Category: Media Watch

* “Call it the Gaddafi Rule: Give it up and go, or one day find death by ‘Libyan Crossfire.'”–Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post.

* “Some worry that America spends too much time hoping that Iran will become more reasonable when, in reality, it’s trying to get nuclear weapons so it can become less reasonable.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “Barring an unprecedented suspension of the laws of American politics, Mitt Romney has this thing wrapped up. … The press needs the illusion of a hard-fought campaign to keep its audience from straying.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “A primal scream of democracy.”–Al Gore’s characterization of Occupy Wall Street.

* “Rather than merely oppose the flat tax, sensible people should push for a truly progressive tax–starting with a top rate of 70 percent on that portion of anyone’s income exceeding $5 million, from whatever source.”–Robert Reich, former secretary of labor during the Clinton Administration.

* “He’s got a lot of Reagan qualities. He’s a straight talker and he wants to be bold for the future.”–Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker on the allure of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.

* “Arts can be an economic draw in our communities. We intend to promote the variety of ways arts and culture can create jobs, stimulate the economy and contribute to Florida’s tourism.”–Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning.

* “The same Tallahassee Republicans berating Washington for Florida’s battered finances would do well to examine their own record. If government has been the problem, they have no one to blame but themselves.”–State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, the leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

* “I have never before seen a politician be such a consensus candidate for VP so early in the game.”–University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato in referring to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

* “Rickpublicans (.com).”–Newly launched Florida Democratic Party fund-raising website.

* “It’s worth exploring options for the governance structure of this site so that we can be nimble and agile and closedeals and make the most of this facility.”–Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in raising the possibility of creating an authority separate from NASA to operate the Kennedy Space Center

* “Universities represent the future, and students will want to hear how anyone who wants to be president can shape the years to come.”–USF President Judy
Genshaft on the GOP debate that will air Jan. 23 from USF on NBC.

* “It is uniquely positioned to be an iconic structure if you do it right, so I am pulling out all the stops to get this thing done.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on plans to seek proposals from developers on ways to renovate and reuse Tampa’s historic federal courthouse.

* “There is no talk about rebuilding the U.S.S.R.”–Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in qualifying his proposition that former Soviet nations reunite as an “Eurasian Union.”

* “God forbid, if there is ever a war between Pakistan and America, then we will side with Pakistan.”–Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

* “With what’s happening in the world, you have to feel very proud.”–Argentina President Cristina Fernandez after her landslide reelection victory.

* “Our political system prefers rhetorical fairy tales to unpleasant budget realities.”–Robert Samuelson, Washington Post.

* “If we persist in treating politics as a three-ring circus, we just might find ourselves with nothing but clowns.”–Frank Bruni, New York Times.

* “We tend to underestimate the political power of places. Then Tahir Square comes along. Now it’s Zuccotti Park… Kent State, Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall: We clearly use locales, edifices, architecture to house our memories and political energy. Politics troubles our consciences. But places haunt our imaginations.”–Michael Kimmelman, New York Times.

* “Tax policy isn’t just about how to raise revenue anymore. Liberals see it as a way to punish the greedy and redress the iniquities of capitalism. Conservatives see tax increases as an assault on the enterprising class perpetrated by arrogant central planners. A tax rate could be seen as just a number signifying an expense, but now it’s a marker in a culture war.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “It’s apparent that the United States needs more high-skill immigrants–job creators rather than job seekers.”–Michael Barone, The Washington Examiner.

* “Schooling after the second grade plays only a minor role in creating or reducing gaps. It is imperative to change the way we look at education. We should invest in the foundation of school readiness from birth to age 5.”–James Heckman, Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago.

* “Basically, what you do is you build relationships.”–Gov. Rick Scott on the strategy behind going on trade missions, including the recent seven-day trip to Brazil.

* “Either he is ignorant or prejudiced, neither of which are qualities for him to serve on this committee.”–Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Miami, rebuking comments by Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, that voters should be screened for citizenship before legislators draw a congressional district favoring Hispanics.

