Sports Agenda for Tuesday (9/20/12)
Big Story:
How's this for stupid, you get paid more than $200,000 an hour one day a week and don't take a cab when you're drunk? Plus, the NHL lockout is in full swing, thanks Commissioner Bettman. The Heat bring in a new big man, who's really big. And I take off my sports hat for a little political agenda for the day.
Quote of the Day:
"47 percent of Americans believe that they are victims. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. My job is not to worry about those people. These are people who pay no income tax. 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax." – Mitt Romney to wealthy donors.
Political Note:
Allow me to digress into my other specialty, politics, for a minute here.
Sometimes, candidates say things that are really boneheaded. Kinda like a running back dropping the football.
Republican presidential nominee had one of those moments, but instead of dropping the football…he dropped the ball, picked it back up and ran the wrong way with it.
The quote above is from a political speech he gave to wealthy donors.
It has a very plutocratic feel to it doesn't it with a big disdain for some people.
One comment doesn't a campaign kill…unless you can see Russia from your backyard or get caught riding in a tank and looking very stupid in 1988's election run.
But consider what has gone down for Romney in the last two weeks and you'll see a candidate struggling to mount any kind of offense.
He received no campaign bounce coming out of the Republican National Convention according to pollsters.
Romney's campaign released a memo telling people don't worry about the polling, it will be okay.
The campaign released a statement way too quickly in the wake of the Libya incident that completely blew up in his face. Pollsters have found voters especially critical of Romney's statement.
Sunday, a Politco story exposed big time internal problems in the campaign.
Then Monday, the video of the above statement was released exposing his worldview, and more videos are said to be on the way.
Plus, the Romney campaign's initial response to the video's release was to stand by the comments and essentially try to validate them.
Politico's Roger Simon tweeted, "Romney's explanation of his comment s may be worse than the comments."
Yikes, that's like watching Savannah State try to score a touchdown against FSU right now.
The worst part about those moves by Romney is Obama hasn't had to do a thing. They're all self-inflicted wounds.
For Romney, the video serves as a MAJOR distraction for the campaign that wanted to refocus on the economy. A second straight week of lost messaging this close to election day is a critical blow as there are only seven weeks left to election day.
Another thing the video does is give impact to the narrative that Romney's campaign can't get things going together or shoot straight. This is precisely what the Politico story focused on Sunday.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Romney's comments is that when he's talking about the 47 percent who "don't pay taxes," he's talking about himself.
Earlier this year in a debate, he said if you eliminate capital gains taxes, he'd pay virtually no taxes.
Turns out, under the plan offered by Paul Ryan, he'd have paid a 0.82 percent tax rate, or virtually no taxes.
Yikes, so what is Mitt to do?
Well, the election isn't over, don't believe anyone who says it is in the next 24-72 hours.
But make no mistake, this is Romney's darkest day thus far in the campaign.
What he should do is try to refocus his campaign on the economy and give specific ways he would pay for tax cuts and the like.
People are clamoring for specifics and if he started delivering some, it would deflect attention away from the current mess because thus far, he's offered no specifics.
Romney should also take the reins off Paul Ryan to a degree, but ask him to tamp down going too far to the right.
His job is to try to push back to the center.
A far right support mechanism for Romney isn't enough to put him over the top due to the demographic breakdown.
Needless to say, the Romney campaign has its work cut out for it in the coming days, but it is possible to overcome the meltdown if he can start executing a smart campaign.
Miami Heat:
It looks like Dexter Pittman's days are numbered…and lets be honest, other than that epic intentional foul on the Pacers in the playoffs…he's never contributed much.
I say his days are numbered because the Heat brought in 6'10", 275 pound Josh Harrellson, who can also shoot the 3.
Sound familiar? A big guy who can stretch the floor on the offensive end and hopefully rebound.
Ka-ching.
So Dexter may be looking for a new zip code soon.
The Heat's roster is really starting to take shape as well, check this out:
PG – Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole
SG – Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, James Jones, Terrel Harris
SF – Shane Battier, Rashard Lewis, Mike MIller
PF – LeBron James, Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony
C – Chris Bosh, Josh Harrelson, Jarvis Varnado (?)
I don't know about you, but that's a pretty nice little roster for a title defense.
Just imagine, Wade at the point, Ray Allen at the 2, Battier at the 3, LeBron at the 4, and Bosh at center at the end of games.
Who do you extend the defense to guard?
Who do you collapse on?
Who do you leave open? (My guess is they'll leave Battier open in that lineup…good luck with that, ask OKC)
NHL Lockout:
So I did a little math yesterday while writing a story about the NHL lockout.
It turns out the NHL has lost 1,698 games since 1992 to work stoppages.
I don't know about you, but that's grounds to fire a commissioner.
But in hockey, Gary Bettman has been able to ground the players into the ground and get whatever he wants, whenever he wants through labor strife.
He's going to do it again….maybe.
Big name players are telling the NHL to stick it and heading overseas. Alex Ovechkin is the latest who said he'll sign with a Russian team for the next season.
If the NHL starts losing players like that to other leagues, the NHL owners may start to bend in their demands….which would get a labor deal done in a hurry.
We'll see who blinks first.
Miami Marlins:
Apparently they beat the Braves last night….to quote Harry Doyle…."I think I'll wet my pants."
"Take over Monty, I'm in the bag."
That's it for today.
Thanks for allowing me to digress into politics, we'll have more sports tomorrow.
