People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
Anton Chekhov
Dick Clark: RIP
Ryan Seacrest opened tonight's American Idol show with a brief tribute to Dick Clark--very classy.
On the 40th anniversary of Dick Clark's traditional ABC Rockin' Eve last December:
When asked if the on-air tribute to the show indicates it is Clark's last year appearing on the program, Mark Shapiro, the chief executive of Dick Clark Productions, tells the New York Times, "That's a great question, and the only one that knows that answer is Dick himself." Clark later said in an email, "I hope not."
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| Dick Clark with Heir Apparent Ryan Seacrest Courtesy zap2it / Getty |
With Ryan Seacrest, the seemingly ubiquitous host of American Idol, heir to Casey Kasem's Top 40, and various other ventures, recently announcing he will be part of NBC's upcoming Olympics coverage team, younger viewers may not be as familiar with his predecessor on Rockin' New Year's Eve, whom suffered a devastating stroke a few years ago. American Bandstand was an institution when I was growing up. Dick Clark had leveraged his success in Bandstand in various other ventures: film bloopers specials, highly successful game shows, and a hipper alternative product to CBS' Guy Lombardo annual specials. In a manner, Dick Clark represents my generation growing up; he will be missed. In memory of the signature show that remains at the core of Dick Clark's remarkable success, Barry Manilow, take us out with your version of the show's latter theme song, Bandstand Boogie.
I'm not much of a dancer (as my then 5-year-old niece Emily, whom danced with me at a family event, will readily admit); but given Manilow's version of Bandstand Boogie, and being a proud, defiant Barry Manilow fan (despite Murphy Brown's relentless Manilow-bashing) [as an amateur singer, I know exactly how I would remake Mandy, my second favorite Manilow tune], I found on Youtube this dance mix version of my favorite Manilow tune (which I had hoped to sing myself at my reception if I ever got married).
Governor of the Month: Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
FINALLY, SOME DECENT EDUCATION REFORM
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| Louisiana Governor and Future POTUS (After President Romney's Reelection) Bobby Jindal /Courtesy KATC |
Wow, the Republicans, unlike the Democrats, have a deep bench of truly talented governors/ex-governors to run for President in future elections: Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, John Kasich, Tim Pawlenty, and Bobby Jindal. Who do the Dems have? A mediocre selection of predictable, plain vanilla, unaccomplished leaders like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Martin O'Malley and other progressives? PLEASE. REAL CHANGE is not lip service, window-dressing, a slogan, gimmick, or political spin: IT'S HAVING THE POLITICAL COURAGE TO DO THE RIGHT THING, EVEN IF UNPOPULAR IN THE SHORT TERM, like Governor Walker in Wisconsin taking back the power for the overextended taxpayer from the corrupt Democratic/union alliance. This is NOT a partisan rant--if I had actually seen Governor Jerry Brown (CA) crack down on the public unions and institute REAL pension reform, I would back him.
I'm truly impressed about the nature and extent of the reforms. (Keep in mind as a libertarian-conservative I believe that we should privatize education as a matter of principle and instead as needed, use means-tested subsidies. However, these reforms are a good start towards implementing educational choice/diversity.) After Governor Jindal signed these bipartisan reforms into law, I believe this two new laws may provide the broadest set of reforms I've seen enacted by any state. I will leave it to the readers to read the full news stories (e.g., the above KATC link), but let me summarize some of the key items, which I hope other states will also enact, if the comparable reform isn't in place:
- it eliminates bureaucratic red tape in setting up charter schools
- it allows parents to redirect some of their taxes (or any necessary subsidies) to support private school enrollments
- it allows parents scholarship access for their children to competitive schools after a school has rated below par for a certain period of time
- it streamlines the process for intervention in underperforming schools
- it provides access (with limited funded) to a broader selection of student course options
- teacher layoffs now include merit-based (vs. just seniority) considerations
- there is a higher barrier of entry for tenured positions (5 years of high ratings)
- teachers are subject to termination after multiple consecutive years of ineffective ratings
- teaching appraisals will include student performance assessments
- teacher hiring, firing and assignment authority has been delegated from school board to principals
- principals will have wider discretion in compensation to reflect market supply/demand and merit, particularly for harder to come by math and science teachers. In addition, salary adjustments can be made for existing well-performing and/or in-demand teachers
- it provides greater standardization and benchmarks for setting performance baselines and provides more usable feedback to parents on school effectiveness
Good start, but remember: as an empiricist, I note that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Political Potpourri
I wrote in a past several days ago (before Santorum withdrew from the race) that I expected that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to announce their support for Romney as we got closer to the states' primaries. In fact. Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader McConnell both announced their support yesterday, and Mitch Daniels did likewise today. Technically, Romney still needs to get 500 delegates. WSJ has his delegate count up to 685 vs. 656 for CNN and RCP. We have the Missouri results due over the weekend; Santorum likely won the largest share (but Romney was focusing more on the caucuses than the primary and was likely to do better than the primary results), although I'm not sure what will happen given his withdrawal. If I was to venture a guess, I would think many of the Santorum delegates will switch to Romney in a unity move, but it could be Santorum wants to keep his delegates to use as a bargaining chip at the convention. I haven't seen more recent polls on Tuesday's primaries but Santorum was only competitive in his home state and polls showed Romney pulling ahead at the time of the withdrawal. I suspect there will be protest conservative voters against Romney going to Gingrich and maybe some for Paul. It depends on the rules of the primary. For example, in some of these states, if you win more than 50% of the vote, you get all the delegates, and you have to win a minimum percentage to qualify for any delegates. The question seems to be more how many delegates, if any Gingrich and Paul can keep away from Romney's majority.
