Obama's Ace In The Hole

As Obama's approval rating continues to sink, things are looking better and better for whoever gets the Republican nomination in 2012.

In some head-to-head polls, some Republicans beat Obama, while others are within the margin of error, statistically tied with the president.

Things are looking good for Obama being a one-termer, right?

Well, not so fast.

Obama has an Ace in the Hole. And it just might be you.

You see, Obama and the Democrats are counting on you sitting this election out. Why would you do that? Because you aren't happy with the eventual GOP candidate.

Now, sure, it's about a year until the GOP convention. But the process to pick the candidate is already underway. In fact, Tim Pawlenty has already dropped out of the race.

The leading candidates, if you believe the polls, are Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul. And, then there's Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, Thaddeus McCotter, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Buddy Roemer, and Gary Johnson.

Then there's about Fred Karger, Andy Martin, Tom Miller and Vern Weunsche.

Oh, and don't forget The Rent Is Too Damn High Guy, Jimmy McMillan.

And still maybe Sarah Palin and John Bolton.

Some of the candidates don't draw much attention. But some that do draw a lot of passion. Several of the Gary Johnson or Ron Paul (RONPAUL!!1!!!11!!!) supporters will not vote for anyone else NOMATTERWHAT!!!1!!

And others say there's no way they'd vote for someone like Newt Gingrich or Jon Huntsman. Or Sarah Palin.

Well, unless the Republicans nominate a committee to run in 2012, only one of these will be the nominee. And there will be some very unhappy Republicans and some very unhappy conservatives. And some unhappy libertarians. And some unhappy liberaltarians.

And that's Obama's Ace In The Hole: Republican-leaning voters feeling they have a bad hand.

Look at it like a poker game. Say, five-card stud. Sure, nobody plays that anymore, but it's one of the simplest to use as an analogy, so there you go.

After the cards are dealt, Obama is holding this hand:
Ace of Clubs
Jack of Clubs
Three of Hearts
Two of Diamonds
Hole Card

You have this hand:
Seven of Diamonds
Eight of Diamonds
Nine of Diamonds
Ten of Diamonds
And your hole card: 10 of Spades

You've got a pair of tens. Not a great hand, but potentially a winning hand. If Obama has an Ace in the hole -- or a Jack in the hole -- he wins. Anything else, and you win.

What Obama is counting on is you being unhappy with the GOP candidate and not showing up at the polls. That's his Ace in the Hole. Or Jack in the Hole.

Now, a lot of you are going to bitch, moan, and complain about whoever gets the nomination. Like I have several times in my life. But, I went out and voted for the guy, because the alternative was worse. And, each time, history has proven me right. That is, since I've been voting (1976) the Republican who won was better than the Democrat who lost. And the Republican who lost would have been better than the Democrat who won.

Don't be Obama's Ace in the Hole. Or Jack in the Hole.

Prevent that situation by working like the Dickens for your candidate. Then, whoever wins, work like the Dickens for that candidate, too.

Don't let a bunch of Ace-Holes ... or Jack-Holes ... mess up the next election, like they did in 2008.

Don't be an Ace-Hole.

We've become a nation of ... kittens (or some similar word)

Kittens.

They're cute and cuddly and make great subjects for funny videos on YouTube. Plus, they taste like chicken.

Okay, I don't know about that last part. But little kitties grow up to be mean old tomcats or pussycats.

Kittens, despite however cute they may be, are nothing little toms or little pussies.

And sometimes it seems like we're becoming a nation of kittens. And it's not cute.

For example, when I was in high school, back in the 1970s, high school teams would play football in the rain. On November 27, 1976, there was a game played in Albany where there was so much rain, one end of the field was unplayable. On one series, the official set the ball down for play, then walked away. The ball started to float off. The official stayed with the ball until the center approached from that point on.

Later in the game, a punted ball hit and didn't bounce. It never touched the ground. It hit the water and bobbed.

No, I'm not making any of this up. I was at that game, and it was wet and miserable. And fun.

This week, though, in southeast Georgia, several high school teams moved their football games from Friday night (tonight) to Thursday night (last night).

