Something That's Been Bugging Me Most of This Long Weekend . . .

The thing that's been bugging me is the notion that the Palin nomination represents a "hail mary" from McCain.

I'm not going to dig up the specific citations of said analogy, it's been used in just about every MSM TV and news report about the introduction of the McCain-Palin ticket.

I have a problem with this, to suggest that this was a "hail mary" is to suggest that McCain is in a desparate situation, with little chance of success, and has to pull off a miracle play to win this 'game'. That's absurd, Obama isn't polling much ahead of McCain, and from Electoral College projections, neither candidate should really be considered a frontrunner at the moment. But media types are so in love with The One, that it's beyond their ken to even consider that McCain isn't doing that badly. Plus, a 'hail mary' is a desparation play at the end of a game or half, and most sane people haven't even begun to pay attention to the election yet, so we aren't at the end of this game. A better analogy might be an onside kick at the start of the second half while down by only a field goal. If successful, it's a potential game changer, and could create positive momentum that would put the opposing team on its heels (though if it fails, then your opponent has great field position).

If you must stick with passing analogies, though, I'm thinking this is more of a bread and butter play, not a last page of the playbook, only use in case of emergency type play. It's more of an adjustment made at halftime. The Obama camp managed to put pressure on with some blitzes, but the Palin play isn't a 'hail mary', it's more of an offensive adjustment where a fullback stays back to block, picks up the weak side blitzer , and the McCain QB has time and finds his best receiver isolated in man to man coverage on a simple corner route. They've scored a TD with this play, but the game's not won, yet.

The Palin pick is just one play, early in the 2nd half, we'll have to wait to see what happens over the next 8 weeks to see which side has to resort to a 'hail mary' to try and keep things close.

Which reminds me, time to start making some humiliating picks, again, I've missed my weekly humiliation, an early humiliating preview, though, The Superbowl Champs will miss the playoffs this season, you heard it hear first (OK, after all the injuries, maybe not first, more like thirty-seventh, most likely, you'd have to be nuts to predict that they'll make the playoffs this season).