Under the Fedora Ryan Pesky and Fischer

The big news this week was Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan for the GOP ticket

I had predicted Tim Pawlenty would be the pick and was generally surprised that Ryan got the call.  It was a pick that at first glance was Atypical.  Ryan is not what could be considered a “safe” pick and Mitt Romney is the quintessential safe poll.

But the more you think about it the Paul Ryan pick makes a lot of sense if you think of Mitt Romney as a CEO who is looking to solve a problem and hiring staff to do so.

Paul Ryan brings all the tools Mitt Needs most, familiarity with both the budget process and with the house.  If you are out to fix the country’s budget and deficit issues there was no VP candidate that can come close to Ryan in terms of qualifications.

It’s been suggested that Paul Ryan is going to make Mitt Romney a better campaigner.  I really didn’t think it would be the case until I saw this story from Stacy McCain out of Ohio.

The speech itself was awesome. I’d already heard Mitt speak twice earlier today — first at a coal mine in Beallsville and then in downtown Zanesville — and parts of the speech were already familiar. But I noticed Mitt was reading from a teleprompter at the Chillicothe event, so this particular speech was prepared in advance. But given the content, including references to the “wild and reckless accusations . . . a few hours ago in Virginia,” it was obvious that it had been updated quite recently.

At several points, Mitt was interrupted by cheers and applause, and at times the crowd broke into chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” or “USA! USA! USA!” The candidate was fired up and the crowd was fired up, and it was very exciting to be there with my 13-year-old son Jefferson. Afterwards, as we left, I talked briefly to a National Correspondent Whose Name You Would Recognize and said, “Great speech, huh?”

The correspondent replied: “He wrote it himself, you know.”

So I guess the Ryan pick is reallying paying off if it makes Mr. Mitt a good campaigner

Oh Stacy McCain in on  yet another shoe leather reporting trip, nobody does it better.

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On the other side of the coin Joe Biden has become a gaffe machine.  His latest is getting the century wrong.

Now you and I know this is a little thing but can you imagine the media reaction if  this had been Sarah Palin?  It would be proof of incompetence and the MSM would never let the narrative go, EVAH.

Actually we don’t have to imagine we saw the media in 2008 and to this day I still meet the uninformed who thinks Palin is some kind of dunce.

A much more serious gaffe was Biden’s was the “back in chains” business that prompted this exchange on Morning Joe: (via the MRC)

WILLIE GEIST: It has to be said that if Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate, said that to an African-American audience —

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh my Lord.

GEIST: — there would be calls this morning for him to get out of the race; for Mitt Romney to withdraw from the race. There’s a double-standard [inaudible].

JOE SCARBOROUGH: The New York Times would have it on the front page; they’d be writing huge editorials. Everybody–everybody!–watching this show would be calling him a racist and say that this is the most obscene thing ever, but it’s the double-standard we live by.

Just a reminder, Morning Joe is on MSNBC and this is being said aloud.

If you wonder why I watch Morning Joe religiously it’s because every now and then, they speak basic truths that would normally not be said to the MSNBC audience.  It is for that reason one of the single most important shows on Television.

And they’re right, it Ryan had done this there would be denunciation from the NAACP, Al Shaprton would be marching, Jessie Jackson would be holding vigils and there would be no other story in the MSM until Ryan was gone.

But it doesn’t fit the template so no Sharpton march for Biden.

Come to think of it there has been a spate of shooting and killings in the Black Community in Boston and Al Sharpton hasn’t shown his face to march or call for justice but then again there is no way to exploit these shootings politically so they don’t matter to Al or the MSM.

So what if innocent black women are shot in Boston, it’s not as if someone was trying to open a Chick-Fil-A in the city.

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Speaking of shootings and Chick Fil-A A volunteer for LGBT groups tried to pass himself off as an intern at the Family Research Council’s DC location (complete with Chick-Fil-A bag) and get into the building.  A security guard didn’t fall for it and took a bullet for his trouble.  The Gunman justified his actions over the FRC’s position on Gay Marriage and in the hours before the attack (and even after) the left was going after FRC as a “hate” group.

Somehow our friends on the left don’t see a connection, certainly not the same connection they saw on Sarah Palin’s Target Map.

You see it’s what you believe that matters not what you do, I suspect the primary reason so many on the left  are angry is because it makes their side look bad.  But there are a fair amount who haven’t slowed down one bit.

As for the media that was so quick to look for a right wing connection to other shootings, they didn’t find this story very newsworthy.  MSNBC gave it all of 17 seconds according to Newsbusters and  CNN took two hours to report it.  I guess it took that long for the e-mail from Talking Points Memo to arrive.

Do I really need to say how CNN/MSNBC et/al would have covered this if the attacker was a tea party member and the target advocates for Gay Marriage?  I guess the whole “If it bleeds it leads” doesn’t apply if the blood is on the right and shed by the left.

Some baseball;  Johnny Pesky has died at the age of 92.  He was one of the most beloved Red Sox players of all time, he played with and against some of the greatest players who have ever played the game and has been a fixture with the Red Sox for decades as player manager, coach and more. When he had the chance to hold up the World Series Trophy it was one of the great moments for the franchise.

Many people forget that Pesky “held the ball” a tad long allowing Enos Slaughter to score from first to win the 1946 World Series for St. Louis, as you might guess that was not one of his finest moments with the club but time and his winning was cured this.

Pesky had a monster first year in the majors but like most players of his era lost several years due to military service.  Today the idea of any athlete choosing the military when he could be making millions is almost unheard of but to Johnny Pesky and his ilk that was no big deal

Another big baseball story Felix Hernandez pitched a perfect game 27 up, 27 down, the first ever for Seattle on Wednesday blanking Tampa Bay 1-0 .  It was the one bright spot in an otherwise lousy season for the team.

What makes this 23^rd ever perfect game special to me is it took place in August, before the rosters expand.  It is much more common to see no hitters etc in April when the players are cold or Sept when the rosters are dotted with Minor Leagues being tested.

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Some film.  The Expendables 2 comes out on Friday and Already the talk of the new additions for Expendables 3 is out there

And you thought The Expendables 2 had every big-name action film star… Just wait for The Expendables 3. Without a firm agreement from Lionsgate that a third installment will even go forward—although a successful opening on Aug. 17 of the sequel could solidify that move quickly—producer Avi Lerner is already lining up new names. Big new names.

The first signed on to join the ever-growing list of stars in The Expendables franchise is Nicolas Cage. And Lerner has other offers on the table, as reported by Total Film, to Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Mickey Rourke and even the jailed Wesley Snipes (he is scheduled for a July 2013 release from prison, which could work out just swell for filming of the new movie).

Cripes, do they plan on cloning John Wayne and giving him a cameo too?  Actually his son Patrick is still around and he’s done some of this kind of thing.

Finally a story on my blog about a fellow named Matt Fischer got a ton of attention.  He had a problem with Progressive Insurance over the death claim for his sister and his story went viral.   On my own site it is easily one of my top 6 posts of all time.

Progressive is a company with billions in assets Mr. Fischer is one guy with a blog, but it will take more than clever commercials staring Flo to undo the damage their bungling of his sister’s claim has done.

Sam Colt may have made men equal in the 1800’s but the internet has made them even more so today.

See you next week.