What's the big deal with the Tour de France?
by JohnHuang2
Have you been watching the Tour de France? I have. I seriously debated whether or not I would at first, though. Some say it's boring, dull, monotonous -- but that's all part of the excitement, they say. Yet, how can you not watch it? Gee whiz, it's all over the news -- broadcast, cable, print, you name it. Saturation coverage all the way. Can you believe this? On the cover of major magazines, you'll find the Tour de France, or something about the Tour de France. On the evening news, it's the Tour de France. On the radio, it's the Tour de France. Even my local paper surrendered whole sections to the Tour de France without a fight.
Nope, there's no avoiding the Tour de France. Frankly, I still don't know what the big deal is. Do you? I mean, take Day 1 of the Tour de France -- when French sprinter John Kerry introduced teammate and fellow Frenchie sprinter, John Edwards. Did you see it? The teammates smiled, opened their arms wide and warmly embraced. Then, pulling apart (always the hardest part), they hung one arm around each other, waving at the crowd with the other. Then it was back to hugging again, as the two Middle Class Millionaires try to show there's a Middle Class Squeeze. Kerry said "I can't tell you how proud I am to have John Edwards" in my arms, er, "on my team." (Edwards, despite his working-class background as an ambulance-chaser, looks quite boyish. So boyish, it's enough to make Michael Jackson envy Kerry).
The announcement got the full Monica -- wall-to-wall glowing, fawning, suck-up coverage. John and John -- the celebrated Tour de Francers -- have since been all the rage at CNN. And MSNBC. And ABC. And NBC. Their toadies at CBS on Sunday gave them "60 Minutes". At New York's Radio City Music Hall last week, the running mates were making whoopee with scores of adoring fans -- real heart and soul of America types like Jessica Lange. (Afterward, geriactress Whoopi Goldberg crowed that she refused to let anyone clean her material up. In fact, the aging has-been hasn't had a bath in months. And that filthy mouth of hers. Made me think she'd been living in the bushes). Other speakers called Bush "a cheap thug," (Hollywood prefers their thugs more refined), "a liar," a "murderer." ("Hi, I'm John Kerry, and I approve this message!" said Kerry at the end of the evening. What else happened at the fundraiser? I haven't been briefed yet. They have offered to brief me; I just haven't had time). After Whoopi spoke, someone shouted, 'You go, Girl!' (but it was aimed at John Edwards).
All in all, quite a send off. Yet, has the rush of media cheerleading helped the teammates much where it matters most -- on the track? Analysts expected Kerry would get a substantial bounce in his sprint from the Edwards selection. Has it? Not as much as those who closely watch these contests had expected. Not even close. After making their move, Team *Kedwards* should have pulled away by 10 points or more, taking command of the race. Instead, the U.S. team, Bush/Cheney, is still hot on their trail. Their track performance thus far suggests team *Kedwards* would have an easier time winning if the team were replaced. Should Edwards dump Kerry? Makes no difference. Already the butt of jokes, Edwards is Amateur Hour -- the classic empty skirt.
Though signs of fatigue are not uncommon in the first week of the race, Kedwards has shown more than the usual amount, even from Day 1 (July 7), when Bush/Cheney still led by two points, 47%-45% (Rasmussen Reports), this despite the initial burst of favorable publicity and terrain which favors a breakaway for Kedwards. And though fatigue tends to fade as racers adapt to the pressure, Kedwards is showing just the opposite -- worrisome signs of growing fatigue, long before the far more challenging climbing stages of the contest. The daily grind, involving hundreds of racing miles, already is taking its toll on Kedwards. In contrast, Bush/Cheney barely break out a sweat (and Cheney's the guy with the heart condition?) Racers must be careful to feed themselves properly, too. An average stump speech requires at least 200 grams of carbohydrates per hour, with the body able to provide fuel for up to 4 hours of speech-making before depleting energy reserves. For greater endurance, racers can replenish carbohydrate by up to 80 grams per hour while delivering the speech.
