Patterico's Pontifications

7/11/2014

Everything Is Coming Up Cleveland!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:43 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Untitled-1

Cleveland scored this week in big news.

First, former Cleveland Cavalier and basketball whiz LeBron James announced that he will be leaving the Miami Heat to return to the Cavaliers, the first team he played for in the NBA.

“When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission,” James said in the Sports Illustrated first-person story. “I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn’t had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio.”

Four years ago, fans burned his jersey when he left for Florida, but apparently all is forgiven.

For LeBron James, who as an 18 year old signed a 7 year $90 million deal with Nike, life is looking pretty good. He is the favorite son returning home, and on top of that, his Nike LeBron 12 will be hitting the shelves in October, 2014. Price for one pair? $200!

Second, it was announced that the 2016 Republican National Convention will be held in Cleveland.

Edging out Dallas, Ohio is obviously a key component in the party’s national strategy to win back the White House.

The RNC and Cleveland will hammer out the details, with a vote by Republican National Committee members in August.

Sen. Rob Portman was the force behind the push for Ohio. Not surprisingly, he has been contemplating a run in 2016 for some time:

“I’m not particularly eager to do it myself, and having been involved in six presidential campaigns, I know what it’s like,” he said in a recent interview in his Capitol office. “But if nobody running is able to win and willing to address these issues, then I might have a change of heart.”

Portman believes his roots in the swing-state, legislative and executive experience, and support for same-sex marriage (his views on it evolved after finding out his son was gay) would give him an edge in the field as well as garner him the favor of the Republican Party’s establishment. He knows who calls the shots.

And, how to win a national election? Well, according to Portman:

“To win a national election, we’ve got to work on fixing the Republican brand, and that’s what I’ve been working on,” Portman said. “We’ve got to be the party of ideas, not the party of no. . . . The Democrats have successfully mischaracterized Republicans in many instances, and that’s why Mitt Romney had a tough time winning Ohio. They called him a plutocrat without compassion.”

It kind of makes me wish Sin City would have won the bid. At least there would have been, you know, some sin to ease the pain…

Much more at the second link.

–Dana

69 Responses to “Everything Is Coming Up Cleveland!”

  1. (his views on it evolved after finding out his son was gay)

    wouldn’t yours?

    mine would

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  2. You know, happyfeet, no matter what my views on SSM were, I would love that son just as fiercely and fully as I had before finding out. Probably even more so. That’s just the kind of mom I am.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  3. i love you more than pickles but that doesn’t answer my question

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  4. Dana, what a great transition from sports to politics. I appreciate that.

    felipe (960c75)

  5. I guess if it were to change, then that would seem to be the time it would.

    I used evolved like that because I was thinking of the president’s politically convenient evolution on his views of SSM. I don’t necessarily believe Portman’s evolution was for the same reason, but I’ve become a bit cynical toward all politicians anymore…

    Dana (4dbf62)

  6. According to ThinkProgress, LeBron is moving from Miami to Cleveland to pay higher taxes. Yes, our intellectual superiors actually believe that!

    http://twitchy.com/2014/07/11/you-people-are-a-joke-thinkprogress-spin-on-lebron-james-move-to-cleveland-sparks-facepalms/

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  7. i’m on Team Scott Walker not Team Portman anyways

    but Mr. Portman isn’t the future any more than Jeb Bush is

    …but you knew this

    [btw you should click just to check out the discrepancy between url and actual hed]

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  8. btw you should click just to check out the discrepancy between url and actual hed

    Oh no!

    Dana (4dbf62)

  9. Cleveland Rocks!

    KB (561cb6)

  10. I can’t say nuthin’. My “Republican” Senator is Mark Kirk. At least Portman is doing his best to keep Rush Limbaugh’s tax rate low even if Rush will have to pay for his own oxycontin and little purple pill.

    nk (dbc370)

  11. happyfeet,

    I like Walker, too. A lot.

