Trump cheered, Taylor Swift booed at Superbowl

This says a lot:

Are these people TRYING to lose the election?

What the heck is this weirdness from Let's Go Brandon on X, right after the SuperBowl?

Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024

Let's Go Brandon skipping Superbowl interview

Is anyone surprised that they are keeping Let's Go Brandon off the biggest stage in America? Really? CNN tries to come to the Let's Go Brandon's rescue with this utter fluff: 

(CNN) — President Joe Biden will skip a pre-Super Bowl interview for the second year in a row — and his aides argue that it’s part of their larger plan, not a move to avoid having the president answer questions in front of the whole country.

Biden advisers tell CNN they see skipping the interview, which would have aired as a segment of the pregame show and not during peak viewing hours on the CBS broadcast, as a strategic decision to give Americans a break from the politics of the 2024 campaign. Advisers say they’re seeing people already expressing fatigue with election news and want to avoid piling on.

The decision was made ahead of last week’s right-wing media explosion about Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, after he and the Kansas City Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl, where they’ll face the San Francisco 49ers. MAGA media personalities have been circulating conspiracy theories about the pop superstar, promoting the notion that she is part of a sprawling psychological operations plot staged by the NFL and Democratic Party to deliver the 2024 presidential election to Biden.

The pregame presidential interview is a relatively young tradition, stretching back only to Barack Obama’s first year in office, and one that Donald Trump skipped once himself. But for Biden, who for months has been complaining in public and in conversations with top advisers that messaging touting his achievements isn’t breaking through to the public, the decision means skipping out on an audience of millions — including many who might not otherwise be paying attention to presidential politics.

This needs to be broken down paragraph by paragraph.  In paragraph one, we get the kernel of truth; "it’s part of their larger plan, not a move to avoid having the president answer questions in front of the whole country." No one is doubting that.  The question is why would they avoid that opportunity.  If Let's Go Brandon is getting his butt handed to him in the polling right now (and he is), why not try to turn it around on the biggest stage available? This is a huged missed opportunity. Are hus team running scared?  And if so, is it Brandon they are scared about?

 In paragraph two, we get the excuse: "a strategic decision to give Americans a break from the politics of the 2024 campaign." Since when have Democrats avoided stuffing their political agenda down the throats of Americans?  Never. These are the same team members who gave us a Let's Go Brandon speech about "ultra-maga". Nope, that is the flimsiest excuse imaginable.  They would be lent more credence if they said that Let's Go Brandon was suffering from political fatigue.  That would have spun up an entirely new set of problems.  My guess is that they are hoping the proffered excuse is accepted by their die hard supporters. 

In paragraph three CNN picks up the mantle of the narrative and moves on diversion and distraction. "The decision was made ahead of last week’s right-wing media explosion about Taylor Swift...MAGA media personalities have been circulating conspiracy theories about the pop superstar, promoting the notion that she is part of a sprawling psychological operations plot staged by the NFL and Democratic Party to deliver the 2024 presidential election to Biden." Can you say off topic?  That is a 'look over here' attempt to distract readers from the truth and it rings hollow.  Firstly, there were only a few people on the right buying into that narrative.  Secondly, no one believes CNN on conspiracy theories; they ran with the Russia hoax, the Ukraine hoax, the January 6th hoax and the COVID Wuhan lab origination was a conspiracy theory hoax. Thirdly, so what if some people believe that Taylor Swift stuff?  What does it have to do with Let's Go Brandon going back to his 2020 campaign strategy of hiding in his basement?

In paragraph four we get another excuse before circling back to the undeniable truth.  The excuse is in two parts. "The pregame presidential interview is a relatively young tradition, stretching back only to Barack Obama’s first year in office, and one that Donald Trump skipped once himself." One, it's a new tradition, no big deal if he skips it. Two, Trump skipped it once too you know. Inevitably they thing collapses back in on itself as CNN acknowledges the underlying truth "for months has been complaining in public and in conversations with top advisers that messaging touting his achievements isn’t breaking through to the public, the decision means skipping out on an audience of millions." Yep, there's that. And that's the real insight. Let's Go Brandon needs to do this right now, and he's not going to do so.

That says a lot.

Catching up, some pop culture observations

I am so far behind on posting I believe I've slipped back a decade.  There's so much to talk about and I've had very little time to try to keep up.  So let me try to hit the highlights quickly.

The Patriots won the Superbowl. I'm happy about that and not just because I'm not a fan of the Seahawks.  There's something deliciously ironic about a team named Patriots winning in the same season as the GOP taking the Senate and building their lead in the House and state houses as well.  Or put another way, the Democrats were defeated by Patriots the same way the Seahawks were defeated by Patriots.

The Grammy Awards happened yesterday.  Sam Smith won 3 awards (I think) because his musical talent but the other underlying factor was his return to more fundamental musicality and traditional musical style.  Musical conservatism.  

And of course related to the Grammys, there was Kanye West ranting about Beck needing to give his Grammy to Beyonce. Just like he did with Taylor Swift a couple of years ago.  (1) Does Kanye West have a crush on Beyonce? Seriously, does he? (2) He said something along the lines of people not appreciating different types of musicality.  Does he not see the irony of disrespecting Beck's music by making asinine statements like that? (3) This is the guy who claimed on TV, during a fundraiser for Katrina victims, that president Bush was racist. Does anyone take him seriously at all anymore besides Kanye himself?

Brian Williams made up crap about being under fire in Iraq.  Excusable?  Maybe if he was talking in a bar with some friends.  But to lie as a journalist is even worse than twisting the news to fit your own political narrative.  It's making up news to fit your own narrative. Inexcusable, but it will be excused nonetheless.  He's kept NBC's Nightly News at the top of the ratings. As we all know now, truth is not secondary to ratings.  For liberal networks and ratings hungry executive, truth doesn't even make the list.  Maybe we could get Kanye West to deliver the 'news' from now on.

