Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty
July 9, 2010
In This Issue . . .
1. It's about the Middle East, Not Your Middle Name, Sir
2. We May Hate BP, But We'll Miss Them If They Disappear
3. LeBrocolypse Now
4. Addenda
Happy Friday,
Here's your Jolt!
Enjoy,
Jim
1. It's about the Middle East, Not Your Middle Name, Sir
In a 2008 Saturday Night Live sketch mocking the presidential debates, Fred Armisen's Barack Obama pledged that he would deal with difficult international crises by playing the race card. The real-life President Obama hasn't quite done that, but I suspect his assessment of why Israelis are wary of his policies will not defuse tensions: "During the interview Wednesday, when confronted with the anxiety that some Israelis feel toward him, Obama said that 'some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion. Ironically, I've got a Chief of Staff named Rahm Israel Emmanuel. My top political advisor is somebody who is a descendent of Holocaust survivors. My closeness to the Jewish American community was probably what propelled me to the U.S. Senate,' Obama said."
The Ace of Spades suggests that Obama could squeeze condescension into the word "hello": "It's kind of amazing that every single criticism of, or lack of proper enthusiasm for, Barack Obama is rooted in some sort of bitter, clingy ignorance and malice. Apparently not a single critique of him is well-founded, or founded upon anything at all, really, except hatred and mental retardation."
An Ace commenter reacts: "Really, nothing about dissing Netanyahu? Nothing about your edict to halt expansion in their own country. Nothing about you calling for more concessions when Israel already gave up sovereign territory in an effort for peace. Nothing about soft balling Iran, who has sworn to kill them all. Nothing about your association with known terrorist sympathizers. Nothing about your admonishment of any attempt [by] Israel to be secure. Your middle name? That's it?"
2. We May Hate BP, But We'll Miss Them If They Disappear
It's spreading more to Texas: "Yesterday, the Coast Guard confirmed that oil which washed ashore on McFaddin Beach, Texas, on Monday was connected to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. McFaddin Beach is near Port Arthur and much closer to the Louisiana/Texas border than Galveston which was the first area in the state to be impacted by the oil spill. Tar balls were found on Texas beaches around Galveston over the 4th of July weekend and again Tuesday and Wednesday. It had already been announced that all tar balls collected from the Crystal Beach area of the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston's East Beach on Saturday and Sunday came from the Deepwater Horizon spill."
The seafood market is getting hit worse: "Serving up this taste of Cajun Country is getting harder by the day for owner Darren Indovina. 'I'm having the biggest problem getting the shellfish, the oysters, etc.,' he explains. Seafood supplies being limited (or destroyed) by the Gulf oil spill is creating big problems for places like the Bayou.According to Indoniva, 'Everybody's shut down. All the major seafood companies that are down there marketing the seafood are told they can't harvest this year. And I have a feeling it's going to be longer than that.'"
But don't worry, America. The president isn't just doing fundraisers for embattled Democrats and golfing. He and his administration are also . . . writing letters to BP urging them to work faster: "The administration sent BP a letter Thursday asking for details of how the company planned to proceed with attaching the Helix and replacing the cap while minimizing the unimpeded flow of oil during the changeover. The government wants to know how much of the oil BP can skim, burn or disperse during the swap. Government officials expect a quick answer and plan to decide by Friday how quickly to proceed."
Wow, I'll bet whoever reads that letter really feels like he's had his you-know-what kicked.
Having said that, let's give the administration a bit of credit. We said we wanted a response to the Gulf disaster with some muscle, and they're delivering: "Michelle Obama will visit Panama City Beach, Fla., on Monday to meet with local officials and residents and discuss the impact of the oil spill on their community."
3. LeBrocolypse Now
I'm sure some folks are sick of the topic, but I found the epic hype and buildup to LeBron James's free-agency decision a pretty fascinating portrait of the intersection of sports, money, celebrity, and cities' identities. (It's also a minor factor in the Ohio governor's race.) James Pethokoukis notes that the Cleveland Plain-Dealer is looking at the tax angle: "James, the Cavs' all-time leader in scoring among other categories, potentially could be leaving as much as $40 million on the table by not signing a maximum contract with the Cavs and instead going with the Heat. It is believed Miami officials attempted to get around this fact by pointing out the difference in state income tax rates. Florida has none and Ohio's is six percent. James would have to pay out-of-state income tax for most of his 41 road games per season, but none of his home games. That is a difference that could save James millions over the next five years when also including his endorsement earnings, which are believed to be about $15-20 million per year."
Like I said, I didn't have a dog in this fight, but it's not hard to feel bad for Cleveland. Here you have a classic Rust Belt, working-class, no-glamour-all-grit city that already had its football team taken away from it once. (What other city names its largest newspaper the "Plain Dealer"? You might as well call it the "Northern Ohio Nothing Special.") Now the kid from Akron has left, in the most high-profile, endlessly hyped manner possible, to go to what is arguably the east coast's biggest party town, the city of beaches and palm trees, bikinis, Crockett and Tubbs, Cuban sandwiches, and the glamorous tropical life. He goes from one of the nation's most diehard sports towns to a place already overstuffed with celebrities and that has a hard time selling out Dolphins games (and they only have eight home games a year). Yes, LeBron James wanted to win championships and be on a better team. But he also ditched an adoring fan base, who now confront the fact that they will probably have to wait years or decades before they get a comparable talent. The message of his move is clear: Nobody wants to play in Cleveland, partly because nobody with options really wants to live there.
The fact that LeBron James put his fans through months of speculation and a media frenzy that made Brett Favre's annual to-retire-or-not-to-retire Hamlet routine look underplayed was, deliberate or not, an unnecessarily cruel twisting of the knife.
I'm reminded of a quote from Allahpundit after Nike put out the ad with Earl Woods's voice: "The time is right, my friends. We've got a porn star running for Senate (as a Republican!), we've got a formerly wholesome sports icon nailing everything within a hundred-foot radius -- heck, we've even got Spitz's own hookers writing for major metropolitan newspapers. And of course we've got a new governor in New York who's somehow made himself seem even scummier than Spitzer is. America 2008 was an innocent place. America 2010 is ready to party." This was April, when he was speculating about a political comeback for Eliot Spitzer. Now Spitzer's gotten an even bigger prize: America has 50 governors, but only Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann can say they host 8 p.m. cable-news shows.
4. Addenda
So, do Democrats put their 2012 convention in Cleveland out of sympathy? |
