Senate Stuff

 You know, I sort of like the new J! format for the college championship.  36 players instead of 15?  Sounds good.  Twelve games -- an extra hour of J! per night -- what could be better?  Win or go home?  Ok, not too bad; I mean, it takes the strategery out of the equation for betting, but who doesn't love winning? Again, it's different but it is good.

The problem, though, is the set up for the finals... the twelve semifinal players play a game, which gives you four winners...but only three move on to the finals; the lowest scorer gets to say behind.  This, to me, is ridiculous, as...what's the point of playing, and winning, if you can't go on?  I mean, a game with three competitive players might lead to a lower score -- say, if everyone gets $10K or so, while someone else pulls an Amy and gets $40k?  What about a triple stumper?  I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out a system that gets three players into the finals.

https://www.axios.com/modern-republican-party-primary-trump-gop-d445dd51-adfc-469e-b1dd-5d6b25118bc7.html?utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_daily202&stream=top

Interesting.  I am not sure I agree with all of this, but I think a lot of this is close enough.  Is this good for the GOP?  I think so...you don't want ossification; change is good.  I think new party players is a sign of growth, as you are open to new ideas and theories.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ohio-s-senate-race-is-a-trump-era-tragedy/ar-AATv23L?li=BBnbcA1

Is it?  Maybe.  I mean, I liked the guy, and I think he is a good candidate, but if he couldn't break through... some of that is on him, given that there are so many other candidates running.  I used to joke that I don't think car dealers are quite the profession I would look to for politics, and it seems the GOPers of Ohio would agree.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/07/jd-vance-warning-ohio-senate-race-00006310

This could be me, but....JD isn't on the air, and he doesn't seem to be online, either, and that's a problem (his competitors are).  There is still time, but I don't necessarily think being against Trump is the issue.  It's not so much the message but the lack of messaging...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22912353/democracy-united-states-douthat-beauchamp-debate

Interesting; I liked how Douthat parried Beauchamp's thrusts; more like swatting down paranoia or worst-case scenarios.  One thing I thought of was that we did have one-party dominance from 1933 to 1947; Democrats pretty much ran the show -- and the Presidency til 1953 -- and I don't recall GOPers trying to figure out ways to re-do much of the Constitution; they passed the 22nd Amendment, but other than that...they just found a candidate who could win.  Crazy talk.