The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Sic Transit Jacksonville Airport

Posted on | February 1, 2012 | 4 Comments

JACKSONVILLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Fla.
Dan Balz drifted out of the Champions sports bar adjacent to the Tampa Marriott last night just as I was heading in to order a cheeseburger.

“Whaddya think?” I said.

“Good night for Romney,” he said.

And that was really all that could be said. There was no drama, no suspense, no surprise in Tuesday’s result, and yet I had to deliver a column about this tedious Florida primary for The American Spectator.

We were standing there discussing this when a man recognized Balz. “Hey, you look familiar,” the guy said. “Where do I know you from?”

Dan Balz, Washington Post, semi-famous, because he occasionally shows up on TV shows talking about politics. Whereas, by contrast, I’m kind of an obscure cult figure, known by a comparative handful of right-wing political junkies on the Internet. Less notorious than Charles Manson, but perhaps slightly better known than whoever plays center field for the Houston Astros, unless you’re from Houston or a baseball fan.

There was no time to think about such stuff last night. I got my burger and a Corona and went out to the patio of the Marriott — next to the canal, underneath the palms in the warm Florida breeze — to finish my column.  There was very little in the way of Final Wisdom:

Mitt Romney scored an impressive victory in Tuesday’s Florida primary, winning by such a decisive margin that the networks called the race as soon as the polls closed. And his choice of this city as the site of his celebration was not accidental.
‘When we gather back here seven months from now here in Tampa for our convention, we will be a united party with a winning ticket for America,” the former Massachusetts governor said in his victory speech at the Convention Center downtown. Saying that Democrats believed the tough fight for the GOP nomination would leave Republicans “divided and weak,” Romney said, “A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us.”
Romney’s appeals to party unity surely rang hollow to supporters of Newt Gingrich, who was on the receiving end of a weeklong barrage of attack ads from Romney’s campaign and the Florida winner’s so-called “super PAC,” Restore Our Future. Between the two entities, Team Romney spent something like $17 million on TV and radio ads in Florida, compared to about $5 million spent by Gingrich and the pro-Gingrich “super PAC,” Winning Our Future. The vast majority of the ads by both camps were of the attack variety, and media analyst Ken Goldstein pronounced it “the most negative campaign ever.” . . .

Read the whole thing. There is lots more I could say about this trip, but they’ve just called final boarding and, as usual, there simply isn’t enough time to do what I would like to do. Because I’m still “Not Good Enough for BlogCon.” And probably never will be.





Category: Fear and Loathing in the Sunshine State

Comments

4 Responses to “Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Sic Transit Jacksonville Airport”

  1. Adjoran
    February 1st, 2012 @ 3:33 pm

    Hey, I’d trade Dan Balz, an undisclosed amount of cash, and two players to be named later for you and Jordan Schafer (the Pride of Hammond, Indiana) any day!

    If Balz is such a celebrity, maybe I can even keep the cash – things are tight these days (but it’s Obamarriffic!  – please don’t beat me with the race card).

    Are you sure they didn’t just mistake him for a contestant on Fear Factor?   He does look like the sort of guy you’d finding swallowing donkey semen on a dare at a frat house . . .

  2. Tr_sterling
    February 1st, 2012 @ 8:13 pm

    Ah yes, a putative line from Animal House (or was it American Graffiti?)  better to be “semi-famous than semi-turgid.”  Stacy, you have a knack for something (just not sure what exactly?).

  3. richard mcenroe
    February 1st, 2012 @ 11:42 pm

    Never mind that crap!  The IMPORTANT question: did The Shirt make it through TSA?!

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