    Today:

    “I think anybody who is talking about 2016 is doing a disservice to the party and the nation for not focusing on 2014,” he said.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  12. Rush Limbaugh

    i was thinking the other day this whole googlegoogle self-driving car thing is for sure definitely not good for old Rush

    or anything else radio-related

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  13. i feel in my heart that victory 2014 still just gives us two more years of the political vocal stylings of Boehnerpoofter and McConnellwhore

    two drink minimum

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  14. oh you mean these mid-terms?

    i was saving those ones for a special occasion

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  15. At least Sen.Kirk is asking questions:

    After Republican Sen. Mark Kirk said Thursday that 429 unaccompanied minors from the Mexican border crisis were in Chicago and urged they undergo criminal background checks, he drew fire today from an immigrant-rights group and Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago.
    Jennifer Chan, with the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, said today that the children — the number of whom she declined to specify — were in “Chicagoland” shelters whose locations were not disclosed so as to protect the children’s safety and privacy. She would not say whether “Chicagoland” meant the city and its suburbs.“I think that Sen. Kirk is making a lot out of nothing,” she said, describing the long-standing shelters as secure. “It’s not something people should panic about. Children aren’t running loose on the streets or anything.
    “The children are in the secure custody of HHS. It’s not a detention setting; it’s a kid’s shelter. But they can’t just walk out the door.”
    Gutierrez reacted to Kirk’s statement with even sharper criticism, saying Kirk “should be ashamed of himself.”..“Rather than exploiting and demonizing children to score political points, how about the senator works with the president to solve a national problem?” Gutierrez asked.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-gutierrez-responds-to-kirk-remarks-on-immigrant-children-20140711,0,7406552.story
    Are you reassured?

    elissa (886016)

  16. 429?

    that is but a pale echo of the urchin tsunami

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  17. Do you know how far Chicago is from the border, feets? How many planes trains and automobiles must have been involved to sneak in these 429 people that nobody knew were here until yesterday? .

    elissa (886016)

  18. (his views on it evolved after finding out his son was gay)

    So if he found out his son had a common-law wife and another wife in a neighboring community, and they all knew about one another and were perfectly fine about it, should the father’s views therefore evolve on the issue of polygamy? Or wonder if the son was a swinger, and he, again, was involved with nothing but mutually consenting adults?

    Mark (8cacab)

  19. mucho planes y trains y automobiles?

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  20. ima thinkin’ “si”

    elissa (886016)

  21. a swinger

    do you have a jukebox in your rumpus room?

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  22. you know, today’s roaches are the most evolved ever.
    Same with drug resistant bacterial strains. Let’s celebrate!

    felipe (960c75)

  23. ok try again and say something even meaner

    i believe in you

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  24. “ok try again and say something even meaner

    i believe in you”

    Repeat while gazing into a mirror until you feel better. But you knew that already.

    felipe (960c75)

  25. that was scathing like how sometimes marie callender’s pot pies are just too damn hot

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  26. When I want to feel better, I read a Robert E. Howard story. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1303981h.html

    Since I stopped drinking, anyway.

    nk (dbc370)

  27. well jesus Mr. nk the first thing you should do is

    you should have a drink

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  28. those in the tea party in Ahia, with whom I am acquainted, are not that impressed with Portman anymore, since he seems to have forgotten who sent him there,

    narciso (24b824)

  29. Narcisco, don’t they all?

    Gazzer (192e59)

  30. I understand that a cure for political amnesia has been discovered.

    felipe (960c75)

  31. nonono happyfeet. Mr. nk has obviously been happier and also funnier and sharper and more interesting to read since he quit the drinking. We should all support him and encourage him to not drink.

    elissa (886016)

  32. narciso,

    The fact that he seeks to curry favor with the establishment, speaks volumes.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  33. sadly so, governor luthor seems to have thrown one young lad, to the wolves, now Charlie Cheetah stalks him, unconfortably close to victory,

    narciso (24b824)

  34. Yes, elissa!

    Dana (4dbf62)

  35. elissa i think he’s wunnerful in all his many permutations

    he made me an origami goose you know

    it’s right over there in that drawer

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  36. ok maybe technically it’s more of a swan

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  37. we all know better than to act on the basis of feets recommendations,
    but we could use some more politicians who are, “gitting mad by this time“, per nk’s entertainment.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  38. This is what Nate Silver had to say about Portman in 2012:

    Some candidates are relatively anonymous, even in their home states. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio did all right with voters who expressed an opinion about him, with 33 percent giving him a positive rating and 25 percent a negative one. But a plurality of voters in Ohio, 42 percent, either did not know Mr. Portman’s name or felt so indifferently about him that they did not express an opinion.

