Moneyball's subtitle is "The Art of Winning an Unfair Game." Baseball is as artful as it is unfair precisely because it's as irrational a sport as it is a scientific one. The Cubs and Athletics practically sellout every game but haven't won a title in ages, the Marlins have won two titles in a decade yet they can't draw any fans. It does not make any sense.

But it does, because more than numbers, what baseball fans love more than anything else are stories. Obama had a better story to tell than Clinton in the democratic race and that's largely why he won. One of the reasons that Wesley Clark's comments have gotten so much attention is that Obama's response unmasked a concern of his campaign, and that is that John McCain may be as good a story-teller, or have as good of a story as the skinny black kid with the funny name.

More than not bringing a title to Oaktown, Beane's legacy may be that he took the story out of the Athletics. Once people started focusing on the numbers, they forgot about those teams from the 70s and 80s and the characters who made them national phenomenons, larger than life figures such as Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson and the "Bash Brothers" Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Obama might want to consider putting aside the speeches until the fall and think of this summer as if it's one big BBQ and the eyes of the world are on him waiting to tell his story. We may have heard it before, but we'll gladly listen again.

The question I have for you this week is: what on earth happened to the Republican party?

Surely when Newt Gingrich led the Republican Revolution in the early 90s never did he imagine in his wildest dreams that in 2008 the Republican party would feature a septuagenarian atop its presidential ticket, a Democratic controlled house, and that Republicans would be struggling to find viable candidates to fill Congressional. Well here we are in 2008 and that is precisely the case.

Case in point, here in New York, after Staten Island representative Vito Fossella stepped down the Republicans selected mogul Frank Powers to run for his seat. Sadly, Powers passed away and the Republicans were sent scrambling again to find a suitable candidate. Powers’s untimely death was yet another unfortunate setback for a party that has been reeling for much of this decade, and which suffered a string of disheartening defeats in the 2006 midterm elections.

Worst yet, as the Democrat’s brand is soaring in light of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama’s historic campaigns, the Republican brand name appears to be going out of style. Ironically, it’s not as if the Democrats are the ones downgrading the Republican brand, it’s the Republicans themselves. Listen closely to McCain or any of his surrogates from within the party talk these days and you’ll hear them use the term “Conservative” to describe themselves a lot more than they use Republican. On the contrary you do not hear Democrats going around announcing themselves as Liberals. This is not simply because in some circles the “L” word is a dirty one in American Politics, but all Democrats are not liberals—a lesson that Joe Lieberman has been determined to teach us since 2000. Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Lieberman’s transformation into John McCain’s #1 cheerleader is not the only peculiar development over the last eight years; as interesting as Lieberman’s transformation has been the disappearance of figures such as Bill Frist, Tom Ridge and Christine Todd Whitman, who at one time represented a more-centrist Republican party, one capable of going toe to toe with the kinds of candidates being groomed by the DNC and DLC. Eight years later, neither of these retain their prominence as party spokespersons, and as with many of their Republican peers who have retired from the spotlight, they were not adequately replaced within the party.

The Republican, rather Conservative party has also let Fox News and flamboyant talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh set its agenda. Throughout this campaign many of the memorable “right-wing” sound-bites were not uttered by anyone working directly within the Republican party, but rather by sundry commentators on Fox. Since 2000 Fox has transformed itself from a mouthpiece of the Republican party dispensing party memos as news reports, to being an unwieldy beast that the Republicans themselves barely know how to control and therefore work to their advantage. What this has created is a news cycle that often features back and forth debates between prominent Democrats and Fox-News hosts instead of their Republican counterparts, or as has often been the case throughout this campaign, absurd-racist-sexist comments such as calling Barack and Michelle Obama’s embrace a “terrorist fist jab” or referring to Michelle Obama as “Obama’s Baby Mama” overtakes John McCain’s attempts at getting his own headlines and making Americans familiar with his agenda.

Seriously, has there ever been a point in this nation’s history where the party who has just spent eight years in power has entered an election cycle in such disarray? The Republicans do not appear to have any prospects in their farm system, they’ve rebranded themselves as conservatives therefore either alienating or confusing many voters, and their allies in the media are outfoxing them?

What in the world happened to the Republicans?

In other news, Jonathan Chait has a piece on Joe Lieberman over at The New Republic. I agree with Chait's take on Lieberman, but still think that he's being too kind with Lieberman. If you compare what has become of Al Gore since 2000 and Joe Lieberman it's an astonishing difference. I'm sure that there are some who'd even have a hard time believing that they were even on the same ticket. Lieberman has become a media-seeking, revisionist history, foreign policy racketeering hack in the last eight years. Not only is Lieberman wrong in his assessment of how the democratic party has evolved over the last 50 years, but he's wrong, morally so about the arc of American politics in the last 50 years. I think even Karl Rove thinks that Lieberman is a little far right. Yet, just like he continued cozying up with Lobbyists long after it was no longer politically viable for any politician to do so, John McCain keeps on rolling with Lieberman as if Lieberman has anything to offer. Seriously, does Joe Lieberman have a constituency? McCain hanging around with Lieberman is like an someone kicking it with Andre Harrell thinking that they're going to get put on.

Also, in what will not be the last of such articles, The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Kaufman has a piece exploring whether it's time to end Affirmative Action. As with most of these articles, Kaufman tries pitting working class blacks and whites against each other in a debate over who has the edge for getting that elusive slice of the american pie. As expected the article fails to address issues such as legacies and athletics in college admission. Sure, we all know that Becky's parents hate the idea of losing her place at Chapel Hill to Jamaal, but how do they feel about her losing that coveted spot to Tyler Hansbrough?

Finally, did anyone catch Obama's speech in Michigan? He's really on his game when talking about education. The Democrats are on the right side of most of the issues these days because Bush has tilted things so much in their favor, still I have a lingering suspicion that the Republicans will win this election. Not John McCain mind you, but the Republican party. If Obama is to be as bi-partisan as he suggests, he will have to make a concession to the republicans. We all know it won't be on either healthcare, education or the economy. The only thing left for the republicans is the war and the military. Withdrawing from Iraq will take years to expedite and military spending is not likely to be severely cut because Obama will want a second term, and the military does play a role in spurring innovation and developing technology. That said, what will an Obama presidency look like if the republicans get a chance to tool around with their favorite toy?

F-Dot

Live@Grand

TWO SHOWS:

KARMA MAYET JOHNSON BAND with Dozzy Njava
--------------------------------------------------------------
HANIFAH WALIDAH

9pm

grand 275 bar & cafe
275 grand ave @ lafayette
brooklyn, ny 11238
718 398 4402
www.grand275.com
www.myspace.com/grand275