Yvonne Abraham Channels Gail Collins

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Saturday New York Times column from Gail Collins:

Name That Candidate

The end of an election season is always thick with regrets. Do you think Meg Whitman is contemplating all the other things she could have done with $141 million? Does the Republican candidate for the United States Senate in West Virginia kick himself for allowing his wife to establish a voting residence in Florida?

Among the other questions Collins posed:

II. Match the excuses:

A) “I’ll put it up on my Web site, I promise you.”

B) “I had read that in one place.”

C) “This is four years ago.”

D) “You know, I’m a mom. … My daughter’s in Europe.”

1) Sharron Angle, the U.S. Senate candidate in Nevada on her claim that Dearborn, Mich., and the nonexistent town of Frankford, Tex., are governed by Sharia law.

2) Alex Sink, a gubernatorial candidate in Florida, explaining why she looked at a debate tip, texted onstage via a makeup artist’s cellphone.

3) Ben Quayle, a Congressional candidate in Arizona, on charges by the owner of the Dirty Scottsdale Web site that Quayle once ran a section aimed at finding “the hottest chick in Scottsdale.”

4) Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on her failure to come up with a Supreme Court ruling she disagreed with.

(Answers: A-4; B-1; C-3; D-2.)

Cut to: Sunday Boston Globe column from Yvonne Abraham:

Political savvy tested

Hallelujah! This wacky-ugly political season is almost over. Even for Massachusetts, we saw a whole lotta crazy this year. But how closely were you paying attention? Test your political junkiness with this fun quiz!

Among the questions Abraham posed:

3. When asked to name his favorite beer, the governor of Massachusetts chose:

A. Sam Adams, brewed by The Boston Beer Company
B. Any of the delicious Harpoon beers, made in Boston and Windsor, Vt.
C. A toffy, obscure beer called Moretti from Udine, Italy
D. Bud, a beer drunk by real men who are People Like Us

Answer: C, and winner of the Senator John “Ducati’’ Kerry Award.

Don’t get me wrong: Abraham’s column was a lot of fun.

Just a lot of Collins as well.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Kennedy Column Edition)

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Two – count ’em, two – columns from the Kennedy clan in Saturday’s Boston dailies, both dealing with energy-related matters.

Exhibit A (from the Boston Globe):

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II

Keeping the heat on

Fuel assistance is not only worth fighting for, it’s worth voting for

Nut graf (paragraph six, for those of you keeping score at home):

Massachusetts last year received $197 million in federal fuel assistance, enough to help over 200,000 households stay a little warmer. Of the $3.3 billion currently in the total program budget, only $2.7 billion is being released to the states, with the remaining $600 million being held back for emergency assistance. The lower appropriation from Washington this year means that the Bay State will receive $100 million for the entire winter — a cut of nearly 50 percent.

So maybe wind power could make up the difference in Massachusetts?

Not if it’s Cape Wind, according to this piece by Joe Kennedy in the Cape Cod Times.

Cape Wind hides the cost of the project by spreading it among all their Massachusetts ratepayers, who would still end up paying an additional $125 a year for 20 years. For the same cost as Cape Wind, we could produce two to three times the amount of renewable energy from onshore wind and spread the benefits throughout the commonwealth — meaning more jobs for our citizens, more tax revenue for our schools and more opportunity for our businesses.

Cut to . . .

Exhibit B (from the Boston Herald):

Cape Wind: Don’t be tricked

By Ted Kennedy Jr.

It’s nearly Halloween but the plethora of costumes cannot compare with the great Cape Wind masquerade.

Cape Wind — composed of unnecessary rate hikes, sweetheart deals and hidden costs — has been disguised by a clean, green energy cloak, camouflage enough to fool any environmentally conscious consumer into thinking that if it looks green, it must be good.

Cape Wind is not good for Massachusetts.