* “I understand why things were put in place post 9/11. I think there may be other ways to mitigate the security issues and at the same time open up what I think is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in downtown Tampa.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on working with port director Richard Wainio on a plan to open the cruise ship docks to the public.

A lot of readers love it when the tables get turned on journalists. When they become the story. When they have to answer those potentially gotcha questions they are so used to asking.

Maybe an empathy fix would be helpful. See what it’s like in the other guy’s shoes.

To be sure, some handle it better than others. To wit: The Tampa Tribune was running down a story last week about the St. Petersburg Times letting go some veteran journalists as a cost-cutting measure. (The Trib itself, of course, is no stranger to such scenarios borne of declining revenues.)

But the Trib couldn’t get any exact numbers, because the Times wasn’t being particularly cooperative about confirming, well, less-than-positive news to the competition. Nor did the Times run its own story on the matter. The Trib reporter had to make do–but did work in a journalistic code phrase: “Times executives did not return the Tribune’s calls…”

In the newspaper biz that’s tantamount to saying, “They’re afraid to talk, so it must be true.” It at least tells the reader they tried to get the scoop, but the other side didn’t think it was any of the public’s business.

* “We will work closely with our international partners to increase Iran’s isolation and the pressure on its government.”—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of a foiled Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. on American soil.

* “South Korea has 40 times the economy and twice the population of North Korea. Japan’s economy is almost as large as China’s. Why cannot these two powerful and prosperous nations provide the troops, planes, ships and missiles to defend themselves? We can sell them whatever they need. Why is their defense still our responsibility?”–Patrick Buchanan, Creators Syndicate.

* “In 1934, the government was us. We shared circumstances, shared risks and shared obligations. Today the government is the other–not an institution for the achievement of our common goals, but an alien presence that stands between us and the realization of individual ambitions. Programs of social insurance have become ‘entitlements,’ a word apparently meant to signify not a collectively provided and cherished basis for family-income security, but a sinister threat to our national well-being.”–Theodore R. Marmor, professor emeritus of public policy at Yale University and co-author of “America’s Misunderstood Welfare State.”

* “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”–Oliver Wendell Holmes.

* “One thing the Obama Administration could do now–probably with Republican support–would be to attack the oversupply of housing stock by allowing a tax write-off for investors who buy empty properties and rent them out.”–Peter Orszag, vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup Inc. and former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration.

* “The paucity of Obama’s audacity is striking.”–Thomas Friedman, New YorkTimes.

* “Labor costs will never be lower. Equipment costs will never be lower. The cost of capital will never be lower. Why wait?”–Robert Hockett,
professor of financial law at Cornell University and co-author of “The Way Forward,” explaining his rationale for government taking on a sustained infrastructure program, lasting from five to seven years, to create jobs and demand.

* “Congress is not the only place where we can see paralysis. The Federal Reserve recently reported that nonfinancial companies in the U.S. were holding more than $2 trillion in cash and other liquid assets–money that is earning next to nothing. … Loosening the pursestrings just a little could have big effects on the economy.”–Richard Thaler, professor of economics and behavior science at the University of Chicago.

* “Who’s really being un-American here? Not the (Occupy Wall Street) protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth.”–Paul Krugman, New York Times.

* “The most radical people today are the ones who look the most boring. It’s not about declaring war on some nefarious elite. It’s about changing behavior from top to bottom. Let’s occupy ourselves.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “There’s a certain amount of pain you can inflict on customers without losing them, and the banks are doing careful calculations about what customers are willing to pay for.”--Mark Schwanhausser, senior analyst, Javelin Strategy and Research.

* “For Florida, these deals are absolutely vital.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, on Congressional approval of trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and
South Korea.

* “Hillsborough County is often seen as the best predictor as to how Florida will vote at large. That’s because it’s got the three geographical categories that the candidates look for–rural, urban and suburban. Focus groups come a lot to Hillsborough.”–Susan MacManus, USF political science professor.

* “We are the only city in the United States where there has been no confrontation or arrest of an Occupy protestor. If you’re a peaceful protestor, our job is to make sure you have a safe environment so your voices can be heard.”–TPD spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

* “The opportunities are unbelievable.”–Assessment of downtown Tampa’s potential by Urban Land Institute expert Byron Koste, executive director emeritus of the University of Colorado’s School of Business.

