Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin – November 4, 2008.

Obama threw down the mantel in his acceptance speech last night in a clear, articulate, and compelling manner. It shouldn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on, if you’re an American and you’re capable of mature thought and feeling, you know you’ve seen something fundamentally good and new on the political scene. I remain uneasy about the FISA situation, but that pales relative to the overall message and depth displayed in Obama’s acceptance speech last night.

McCain surprised the world by selecting a running mate that may, and perhaps should, be an affront to most American women. Many women supported Hillary because she is qualified and female, not simply because she’s female. Mrs. Palin demonstrates a curious choice on McCain’s part – she may help solidify the “base” – but they were going to vote for McCain anyway. She does nothing to win the 20% of the population who actually decide the election other than alienate them.

If VP choices are an indication of future hires and judgment, Obama 1, McCain 0. That being said, I loved McCain’s campaign ad congratulating Obama and I’m very interested to hear what he has to say next week as he accepts the Republican nomination.

Over the past two days I’ve had the (non) pleasure of flying from SFO to Charlotte, NC and back. It would have been a haul, no matter what. But what it was, at least on the outbound flight, was an enormous hassle.

The day started with a 10:40am departure from SFO on a United flight. Boarding commenced and got through 1st class, and the first part of Zone 1 before stopping. There was a mechanical problem on the plane and we stood in line for 30 minutes before boarding was cancelled, the passengers who had boarded were deplaned (sounds painful, doesn’t it?) and the plane was towed away. United provided a replacement plane that would depart at 11:40 (yeah, right!) from a different gate. That would be fine, except the connecting flight in Dallas would be gone by the time this plane arrived, so, off to the trusty telephone to find alternatives.

My executive assistant was very efficient in finding a direct flight to Charlotte on US Airways that departed at 1pm literally as far away from the airport as is physically possible from where I was standing, no problem, the hike over is fine and I arrive to check in at US Airways and they have no record of me as a passenger (I should mention a colleague was traveling with me, he’s in the same boat so to speak.) After an hour of phone calls and actually having the ticket agent (a very helpful fellow) speak with the travel agent, tickets are finally issued and we can get on with our flight, which, naturally, had been delayed.

Once we’re physically on board, seated directly behind us is a family with two boys, aged 2 and 4 (estimates) who were apparently raised by wolves. The older boy was a whinier, crankier Caillou and the younger one was two years old, need more be said. Couple this with a parental style of no correction, no distraction, no entertainment, no boundaries and you get nearly 5 hours of constant screaming and seat kicking. Sufficiently loud to penetrate the usual solitude provided by Bose Quiet Comfort noise cancelation headphones.

The only respite in the entire flight was when my colleague played peak-a-boo over the seat with them for 5 minutes. I was thinking of horrible things to do/say and wishing I had cough syrup to offer these clueless, rude, parents. In any case, if you see two small boys named Marley and Noah get on your airplane, ask to be on a different flight!

The best thing I can say about that flight is that we landed safely. Meanwhile, no Caillou in our household ever again, it will remind me of Marley and that’s a bad thing. Below is a short Caillou clip in case you don’t have children of an age to know this stuff…

Well, you asked for it, and now you’ve got it. One place that is dedicated to Ohio State (football primarily, related athletics like basketball, and more general sports content.) The previews, reviews, and conference strength reports will be posted at the Buckeye View from this point forward. Periodically, I’ll remind folks that the content is there. Right now, there’s a game preview for Youngstown State up now. I’ll be working to classify the existing content over the next few days, will add a season preview (before kickoff on Saturday) and put a few more interesting tidbits over there.

Hope you enjoy it!

LB James Laurinaitis

Photo Credit: Bucknuts

Ooh, I’m like a kid the night before Christmas waiting to open presents…this year, the stocking stuffers are Youngstown State and Ohio University before an excellent first present of a road game at USC. The Big 10 season kicks off after that with great games to come against Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan State, and finishing the regular season with those old skunkbears up north, the Michigan Wolverines.

How will the season play out? Who knows, but it will be fun. Watch this space for an announcement on Buckeye blogging this week, for those of you who like the football and could leave the other topics covered here, I’ve got a surprise for you…

GO BUCKS!

Flashback, 1952. Adlai Stevenson takes on Dwight Eisenhower. It’s pretty clear that the “I Like Ike” ad was significantly more effective than the Old MacDonald Stevenson ad that conjured up images of the Great Depression. Watch them yourself, it’s striking how far political advertising has come: