Mitt Romney: WTF?

Can someone please explain the rationale for Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy to me?

Here's a guy whose resume consists of 1) being the son of a presidential candidate who gaffed himself out of the running in 1968; 2) losing a Senate race to Ted Kennedy in 1994; 3) running the Winter Olympics; and 4) one term as governor of Massachusetts, where he didn't seek a second for fear that he'd lose and thus torpedo his presidential ambitions (cf George Felix Allen, Jr.).

Oh, and 5) he's handsome. In a blandly inoffensive way.

I mean, that's it. Granted, my preferred candidate for 2008 was Mark Warner, himself a one-term governor, but at least in his case he was, like all Virginia governors, barred from seeking a second consecutive term -- plus he had a stratospheric approval rating, solid accomplishments in office, and rebuilt the state's Democratic party with wins by Tim Kaine in last year's governor's race and Jim Webb in this year's Senate race.

So I ask: WTF? Who is clamoring for a Romney candidacy, and what does he offer that another candidate with an actual record doesn't also bring to the table?

TiVo alert!

The third series of the insanely funny and surreal Britcom Black Books begins airing on BBC America this Friday night at 10:30 pm Central time. And now I must go buy flowers and chocolates and chocolate flowers and florettes made of chocolate...

Shelley! Shelley! Shelley!

You may recall that in Texas' 22nd Congressional district, Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs had to run a write-in campaign after Tom DeLay cut-and-ran from the ballot. Here's an entertaining run-down of some of the many variations on Sekula-Gibbs' name that the district's residents came up with.

Talking in front of the television set: BOSTON LEGAL edition

She Who Must Be Obeyed: How can anyone deliver that line with a straight face?

ME: WILLIAM SHATNER, that's how!

Buffy comics

I can't be the only longtime Buffy fan who's not really looking forward to the upcoming "Season 8" comics, can I? As much as I miss thge show, I don't miss the ungainly mess it had become in the latter two-thirds or so of its final season. And even if Joss reins in his worse story-telling instincts, I have a sinking feeling the new series will mainly try to shove pointless characters like Kennedy, Andrew, and the slayeretts down our throats, each and every issue...

In the words of Moe Syzlak...

...get out, and take your Sacagawea dollars with you.

Senator-elect Jim Webb of Virginia

1,000 words

I've no idea what the provenance of this image a friend sent me is. That doesn't make it any less funny.

Snark.

Best. Election day photo. Ever.

Some people are just plain stupid

For instance, a person who dresses like V and then goes to the White House.

Or a person who, on reading about someone who dresses like V and then goes to the White House, is mystified as to why anyone dressed as V by the White House would attract attention from the Secret Service.

#99

We voted early this morning; at 7:35 I was the 99th person to turn in a ballot; that suggests, based on an utterly unscientific with our 2004 voting experience, somewhat lighter turnout this year. There are many things about life in Minnesota that I find trying or irritating, but I'm very, very glad to live in a state that has clean elections and counts everyone's votes.

I realized my predictions post didn't make any calls about the final partisan breakdown in Congress. I'm going to say the Democrats get to 49 seats in the Senate and take a majority in the House with at least 228 seats.

Zinger of the day

From Slate's appreciation of Bob Barker:

It was the least stylish collection of adult humans I've seen since my last trip to Boston.

Election predictions

A few weeks ago, I made my picks in a friendly election prediction pool. Since the election is just a few days away, I thought I'd share my picks, my current thoughts about those decisions, and then, after the election, I can come back and review how I did. Here they are, broken down by type of race, with the Republican listed first in each listing.

Senate races:

AZ: Jon Kyl v. Jim Pederson
I picked Kyl and still would today, though I'd love to see this be the sleeper surprise of the election season.

CT: Alan Schlesinger v. Ned Lamont v. Joe Liberman
Sadly, I think Lieberman is still going to win this thing. Lamont doesn't seem to have gotten any traction since the primary.

FL: Harris v. Nelson
Nelson has maintained a 20-30 point lead throughout the entire campaign and could probably molest a goat on the steps of the state legislature and still win by a landslide. The only reason I included this race in the pool is because Katherine Harris losing by 20 or more points is really, really, really funny, because she is completely fucking batshit insane.

MD: Steele v. Cardin
Cardin. I just can't see Steele winning this thing, even though some polls have it tightening up.

MI: Bouchard v. Stabenow
Stabenow.

MN: Kennedy v. Klobuchar
Klobuchar. Won't even be close. The good news is that we'll be rid of Gussie Fink-Nottle's Minnesotan cousin; the bad news is that his replacement is likely to be almost as batshit fucking insane as Katherine Harris.

MO: Talent v. McCaskill
I picked Talent three weeks ago, pre-Michael J. Fox. Now I might pick McCaskill. Neither then nor now would I feel a great deal of confidence in that choice; this race has been a dead heat for so long it's agonizing just to watch. I can't imagine what it's like for the candidates.

MT: Burns v. Tester
Tester then, Tester now.

NV: Ensign v. Carter
Ensign, then and now. This would have been uphill no matter what, but Carter's hospitalization early this fall took this one way out of contention.

