Pulling Ahead

FFS

One of the ways a politician can know he is gaining traction is by gauging the desperation and silliness of the attacks against him from his opponents. By that metric, Senator Marco Rubio ought to be pleased today.

"Are you !@#$% kidding me?"

He is under attack because of the number of Senate votes he has missed since beginning his campaign for president. Seriously.





Given the fact that the story began in Florida, this nothingburger has Jeb Bush's fingerprints all over it, especially coming on the heels of Bush's nitwitted Powerpoint presentation to donors in which he claimed that "Marco is a GOP Obama."

For the record, I think the argument is pretty idiotic coming from a man who hasn't held elective office of any kind for eight years, in a race in which the two front-runners (Carson and Trump) have never held elective office. Does Bush honestly believe anyone is going to care that Rubio has been out campaigning instead of sticking around D.C. for the Senate's dithering? And it is worth mentioning that when they were running for president in 2007, Senators Barack Obama (89.4 percent) and Hillary Clinton (83.5 percent) missed a far higher percentage of Senate votes (Senator Rubio has missed 44.6 percent).

The story was clearly released with tonight's GOP Debate in Boulder, Colorado in mind. You can bet the house that Bush expects asshat moderator John Harwood of CNBC to harp on the point. And by the way, GOP, congratulations for allowing a debate to be scheduled on a night when the World Series is being played. Tonight is obviously a better night than tomorrow's Series travel day would have been...

"You're killin' me, Rance Priebus."

I have not yet committed to a candidate for the Iowa Caucuses in February (I have donated to both the Rubio and Carly Fiorina campaigns), but these kinds of witless attacks are definitely nudging me in a particular direction...

"That would look awesome on your patio for Halloween!"

I know, right?

Things That Make Me Happy: Endurance Edition

Well, for openers...

...are you TRYING to give me a fatal coronary, Fox Sports?

"You lived through the Houston AND Toronto series, you'll be fine."

Time will tell...

Anyway, at Kauffman Stadium last night my beloved Kansas City Royals won Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, defeating the New York Mets 5-4 in 14 innings.

It was the longest Game 1 (5 hours, 9 minutes) in World Series history, and the second-longest Fall Classic game ever. I'm too exhausted from staying up so late to go into much detail, but I hope the recap gives some sense of what a tense, exciting game it was. For Royals fans, the signature moment of the game came with one out in the bottom of the 9th inning, when All-Star LF Alex Gordon tied the game with a booming (442 feet) home run to dead center field off of Mets closer Jeurys Familia, who hadn't blown a save in more than three months...

"BOOM!"

The Royals bullpen held the Mets scoreless for the final six innings. The last three of those innings were pitched by Chris Young, who had been scheduled to be the Game 4 starter but instead won Game 1...

"The team needs me tonight, I pitch tonight. Whatever it takes."

It was a special moment for Chris, whose father died about a month ago on the night before a crucial start (Chris threw five no-hit innings in that game). In an sad bit of irony, it was announced after the game that Royals starter Edinson Volquez's father had died earlier in the day (at the family's request, the team didn't tell Eddie until after he had finished his six innings of work). Volquez is the third Royal to have lost a parent in just the past two months, joining Young and 3B Mike Moustakas.

Game 2 tonight will feature Johnny Cueto on the mound for the Royals, facing Jacob deGrom for the Mets.

Everybody Knows That

From the wry comic strip Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, which you should read every day, as I do.

Until Next Time...

Luther College is a small but outstanding liberal arts college located in Decorah, Iowa.

During my time teaching in Iowa, some of the best students I ever had wound up attending Luther, which speaks well for the quality of the institution. Iowa is justly famous for its long and distinguished tradition of small liberal arts colleges, and Luther (founded in 1861) is one of the jewels in that crown.


In honor of Daniel Volquez, Connie Moustakas, and Charles Young, today's send-off is the college's choir performing Eliza Gilkyson's "Requiem." Enjoy...and remember to tell the people whom you love how much they mean to you. Don't even think about putting that off. Don't even think it...