Saturday, March 24, 2012

Mitt Romney's Last Stand

            Everyday we inch closer to that terrible moment in Tampa when the GOP will crown their nominee to take aim at the White House. Ever since Obama won in 2008, people have been clamoring for Mitt Romney. He’s the handsome business man from Massachusetts, a guy with values. Not only was this his race to win, but it was his turn. That’s the way this thing works. When your number’s called, you know it. But somehow, things aren’t working out the way we all expected for Mitt Romney.
            It was a cast of nobodies. People we all laughed at and said didn’t stand a chance against the machine that is the Romney campaign. One by one they dropped until the most astonishing cast of losers stood against Romney: a fat man without a moral backbone, an old man with caterpillar eyebrows and a guy whose name is now synonymous with a frothy byproduct of anal sex. There was no way these guys could even muster up a hiccup to Romney, let alone fortify against him and create Romney’s Last Stand. But that is exactly what they did. And now with the Convention just short months away, Tampa doesn’t look so promising to Romney anymore.
            The race boiled down to Romney and his apparent arch nemesis Rick Santorum. The two have been trading victories back and forth. And while Romney has a stronger foothold for now, Santorum is making sure Romney gets nothing easy. And then there’s the other guys: the fact that neither Newt Gingrich nor Ron Paul will drop out of the race keeps disrupting that which we had all thought was coming: Romney’s nomination.
            The clear path we once thought we were on has become something completely and wholly unrecognizable. And the terrible nightmare we’ve gone through already may become even more fiendish as the likelihood of a brokered convention seems ever more possible. This is where no candidate gets the majority of the delegates by the convention, and a new round of voting begins in which anyone can enter. Anyone including former candidates and even non candidates like Sarah Palin could swoop in and steal the nomination.
            A brokered convention will most likely occur since both the Gingrich and Paul campaigns refuse to die. In fact, Gingrich has made it clear he wants to align with Santorum and use their combined delegates to ensure that Romney doesn’t win. If Romney can’t win the nomination on his own, he will never win at a brokered convention. Every delegate he misses is another nail in his campaign’s coffin. And it looks like Santorum has the hammer and Gingrich has the nails.
            Poor, poor, pitiful Mitt. Fate has dealt him a cruel hand. He waited patiently for his turn, but the gods of politics may have snatched his chance away from him. Through no real fault of his own, Romney has been broken. He still has a chance, but it shrinks every day. It shrinks every hour and every minute of the day. He can feel the tentacles tightening around him even now. The question is: what is he willing to do to win? And how much longer can he go on bleeding like this?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Man Who Would be King

     There are two types of Independents in the Senate (mainly because there are only two that come to mind). The first is the ideal, which is the Bernie Sanders model. He is a champion of the people who stands for civil and social rights and who actually dreams of a better America for all involved. The other is the Joe Lieberman model, the kind of Independent who changes parties just to win and whose jowls quiver at the scent of money. The next Senator from Maine will be an Independent, but the questions remains: what kind of Independent will he be?
     Former governor Angus King stands alone to win the Senate seat vacated by the once-proud Olympia Snowe. This is because he has both sides afraid to bet against him. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans of Maine want to put forward a strong candidate of their own because by doing so they could easily guarantee the other side victory. You see, King was a wildly popular governor, and time has only done his reputation favors. He will win a majority of the vote. So if there were a strong candidate from either side, a three way race would be created and it would be Paul LePage all over again: the winner wouldn’t have to win the majority, but simply more than a third.
     King scared off the Democrats fast. Hard hitters like representatives Pingree and Michaud chose to hunker down, and fellow former governor Baldacci wisely took a wide berth around King. All that’s left for the Democrats is a bunch of nobodies who don't stand a chance against King: a couple of state representatives and the former secretary of state. The Republicans, meanwhile, still seem to be in a state of shock seeing Snowe step down from a seat she was guaranteed for life. There are six Republicans vying for the spot, all with same chances as anybody else: slim.
     Thus is the crossroad for Angus King. He must stay Independent and not pander at all to either side. If King leans in either direction too far, he will lose that which makes him so likeable: the fact that he is agreeable to everybody and wholly Independent. So he must model himself after Sanders. He must be an Independent who answers to the people, rather than Lieberman who will forsake anybody and answers to the lobbyists. King may even have to go farther than Sanders. He might have to become to first real moderate in the history of the Senate, the kind of Independent who doesn’t answer to anyone other than his own state and his conscience. 
     The road King faces isn’t particularly challenging given the circumstances. The only thing that stands in his way is the man he sees in the mirror. King could be his own worst enemy. But he could be the first step in the right direction not only for the state of Maine, but for American politics as a whole. 

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Gambling Green Goblin's Last Chance

     Yet again, Danny Ainge has proven that all gamblers lose eventually. Last year, when he shouldn’t have made a trade he gave away fan favorite Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green. Green had hoped to prove his dissenters wrong this season, but we saw how that went. Then this season, when Ainge had to make a trade to salvage the season, he sat on his hands too afraid to break up the Big Three. The Celtics are down to essentially two big men, Garnett and Bass. Wilcox is lost; O’Neal is not expected the finish the season with the team and rookies Johnson and Stiemsma are unproven. Ainge single handily ruined the Celtics these past two seasons.
     Expect an early exit from the Green Gang this year. They sit at seventh in the East and probably won’t move much higher than that. If the playoffs were to start today, the Celtics would face the Miami Heat. And they would lose. If they manage to claw their way up one spot, then they would face Orlando is the first round. This is a much more desirable matchup. The Celtics have had Orlando’s number all this season.
     But the final test of Danny Ainge will start once the season is in the books. It would have been a storied offseason, but many of the big names are off the list. The Celtics stood pat at the trade deadline probably in hopes of luring Dwight Howard away from Orlando in free agency. They failed. They wanted Chris Paul. He’s gone. Deron Williams will most likely end up in Dallas, or maybe even Orlando to play with his buddy Dwight. Kevin Love will not be joinging us. But there are a few bright spots.
     Ainge needs to gamble again and sign Greg Oden. The oft injured number one overall pick is considered a bust, but could be solid coming off the bench if used correctly. The Celtics cannot put their franchise on his back, but if he still wants to prove himself Beantown could be his home.
     But Ainge needs a young and reliable center. His choice should come down to JaVale McGee or Roy Hibbert. Both are young and could be explosive, and either would be guaranteed the starting spot. And a starting center paired with Rondo will flourish. The Celtics should also gamble on Kwame Browne, another former number one pick who has failed to live up to his hype. But coming off the bench, he could be dangerous. And with McGee (or Hibbert) and Oden (or Browne) suddenly a team that seemed small has gotten huge.
     Next the Celtics have to resign Bass, Green and Pietrus. Green will come cheap and, like Oden, will want to prove himself. And he has to do it here. Bass might have a higher price tag, but he’s proven himself this season. He has seemingly broken the curse of the number 30 (see Bias, Blount, Telfair, Wallace, Murphy, etc.). Pietrus wants to be here and will out hustle anyone at anytime.
     As for the rest of the team, the Celtics just need to go on a shopping spree. O.J. Mayo or Eric Gordon could fill out the shooting guard needs, while Kirk Hinrich is a hard working combo-guard. J.J. Hickson could be a solid power forward behind Bass. All these guys with Rondo, Pierce, Green, Pietrus and Bass could be very promising.
     Things could be better for the Celtics, but things could just as easily be worse. This will not be a year for banner 18; Ainge has made sure of that. But if the crafty GM wants to prove his worth before he goes the way of the dinosaur, he’ll make a big splash this offseason. He has to. His legacy depends on it.