Saturday Learning Series - Superbowl Edition (Part 1)

Since the Superbowl is tomorrow, it seems like a good time to educate potential casual viewers as well as some more seasoned fans, including myself, on some of the less well known and understood aspects of the game.

The first piece today will provide you some information on the different sort of defensive formations and terms you are likely to hear about during tomorrow's game.  Let's start with a really good and informative video on the different positions and roles.

Next let's look at a few common types of defense: The Nickel defense, the dime package, the cover 2, and the blitz.

The nickel defense - extra pass coverage:

Dime defense - Why run it? A sure passing situation (1 of 4):

Dime defense - positioning the players (2 of 4):

Dime defense - How to run a dime defense, double coverage (3 of 4):

Dime defense - Rushing the QB (4 of 4):

The Cover 2:

And finally probably the best simplified description of all, Football Sheology;s explanation of the Blitz:

What was Obama's endgame on his O'Reilly interview?

What was he thinking?  President Obama was on Fox News being interviewed with Bill O'Reilly hours before the Superbowl.  I get why Fox News did it, it helps the prominence of their most prominent and highly successful news talk show, The O'Reilly Factor.  O'Reilly isn't always solidly conservative, but he is at least willing to ask questions that most of the media will avoid with this president.  So Obama going into the interview had to know it was not going to be a softball interview.  So why do it?  Three years ago he did a Superbowl interview with O'Reilly but that was 2011.  Obama had just lost a big election and was trying to damage control and regain credibility/approval with some non-liberal voters who might still be his supporters and who happened to watch Fox News.  It made him seem reasonable.  But this is 2014 and the sides have been chosen.  He wasn't going to likely soften his image amongst his detractors without striking a very conciliatory tone on a number of issues.

But that's not really his style.  Obama doesn't like being questioned, and he doesn't think he's ever wrong, so the interview would not only be challenging, it would be contentious.  Obama had to know that going in. So if he were not to be conciliatory, he'd have to hold himself in check and be gracious.  Not only did that not happen, he went on offense.

O'REILLY: All right.

Was it the biggest mistake of your presidency to tell the nation over and over, if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance?

OBAMA: Oh, Bill, you've got a long list of my mistakes of my presidency...

There was a testy exchange as well on the IRS targeting Tea Party groups:

O'REILLY: OK, so you don't -- you don't recall seeing Shulman, because what some people are saying is that the IRS was used...

OBAMA: Yes.

O'REILLY: -- at a -- at a local level in Cincinnati, and maybe other places to go after...

OBAMA: Absolutely wrong.

O'REILLY: -- to go after.

OBAMA: Absolutely wrong.

O'REILLY: But how do you know that, because we -- we still don't know what happened there?

OBAMA: Bill, we do -- that's not what happened. They -- folks have, again, had multiple hearings on this. I mean these kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them.

When he wasn't going on the offense he seemed, well, annoyed:

O'REILLY: -- I'm just confused.

OBAMA: And I'm -- and I'm trying to explain it to, if you want to listen. The fact of the matter is is that people understood, at the time, something very dangerous was happening, that we were focused on making sure that we did everything we can -- could -- to protect them. In the aftermath, what became clear was that the security was lax, that not all the precautions and -- that needed to be taken were taken and both myself and Secretary Clinton and others indicated as much.

What was Obama's end game taking a combative approach with O'Reilly? To reach out to lost voters  Clearly not, or else his execution was abysmal, even too abysmal for him.  Was it to energize his base - who believe he's been too conciliatory? His base doesn't watch Fox, but even if they catch the excerpts on MSNBC, they aren't going to cheer-lead him for taking a tough stance against a political enemy.  They expect that of him.  Was her trying to win over conservatives? Don't even bother asking that one.  Really, there wasn't an end game with this, which is about par for the Obama course.

Yes, it's become a tradition for Obama to interviewed by the host network on Superbowl Sunday, but it doesn't need to be a carved in stone tradition.  It would have served Obama more to have cancelled the interview.

Superbowl Sunday Prediction

Liberal Baltimore Maryland versus more liberal San Francisco.  I guess I'll have to put politics aside and predict based on football itself.  Offense versus defense. I think the 49ers will win it. That's about as deep as I'm willing to go without spoiling my pool chances. It should be a good game, especially the Volkswagon commercial...

Bloggus Interruptus

Today there are a lot of things to write about - Romney's win in Nevada, Gingrich's plan to make it to the convention, Santorum's Colorado gambit, Ron Paul's strong showing in the desert, Obama's war on religion, the fact that if Fast and Furious were a Bush scandal it would have been front page headline news for months now, Iran and Israel seemingly headed for a conflict, the chaos that has come from Obama's Middle East non-policy, the economy, etc.  But it's Super Bowl day.  Posting is probably going to be light today.

I'm busy making chili and getting ready to enjoy the game, the pre-game, the commercials, the half-time show (even though it's Madonna) and the general atmosphere of Super Bowl Sunday.  Neither of the teams in the game were teams I was cheering for this year, but in the past I have followed both teams at times.  Not being in an NFL city (yet), I have the luxury of shifting allegiances at will, though I typically follow a team for a few years before moving on.  That said, it's difficult to cheer against a team with name Patriots.

Enjoy the game everyone!

Quick Superbowl Prediction

I'm a fan of both teams in the Superbowl this year - the Saints and the Colts. So no matter what happens, I'm going to enjoy the game. I expect it to be high scoring and in the end, my gut feeling is that the Colts are going to win.

UPDATE: I suck.