My favorite sign of the primary season had nothing to do with politics but baseball while I was watching the Red Sox complete their remarkable comeback against the Cleveland Indians last night (and while I wasn’t watching the latest faux debate among the GOP elephants). I saw fan in Fenway Park hoist up ‘Don’t Worry, Be Manny,” a catchy twist combining the song (‘Don’t worry, be happy’) with of the infamous ‘Manny being Manny’ which ranks as being one of the better and most analyzed nonsensical catch phrases of all sports time (it’s an existential state of being that could mean, well, most anything regarding Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox hitting savant who has a touch of Zen to his personality).
What we need is a good campaign slogan combining popular recognition and a catchy, deeply existential catch phrase. I’m not holding my breath.
Republican John McCain is back in the neighborhood tomorrow; in Hampton for a town hall meeting and at the Portsmouth Herald for an editorial board grilling. Timothy Noah of Slate gives McCain decent grades for his health care reform proposals which, Noah notes here, have been largely forgotten because the campaign hasn’t bothered to either explain them or emphasize them. Read more here.
In my daily link, Salon has a witty and abridged take on the faux GOP debate I bypassed while suffering continued sleep deprivation while rooting for the Red Sox. Note from Mother Superior: The whole ‘who’s got the bigger and better Republican street cred’ bragging really has to stop. If a Republican candidate has to waste time on earth convincing fellow Republicans he’s a real Republican, then it becomes a public identity crisis issue. Not a pretty sight at all.
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