...Bypassing the electoral college...

I am really, REALLY confused about this proposed bill.

The bill will essentially make it so no matter how an individual state votes, the electoral votes within that state would go towards the candidate who won the National Popular vote. In theory, if all states enacted this legislation, the winner of the National Vote gets all electoral votes in a shutout.

In theory, that's sorta cool.

But in practice, in an environment when BP and Bank of America were given the green light by our Supreme Court to spend as much money necessary and possible in order to anoint the next CEO of America, it is a dangerous thing.

First of all, you'll hear mostly the Lefties, who are in favor of this bill, talk about how this will "make every vote count" and will energize the populace - which may in fact be true. You'll hear right wingers say that that it isn't fair b/c the coasts dominate the number of people in this country, and they can dwarf a "fly over" state in the middle. New York City, for example, will go a long way in swaying the vote, and New York City is going to vote Obama for President against every McCain, Palin, Sanford or Jindal.

If you are able to remove your own political bias, and see through the myths that both sides will create, you're left with this inner conversation and list of questions:

How will this change things?

Well, the answer is we don't really know. Electoral Math is a Science - or - Electoral Science is Math. People get paid a lot of money to determine how to spend the money that dictates the outcomes of elections. If you take TV advertising as the Gold Standard, essentially someone decides, "We are going to advertise in Alabama b/c we think we can win Alabama. We are going to spend 0$ in California, however, b/c the other candidate will win there."

Why does it matter how they spend the money, they want all the votes they can get, right?

Electoral advertising isn't purely about speaking to as many people as possible, its about adding up the potential electoral votes you can get or not get. If you know you're going to lose California and its 55 electoral votes, why waste a single dime there? Find a way to make up the other 55 in a combination of 8 or 9 states - thats how you win.

But I like to look at the National Election #'s and paint a picture!

Well, tough crap. Take my example above, the population of California could be, and likely has, completely forfeited in favor of attempting to secure a collection of smaller states, whose electoral votes could be more powerful than their population #'s.

What I'm trying to say is that adding up the popular vote IN PAST ELECTIONS and using it as a point, "My guy should have won, he got more votes!" is really disingenuous. It's not telling a complete story, its an irrelevant practice using numbers to their own advantage.

So if this bill passes, won't we just cut through all that crap and elect the person we want, as a Nation?

Maybe we will, but I don't want to take that chance. I like the electoral college - there haven't been examples in which a candidate won a particular state, but didn't get the credit for it. That isn't in danger. Voters are confused by the system, but those who don't vote b/c that portion of the system confuses them are not worth pandering to - it is remarkably unfair to pander to them.

So what is your solution, mr. hotpants know it all head?

Listen, if you want to abolish the electoral college, I'll have that conversation seperately, that's NOT what this bill is. This bill is keeping the electoral college there, and then assigning the votes to the candidate who gets the National vote. In practice, if McCain/Palin had more votes than Obama, and if Obama won Massachusetts by 80/20, Massachusetts electoral college votes would go to McCain/Palin.

This would be fine if all 50 states + DC were on board, but the group steering this bill is hoping purely to get just enough of the states to add up to an electoral majority. 270 state electoral votes or so are needed in order to coup this next election. So there is some grey area, a few rounding errors away from the unthinkable.

A candidate could win MA by a landslide, win the National Popular vote by a slim margin, but still not have enough electoral votes to take the cake.

If your problem is with the electoral college system, remove the system. Don't tweak it just enough to give us a potential disaster then Deval Patrick your way out of it with a last minute vote change. Don't try to Hilary your way out of it by acting as if you care about the voice of the voters.

Its about winning, and its cynical.

What are you so worried about? What effect could it have long term?

I can tell you the effect, and I can see it playing out sooner than later. In '08, Hilary and Obama agreed that Michigan & Florida, if they moved up their primaries before NH, would not count towards the Democratic nomination, it was agreed on beforehand. Hilary didn't like the result, she demanded the MI votes count, and fought for it.

In '10, the Democrats in MA fought to allow Deval Patrick to place an appointment in as Kennedy's replacement after his death. In '04, the Democrats fought to strip Romney of that same right if Kerry had become President.

My point is, all of this hemming and hawing is a way that the Democrats see a chance to steal a few elections. Make this about NY and LA, energize the base in Miami, Chicago, Houston, etc - and there is no way that Middle America will be able to overcome the will of the traditionally lefty groups.

That's the Dems goal, and its dishonest and unfair. And that makes me sad. At some point this Law will come back to bite those who voted in favor of it, and they will want to change the rule.

This isn't a law about making the will of the people heard, its a law about being cynical enough to think you can trick voters into thinking they matter - but it's really about the math, the science and the fact that Democrats know they will win if they win battleground CITIES, not States, under this format.

