John Adams

One thing I will be looking for from McCain: What is her role going to be. To me, you can't be an insider and pull weeds. But outsiders can. If he says Palin is going to be in charge of rooting out specific bits of waste and corruption, she might be able to do it. She's an outsider with no friends already. Sick her on "the process." Rekindles the "maverick" image. Especially since he kept it so secret. Wipes Obama's speech right off the top story. Not a single paper or show will have the convention as top story. Everyone will tune in to see her speak at the RNC. Experience card is tough for MCCain to assert now. Smells of pandering. We'll see. I'm willing to be charmed by the Alaska mother of 5 (!! why would you want to be VP with 5 young kids??).

Me too. She's aggressive and interesting but I smell backfire. Again, smells of pandering.

CNN has it as Palin. http://www.cnn.com/ Carville said last night that the best VP pick is one that makes your opponent's campaign manager reach for a bucket to puke in. She--being a she--fits that bill. Her lack of experience undermines McCain's ability to punch Obama on that point though. Smells of pandering until I learn more about her.

Doesn't answer any questions. Palin, to me, is a pandering choice. She's a complete unknown with almost no experience. If he wants to pick a woman, there have to be better choices.

I only know she's the Gov. of Alaska. Before that mayor of a 7000 person town. I don't know jack about her.

!! In that they are both men, I agree.

She would be. A big liability too for the Bush ties. From what I've read, McCain doesn't have a chummy relationship with her. With Russia stomping its feet, Condi wold be intruiging. Imagine: the Reps pick a black woman for VP who is either sexless or lesbian. The Dems would have to tiptoe around her.

I think the timetable issue is not an issue any more. Iraq wants us out by 2010. Unless a candidate says that we're just going to move the troops over the border into Iran, the 2010 deadline took the wind out of this issue.

Impressive that hours before the announcement, no one still knows. No name would surprise me. Very different from the Obama leaks.

At least according to this http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail...ml?hpid=topnews Pawlenty is staying home tomorrow, when the VP choice is supposed to campaign with McCain. Considering the Pawlenty quote, "I'm just happy to support McCain," I think he's out. Carville, that annoying-as-hell-but-smart pundit, thinks McCain is going to pull a surprise out.

Obama is John Gault?

I was exchanging emails with a guy from SG all day--you're right.

This trip down memory lane is a nice reminder about how much more reliable cars are nowadays. My nephew just got his first car--a 10 year old Accord that will probably have no problems for 10 more years. When I bought my first 3 cars that were 10 years old (in Buffalo weather), the predicted operating life was between 3 months to 3 years, and you knew the effers would break down a few times a year.

Hutchinson is getting WAY more mentions than Fiorina. I liked this quote from McCain today.

Damnit. The Subaru wagon was my 2nd car, not the Caprice Classic. I had that wagon for 3 months. It had a shag seatcover. 3 months after I bought the POS rustbucket, the rear axle broke. What trash.

1980 rabbit--10 years old when I got it. Had 58K miles or so I thought. When I got to the first 99.9 mile multiple, the speedometer froze. You could get it to keep running if you pounded the dash. Had to do that every 100 miles. The ceiling material was not adhered well so it drooped down and ruffled in the wind (no A/C of course). The fuel line was split so I replaced the split portion with neoprene hose. That used to split at least once a month, so I always kept a section in the car with some coveralls. On the way to a wedding, my wife (then girlfriend) watched as I changed into the coveralls and changed out the hose in about 3 minutes. To this day, whenever I smell gas while I'm driving, I look in the rearview mirror for drips on the road. Car had problems like it was on its 360,000th mile. Total POS. Next car was a "3 door" Caprice Classic. The 4th door was smashed in from an accident. The only way to EVER start it was by spraying starter fluid into the carb. I did that every time I started it for 3 years but it was great besides that. Like driving around on your couch. To this day, I compare every ride to that one. Oh, and the gas gauge didn't work. Or the speedometer. Never got a ticket. From there, I moved on to much better cars.

Oh no. College kids drink. You two deserve each other. I wish McCain could find a woman he liked to be the VP candidate. That would rile people and take advantage of that Hillary resentment crowd. Do it John! I hope he doesn't pick Romney but I think he will. Ugh.

Let's all move to Singapore. Nowhere freer on earth...until China decides that little experiment in laissez faire capitalism is over.

The James Taylor interview was great. He's still an amazing singer.

It's a compilation of his best interviews with famous singers and bands. So far, Sting, Bee Gees (1993), Aerosmith, Stevie Wonder...not sure who else they included.

I couldn't disagree more. Assuming he's in shape (who knows?), it will take a few weeks to get into football shape. More importantly, he needs to learn an entire new offensive scheme. If the Pro Bowl LT misses one week, it hurts the team. He's the last holdout in the entire NFL.

I do a fair amount of business in Italy. It is a NIGHTMARE to pass anything through the government.

Maybe he wants to be one of the richest players in the league, and certainly get the biggest contract in Bills history. I get that. He may deserve it. But he had 1(!) Pro Bowl season that he couldn't even finish and now he's playing petulant child? He has to "feed his kids" in the words of TO, and I get that, but he's now bigger than the team since he decided to hurt the team. Show up. Show you're healthy (because who knows if he is). Renegotiate. If he wants a new contract now, he won't get top 5 at his position money because he hasn't shown he's worth that yet. So he can renegotiate now and get paid more but not top dime. OR he can play the year and show he deserves stratospheric bucks. The dialog starts when he shows up. At this point, he's a jerkoff for hurting the team and I wouldn't talk to him until March 2009. All he's earned now is a lot of BOOs when he takes the field at the Ralph.

Yup. That's why the deals between players and teams are only vaguely "contracts" in the sense that businesspeople think of them. Teams can cut players and only pay them guaranteed money. That's why players hold out. Usually, I'm on the side of the renegotiating player. But since Peters is on his way to being the richest Bill ever, IF IF IF IF he has a second Pro Bowl year and because he's already making 3 million a year, he needs to get the hell to camp. In fact, it's too late for him to avoid BOOs since he's already hurt the team by his absence.

At this point, it doesn't matter. He's the last holdout in the entire NFL. !@#$ him. When he does get into camp, he won't be ready for weeks. He has singlehandedly decided that he's bigger than the team and it WILL HURT the team to not have him. Thanks Jason. You've earned the BOO when the offense gets introduced.