...although there was a 40-person delegation from the office of the Assistant to the Vice Undersecretary of the National Policy Directorate for Paper and Wood Pulp Derivatives Safety who came by and drank up all my sweet tea and left napkins everywhere. Thankfully, after they all left, FEMA sent in an advance triage team to assemble data for an initial finding in order that the funding for the environmental impact statement can be prioritized, with the intent of developing a napkin abatement strategy and implementation plan for FY2010. In addition, an emergency allocation of $40,000,000 was made to have the napkins that were left isolated and impounded in a specialized soiled paper containment vessel for later mitigation.
And Auburn won, so, you know, it's all good.
ANYWAY, President Bush's trip to town sounds like it went pretty well, although I have to say, you folks on the other side are just danged pitiful.
Now, I think Lucy Baxley's not an evil woman--she's okay for what she is, and if she does get elected in November, the world won't end. But it gives me absolutely no confidence when she sets up a cardboard photo of W out in the park, and complains that Bob Riley has plenty of money and doesn't need to be raising any more. Somehow, I think were the situation reversed (as it was a few years back in '96 with Billy the C came and visited Birmingham-Southern and was greeted by lots of friendly Democratic Party folks as well as those peculiar people who tend to be conservative who think that the office of President is bigger than the man who holds it and who, although they might have a personal animus for Mr. Clinton, nevertheless respected the office he held and were glad for him to be in Birmingham) that Ms. Baxley wouldn't be the least bit concerned about all that filthy lucre flowing into HER purse. The television news video I saw was not of a confident, feisty challenger, but of cranky shrill hack desperate not to be forgotten.
The thing to do--if the Democrats wanted to even fight the battle--is to bring in your own star players to help you raise cash. You've got Artur Davis, who out-Obamas Barack Obama--get him to come to town to help you stir people up. (Of course, since he's gone on record saying both Riley and Baxley are a few bricks shy of a load in this campaign, he might not want to be tainted by Lucy.)
Shoot, get Bill Clinton to come--it can't hurt you anymore than mewling and whining about people not giving you money, and he's hungry for any teevee camera he can find, and he craps 20 dollar bills. Coming into town to tweak the Pres would have been just fine by him.
Or, how about this--come up with some ideas. No, I mean something other than being opposed to everything Riley says. Actually come up and do something. Might as well stop trying to get everyone riled up about the tax plan that was voted down, because it was voted down. And the state's economic situation is good--quit the poormouthing and admit it's good and tell how you would make it better. Standing there fondling a cutout of President Bush doesn't do that.
But here's the deal--the Party, although she is the nominee--isn't really fighting for her. The House and Senate are controlled by Democrats, but putting Ms. Baxley--an outsider who is unloved by the likes of the Seth Hammetts and Lowell Barrons of the power-broker wing of the party--putting her in charge would threaten the insider's power. That's why they never returned the traditional power of lieutenant govenor to her when she was elected to that post, after they'd stripped it from the previous Republican who won the office.
Oh, they support her if asked, and I imagine none of those who actually hold the pursestrings would vote for Riley, but they haven't, and won't, go out of their way to give Ms. Baxley what she needs: organization, volunteer manpower, and money. She's on her own, but that could be a blessing. IF she'd quit complaining about it.
Anyway, politics is weird. Money does that to people.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 29, 2006 10:48 AMSo where is the indepth game analysis? I was off playing bass in a country group and missed the game although one of singers did take time off from his tenor duties to call his wife and ask how it was going. "Not good!" she answered.
I understand that Auburn managed to eke out a win over the Spawn of Satan's team but it was not a sure bet until the final buzzer.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at September 29, 2006 11:24 AMIndeed it was not--SC was driving in the final minutes of the game, got themselves down to a 4th and goal on Auburn's 6 or so, and threw a looper into the endzone and had it batted away with 19 seconds on the clock. A touchdown and PAT would have tied it up and sent it into overtime, and probably would have gone SC's way.
Auburn also managed to retain possession of the ball for the entire 15 minutes of the 3rd quarter, another factor in keeping the Gamecocks from victory. Spurrier's offense had Auburn flummoxed through most of the fourth quarter.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 29, 2006 11:52 AM