Maybe not. But kissin’ cousin columns from the Kennedy clan are good for a laugh, anyway.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Chuck Turner Edition)

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Saturday Boston Globe Page One:

Turner found guilty of accepting cash bribe

Chuck Turner, the fiery civil rights activist who has been a city councilor for more than a decade, was convicted yesterday of all the charges at his federal corruption trial, a verdict that seems likely to end his political career and lead to a significant prison sentence.

The jury rejected Turner’s assertion on the stand that he could not remember his encounter with a Boston businessman, secretly captured on FBI video, when the councilor allegedly accepted a $1,000 bribe.

Saturday Boston Herald Page One:

You’d think the demise of Turner (D-Planet Chuck) would be mother’s milk to the feisty local tabloid, but apparently the editors would rather whack Patrick than yuck about Chuck.

Go figure.

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Lady GagA+

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Congratulations to the University of South Carolina, the first institution of higher learning to enshrine 21st Century poetess Lady Gaga in its curriculum.

Via Friday’s New York Times:

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta may not sound famous, but the University of South Carolina is offering a course next spring devoted to her — and the sociology of fame.

Apparently one secret to becoming famous is to change your name. Ms. Germanotta now goes by Lady Gaga.

What else accounts for the soaring popularity of the 24-year-old global phenom? The question has intrigued and inspired Mathieu Deflem, 48, a sociology professor at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, who plans to teach a course called “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.” He believes it is the only such full-time college course in the country.

Thank Godga for small blessings, eh?

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India Inc.

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

The richest man in India,  Mukesh Ambani, has turned Mumbai into Xanadu.

Friday New York Times piece:

Soaring Above India’s Poverty, a 27-Story Home

MUMBAI — The newest and most exclusive residential tower for this city’s superrich is a cantilevered sheath of steel and glass soaring 27 floors into the sky. The parking garage fills six levels. Three helipads are on the roof. There are terraces upon terraces, airborne swimming pools and hanging gardens in a Blade Runner-meets-Babylon edifice overlooking India’s most dynamic city.

There are nine elevators, a spa, a 50-seat theater and a grand ballroom. Hundreds of servants and staff are expected to work inside. And now, finally, after several years of planning and construction, the residents are about to move in.

All five of them.

That would be Mukesh Ambani’s family.

So to review:

Twenty-seven billion.

Twenty-seven stories.

How poetic.

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Charlie Baker Doesn’t Count

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

For a guy who was Administration & Finance Secretary for four years, Charlie Baker’s not so good with numbers.

Witness his latest TV spot in the Massachusetts governor’s race.

Did you get that?

21,000 Massachusetts jobs lost last month alone. The greatest jobs loss in 20 years. Enough to empty most of Fenway.

The visual: An aerial shot of Fenway Park with the crowd wiped from left (field) to right.

Only problem: Depending on your source, the official capacity of the Lyric Little Bandbox is 37,373 or 37,402 or 38,805 or 39,928.

Even taking the lowest number, 21,000 is 56% of capacity. Hardly “most of Fenway.”

Is this the worst distortion Baker has foisted on the Bay State public during the last 15 months?

Absolutely not.

But it might be the most insulting.

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We’re Number Wonderful!

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

The Daily Beast (tip o’ the pixel to AlterNet) has released its second-annual list of the nation’s smartest and dumbest cities.

From the AlterNet piece:

What makes a city “smart” or “dumb,” per this list? The education level of the city’s citizens, for one, and also its “intellectual environment,” as measured by nonfiction book sales and the prevalence of colleges and libraries.

Draw your own conclusions about what the list means in terms of a city’s desirability. (At #16, New York City was robbed, man!)

Regardless, Boston is . . . drumroll, please . . . the brainiest!

Smartest

1. Boston, MA
2. Hartford-New Haven, CT
3. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA
4. Raleigh-Durham, NC
5. Denver, CO
6. Seattle-Tacoma, WA
7. Austin, TX
8. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
9. Washington, DC
10. Rochester, NY

On the flipside:

Dumbest

1. Las Vegas, NV
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Fresno, CA
4. Houston, TX
5. Memphis, TN
6. Orlando, FL
7. Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL
8. Louisville, KY
9. Miami, FL
10. Greensboro, NC

New tourism slogan: What happens in Vegas . . . is stupid everywhere else.