* “Russians will continue down the road of privatization and diversification away from oil, not because they like to, but because they will be forced to.”–Ivan
Tchakarov, chief economist for the Russian investment Bank Renaissance.

* “Frighteningly simplistic.”–Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the U.S. view of Afghanistan before the war.

* “The direct exposure of the U.S. financial system to the countries under the most pressure in Europe is very modest.”–Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

* “They don’t want Organization Man. They want Braveheart. … It’s exciting to have charismatic leaders. But often the best leaders in business, in government and in life are not glittering saviors. They are professionals you hire to get a job done.”–David Brooks, New York Times, noting that for many Republicans Mitt Romney doesn’t fit the presidential-candidate mold.

* “The weird celebrity culture that Fox News creates around conservative politicians can make Republican presidential campaigns feel like cable news auditions.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “I am confident that the public is watching us very closely to see if we can show this country that this democracy can work.”–Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., co-chairman of the 12-member, deficit-cutting super-committee.

* “From computing to music to journalism, (Steve) Jobs changed the way the world did its business and leisure.”–Edwin J. Feulner, president of The
Heritage Foundation.

* “At its heart, “Moneyball” isn’t about baseball. It’s not even about statistics. Rather, it’s about challenging conventional wisdom with data.”–Cade Massey, assistant professor, Yale School of Management.

* “As African-Americans, they (President Barack and Michelle Obama) are extraordinary in the most ordinary way: They are a married couple raising their children together.”–Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks, author of “Is Marriage for White People?”

* “It shocks me that they don’t have this information at their fingertips.”–State Sen. Mike Fasano on being told that information from the State Board of Administration on a pension fund (Starboard Value and Opportunity) would take time and cost more than $10,000.

* “I believe once you stamp yourself as something like Atlantic City, Las Vegas, I think you change your identity. That’s why I don’t think Florida is right for this.”–State Sen. Jim Norman’s take on proposals to bring destination casino megaresorts to Florida.

* “He should be paid as well as the top tier airport CEOs in the country. He is simply that good.”–Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Chairman Steve Burton in reference to a proposed pay raise for TIA Chief Executive Joe Lopano.

* “I was hopeful it would go this quick. It went viral.”–Debra Koehler, president of Sage Partners, whose Metro 510 apartment project leased nearly half its 120 units in less than two weeks on the market.

* “That’s great news. I think there were some significant privacy issues associated with the use of drones over America’s back yards. And in many cases our downtowns are now our back yards.”–John Dingfelder, ACLU senior staff attorney for mid Florida, on the decision by TPD not to pursue “unmanned aerial vehicles” for next year’s GOP convention.

* “If I were Commissioner John Morroni, I think I would plead temporary insanity and make a motion to bring it up and reconsider it again.”–Former Pinellas County Commissioner Sallie Parks criticizing Morroni for voting against fluoride in the water after previously supporting it.

* “The two countries (Israel and Turkey) have gone through remarkably similar political shifts in recent decades from aggressively secular societies run by Westernized elites to populist ethno-religious states where standing up to foreigners offers rich political rewards.”–Ethan Bronner, New York Times.

* “The lessons of the big wars are obvious. The cost in blood and treasure is immense, and the outcome is unforeseeable. Public support at home is declining toward rock bottom. And the people you’ve come to liberate come to resent your presence.”–Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in
referencing the value of drone strikes in the battle against terrorist networks.

* “Pakistan’s military look on militant groups as a hedge against India and as proxies who could control Afghanistan after the Americans left.”–Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer.

* “You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient.”–President Barack Obama criticizing GOP presidential candidates for staying silent when the crowd at the Orlando debate booed a gay soldier who asked a question via videotape.

* “One of the underappreciated truths about Obama is that he isn’t all that interested in public policy… . He was content to leave the details of the stimulus package to congressional appropriators and the details of Obamacare to the deal-cutters squeezing out the last few votes in Nancy Pelosi’s office. The result is laws that don’t work nearly as well as advertised.”–Michael Barone, The Washington Examiner.

