The Carter Handicap

In thoroughbred racing a track official, most often the track’s racing secretary, assigns the weights to each horse in a handicap race. The goal is to bring every horse to the wire at the same time. The 1944 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct ended in a triple dead when Bossuet (127 lbs), Wait A Bit (118 lbs) and Brownie (115 lbs), finished as one.

Of course, horse racing is a physical thing; the horse whose nose crosses the wire first is the winner. In political races close is a dead heat everywhere except in betting parlors. Were I asked to draw a political cartoon of the finish in Iowa, I would show three noses on the wire; Romney’s, Santorum’s, and Paul’s.

To continue the analogy, the media played the racing secretary in Iowa, except that it assigned the weights so one horse would win. Romney was the morning line favorite. Gingrich and Santorum were carded for place and show in no particular order. The rest of them were given high weights so they would not be in photo at the finish.

As it turned out Ron Paul was in the picture at the end while Gingrich finished a distant fourth. The media is not happy about it, but they can live with it. And there is still plenty of time to pile weight on Ron Paul while taking some weight off of Gingrich.

Economically speaking, they must be drinking champagne in every TV newsroom and talk show. Filling air time between commercials is always the primary goal, as well as the curse, of television. The triple dead heat in Iowa gives them so much to talk about it’s like having a great financial burden lifted from their backs from now until the nominating convention. After the Republicans have a candidate the talk about the general election begins. All things considered the boys and girls in television are breathing easy as far as income goes. There is enough talk to keep them all busy for quite some time.

Naturally, I am disappointed in Michele Bachmann’s finish although she is not quitting. The racing secretary gave her so much weight to carry in Iowa she was lucky to get the number of votes she did get. Still, there is a good chance she can win some primaries when voters understand more about Romney and Santorum. In any event, if one of my choices does not get the nomination, I will do a write-in, or stay home, on November 6, 2012.

Parenthetically, I just do not see how Iowa’s voters went for Santorum. It’s next to impossible for an incumbent US Senator to lose his or her seat, but Santorum managed it in Pennsylvania. I know all about his so-called conservative credentials; nevertheless, I will never trust anybody from the Senate, especially a guy who was there for 12 years. If Hussein, Biden, and Clinton are not enough to earn your distrust check the records of long-serving Republican Senators who helped America slide toward the domestic and foreign policy messes it is in today, not to mention the people they voted to confirm for influential positions.

One final thought. The only way media mouths can get in trouble with their paymasters is for a candidate like Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, or even non-candidate Sarah Palin, get the nomination in an open convention. The odds are prohibitive to be sure, but in real horse racing favorites only win 33 percent of the time on average. It would be great if political races were reduced to the same percentage.

 

Now I can stop paying attention all together. I just learned that Michele Bachmann dropped out. That leaves Ron Paul standing between Hussein and another establishment Republican chosen by the media. I feel sorry for Paul now that he is the media’s sole target.

 

He's a Big Boy now, and it's an Adult Game.

You have the Stones to be in Politics or or you watch from the Cheer-leading seats.

 

To Cigar: First choice: Don’t watch at all. Second choice: Not as a cheerleader if you do watch.

 

I'm talkin about the Jimmy !