...an additional tube, or pipe, or bag or SOMETHING...

I have a question, and I don't think it's crazy to ask.

One can assume that the notion of capping this leak in the Gulf was imminent. They knew that was the goal, and the hope.

Taking judgment out of this, we also all knew there was a possibility that the cap would not hold, at least on the first try. But lets say it captured 95% of the oil for 10 hours...only a small % was leaking, and it was very manageable. Or even better, lets say it captured 100% of the oil for even less time, 5 hours, this is my question.

Why haven't they been developing some sort of bag, or tube, or SOMETHING, that would capture oil if the cap were to break. We see images of this capped leak, and it looks awesome, but what if in 3 seconds it pops off?

This reminds me of when you pump up a tire on a bike. The way bike tires work is fairly simple.

1. Unscrew the black cap, and air doesn't leak out

2. Put on the pump and you'll get a quick air leak, but then you start pumping up.

3. When you're done pumping, and you remove the pump nozzle, a small leak happens again, but it stops when the whole pump is removed.

4. You screw on the black cap, for no reason other than cleanliness and a safety precaution.

Why aren't we doing #4 in the gulf?

Why aren't we putting something OVER this cap?

On July 4, 1994, I had the pleasure of assisting in setting off the Marshfield 4th of July fireworks. It was fun. I was there with the big tubes, lighting fuses, watching them launch into the sky from the best vantage point possible.

After it was over, the grizzled vet of fireworks displays inspected the tubes to make sure everything was set off, and he literally was looking into the pipes with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I am not kidding.

Looking at the image of the capped well reminds me of this dude - we are all standing here looking at it on the HD image capture, staring into the face of this cap that we hope will work, and we seem like we're trusting the people to take all precautions whose lack of taking precaution put us in this place.

I'd be 100% more comfortable if we couldn't see this cap, b/c an additional tube, or pipe, or bag or SOMETHING would be covering it.

Sincerely,

Less Than Cautiously Optimistic This Cap Will Work

...3rd Person...

I read this about athletes speaking in 3rd person. I've heard Bosh, Wade & James do it in the last week, my initial gut reaction is that this whole situation is too big for any of them, so they disassociate with it, but that's amateur diagnosing at best.

The bottom line is I can't stand that reporters let athletes & celebs get away with this nonsense 3rd person type perspective. In my brain, when I read this clip from Dwyane Wade about the Celtics defense, I think Wade is 100% nuts:

"LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, guys like that understand what Boston's defense was about," Wade said.

Really, who talks like that besides people who are absolutely crazy. I can't think of anyone, actually. Well, athletes. All athletes. They have spent so much of their lives being ripped apart from reality by everyone that I almost can't blame them.

The thing that really kills me though is that Commissioners and those who are supposed to have the sport's best interests in mind don't realize how much of a divisive thing something like this is. I sometimes forget that the psychology involved in interactions, in marketing, in winning people over, is completely forgotten by those in power.

NBA rookies, and rookies in all sports, go through lots of training about how to stay away from Gold Diggers, and how they should wear condoms and not give their money their entourages - but it'd do them some good to give them humility training as well.

Stern condemned LeBron for his "Decision" TV show, but in a very passive manner. I think it'd do Stern good to recognize that "The Decision", speaking in 3rd person, and being not only financially but also emotionally unattached from those who pay your salary is going to be the ultimate downfall of professional sports, someday. But the point is that LeBron, I don't think, has ever been told to slow down, stop doing what you're doing, think about how you are perceived.

We need a Truth Czar in sports. Whether it be in sports reporting, or some kind of other realm. Athletes can earn as much money as we throw at them, but it has to come with a cost, and being accountable for what they say - speaking in 3rd person, for example, is a great start.

Wait a second, a new blog is born. SportsTruthCzar.blogspot.com. I'm starting it. Be ready, folks.

Anyway, this useless rant can be supported by an article I found on www.psychologyofsports.com, read it here: http://www.psychologyofsports.com/couch/couch020201.htm

...Pro athletes don't care about sports...

I've mentioned this a few times to people, but the 2003 loss in the ALCS at the hands of Aaron Boone and the NY Yankees devastated me. I went into a self proclaimed 24 hour vow of silence, shirking work responsibilities and listening to the radio to make sure someone else was feeling the same pain as me. It was crushing, heartbreaking, horrible.

Then a few days later I realized that was completely insane, and I came back to real life. My love for the Red Sox, and a lot of other professional teams, went more from a personal one to a newly developed business version. I sorta started to get interested in approaching sports from a much different angle, and with my line of work I was able to dive head first into the Darren Rovell CNBC Sports Business side of things.