Why? Because there's a hurricane on track to hit North Carolina. And they don't want to play in nasty weather.

What a bunch of kittens.

Back on September 21, 1989, with Hurricane Hugo bearing down on the Georgia/South Carolina coast, Statesboro's Georgia Southern College (now University) hosted their first night game. It was windy and wet. Four inches of rain fell during the game. The rain was falling sideways. I was there, and it was absolutely fun.

Today, they wouldn't play that game. Because people are a bunch of kittens.

We have too many kittens. They're everywhere and making decisions for us.

We need to be able to play football in the rain.

Those kittens? They need to be spayed or neutered.

iQuit

The world ended last night.

That's right. Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple.

It's not like Barack Obama resigned or anything. If that happened, Joe Biden would take over. That is, one incompetent would be replaced by another incompetent. So barely a blip would occur if Obama was gone.

But Steve Jobs? You know what this means, don't you? Your iPods will all quit working now. Go try yours. I'll wait.

See? A little sluggish, wasn't it. And, when you put the songs on shuffle, that one song you really don't like played, didn't it? Know why? Because Steve Jobs quit.

And, if you bought in to the hype and switched from Windows to a Mac, you're doomed. DOOMED!!

The next version of OS X won't be like the the last few. Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion? No more. The next one will be OS X LOLCAT. And, after that, OS X Snagglepuss.

That Apple TV you bought? Instead of streaming TV shows and movies from several studios, you'll only get Current TV. Steve Jobs was the only thing standing between you and Apple board member Al Gore. Now, you're screwed.

Your iPhone? It won't make calls. It'll be like you're on AT&T or something.

And your iPad? Angry Birds doesn't work any more.

Steve Jobs is no longer running Apple. He's been replaced by a guy who went to Auburn. Auburn!

In no time, Apple will be only the second-most valuable company in the world.

Yes, your life has ended. I'm sure George Bush is to blame. Or global warming.

Earthquake!

There was a bunch of fear yesterday when the earthquake hit northern Virginia near Washington, D.C.

In fact, when Wall Street heard about the earthquake, the Dow rose over 300 points. Which says a lot about the economy. When there's a chance that something will stop Obama and the Democrats, the market goes up.

There were reports that the Washington Monument was tilting, but that was not true. Washington politicians, though, were found to be crooked, but it's too early to tell if the earthquake is to blame.

But the earthquake did do some isolated but terrible damage: it interrupted Obama on the golf course and made him miss a putt. Really.

So, despite early fears, the earthquake did little overall damage. Unlike Barack Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress. Their damage is still being assessed.

Anyway, you don't normally hear about earthquakes in that region as happened yesterday. Most earthquakes are in Japan, California, or other places foreign to America. Why on earth (or under earth) did one occur where it did?

I dunno.

Some people -- mostly scientists -- will tell you that earthquakes are caused by the plates of the earth moving in different directions or at different speeds, building pressure, and suddenly releasing, but I think they're making it up as they go along. We need to find out what causes earthquakes, then stop them. Or use them to our advantage, like Gene Hackman tried to do in that Superman movie (the first one).

So, what causes earthquakes? Or, failing that, what caused yesterday's earthquake?

Here are the leading candidates:

• Global warming causes them.
• Global cooling.
• Witches.
• Maybe it's the Tea Party. They caused everything else that's wrong, so perhaps it's them that caused all the devastation yesterday.
• George Bush.
• More witches.
• The Titans bowling. Or maybe that's thunder.
• The Titans dropping their bowling ball.

Maybe it is the whole tectonic plates thing. Or maybe Teutonic plates. Probably so. I never did trust the Germans.

Republican strategy to beat Obama

The good news for Republicans recently has been that polls have shown that a generic Republican beats Obama. The bad news is that when "generic Republican" is replaced with an actual Republican, Obama wins.

Not any more.

Latest polling shows that some actual Republicans beat, tie, or are within the poll's margin of error, according to ABC News:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads Obama by a 48 percent to 46 percent margin, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry ties the president at 47 percent. Obama bests Ron Paul by a 47-45 divide and Michele Bachmann by 48-44 split. All results are within a 4-point margin of error.

