Game On

The lame duck, unpopular president has presented his next to last State of the Union address. It is time for all political geeks to turn more attention to the 2008 presidential nomination race. With no incumbent president or vice-president in the race there is quite a list of candidates. This post will just be my most current list of definite and possible candidates for both parties. Follow-up posts will provide a bit more on the race as it sits now with over 3/4 of the country ignoring all of this while they follow "Heroes," "24," and "American Idol."

Definite Democratic Candidates:
Sen. Joe Biden
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Christopher Dodd
Former Sen. John Edwards
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Sen. Barack Obama
Gov. Bill Richardson
Former Gov. Tom Vilsack

Possible Democratic Candidates:
Former General Wesley Clark
Oscar nominee Al Gore


Definite Republican Candidates:
Sen. Sam Brownback
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee
Sen. John McCain
Rep. Ron Paul
Former Gov. Mitt Romney
Rep. Tom Tancredo
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson
Former Gov. Jim Gilmore


Possible Republican Candidates:
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Former Rep. Newt Gingrich
Sen. Chuck Hagel
Former Governor George Pataki


The differentiation between definite and possible is simply whether or not they have formed the required exploratory committee.

Next: Who on the list are real contenders as the race begins

Update 1/25/07: Add Gilmore to Republican list. He's a former Virginia governor and, yes, I had to look him up to figure out who he is.

Surge of Death

W gave his big speech on Wednesday and I couldn't get myself to watch. I chose to read it instead and avoid yelling at the TV and using words my mother would have washed out my mouth with soup for using. What I read was just more of the same. The man still sees the war as being about stopping evil outside forces from preventing the Iraqis from achieving his great victory in the Middle East. He refuses to admit that he created a power vacuum with the invasion of Iraq and a civil war among the sects and within the sects that makeup Iraq have filled the void. Now he is upping the targets wearing our uniform by more than 21,000. Several hundred will be from a town next door to where I live. This "surge" will only bring more death and suffering.

The exacerbation of the mistake that is W's FUBAR Iraq War policy has even struck several Republicans in Congress as a bad idea. In particular, those who fear for their jobs when they face voters in 2008 (see Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Sen. Sununu of New Hampshire) and most interestingly one with presidential aspirations, Sen. Brownback of Kansas. Brownback is very conservative and a favorite of the very, very conservative religious rightwing of the Republican Party. He has a record that makes any public disagreement with W a big deal. That he thinks it is appropriate for someone who wants the Republican nomination for president in 2008 to oppose the president is very shocking.

Beyond the electoral implications, the loss of support among Republicans unfortunately doesn't mean Congress will muster the ability to stop W's latest bad idea for Iraq. The soldiers and Marines are going. House-to house fighting in Baghdad will become more frequent and the deaths will be terrible, especially for the Iraqis. Peace will be further away.

What would I do? I'd call for a ceasefire with all insurgents. I'd push for very frequent and heavily covered negotiations with all factions in Iraq. I'd have the US do all it could to guarantee security for those in those negotiations. I'd pick a few big projects that will result in noticeable change in the lives of Iraqis and emphasize security for the Iraqi workers for those projects and maintaining their success and deny any contracts to US companies for these projects. I'd admit that we can't do much more right now. I'd apologize to the American public for the failure and then tell them it is no longer fair that only those in uniform have sacrificed and it is the time for the rest of us to help. Taxes would go up to pay for this mistake. I'd ask for civilian experts at rebuilding and creating basic infrastructure and organizations needed to build a functioning society to volunteer for duty. I'd talk to the Iranians and Syrians and tell them we have no intention of invading you, but we will oppose any effort to damage Israel, including support for terrorists. I'd apologize to the Afghans for ignoring them and letting the Taliban regain a hold in that country and transfer some military from Iraq to Afghanistan, but focus more on an international effort to create a country there that actually works. I'd tell the Israelis and the Palestinians that neither one of them can win militarily and they have no choice but to figure out how to live together in close proximity without idiotic walls and the constant threat of terrorists bombs and military strikes.

All of the above are actions that W will never make. I'll be looking for a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 who might do some of them. I pray and dream that most of them may actually occur before tens of thousands more are killed and wounded in this FUBAR war.

It's All Gravy

This Saturday the KC Chiefs will play the Indianapolis Colts in the first NFL playoff game of the season. I am usually nervously excited about such games for my beloved Chiefs. Not this year. This year, it is all gravy. They aren't supposed to be in this game. I figured my hope for postseason play faded a month ago when I watched them blow a game in Cleveland. However, the mediocrity that dominates the NFL today worked in their favor. They won their last two games and watched as several other teams lost in astounding ways to pave their path to Indy.