I am 100% sure that's why I'm so interested in contract situations - even while the game is being played, and the C's are in the middle of what was almost a historic championship run, I'm thinking about how they will retain Kendrick Perkins long term, and more acutely I'm thinking about where LeBron would end up.

I think it's safe to say LeBron was distracted completely by the business side of things - hence his early exit. LeBron is a child. LeBron's situation was honestly a bit terrifying for him. He reminded me of the lead character in Dazed & Confused while he was pitching at his Pony League game the night of the last day of school. He wanted to win & get the hell out of there. While LeBron didn't end up throwing the strikeout to end the game, he certainly did his best to bolt out the outfield fence, while Dan Gilbert was waiting there with a FAH-Q wooden paddle.

LeBron bolted, and Cleveland fans are uproarious. As far as I can tell, there are 5 different categories of those who have an emotion about Lebron.

1. People who don't live in either Cleveland or Miami, but are NBA fans, and are just generally sickened by the way he made his selection and referred to himself in the 3rd person, consistently. I'll come back to this point.

2. People who don't live in either Cleveland or Miami, and are not fans of the NBA, and generally hate it when athletes are rich (despite the fact that they ignorantly pump money into these leagues buy buying merchandise, reading magazine articles, calling Sports Talk stations, etc...) . These folks I don't have time for. Shut up. Yes, other people are rich, get over it.

3. People who live in Cleveland and are genuinely hurt by LeBron's actions, not because he left, but because of the way he left. Bill Simmons has said much about this, and I don't need to expand, but the grandstanding and the decision to pick the prettier city in a fashion like this really could be hurtful to those who haven't gone through the same catharsis I went through in the Fall of '03.

4. People who live in Cleveland and are maniacs who think LeBron should be tethered to his hometown city simply because they think that is how it should be. These are the folks burning jerseys, crying in bars, screaming at the top of their lungs, and threatening LeBron's health. They are not worth talking about, or to.

5. People who live in Miami and are so excited, LeBetard style, that they have the makings of a mega-team.

So within those 5 groups, there are a few things I find really fascinating.

Cleveland has a history of losing. They lose big football games, they lost a football franchise. They lost a few World Series they should have won. They didn't make the NBA Finals despite the best record 2 years in a row. They lose, and the fans know it.

I think the biggest misconception, however, is that LeBron really knows this. Yes, LeBron grew up in Cleveland, but he grew up other-worldly. I am consistently disappointed with pro athletes and their viewpoint on sports. They look at things from a very different place.

Think about LeBron's timeline. He is 25 years old, he was born in 1985. In 1986 & 1987 Cleveland lost heartbreaking football games, Lebron was an infant and a toddler - do those matter to him? No.

When LeBron was all of 8, Mike Jordan and the Bulls swept the Cavs, "The Shot" was something that LeBron probably didn't watch live, and considering he wore #23 up til this upcoming season, I don't think he was pained much by the memory of Jordan dominating his hometown team.

I think back to when I was 8, which included the 1986 World Series and I don't think I stayed up for a single World Series game - and baseball was my life. The pain for LeBron wasn't real there either.

In 1997, the Indians were 2 outs away from a World Series title when Jose Mesa blew it - Lebron was already a Yankee fan by then. Did that pain of a Cleveland loss matter to him? No. You also have to remember he was a Yankee fan when the Indians lost in 1998 to, who else, his beloved Yankees.

By the time "King James" was a Frosh in HS he was the best player in Akron, and his Sophomore year he was Mr. Basketball in Ohio. He was called The Chosen One by Sports Illustrated his Sr. year - he doesn't need other teams, he never did.

He never needed to identify with the masses in Akron, Cleveland or Ohio in general - he is his own mass, his own team.

His choice to rip the hearts out of Cleveland yet again, at first glance, seems to be something seeped in tradition and par for the course for Cleveland, but I think King James has been living in his own world for so long that he has no idea what it means, in context. I do think he actually is blind to the fact that he is part of that Art Modell, Jose Mesa, Michael Jordan and now, LeBron James Mt. Rushmore of Cleveland heartbreak.

Nothing more needs to be said about his egotism, LeBron is a lost cause as a person. Now the question goes purely to the business of sport, and I cannot wait to see how Pat Riley sells this Heat team to Free Agents. Now that's NBA basketball.

...the Best's...

Here are the top 2 in each sport, in my lifetime, and the grade they got for staying on top in the hearts of the fans who elevated them:

Golf:

1. Tiger - F

2. Phil - A

Hockey:

1. Gretzky - A+

2. Lemieux - A

Baseball:

1. ARod - D-

2. Bonds - F

Basketball:
1. Jordan - A+

2. Lebron - F

Football:

1. Rice - B+

2. L.T - F

There is something wrong with all of this.