Deadheads for Obama! It Must Be Super Tuesday

People all over California woke up this morning with a strange feeling; one they haven't felt for decades: knowing that their vote in a Presidential Primary can actually make a difference this time around.

I have to admit, it's pretty damn exciting. And making it even more so is the fact that the predictions are all over the map. No matter who your candidate is, you can find something on the Internet today to cheer you up - "McCain poised to wrap it up;" "Romney Surging;" "Hillary Prepared to Take Commanding Lead;" "Obama-Mania!"

I am usually the first at my precinct to vote (which for the last several elections has afforded me the honor of inspecting the ballot-counting machine), but I decided to wait today, just to beat the traffic on the way to work. And so what do I find when I get here and peruse the Internet newsclips?

Grateful Dead Reunite for Obama!

It's been a long, strange trip indeed...and it ain't over yet.

Worth 1000 Words, Super Bowl Edition

Sunday Zen

...Courtesy of A Cup of Tea and a Wheat Penny.

Just In Case You Forgot About THIS Guy

Greatest Super Bowl Ever

...and one of the greatest games ever, period.

The New England Patriots didn't lose this game; the New York Giants won it.

- Eli Manning, welcome to the big time.

- David Tyree? Anybody hear of this guy? Well, now he has the greatest catch in Super Bowl history on his resume.

- Peter King - please, please do not mention the '72 Dolphins or Tiki Barber in your column tomorrow.

- And notwithstanding King's previous protestations over Barber's charcacter - I simply do not believe he doesn't wish he could be there tonight.

I may think of more later. Whew. This is the stuff that sports fans live for. Now, on to Super Tuesday.

:35

Oh my God.

Unbelievable.

Tom who?

Two Minute Warning

Joe Who?

Randy Moss catches the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. How unlikely a headline was that a year ago?

If this isn't the greatest Super Bowl of all time...scratch that...it is the greatest Super Bowl of all time.

10-7

Wow. No matter what happens from here on out, it's history in the making.

BTW - just how many drinks did Jeremy Shockey have sitting in front of him?

OK, Tom Brady - let's see if all those Joe Montana comparisons stand up.

End of 3rd

This is some unbelievable stuff. It's all there for the Giants to take, but I have a feeling the Patriots defense won't allow it to happen.

Mid-Third Quarter

The Patriots have the ball for more than 7 minutes and get nothing out of it?

Eli Manning, the table is set for you to be a hero.

Halftime Thoughts

Well I AM watching the Super Bowl, and here are some thoughts at halftime:

- The Giants - especially on defense - are playing like men possessed.

- The Patriots have to figure out a way to get Wes Welker involved in the offense.

- Eli Manning is doing just fine in his first appearance on the big stage.

- Steve Smith better get his sh*t together - I just have this weird feeling that the game is going to come down to a turnover or dropped pass, with Smith being the culprit.

It's a great game...I can't remember being this tense during a Super Bowl without the 49ers playing.

The Superior Ms. Althouse

A post during the Super Bowl to announce that you're not watching the Super Bowl? How self-indulgent. How superior.

Oh, Ann... in case you were wondering, football fans agree with you about Arlen Specter's latest crusade. Contrary to popular belief, we do have other interests.

Fred Dean Heads to Canton

It was great to read this morning that Fred Dean is finally on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Though Dean’s contributions to the San Francisco 49ers’ success of the 1980s are rarely mentioned in the same breath as those of Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice and Roger Craig, the team’s acquisition of Dean early in the 1981 season was a pivotal turning point in the transformation of the team from laughing stock to “Team of the 80s.”

The first game that Dean played for the 49ers was one of the greatest defensive performances I’ve ever seen (the only one having a greater impact on my memory was a game Derrick Thomas played against the Cleveland Browns during his rookie season). The 49ers had started the 1981 season with hopes of making the playoffs in their third year under the stewardship of Bill Walsh, but got off to a difficult start, losing 2 of their first 3 games. But then things started to turn around – two straight victories, though hardly in dominating fashion. And with a 3-2 record, the 49ers prepared to host the 4-1 Dallas Cowboys, the team most folks considered the league’s best.