    I’m not sure what, if anything, has changed. He was pretty much an unknown quantity.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  39. another friend of mine, chimes in:

    http://romesentinel.com/editorials/shut-up-is-not-news/QBqngj!Iv3U6DkwnCsdWqMUP@Dw6g/

    what ideas are not appreciated, it seems it’s all about the media’s favorite templates,

    narciso (24b824)

  40. what, precisely exactly, is the difference between not knowing Mr. Portman’s name and

    denying the reality of climate change

    i ask you

    nay

    i beseech you

    the carbon dioxide molecules

    we have to stop them

    the carbon evil

    we cannot let it stand

    cause of how evil and whatever it is

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  41. I think an idea would help, if it could work:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-11/number-us-firms-willing-trade-chinese-yuan-has-tripled-year

    This GOP has less in common with the Whigs of yore than the Know Nothings.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  42. i realize that it may take an ungodly and unspeakable sacrifice on someone’s part

    but for the love of god someone has to make david brooks go to his quiet place

    and

    and do what you have to do i say

    but if it were done when ’tis done

    then ’twere well it were done quickly

    quick quick quick like a bunny

    just make it stop

    he’s retarded, you see

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  43. I think I’m already out of the woods on needing to evolve.

    My daughter is too tight with me to believe down the road she’d be gay.

    I don’t expect her to like people at all.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  44. people can be damnably alluring

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  45. right now there are minions of the obama plotting to disrupt the RNC by insisting that some small pocket of Indians (not by blood, or dent of actually being from India) self appointed (in the tradition of Elizabeth Warren) are offended to the point of insanity by the name of Cleveland’s baseball team.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  46. Nnancy Pelosi will give herself a carple tunnel with the handwringing.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  47. “Everything Is Coming Up, Cleveland!”
    — Failed restaurant-row promotional slogan.

    Icy (8b16aa)

  48. “44.right now there are minions of the obama plotting to disrupt the RNC by insisting that some small pocket of Indians (not by blood, or dent of actually being from India) self appointed (in the tradition of Elizabeth Warren) are offended to the point of insanity by the name of Cleveland’s baseball team.”
    papertiger (c2d6da) — 7/11/2014 @ 9:25 pm

    Sech outrages ain’t to be endured by American citerzens!

    felipe (960c75)

  49. has anybody from the RNC ever actually BEEN to cleveland ? the delegates are in for a shock when they find themselves in this half-deserted, boarded-up, crime-ridden hellhole…detroit-lite…and that’s being kind. for the last 50 years, clevelanders have been deluding themselves into thinking that this rust belt crapfest (with the worst weather in the country) is on the verge of a great renaissance but it hasn’t happened yet. there’s a reason why, after the first year, the rock and roll museum moved their induction ceremony to new york rather than endure another year in the city best known for a river that was so polluted that it caught on fire.

    el polacko (ac2dde)

  50. One thing I learned watch some round ball until the Clippers folded, make that two.

    Kareem has more brains than most NBA teams do in sum.

    Round ball today sucks sheet.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  51. Hot Air is reporting Conservatives and the GOP establishment agree on multiple points, including:

    1. Immigration reform is necessary.

    2. Antichrist should not be impeached.

    Mene, mene tekel upharsin.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  52. antichrists are the worst after trash pickers

    trash pickers are just nasty

    seriously your whole life is pawing through my trash for recyclables?

    you’re disgusting

    go die

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  53. R.I.P. Tommy Ramone

    Icy (8b16aa)

  54. With mittens as the consensus progressive gop candidate, why would anyone go to cleveland?
    Mittens/Brown 2016

    mg (31009b)

  55. they think optics over constitutional obligations;

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/07/11/unprepared-for-impeachment/

    narciso (24b824)

  56. (his views on it evolved after finding out his son was gay)

    wouldn’t yours?