* “While the top 1 percent of Americans earned 21 percent of the nation’s income, they owned a staggering 35 percent of the wealth in 2006-07, the most recent year for which statistics are available.  We should be taxing that wealth directly, and not merely focusing on million-dollar incomes.”–Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, Yale law professors and co-authors of “The Stakeholder Society.”

* “The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “After three debates in which parts of the country not named Texas have been exposed to him, Perry’s appeal has diminished, and the quality of  his
performance has declined.  The debates have revealed that Perry is neither consistently conservative to satisfy the Tea Party activists driving the nomination from below, nor sufficiently presidential to mollify the establishment hovering nervously above.”–Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg News.

* “The (Congressional dysfunction) problem in a nutshell is that most members are more worried about their primary election than the general election.”–Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.

* “While I don’t think we’re (Florida) going into a recession, the probability of one is going up.”–UCF economist Sean Snaith.

* “Here in Florida, (Gov.) Scott’s campaign promise of mass job creation is at least coming true for professional urine samplers.”–Carl Hiaasen, The Miami Herald.

* “Some people are going to benefit from the turmoil and other people are going to get hurt by the turmoil.”–University of Florida Athletics Director Jeremy Foley on college football’s ongoing scramble for conference realignments.

* “The whole logic behind how schools are being selected (for conferences) is frightening.”–ESPN football analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

* “To understand what revolutions and popular democracy are likely to produce, we need to understand the fires in the minds of the men who create or capture those revolutions. And neither Africa nor Arabia offers much in the way of hope.”–Patrick Buchanan, Creators Syndicate.

* “It becomes clearer every week that our country faces a big choice: We can either have a hard decade or a bad century. We can either roll up our sleeves and do what’s needed to overcome our post-Cold War excesses and adapt to the demands of the 21st century or we can just keep limping into the future.”–Thomas
Friedman, New York Times

* “Class warfare isn’t leadership.”–House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on President Barack Obama’s demand that the richest Americans pay higher taxes to help cut soaring U.S. deficits by more than $3 trillion.

* “This is not class warfare. It’s math.”–President Barack Obama.

* “What is killing the economy is lack of credit. In the aftermath of an asset bubble, invariably the result of too-loose credit, banks don’t just tighten their standards; they practically shut down. This was true during the Great Depression, and it’s been true during the Great Recession. And until normal credit standards return, economic growth will continue to be stunted.”–Joe Nocera, New York Times.

* “The threat to democracy today is not the size of government but rather the hidden form that so much of its growth has taken. If those who assume government has never helped them could see how it has, it might help defuse our polarized political climate and reinvigorate informed citizenship.”–Suzanne
Mettler, professor of government, Cornell University.

* “I think the Tea Party’s views are so outside of the mainstream that they would never be embraced by moderates, which the majority of Americans are.”–Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

* “I messed up.”–Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on his less-than-seamless communication of the company’s price changes.

* “It’s just interesting we won’t take money for high-speed rail, we won’t take money for our seniors to keep them home instead of in nursing homes, but we’re going to ask the federal government to write a check for the Republican convention.”–State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

* “Gov. Scott certainly has a long way to go till he can see the break-even point, but his ratings that dropped to awful are now just bad.”–Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

* “Today, unfortunately, many in the media would like nothing better than to ridicule Christians.”–Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll in addressing the
Faith & Freedom Coalition event that kicked off Presidency 5.

* “Gun owners will be the difference in 2012. The lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution.”–Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, speaking at a Presidency 5 event.

* “Don’t roll your eyes at me.”–Tampa Port Authority member (and Hillsborough County Commissioner) Sandra Murman to Authority Board Chairman Larry Shipp during a testy exchange involving the tenure of Port Authority Director Richard Waino.

* “My attitude is it doesn’t matter where they land, we just want them here.”–Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Al Higginbotham on the pledge of Time Warner to bring 500 jobs to a site in unincorporated Hillsborough, Tampa or Temple Terrace.