When the last weekend of the regular season began, I thought I'd watch the Chiefs last game against Jacksonville and that would be that. A mediocre 9-7 season with no playoffs was the best I expected. There was simply no way that Cincinnati, Houston and Denver would lose at home to Pittsburgh, New England and San Francisco respectively. Oh sure, I could easily see the first two, but never the 3rd. It was reported in the KC Star that if you had placed a $10 four-game parley bet in Vegas for KC, Pittsburgh, New England and San Francisco to win that the return would have been $7000. That would have been a nice bet, but I haven't seen anyone reporting that someone was foolish enough to do it. Thus the results on Sunday didn't depress anyone in Vegas owning a sportsbook and it has sent all Chiefs fans into the land of all gain, no pain.

Playoff games for my favorite teams in any sport are usually severely distracting. I read too much on it. Think too much on it. I dream about it. I don't expect any dreams this week. I just want to enjoy whatever is offered up on Saturday. Oh, I'll still scream at the TV when they make bad plays or the refs miss a call. I'll be exceedingly happy about a victory. Victory would be some small revenge for Indy dumping the Chiefs twice in the playoffs in the past 12 years. But since they are 9-7 and it took a minor miracle to get here, I am experiencing odd elation without fear of failure. How can anything be seen as failure now? It would take a humiliating defeat that included career-threatening injuries to Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez to make Saturday a horrible experience.

Let's turn to the overall NFL playoffs. Who is going to the 41st Super Bowl? The NFC is just plain bad and I'll go with the hot team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Why? Why not? The conference stinks and the team with the hot streak is as likely as any of the other 5. I'll root for the Saints because they have stunk so long and watch to see if Brian Griese could add to the minor miracle list by becoming the QB savior for the Bears, but let's face the truth. Like the AFC teams from 1985 thru 1997, the NFC is playing to see who finishes second.

I see 3 teams as possible Super Bowl contenders in the AFC and it is not an original list. They are San Diego, Baltimore and New England. New England knows how to do this, but I think they probably have let too much talent go on offense. Brady needs receivers and he won't get them in January. That leaves the Chargers and the Ravens. The Ravens won the Super Bowl six years ago with all defense and virtually no offense. The defense is not as good as that one, but the offense is better. They can win it all, but San Diego is the most complete team in the NFL and the AFC Championship game will be in San Diego unless something odd happens. San Diego is above average to excellent in every part of the game. The defense is not as strong as Baltimore's, but is still very good. The offense is much better as long as LaDanien Tomlinson is healthy and QB Rivers keeps his cool. The special teams are also quite good. There excellence is reflected in a 14-2 record. Such a record usually makes a team the clear Super Bowl favorite. The only reason you do not hear over and over again that the Chargers are the clear favorite is the head coach...Marty Schottenheimer.

To this point in his career, Marty Schottenheimer is known for failure in the playoffs. In fact he is know for spectacular failure. As the head coach of the Browns his loses to the Broncos in AFC Championship games have nicknames..."The Drive" and "The Fumble." In KC, he also lost the AFC Championship game to Buffalo and despite lots of regular season wins, failed to win any playoff games after 1994. But Marty has never had a team this good. I know his KC teams best and they were all about defense and running the ball, but had no runner at the top of his game to match Tomlinson. He will be the MVP this year. Marty would talk a lot about getting "chunks of yardage" in KC, but never had to talent to do it. Now he has and he is letting the offense take many more chances. He has done this without sacrificing defense. The Charger defense is fast and likes to hit people. That's a good combination in football. Marty has the team, but few will believe in his chances until he leads a team to the Super Bowl. Marty is a new version of John Madden with the Raiders. Madden coached a very good Raider team (a fact I can only acknowledge now 20+ years later because I hate the Raiders), but his teams were known for "not winning the big one." They lost to very good teams, including the 1969 Chiefs, but that wasn't what was noticed. Until Madden's Raiders won Super Bowl 11, he was just like Marty. Like Madden, Marty would face a weaker team if the Chargers do make the Super Bowl.

Therefore, I hereby officially pick the San Diego Chargers to defeat any of the poor NFC slobs who show up on Feb. 4th in Miami. I'll even root for them. Marty was a big part of turning the Chiefs franchise around and I'll always have a soft spot for him for that. Plus, the Chargers are an AFL team and among the Chiefs division rivals do rank as the "least hated." I' would love to see the Chiefs take them on one more time. The two regular season games were good as they each took one game and the Chiefs defense seemed to get into Rivers' head both times. Besides, I like gravy, but don't get it very often. I'd love to have it for a second playoff weekend.