And on that day, Fred Dean was an absolute force of nature. The Cowboys had no answer for Dean, who played like a man possessed, and ate Cowboys quarterback Danny White alive. On the same day, the 49ers offense finally hit high gear. It was glorious – I remember watching the game in my dorm room at Berkeley, and then trying to convince someone down the hall (who had spent the afternoon studying) that the final score really was 49ers 45, Cowboys 14. A dynasty began to take root that October day, in large part due to Fred Dean.

Hillbilly Hare

For no particular reason, except that this is probably the single funniest Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made. Not necessarily the "best," but certainly in my top five (more to come).

The first time I remember seeing this was in June 1980, and we were on one of our periodic vacations to Southern California. At the time, Bugs was still a regular on the Saturday morning cartoons, and this one made my entire family crack up.

I didn't see it again for nearly 20 years, when it popped up on the late, lamented "June Bugs" feature on Cartoon Network. We now have it on an ancient VHS tape, along with 40-50 other Bugs classics, and I just hope the tape holds up a few more years.

According to the Wikipedia page on this cartoon, it was banned on network TV in the mid-1990s, because of its negative portrayal of the "hillbilly" stereotype. That's either some kind of commentary on our day and age, or just further proof that people don't have much of a sense of humor these days. Because if you can't laugh at this, even if you ARE from the Ozarks, then you probably don't laugh at much of anything.

Lileks To The Rescue

Not surprisingly, James Lileks says it better than I ever could:

"...Went home, slammed a few cups of coffee, did the Hewitt show. We had a semi dust-up over McCain. I do not share all his opinions on the man. I do not share all his opinions about Romney – although tonight I think I finally realized why I can’t get interested in Romney beyond a general appreciation of his skill and experience. When he talks, he doesn’t move the needle. He’s like one of those radio guys who has an absolutely consistent tone and inflection and pace; the parameters of his pitch don’t change. This is coming down to a contest of personalities, as usual, and even if you don’t like McCain’s briny persona, he has more personality than Mitt, and it’s genuine. Genuinely spiky, or genuinely engaged, or genuinely egomaniacal, or genuinely whatever you wish, but it’s real. I understand the dislike of the fellow and the distrust of his positions, but some of the vitriol splashed his way is over the top, in that snagging-your-pants-on-the-crest-of-Everest sense. This is the only election I can recall where a large portion of the grass roots seems to insist that hatred of the putative nominee is the true test of ideological fealty – and a path to success down the road. I mean, imagine you’ve just joined a group, and the leader says “We have a plan to win. The first thing we need to do is lose.”

Actually, I think Walter Mondale may have used the same playbook, but that was a long time ago.

I link to Hugh Hewitt on this page, not because I always agree with him on the issues (frequently, I don't), but because he challenges me - when I don't agree with Hewitt but I can't formulate a logical response in my own mind, then I know I need to do more thinking.

But in the past week, Hewitt appears to have thrown reason out the window; it's "put Romney over the top," 24/7. Each succeeding post sounds a little more desperate than the last - to the point where he now sounds like the guy at a party who's had one too many, but still he thinks he's charming. Any post now, I expect an analysis of how the Cleveland Indians actually beat the Red Sox, and won last year's World Series.

Dr. Z's Peerless Prognostications

SI.Com has a page up today where all of their football experts predict the outcome of the Super Bowl, accompanied by a "personal guarantee" about the game. By far, the best guarantee is that of Paul Zimmerman, the irascible "Dr. Z":

My personal guarantee for the game: National anthem to be sung in 1 minute 32.24 seconds. Vocalist will hit the turn (rockets red glare) in 28.55 seconds, leading one to believe that this will be the first sub-one minute Natl. Anthem in Super Bowl history, but tragedy will befall singer as she/he heads into Heartbreak Hill (O say does tha-at star spangled ba-a-ner-err ye-et wa-ave), which will be negotiated in a depressing 47.34 seconds, with lusty booing accompanying the last two bars, which will go on for an interminable length.

As long-time readers of his know, the singing of the national anthem is somewhat of an obsession for Dr. Z.

This year, Zimmerman has gone way out on a limb, picking the Giants to win by a score of 24-20. Even though they are playing their best football of the year - peaking at just the right time - and are brimming with confidence, I just can't see it happening. Maybe the record has me starry-eyed, but after all, the Patriots did go 18-0. Sure, some of the games late in the season were close - but every team they played after mid-November got up for those games like Ohio State gets up for Michigan, and it still didn't matter. I think it will be a good, possibly great game, but I'll stick with my prediction of 34-24, Patriots.