NJ: Kean v. Menendez
Menendez, though this one may be uncomfortably close. In any other year, Kean would probably have a real shot. But this isn't any other year.

OH: DeWine v. Brown
Brown then, Brown now. DeWine is, electorally speaking, a dead man walking.

PA: Santorum v. Casey
Casey then, Casey now. Good-bye, Ricky!

RI: Chafee v. Whitehouse
Whitehouse.

TN: Corker v. Ford
I picked Ford but I think it's increasingly unlikely that he'll win, as much as I'd like to see that. If I were making the decision with money at stake today, I'd pick Corker.

VT: Tarrant v. Sanders
Sanders then, Sanders now.

VA: Allen v. Webb
I picked Webb because I can't bring myself to vote for Allen for anything, ever. That said, I'd make the same call today and with more confidence than I did a month before election day. Fingers crossed on this one.

WA: McGavick v. Cantwell
Cantwell. And I'll use McGavick's incompetent attempt to get his skeletons out of the closet as an example of how not to inoculate voters against negative information in every political psychology class I teach until I retire.

Governors

AR: Hutchison v. Beebe
Beebe.

CA: Schwarzenegger v. Angelides
Schwarzenegger. Hell, if I lived in CA and could be reasonable sure Arnold 3.0 would stick around, I'd be tempted to vote for him.

IA: Nussle v. Culver
Culver.

MD: Ehrlich v. O'Malley
O'Malley, though with less confidence now than then.

MI: DeVos v. Granholm
Granholm, with more confidence now than then.

MN: Pawlenty v. Hatch v. Hutchinson
I think Pawlenty pulls it out, because I have no confidence in the DFL not to screw up a statewide race.

OH: Blackwell v. Strickland
Strickland. 'bye, Ken.

OR: Saxton v. Kulongoski
Kulongoski holds on.

PA: Swann v. Rendell
Rendell. Won't even be close.

RI: Carcieri v. Fogarty
Then: Fogarty. Now: Carcieri will squeak by.

SC: Sanford v. Moore
Sanford.

TX: Perry v. Bell v. Strayhorn v. Friedman
Included only for the novelty factor of Kinky Friedman. Perry.

WI: Green v. Doyle
Doyle hangs on.

House - This was a pretty nonscientific sampling of likely-to-be-close races.

CT-4: Shays v. Farrell
Farrell, more confidently now than then.

ID-1: Sali v. Grant
Grant, more confidently now than then.

IL-8: McSweeney v. Bean
Bean.

IN-2: Chocola v. Donnelly
The Count is out. Donnelly.

KY-4: Davis v. Lucas
Lucas.

MN-6: Bachman v. Wetterling
Bachman then, Bachman now, though I'm deeply unhappy about it. Wetterling couldn't capitalize on the Foley scandal hard enough to win this.

NC-11: Taylor v. Shuler
Shuler wins something for once. More confidence now than then.

NY-26: Reynolds v. Davis
I picked Davis at the height of Foley. Had I done more research, I would have found out that Davis is a 73-year-old ex-Republican who refuses to campaign or advertise. Reynolds holds on.

PA-7: Weldon v. Sestak
Crazy Curt is toast. And that's deeply satisfying on a personal level.

PA-10: Sherwood v. Carney
The Scranton Strangler is gone. Carney then, Carney now.

We'll see how I did Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Always remember (#2 in a series) ...

...it's funny when bad things happen to bad people.

Hey, Beavis, check this out!

I wonder if this traveling exhibit will be coming to town?

Airplane carry-on regulations, made by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Does this mean I can fucking bring my fucking shampoo onto a fucking airplane without having some fucking TSA goon paw through my fucking bag looking for contraband liquids, gels, and emulsions that can't blow up an airplane in the first place now?

1

Via TV Tattle comes news that Eddie Izzard has quit 24 after one day of filming. If this is a trend, can the annoying and pointless Eric Balfour quit next? What, were the producers thinking that there were so many unanswered questions and dangling plotlines from the handful of episodes his character was in during Season 1 that he had to be brought back to stave off a fan revolt?

Halloween at stately Matter-Eater Manor

1. Either I or She Who Must Be Obeyed says, "Frak! It's October 31st and we didn't buy any candy!"

2. The person who did not say, "Frak! It's October 31st and we didn't buy any candy!" runs outside to remove the bulb from the front porch light to deter trick-or-treaters.

3. Hide in the back part of the house to minimize any signs of life that might encourage trick-or-treaters.

Every. Damn. Year.

Two Georges

George Will on George Felix Allen:

...Allen, who makes no secret of finding life as a senator tedious, is fighting ferociously for another term, a fate from which his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, is close to rescuing him. As a result, Allen is dabbling in literary criticism. He has read, or someone has read for him, at least some of Webb's six fine novels, finding therein sexual passages that have caused Allen -- he of the football metaphors, cowboy regalia and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco -- to blush like a fictional Victorian maiden and fulminate like an actual Victorian man, Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of sin who successfully agitated for New York and federal anti-obscenity statutes and is credited with the destruction of 160 tons of naughty printed matter and pictures.

Webb, a highly decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam combat, includes sexual scenes in his fictional depictions of young men far from home and close to combat, something about which he knows a lot and Allen does not.