I guess one might call the weekend that just left us a rather dull one. Well, not really. It was nice weather for local people who don't like shoveling. But for outdoor lovers it might have been another in a long string of disappointments. Imagine, temperatures in the 40s in the first full weekend of January. I understand that if skiers wanted to travel just a wee bit, some of the mountain slopes were open for skiing. Many, probably most, entrepreneurs who rely on winter weather continue to struggle, though.
This week has started off right about in the same conditions. There is a chance, we're told, of a storm later in the week, possibly Thursday, but you know the old familiar phrase: It depends on the track. We could get some precipitation, most likely rain in our part of Maine, or that storm could miss us altogether. We'll see.
We weren't disappointed in the blanket coverage of the New Hampshire Primary election which will be held Tuesday. The Republicans were involved in two debates within just a few hours of each other over the weekend. Believe it or not, I watched one of them.
That one was the agenda-driven NBC David Gregory Meet The Press/Mitt Romney show. I suspect you've seen here a few times in the past what my opinion is of David Gregory as a moderator. He lived up to my expectation Sunday morning. It might be interesting to see how much time was given to Mitt Romney, the front-runner, compared to the other candidates. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich also had a pretty good share of the 90 minutes. The others were given a chance to express themselves occasionally.
Romney was a target for the others throughout the debate but on several occasions he did hold his own. Unfortunately, I never heard just how each of them would work to bring together the huge split in government in Washington or just what their plans were to fix our economy, get businesses to create more jobs, to fix the housing crisis, to meet the challenges in foreign countries.
I would like to see the six candidates debate the issues and show me how they differ in leading the United States. The name calling and bringing up, for the umpteenth time, long gone issues does nothing to grow the Republican Party and give us a reason to make a much needed change in Washington.
I'll probably end up following the advice of my Fearless Friend: in November, go the voting booth, hold my nose very tightly, and make my mark for whoever is the Republican candidate. I had said a while back that I might just not vote, but that would be a mistake. I always remember a saying on a sign at the Portland Boys' Club (long before it was the Boys' and Girls' Club): A winner never quits and a quitter never wins.
New Hampshire will be over Tuesday. Then we'll have to go through it all again in another couple of weeks. Perhaps by then there'll be a dropout or two from the six remaining candidates.
Monday night also brings the last college football game of the season. LSU and Alabama duke it out for the National Championship. Or do they? The AP news service doesn't participate in the Bowl Series championship selection. Even though the AP usually selects the same team as the winner of the National Championship game, it isn't a given. I've read of some unrest among the AP voters that Oklahoma State should have played LSU in this game. After all, they say, the Tigers have already beaten UA once this season. If Alabama wins, the AP could vote for Oklahoma State giving us dual national champs. I doubt it'll happen, though. (If you're reading this Tuesday, you probably already know.)
I remember, and I bet most of you do also, when we only had a handful of bowl games, all of which ended the season on New Year's Day when all but one or two of them were played. Attendance was down this year for the bowl games which could be the result of the economy but more likely it was the number of games. We had 35, yes, 35 college football bowl games this season. Too darn many teams created many really lousy pair ups and many scores showed that. Perhaps that's a reason why attendance was down this year.
I should acknowledge the college season isn't fully over. There remain a couple of senior showcase games to give N-F-L hopefuls a last chance to show off their skills before draft day. I rarely watch these kind of games in any sport.
Gator
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