* “We are absolutely committed to not talking about where the stadium goes.”–Jeff Hearn, a Raymond James senior vice president and chairman of the finance structure committee of the Baseball Stadium Financing Caucus, a joint effort  of the chambers of commerce of Tampa and St. Petersburg.

* “It looks like the mother ship landed.”–Description of The Pier in St. Petersburg by Adriaan Geuze, one of the three architect finalists in the redesign of the St. Pete landmark.

* “A pyramid, upside down in the water. That’s an example of something that’s surreal.”–Description of The Pier by another redesign finalist, Bjarke Ingels.

* “The attacks cannot stop the process of transition from taking place and cannot affect it, but rather will embolden our people’s determination in taking the responsibility for their country’s own affairs.”–Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on recent insurgent attacks on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul.

* “Moral failing.”–Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s characterization of his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid.

* “The nation cannot continue to sustain the spending programs and policies of the past with the tax revenues it has been accustomed to paying. Citizens will either have to pay more for their government, accept less in government services and benefits, or both.”–Douglas Elmendorf, head of the Congressional Budget Office, to members of Congress’ bipartisan deficit-cutting supercommittee.

* “If the GOP thinks it can just obstruct Obama and hope that the economy tanks–so Republicans will benefit in the 2012 election–it will be a mistake for the country and the party. I believe most Americans want a Grand Bargain both in substance and style. … We underestimate how much the toxic political rancor in Washington today casts a pall over the whole economy…”–Thomas Friedman, New York Times.

* “If we’re lucky, this next election will be a debate about how to remix the chemistry of American governance.”–Joe Klein, Time magazine.

*“The reawakened Republicans are no longer the loyal opposition. They’re revolutionary Bolsheviks who want to eat Obama alive.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “Having an interest in national government that’s mainly limited to disliking it might work fine if you’re the governor of a state that has always regarded itself as ‘low-tax, low-service’ anyway. It’s a little more problematic if you’re the guy in charge of keeping the dollar stable, the food supply safe and the national defense ready.”–Gail Collins, New York Times, on presidential contender Rick Perry, governor of Texas.

* “I don’t think you can be a national politician without having qualities of the entertainer about you because you’re not going to connect with the public. Their palates have gotten jaded.”–Joe McGinniss, author of The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.

* “Dick Cheney was grilled by the women of The View. So apparently he’s willing to undergo torture himself to prove a point.”–Jay Leno, The Tonight Show host.

* “It was about health. It was about saving lives. I’m a Republican, but I’m not stupid.”–Former state representative Ed Homan, an orthopedic surgeon,
commenting on backing the vaccination of young girls against a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer.

* “This economy cannot come back based on home construction. It’s got to include manufacturing.”–Dick Peck, chairman of the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

* “They tell me it will be better for economic development, but I said show me how, show me the study. I cannot think of a good reason to lose USF’s footprint in Polk County.”–David Touchton, CPA and member of the Central Florida Development Council.

* “If Tampa makes a miracle comeback and takes the wild card from us, I will be devastated. I definitely wouldn’t want to lose to those guys and watch them get into the playoffs while we go home. That would just be devastating to me.”–Carl Crawford, Boston Red Sox outfielder and former long-time member of the
Tampa Bay Rays.

It’s obvious from watching the two recent GOP presidential candidates’ debates–in Simi Valley, Calif. and here in Hillsborough County–that there were many overlapping agendas at play. But only a few really matter.

Mitt Romney is trying to burst the bluster bubble of Rick Perry before the swaggering Texas governor becomes the de facto nominee. He’s hoping that Perry’s shoot-from-the-lip analogies of Social Security and “Ponzi schemes,” for example, will strike enough discordant notes among seniors and future seniors to be self-defeating rhetoric. It’s not Romney’s style, but “all tea party hat and no real-world cattle” is essentially how he wants to characterize a guy whose top talking point is the Texas job-creating machine. It hardly helps Romney that jobs is a much bigger issue than “Fed Up” outtakes or presidential mien.