Day 2 saw the race even up, 46%-46%, but still no signs of the promised Kedwards surge -- no breakaway, mostly humdrum racing, till early afternoon. In a spectacular move, Bush, asked how Cheney stacks up against Edwards, billed as "charming" and "sexy," easily whittled Edwards down to size, retorting: "Dick Cheney can be President." Those five thundering words suddenly shook up the race, sending Team Edwards crashing to the tarmac. Baffled, flummoxed, taken aback, Kerry came massively unglued, accusing Bush, who was campaigning in North Carolina, of "just attacking everyone." Then it was Day 3, with still few hints of any major headway in the battle for first place. At this point, instead of bursting past Bush/Cheney, Kedwards struggles to keep a 1-point lead, 47%-46%, as the team fends off charges of bawdy talk at their gala in New York while controversy brewed over remarks by Kerry on Larry King Live about passing up a security brief. "I haven't been briefed yet, Larry," said Kerry the night before. "They offered to brief me; I just haven't had time." Then, later in the day, came the Senate Intelligence Committee report on intelligence flaws, which uncovered intelligence flaws. The bombshell report, written almost entirely by Sen. Rockefeller, found no flaws in Rockefeller's intelligence and concluded that, despite the 12-year U.S. Rush-To-War, with its element of surprise, no WMD have been found, proving that Saddam (what's he ever done?) was innocent. (Saddam hid whole planes in the sand, so there's no way he'd hide vials of anthrax). Kedwards seized on the report as evidence Bush tricked them into voting for war and as underscoring why you need smart people like Kedwards in the White House.
On Day 4, Team Bush/Cheney again had Kedwards over a barrel, this time over the issue of gay marriage, with the Senate set to vote on a Constitutional Amendment affirming marriage as a union between, say, David and Cindy, and not John and John. In his Saturday morning weekly radio address Bush noted that "This difficult debate was forced upon our country by a few activist judges and local officials, who have taken it on themselves to change the meaning of marriage." Team Kedwards shot back, saying it's okay for two consenting adults to redefine marriage, so long as they do it in the privacy of the courts. Kedwards say they oppose gay marriage and oppose a Constitutional Amendment opposing gay marriage because gay marriage should be decided by the states which would be forced to accept gay marriage without a Constitutional Amendment (glad we got that cleared up).
Days 5 through 7 saw yet more evidence of fatigue in the Kedwards camp, as the battle for first place tightened considerably, with Bush/Cheney narrowing -- then erasing -- the Kedwards lead, according to a new Washington Post Poll, which has the race tied, 46%-46%. "The survey found that 55 percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism, up five points in the past three weeks," the Post reports, with Bush beating Kerry, 51%-42%, on the question of whom Americans trust to deal with terrorism. "Three weeks ago, the two were tied on this crucial voting issue." The fact that this is a poll of registered voters -- not likely voters -- suggests Bush/Cheney may have already jumped into a narrow lead on the tricky uphill roads through CBS/NBC/ABC/MSNBC/CNN et al.
With just under four months to the finished line, Bush, kicking off a 2-day sprint of 3 Midwestern states on Tuesday, kept the pressure on Kedwards, still smarting from that nasty fall on Day 2. Bush ripped Kerry for bragging that he voted against the $87 billion in reconstruction aid, noting that "members of Congress should not vote to send troops into battle and then vote against funding them, and then brag about it." Fearing Bush is about to pull an ambitious breakaway in the race, grabbing the lead decisively as the contest moves to the climbing stages, Team Kedwards battled back, saying the reason Kedwards voted against the $87 billion is because Kerry served in Vietnam and Bush didn't, plus Bush hasn't released all his National Guard service records. Kerry also blamed the raunchy talk at the gala on Cheney, saying Cheney made them do it when Cheney used the F-word the other day.
Losing momentum and desperate for attention, Kedwards made public their scheduled list of speakers for the convention later this month, the theme of which will be, 'Stronger at home, respected in the world, especially by the French.' Who will deliver the Keynote scream? Stay tuned!
Anyway, that's...
My two cents.. "JohnHuang2"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