    No, not necessarily. Nor would my views automatically change if I found out my son was a Democrat, or a Skin Head, or a vegetarian. Consider the opposite: if you were in a same sex marriage and found out your son was straight, would you get a divorce?

    ropelight (4da1b1)

  57. first the brazilian oil industry for OPIC, now this;

    http://hotair.com/archives/2014/07/12/look-how-the-export-import-bank-is-using-your-tax-money/

    narciso (24b824)

  58. Between the convention and LaBron, Hugh Hewitt and Drew Carey must be ecstatic.

    Estragon (ada867)

  59. Let’s cool it with the kooky impeachment talk.
    That goes for you, too, Sarah Palin.
    We simply do not have the numbers in the Senate to get a conviction.
    A conviction is based on math—not emotion.

    Elephant Stone (5c2aa0)

  60. “Let’s cool it with the kooky impeachment talk.”

    ES – Absolutely. It gets liberals almost as cray cray as talking about social issues and we don’t want that!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  61. OTH, via Hot Air, Palin is right in this:

    Impeachment requires moral courage to advance what is right, and it requires political will

    Aside from whether it’s the right move or not, there is an utter lack of political will, so it’s moot. Question: Exactly, what would it take?

    Dana (4dbf62)

  62. they are going for the type of blanc mange party that Cameron has pushed in England, that couldn’t win a majority, so they had to partner with the Liberal Democrats, but aren’t icky like the UKIP

    narciso (24b824)

  63. city best known for a river that was so polluted that it caught on fire.

    Um, no. Lots of rivers used to catch fire, so many that it was hardly news. What made the 1969 fire famous was that the river had been cleaned up so well that it had been 17 years since the last fire, and it was such a tiny fire that nobody managed to get a picture of it before it was put out, and it only caused about $50K worth of damage. But Time ran a cover photo of the previous fire in 1952, and fooled a lot of gullible people into thinking that had just happened, and imagining the environment was getting worse rather than better, and Something Needed To Be Done, at gunpoint. Like the Love Canal hoax a few years later, it propped up the Soviet-organised Green program of disabling American industry.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  64. (his views on it evolved after finding out his son was gay)

    wouldn’t yours?

    mine would

    Really? Then you must be very shallow, mr feets. If your views were correct before you found this out, how could this possibly make them wrong? And if they were wrong before, then why didn’t you change them earlier? What possible difference can it make whose ox is gored? Besides, anyone with any brain should have realised years ago that they’re almost bound to have close relatives who are gay; hardly anyone doesn’t. If it wasn’t your son it might be your granddaughter, or your favourite neice, or a cousin. And if it’s nobody in your immediate family, then it’s someone in your neighbour’s family, or your best friend’s. So what difference does finding out who it is make? What’s right remains right, and what’s wrong remains wrong, and you have to decide that based on solid principles, not on whom it affects.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  65. they are always good for a fisking:

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising

    Indeed. Alton Rd has always been flooded by spring tides.

    Milhouse (b95258)

  66. Aside from whether it’s the right move or not, there is an utter lack of political will, so it’s moot. Question: Exactly, what would it take?

    A lot more Americans who aren’t full of squish-squish emotions, particularly those who aren’t staunch Democrats, rabid liberals. Which means there will never be a time, now and in the future, when a leftist like Obama will be disreputable enough in the eyes of enough of the citizenry to ratchet up their support for ousting such a character through impeachment proceedings.

    BTW, I don’t think I’m being too cynical when it wasn’t too many years ago that I believed someone with Obama’s background could never worm his way through the nominating process, get onto the ballot and then win a presidential election, much less two. IOW, I should have known all along that the US is not immune to the same type of mediocrity (ie, typical aspects of human nature) that occurs in places like Venezuela, France, Greece or Mexico.

    Mark (8cacab)

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