Perry knows that if he successfully paints Romney into a GQ, flip-flopping centrist, Obamacare-in-Massachusetts corner, he can’t survive Republican Party primaries, including Florida, that are increasingly dominated by demonstrably hard-core conservatives and libertarians. You can’t win a general election, even if you’re electable, if you can’t get out of your own primary. Perry won’t bring up Mormonism, of course, because he doesn’t have to. But he knows it doesn’t play well with his evangelical crowd.

*Michelle Bachmann remains wistful for Iowa, but the silo state is hardly representative of America. “Obamacare” rants are seemingly part of every answer, regardless of question.

*Herman Cain has bullet points, but not enough ammo–and that includes references to how Chile provides for a form of social security. The party craves a godfather, but not a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

*Ron Paul’s libertarian philosophy works best in the abstract.

*Newt Gingrich, who can wax professorial and is not sound-bite challenged, can’t run a campaign. Callista in the wings hardly helps.

*Rick Santorum lost his last race–and his Pennsylvania Senate seat. This is not the forum for a political comeback. Tim Pawlenty has a better chance.

*Jon Huntsman would fare better if he were challenging Barack Obama in Democratic primaries. Not good when your laugh lines sound obscure and smug.

The other agenda worth noting is that of the media. There are commercial breaks, and ratings matter. Fox, presumably, would have taken the same initial approach as MSNBC at the Reagan Library and CNN at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Both made short shrift of any doubt that this was anything other than a made-for-TV political reality show. Both arranged to have Romney and Perry at the epicenter of the eight-candidate line-up. Santorum and Huntsman were literally relegated to the symbolic fringes.

Neither was about to kick start the debate by chancing, say, a low-wattage, cerebral presentation by Huntsman. Right out of the rhetorical blocks, both Brian Williams and Wolf Blitzer made sure to feature the Romney-Perry dynamic and its inherent conflict, the staple of all cable television talk shows. It worked both times. Both approaches yielded lively, gotcha, thrust-and-Perry exchanges. Good, proven-formula TV.

The two networks also knew that a sizable portion of the live audience was there for some GOPster red meat. More Jerry Springer than PBS.

Neither Williams nor Blitzer invoked the oft-invoked rule that members of a debate audience acquit themselves properly and refrain from applause and other means of vocal partisan response. Why bother? As a result, a California reference to Gov. Perry’s record of more than 200 executions on his watch turned into a perverse applause line. There were shout-outs of “Yeah” when Ron Paul was questioned in Tampa about a theoretical, uninsured patient being allowed to die. And there were boos for Paul when he ascribed anti-American motives to jihadists that had nothing to do with U.S. democracy, freedom and exceptionalism.

In the end, neither Romney nor Perry mishandled the would-be crucible. Bachman was feisty at the Fairgrounds, but it’s still the well-coiffed duo’s to lose. Both can perform, for that is what’s called for in these forums. This isn’t Lincoln-Douglas. Both have a stage presence, as well as a staged presence.

The networks aren’t complaining.

Fairgrounds Irony

*Imagine, this is Florida and not a single question dealing with Cuba at the Fairgrounds.

*Although Perry was at odds with the hard-liners over aspects of immigration and his executive order mandating young girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, his moderate stands did tend to soften his macho, ideological image. And they undoubtedly would play a lot better in a general election.

Timing is everything.

The much-hyped movie “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman, will be released next week. It’s the story of how Oakland Athletics’ General Manager Billy Beane, played by Pitt, built a winning team despite a modest budget. He did it by going against baseball tradition: overreliance on scouting reports. Instead, he shifted the paradigm to an emphasis on certain statistical data–also known as “sabermetric principles”–to gain a leg up on undervalued players and prospects. The Beane-Pitt character refers to the practice as the counterpart of blackjack “card counting.”

The movie is based on the 2003 book “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis.

As for timing: Beane’s still the Oakland GM–as well as a minority owner these days–but the A’s are next to last in the American League West. Other franchises, including the Tampa Bay Rays, have employed Beane-like analyses for cost-effective winning. And some, notably the Rays, have improved on the model. “Moneyball” would have been a more relevant movie five years ago.