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There's Still Time. But Don't Be Too Still

A New York Times review of the Rally on the Mall in Washington the Saturday before the mid-term elections castigated co-host Jon Stewart for defending the media rather than using the platform overlooking the tens of thousands who had gathered before him to go over campaign issues. That Stewart and his wacky co-host Stephen Colbert geared their appeal for sanity in media was not simply a defense was made clear by the ralliers' response. They immediately picked up on the fact that Stewart and Colbert were aiming their arrows at the right wing circus created by press lord turned media mogul Rupert Murdoch and directed by his ringmaster, the oldtime Nixon righty Roger Ailes. Throw in Rush rants and christian radio raves plus the stunning incoherance of the TP, and the targets of the Comedy Central duo expanded. The sanity theme was well taken. Naming names was not necessary. The audience got it.
Most of the citizenry these days define media as meaning TV, cable, am-talk radio, and the social networks on the internet. TV, cable, and radio are where most people get their news and information. Those are also the media of persuasion and trend setting as marketers of cars, car insurance, products to prop up impotence,and politicians well know. Since both Stewart and Colbert are creatures of those media, any defense of their livelyhood should not come as a surprise. They, and even casual observers know that media practioners who shout the loudest and longest sell the most, whether the product is dipilatories or politicians.
Unfortunately for them, the Democrats failed this lesson. President Obama said he accepted full responsibilty for the great losses he and his party absorbed last Tuesday and he should. For a candidate as persuasive as he, taking a bye on the mid-terms was shocking. True, his closest political advisors seemed clueless and one wonders at the uncustomary silence of VP Biden. The congressional leaders were nowhere in sight. Senate Majority Leader Reid is at best uninspiring and stayed home to face the danger of losing to a rival even more preposterous than Sarah Palin. House Majority Leader Pelosi was savaged by Murdoch and the Republicans, left without help from the top and neatly silenced by those who are good at the game.
But Obama didn't lead. That he and his party were unaware of the seriousness of an unemployment rate of 9.6% is unbelievable. That he is presently spending four or five days making nice in India, where countless jobs have been exported by greed-mongering American employers is incomprehensible. The saturnine Mitch McConnell may be on to something.
Days after the defeat, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced another currency manipulation aimed helping the joblessness situation. It was piddling. As a purported student of the Depression of 1932, the Chairman must have skipped too many classes. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have done a nice job preserving the banks and preventing bankers from reliance on the food shelves and we can all sleep better for it. But don't the people who control money and amass wealth understand that the U.S. economy is based on demand? And to buy things that foster demand, citizens must have jobs and earn money? Have the President and the Chairman been introduced?
In 1932, FDR took his New Deal to the people over the radio. He thwarted the Murdochs and McConnells of his day, and the Father Coughlins, and was re-elected three more times. Obama should follow FDR's lead. He should use his persuasive skills. Simulcast his story. The TV and Cable audience bought it once and could do so again. Cease seeking bipartisanship. The Republicans aren't having any part of it, so be done with them. Roosevelt welcomed the challenge of his opposition and crushed it. The Bush-Cheney record and the ensuing empty bag Boehner and McConnell are holding should be easy meat for Obama.
But if Obama turns out to be merely an actor instead of the candidate we thought was elected his will be a performance in one act. Or maybe not. We did, after all, elect a third rate ham to two terms. And then named an airport after him.

The Giants Win the Series! The Giants Win the Series! The Giants Win the Series

I can still hear the ecstasy in Russ Hodges' voice on that fateful day 59 years ago when Bobby Thomson triggered the shot heard 'round the world, an allowable bit of hybole gushered up by one of New York's colorful sports writing fraternity. Hodges' outburst then would compare to today's goosed up gaga over almost every fly ball struck, but his was legitimate in the context of the 1951 National League pennant race. The Giants won after they made up a 13 1/2 game deficit during the month of September to enter the final day of the season tied with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Thomson, dubbed The Flying Scot by another of the afore mentioned scriveners, hit a 9th inning walkoff to beat the Dodgers, sending the Giants to the World Series against the Yankees and Thomson into baseball immortality. Bobby Thomson died only a few weeks ago. That he couldn't have lived to see the now San Franciso Giants win their first Series since 1954, and their first since transplanting to the Bay Area, seems a shame. He would have liked the 2010 incarnation.
This year's extravaganza proved the ancient baseball truism that good pitching beats good hitting, especially in a short series. The pitching poohbah was supposed to be Cliff Lee, the wandering lefthander of the Texas Rangers who was pitching for his third team in two years, compiling a remarkable record in the league playoffs and the World Series in 2009 for the Phillies in the NL and the Rangers in the AL playoffs this year. But this was not Lee's Series to shine. He was outpitched twice, as the Rangers' bats were whittled into tooth picks by the superb Giants staff. Tim Lincecum, Cy Young Award winner twice at age 26, Matt Cain, the explosive young righthander, Jonathan Sanchez, a horse for Manager Bruce Bochy down the regular season stretch, and the rookie left hander, Madison Bumgarner, who appears to have a brilliant future, comprise baseball's best staff, based on their World Series accomplishments. And that's not to mention Barry Zito, a veteran winner and former Cy Young recipient with the Oakland A's, nor ace closer Brian Wilson, a gregarious and uninhibited fastballer.
In beating the Rangers 4-1, the Giants and their youthful pitching stars were remindful of the excellent staff assembled by Branch Rickey and managed by Billy Southworth of the St.Louis Cardinals in the Cards' World Series championship year of 1942. That team might have formed one of the premier baseball dynasties except for the demands of World War II. The stars were the Cooper Brothers' battery, pitcher Mort and catcher Walker, shortstop Marty Marion and third baseman Whitey Kurowski, Terry Moore in centerfield flanked by future Hall of Famers Stan Musial in left, and Enos Slaughter in right.
In addition to stalwarts Morton Cooper and Max Lanier, the pitching staff included young Johnny Beazley who won 21 regular season games plus two in the Series, Ernie White, who shut out the powerful Yankees 2-0 in game 4, and the promising Howie Pollet. Pollet returned from the service to win 21 games in 1946 and 20 in 1949. Other than those two years, Pollet failed to reach the heights
predicted for him, although he managed to win a total of 131 wins over a career of 14major league seasons. Neither Beazley nor White regained their pre-service form and were out of the majors after a few unremarkable post-war years.
But before the war intervened, Beazley, White, and Pollet glimpsed glory. No other team comes to mind that could boast the richness of young pitching talent of the Cardinals of 1942. Until the Giants of 2010.