million jobs (for a stretch in 83 and 84 it was taking all of a month); or why we trail a significant portion of the developed world in educational excellence; or why we are yielding the first generation of 18 to 35 year olds who will under-perform their parents in relative earnings; or why the dropout rate in an advanced society like ours, that puts no barriers on public education, remains so stubbornly high.
Economic inequality does belong on the list – middle-income work generates too little reward and both parties seem flat out of ideas on how to roll back poverty -but it is not, as the president suggests, a function of government having aligned itself with the powerful. Instead, inequality is one more symptom of an abundant nation not performing at full capacity.
 A dramatic hike in upper income taxes tomorrow wouldn’t move the needle an inch on the inequality front.
On the politics of it all, the president’s rhetoric always shines and its a sound contrast to Republicans who are struggling to defend the merits of the modern economy. As substance, its another sign of liberalism spending more time defining the past than solving the future.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
Are you a fan of Silver Surfer? [picture]
“You should really change majors.” [Yahoo! Answers]
T-Rex trying things. [comic]
Great stools? Or the greatest stools? [picture]
The Wyoming Wind Sock [picture]
Smooth. [.gif]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation revealed yesterday it would be cutting its funding to Planned Parenthood. [CNN]
New research shows that your morning cup of coffee doesn’t just bring up your spirits… it also impacts your hormone levels. [Time]
Why is riding in a crowded elevator one so uncomfortable? [Psychology Today]
Hemophilia has no cure, but it’s also not a death sentence. [NY Times]
Check out these seven easy slow-cooker recipes. [Fitness]
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Dad jeans? I don’t think so.
My teen daughter took me shopping a few days ago for some real jeans. The kind that looks like they’ve been run through an industrial grinder, splotched with bleach and carefully torn and tattered at the edges.
You know, the cool kind.
Actually, they call them “distressed” jeans. Although I’d never thought of it this way, it’s nice to have a pair of jeans that match my sense of self. Distressed. It’s edgy and yet congruent.
I’m 48 and not willing just yet to resign myself to wearing dark shoes, white socks and shorts or dad jeans.
So, how did it work for me?
Did I look like a 25 year old Zac Efron (who I found out last night my wife secretly thinks is really cute but she doesn’t know I know)?
According to my wife, “no” to any comparisons to Zac Efron (who in my opinion uses far too few letters to spell his name, I’m guessing for affect….so I could live with that).
But “yes” as to making me look younger. “Not a day over 45 according to Rebecca.”
That was just enough to whet my appetite. Tomorrow I may change how I spell my name to Jon Brn. I’m already feeling 42 just thinking about it.
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
How NASA solved a $100 million problem for FIVE BUCKS. [GIZMODO]
Amazon’s sales are jumping, but it’s profits are not. [ENGADGET]
Mitt Romney’s fight to win in Florida comes with a cost, polls show. [New York Times]
By Jeff Smith, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  $15T of debt, $1T+ annual deficits, and the co-frontrunner for the presidential nomination of the allegedly fiscally conservative party is advocating a moon colony. You really couldn’t make this up.
Call me zany, but I just don’t get Newt’s strategy of doing everything possible to feed into the caricature of him painted by his opponents. Fortunately he can pontificate about moon colonies while his Adelson-funded SuperPAC labors at the last minute to generate a ground game that his official campaign spent a year neglecting.
If I were him, I would be doing everything possible to come off like a solid, grounded, trustworthy person ready to roll up my sleeves and offer very specific policies to facilitate job growth. But then, I thought his campaign was over last June, so what do I know?
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
|
The Recovering Politician Bookstore
|
