Shots in the Dark

Well, that caught your eye, didn’t it?

Here’s a Times of London story on the aforementioned topic, and how can you not love an article with the following lede:

I am often asked if the Olympic village - the vast restaurant and housing conglomeration that hosts the world’s top athletes for the duration of the Games - is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is always the same: too right it is.

Read on, Macduff!

…names Harvard #1 in its annual list of best colleges, followed by Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and CalTech. Apparently Harvard rose in the rankings by reducing class size so that 3/4 of the college’s classes have fewer than 20 students.

Hmmm. I’m a little suspicious of that. A better indicator, IMHO, would be how many classes taught by full professors have under 20 students.

Be that as it may, the #1 ranking caps off what has, at least on the surface, been a very successful year for Harvard’s new president.

It’s been a tough week, so let’s have a little more zen, shall we?

“But seriously, I don’t think you can — I don’t think seriously that — the point is that I’m trying to make here, seriously — and I’m sure that comment will be distorted — but the point is that we want to keep people’s taxes low and increase revenues.”

John McCain, speaking to the Rev. Rick Warren, after defining “rich” as someone with $5 million.

Actually, he doesn’t know. When a reporter asked him that question, McCain stammered and said, “I’ll have my staff get [back] to you….”

The correct answer appears to be seven….

The New York Sun reports that Larry Summers has been quietly giving economic advice to Barack Obama.

In one of his first appearances as a campaign surrogate, the former Treasury secretary last week touted Mr. Obama’s proposals and rebutted charges from Republicans that his plan for tax and spending increases would damage the economy.

Mr. Summers’s participation on the conference call drew little notice, and that was fine by the Obama campaign. In the two years since he resigned as president of Harvard amid a faculty revolt, Mr. Summers has made a relatively seamless transition back into the upper ranks of Democratic economic scholars.

But in a political environment where sensitivities surrounding race and gender have rarely seemed more acute, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Summers’s widely criticized remarks about women at Harvard will hamper his chances for a Cabinet-level appointment.

Some women are already warning Mr. Obama against giving Mr. Summers a high-profile role during the campaign….

…”If Obama is trying to court women, particularly women from Hillary’s camp, he should be wary of using Larry Summers as a surrogate. It would potentially cause concerns and hesitation,” the vice chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, Shireen Mitchell, said. “It’s a concern that Obama needs to take seriously.”

However one feels about Larry Summers and what he said about innate aptitude, this stance seems absurd. If you believe that what he said was a legitimate attempt to explain a problem, then clearly there’s no problem with him giving advice to the Democrats’ presidential candidate.

And if you strongly disagreed with Summers’ remarks, what more could you ask of the man? He’s apologized about a million times. Do we truly believe in drumming a man out of public life forever because of one comment? As Randy Matory, a vehement Summers critic back in the day, says in the article, “I would not wish to pre-judge Mr. Summers’s contributions, because we all live and learn.”

Supporters say Mr. Summers’s comments at Harvard obscured a strong record on issues related to women. He appointed the first woman dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan, and long before that, as chief economist at the World Bank, he pushed aggressively for increased investment in the education of girls in developing countries.

Well, let’s not get carried away. Kagan came pretty late in the day, and the declining numbers of women receiving tenure during the Summers’ years was a real concern.

Summers gets an old ally to back him up: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, formerly Summers’ chief of staff at Treasury.

Here is Sheryl Sandberg’s Facebook photo:

“He is a big believer and proponent of women, and I think that is why he was talking about the subject in the first place,” a former chief of staff under Mr. Summers at the Treasury Department who now serves as chief operating officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, said. Ms. Sandberg, a Harvard graduate who studied under Mr. Summers, said he was instrumental in helping her start a student group for women in economics and government.”

Summers and Sandberg have a history of helping each other out. Remember that Sandberg was the Google exec in charge of campus outreach for that company’s library project, and that it was after a private meeting between her and Summers that Harvard librarian Sidney Verba instantly agreed that Harvard would participate in Google’s digitization process.

Here’s what Summers said to the Sun’s reporter:

Mr. Summers, in a brief telephone interview, declined to respond to the concerns women expressed about his role in the campaign. “I’ve just been happy to help the campaign when my advice has been sought,” he said.

Fair enough. But looking through the article, one gets the sense that Summers then went off the record or on background and pointed the reporter to his allies, Sandberg and former Clinton economic adviser Gene Sperling, for quote support.

The irony, of course, is that for liberals there are probably much more serious reasons to oppose Summers’ involvement in this campaign—namely, his track record at the Treasury Department.

Oh, and one aside: Can you imagine how insufferable and troglodytic a politically significant NOW would be in a Hillary Clinton administration? Yikes.

Guess who’s speaking at the GOP convention?

Old white guys!

Rudy Giuliani, Dick Cheney, Fred Thompson, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and, um, John McCain. As well as the odious, oleaginous, desperately power-seeking Joe Lieberman….

There are a couple women scheduled to speak, but looking through the list, I don’t see a single person of color.

One wonders if the Republican Party will give a speaking slot to, well, the president of the United States. Who also happens to be the most unpopular president in history.