What does this mean?

I dunno. Does anyone know what Americans' political thought processes are? I mean, a majority of voters actually elected Obama in 2008. So you can't depend on most American voters to do anything that makes sense. So I'm not sure we can make any sense out of this poll.

But I'm not going to let that stop me from trying.

Maybe this means that Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul (RONPAUL!!!1!!1!!!!), and Michele Bachmann are actually generic Republicans.

All this time, I thought Tim Pawlenty was. But, since T-PAW decided to drop out of the race, theres an opening for a generic Republican. And, it's being filled by fake conservative (but good-for-business) Mitt Romney, almost conservative (but plays one on TV) Rick Perry, speaks right when facts aren't involved (John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy, Elvis' birthday/death day) Michele Bachmann, or sh*t-house rat crazy Ron Paul (RONPAUL!!!1!!1!!!!).

What about the other Republicans? For example, my guy, Herman Cain?

They didn't ask. At least, when I read the full poll, I didn't see where they paired up Cain and Obama. But, among Republicans, Cain and Perry has the smallest "unfavorable/strongly unfavorable" totals. As for favorable, Cain and Romney came in second in "favorable/strongly favorable" to Rudy Guiliani, who's not running.

What all this means is that a lot of Republicans can beat Obama. Maybe even more than they poll.

This shows what the Republican strategy for 2012 will be: don't be Obama.

Which sort of screws it up for Huntsman, who worked for the guy. But maybe not. Remember Romneycare and Obamacare? Mostly a matter of scale. But Romney beats Obama. So, maybe not even Jon "Obama's a remarkable leader" Huntsman should be counted out.

Still, not being Obama looks like a winning strategy. Particularly since Obama appears to be still blaming Bush for everything.

"I'm not Obama" beats "I'm not Bush" hands down.

At IMAO: "How I spent my summer vacation"

Got a new post up at IMAO. It explains to the crew there why I haven't been around there lately.

Go read if you care. Here's the link.

Ready for some football -- Internet TV style

A while back, I cut the cable and went to Internet TV.

I'm using a Roku device for most of the content: Hulu Plus ($7.99/month) and Netflix streaming ($7.99/month) make up most of it. I've gone from around $60/month to around $16/month, kept most of my content, and picked up some more.

I'm also able to get some content from Amazon Instant Video. Yes, it adds to the cost, but the overall cost is still way less than cable.

Then, there's the Apple TV device that lets me watch iTunes content. Also, that increases the cost because of either rental of purchase of shows or movies, but still way less than cable.

And, there's the Windows Media Center device, a Dell ZINO HD that allows me to watch over-the-air TV (I added USB TV tuners to accomplish that). Since Windows Media Center also works as a DVR, I was able to replace my TiVo.

And, since it's a Windows 7 device, it runs Hulu Desktop, which lets me get the standard (free) Hulu content on my TV. Normally, you can only watch standard content (that is, content that's not part of Hulu Plus) in a browser. But, Hulu officially supports the Hulu Desktop client. And, since the Windows Media Center device is hooked to my TV, I'm able to watch all Hulu content on the TV.

That setup gets me just almost everything I was watching on cable, plus some other content. The things I'm missing, though, include ESPN.

There is one device that officially supports ESPN content on your TV: an Xbox 360. Now, I really don't give a rat's ass about playing games on an Xbox. To me, a game console is like having a cement block: I can say I got one, but I'm not going to do anything with it but let it sit there and take up space.

But, the ESPN3 channel that's part of Xbox Live Gold gets me the ESPN that I need for watching college football this fall.

So, I bought an Xbox 360. And I configured my TV remote to work it, so I don't have to use the game controller for anything.

Yes, that means my Internet TV setup now consists of: Roku, Apple TV, Windows Media Center, and Xbox 360 all running on my TV. And, yes, that's a lot of stuff. But running it all on one remote helps keep things simple.

I think I'm going to need some more time in the day just so I can watch all that TV. Starting with college football.