There are some ominous signs for Obama. First, it looks like the Republicans are united behind Romney faster than expected; even the oddball CNN poll that put Obama ahead of Romney by 9 points showed that Romney's net unfavorable ratings during the bitterly contested primary campaign are already healing with Romney back to net positive ratings. The best that Obama did in 3 polls (CBS, Gallup, Rasmussen) today was a tie and the other 2 polls had Romney ahead by 4.
Over two-thirds of those polled think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and for the most part that's remained constant since the 111th Congress. Contrary to the Dems' hopes, that's not because of a dissatisfaction with the House; in fact, Boehner has higher approval ratings than Pelosi. I honestly believe that the polls are biasing Obama's numbers upwards. I think the voters are aware that House GOP can't enact serious, necessary reforms with the existing Senate and White House. Voters may personally like Obama and his family, but I don't think they would rate his first time as successful by any reasonable measure.
I mentioned before Governor Ehlich (R-MD) had a POSITIVE (over 50%) favorable rating and still lost his reelection. Obama has not broken 50% in approval since the UBL killing, even with a string of stronger jobs numbers. I personally think that some of his approval numbers are soft. There are some hints that Obama will run a scorched earth campaign against Romney. That is a double-edged sword because his approval ratings are ahead of his policy and performance ratings (e.g., on the economy). I think that Romney is more likable, articulate and a much better debater than the Dems expect, he still isn't well-known to a number of independents and moderates (and I think they'll like what they see and hear) and his campaign is much more effective than McCain's.
I think CNN has already started talking up the relative popularity of VP choices for Romney. Despite all the effort I've done to push for Kay Bailey Hutchison (and that post continues to draw daily readers), I'm not hearing any of the media even raising her name (the closest is whether Romney will nominate a woman, although it seems that the popular choice is Condi Rice, Bush's second Secretary of State. I think there's a tendency of some GOP members to want a person of color on the ticket as a counter-weight to Obama. Let's put it this way: if racial identity is an issue, do you think people would be more likely to vote for a black VP versus a black President? I don't think so. Rice has already indicated that she has no interest in the give or take of a campaign, a vital role for a VP. She does nicely balance Romney's domestic policy strengths, but she doesn't geographically balance the ticket or qualify under other traditional criteria.)
I don't think Romney is likely to pick a first-term legislator like Marco Rubio; I think it takes away from his argument against Obama, just like McCain surrendered the experience advantage card when he chose Palin VP.
I still think that Hutchison is Romney's dream running mate for reasons I mentioned in the earlier post. But where does he go if not Hutchison? I think he would go either for someone to bolster his military/foreign policy background (e.g., Petraeus or Colin Powell) or a regionally-diverse governor, like possibly Mitch Daniels (if his family will let him) or Bob McDonnell
Political Humor
Right-wing bloggers quote:
In Dreams of My Father, President Obama wrote, “With [stepfather] Lolo I have learned how to eat small green chili peppers raw with dinner, plenty of rice, and away from the dinner people I was introduced to dog meat, tough, snake meat, tougher, and roasted grasshopper.”[Oh, this is like a comedian's dream. How many jokes can you think of? Let me kick things off with just a few off the top of my head:
- When Mitt Romney was asked why he transported family Irish setter Seamus in a carrier attached to the roof of their vehicle on vacation several years back, he said, "I didn't like the way that Obama was eyeing our family dog."
- No wonder the Obama daughters don't remember having a family dog before Bo...
- Imagine Obama's first encounter eating an old-fashioned American hot dog. "They put too many fillers in these things... I can barely taste the dog."
- Now we know why Obama bursts into tears whenever he hears Kung Fu Master Po call young Caine (David Carradine ) "young grasshopper"
- Michelle Obama wondered why Barack forgot to pack the fishing rods when he had mentioned they would eat what they caught at their picnic...
- All Obama really needed to know he learned in kindergarten. For example, some snakes kill their prey by constriction, like how the IRS squeezes taxpayers, and others by injecting poison, like government intervention in the economy. Once the snake kills its prey, it swallows it whole. Sort of like the federal government has swallowed up AIG, the GSE's, car companies, and the student loan business. And snakes shed their skin, just like politicians shed campaign promises after their elections.]
David Axelrod stepped into it when he tweeted a picture of President Obama with family dog Bo sitting in the back of a chauffeured limousine "How loving dog owners transport their dogs". [This is a slap at a story of how Romney had transported his dog in a carrier with a windshield mounted on top of the family vehicle on a drive to a vacation home 30 years ago.]
- ["How Presidents take their dogs on a walk--in chauffeured limousines..."
- "How the upper 1% of loving dog owners transport their dogs"
- "Bo barks out directions home to the chauffeur" ]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Rolling Stones, "Little Red Rooster"