Forewarned is forearmed.

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How About Them Jints?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Really, how likable are the cast-off, cut-up San Francisco Giants? And how surprised were you that they cuffed up Texas Ranger ace Cliff Lee, Mr. October Lights Out, in Game 1 of the World Serious?

New York Times lede:

SAN FRANCISCO — A gray-haired Juan Marichal stood beside the 300-game winner Gaylord Perry. Willie McCovey steadied himself against a walker as Orlando Cepeda offered support. Watching from the stands at AT&T Park was Barry Bonds. Few teams have as many living legends as the Giants, who somehow have not won a World Series title in 56 years. It was never Marichal’s turn, or McCovey’s or Bonds’s. Baseball is funny like that.

And so is the Giants’ merry band of misfits and castoffs, a charmed group of cheap free agents and waiver trades who Wednesday night ushered San Francisco ever closer to that elusive championship. They rolled over the Texas Rangers, 11-7, in Game 1 of the World Series, and in the process pierced the legend of Cliff Lee, the best postseason pitcher of recent vintage. With a six-run fifth inning, the Giants chased Lee and exceeded their total scoring output of the previous two games.

Ah, yes – Barry Bonds. The Giants have returned the Steroid Slugger to the fold, as this George Vecsey piece in Wednesday’s Times noted:

Bonds hovers over the baseball Giants. His old team did the right thing by including him as one of the four players from the 2002 National League champions to throw out a ceremonial first pitch during the Phillies series. The fans were able to indulge in a bit of catharsis by cheering for Bonds, who seemed to have eased back to the svelte proportions of head and neck and trunk of his early days with the Pirates.

Meanwhile, back in the reality-based world, the Giants just might rival the Boston Red Sox idiots of 2004 in both eccentricity and execution.

Of the Texas Rangers this time.

Go Jints!

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Quote o’ the Day (pat. pending)

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

From Wednesday’s Boston Globe:

“If I walked on water,’’ [Gov. Deval Patrick] said, “Charlie Baker’s response would be, ‘See? I told you Patrick can’t swim.’ ’’

Just one more indication that Patrick’s reelection campaign is going along swimmingly.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Circulation Decline Edition)

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has issued its latest report cards for the nation’s newspapers,  and the state of print journalism is . . . weak.

But not as weak as last year.

Good news! Daily papers are dying more slowly now!

The Boston Globe reported its own death by a thousand paper cuts thusly:

The Globe’s daily circulation dropped 15.6 percent to 222,683, while its Sunday circulation dropped 12 percent in the period to 368,303. The New York Times Co. owns the Globe, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and its namesake, The New York Times.

That’s versus a 5% drop in average daily newspaper circulation nationwide.

Ouch.

The Boston Herald reported circulation losses that were slightly lower, but knee-buckling just the same.

The Herald’s weekday circulation fell 9.8 percent to 124,691 copies. The tabloid’s Sunday edition decreased 5.7 percent – or by 5,413 copies – to 90,222.

Each paper magnanimously quoted the other’s spin control on their respective declines in circulation.

From the Globe:

Gwen Gage, a Herald spokeswoman, said, “Our audience of 1.3 million readers bears out the importance of the Herald in Boston — whether it’s read in its traditional form, online, or on both platforms.’’

1.3 million? Seriously? Is that every month, or every night in Pat Purcell’s dreams?

Regardless, here’s the Herald’s nod to its crosstown rival:

The Globe said the results of last summer’s price hike are tapering off.

“Our year-over-year circulation results are in line with our expectations, and are primarily the result of our circulation and pricing strategy instituted last summer,” said Globe spokesman Bob Powers in a statement. “We are now seeing the impact of the price increases tapering off.”

Boring Broadsheet, indeed.

Even so, the current dismal numbers are less dismal than last year’s:

During the April-to-September period last year, the Globe’s daily circulation plunged 18.4 percent while the Herald’s fell 17.4 percent.

Progress. It’s all relative, right?

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