No, that’s not Obama=Kennedy, that’s Obama-Kennedy. As in, running mates.

A friend just got this bizarre e-mail from filmmaker Michael Moore (he has an e-mail list) in which he urges Caroline Kennedy to “pull a Cheney” and nominate herself to be Barack Obama’s v-p pick.

IMHO, it’s a terrible idea. So will it be Biden, Bayh, or Kaine?

My guess? Biden, on the basis of the foreign policy experience. But if that’s right, it could be interesting; Joe Biden has been to known to stick his foot in it every now and again….
>Dear Caroline,
>We’ve never met, so I hope you don’t find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public’s business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would’ve had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.
>Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.
>The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They’re all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don’t invade countries that pose no threat to us.
>Senators Biden and Bayh voted for that invasion and that war, the war Barack ran against, the war Barack reminded us was the big difference between him and Senator Clinton because she voted for the war and he spoke out against it while running for Senate (a brave and bold thing to do back in 2002).
>For Obama to place either of these senators on the ticket would be a huge blow to the millions that chose him in the primaries over Hillary. He will undercut one of the strongest advantages he has over the Hundred-Year War senator, Mr. McCain. By anointing a VP who did what McCain did in throwing us into this war, Mr. Obama will lose the moral high ground in the debates.
>As for Governor Kaine of Virginia, his big problem is, well, Obama’s big problem — who is he? The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome — and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle — is that too many of the voters simply don’t know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback. Too many Americans, who on the surface seem to like Barack Obama, just don’t feel comfortable voting for someone who hasn’t been on the national scene very long. It’s a comfort level thing, and it may be just what keeps Obama from winning in November (“I’d rather vote for the devil I know than the devil I don’t know”).
>What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we’ve known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.
>That person, Caroline, is you.
>I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: “OBAMA-KENNEDY.”
>Caroline, I know that nominating yourself is the furthest idea from your mind and not consistent with who you are, but there would be some poetic justice to such an action. Just think, eight years after the last head of a vice presidential search team looked far and wide for a VP — and then picked himself (a move topped only by his hubris to then lead the country to near ruin while in office) — along comes Caroline Kennedy to return the favor with far different results, a vice president who helps restore America to its goodness and greatness.
>Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl.
>The nation has, remarkably (considering our fascination with celebrity), left you alone and let you live your life in peace. (It’s like, long ago, we all collectively agreed that, with her father tragically gone, a man who died because he wanted to serve his country, we would look out for her, we would wish for her to be happy and well, and we would have her back. But we would let her be.)
>Now, I am breaking this unwritten code and asking you to come forward and help us in our hour of need. So many families are hurting, losing their homes, going bankrupt with health care bills, seeing their public schools in shambles and living with this war without end. This is a historic year for women, from Hillary’s candidacy to the numerous women running for the House and Senate. This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!).
>This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it! And Barack, if you’re reading this, you probably know that she is far too humble and decent to nominate herself. So step up and surprise us again. Step up and be different than every politician we have witnessed in our lifetime. Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Do it for all those reasons. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. “Obama-Kennedy.” Wow, does that sound so cool.
>Caroline, thanks for letting me intrude on your life. How wonderful it will be to have a vice president who will respect the Constitution, who will support (instead of control) her president, who will never let her staff out a CIA agent, and who will never tell her country that she is “currently residing in an undisclosed location.”
>Say it one more time: “OBAMA-KENNEDY.” A move like that might send a message to the country that the Democrats would actually like to win an election for once.
>Yours,
>Michael Moore
>[email protected]
>MichaelMoore.com

Red Sox icon Carl Yastrzemski underwent triple bypass surgery yesterday.

“The surgery was a complete success, and he’s resting comfortably,” said Yastrzemski’s spokesman, Dick Gordon.

I’m sorry to hear that Yaz required the operation, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Once a heavy beer drinker, Yaz has chain-smoked since he was a young man. When I interviewed him in Fort Myers, Florida, at spring training in 2007, we spoke for about 45 minutes, maybe an hour, during which time he smoked about six cigarettes…..

I had to find Yaz on the outskirts of town, at the minor-league training camp, because he prefers to work with minor leaguers on the basis that they need more coaching and that the major leaguers are so rich they’re not much interested in learning from old-timers like him. It was a little intimidating, interviewing Yastrzemski. He’s slightly reclusive, pretty curmudgeonly, and knows more about baseball than I could know if I devoted the rest of my life to trying to catch up. That notwithstanding, I liked him very much. He struck me as honest, reflective, and funny. His love of the Red Sox, and former owner Tom Yawkey in particular, was manifest. Plus, he is a connection to a past that is gone now, and I don’t mean the Red Sox past; Yaz grew up on the south fork of Long Island the son of a potato farmer. How beautiful those Long Island towns must have been back then, before they were filled with Range Rovers and McMansions, when a middle-class family of Polish immigrants could make a decent living farming potatoes and Yaz, a little boy, would practice swinging by collecting a bushel of rocks, hitting them with his bat, then picking them up and starting over…

Here’s hoping that Yastrzemski’s operation was indeed a complete success.

A friend of a friend has created some cool (pro-) Obama (prObama?) t-shirts. Check ’em out.