Out of my league...thankfully

"Now, you're the expert," he began. "And I'll gladly be the junior partner in this, but I really think we should take Drew Brees. He could have a big week. Oakland's secondary is a wreck."

Ohhhh, so that's how it's going to be. "Well, I like Carson Palmer," I said. "He's due for a big week, plus he plays in Ohio and I figure that's a state you need, so ..."

He looked at me like I'd stuck my elbow in his soup. "Man, this is more important than politics!" he insisted. "This is football!" Insert Leonidas here.

And Carson Palmer? Really? Maybe any other year (says the man keeping Ocho Cinco on his roster for the curse if no other reason)....

The other Bradley effect

Ashley Todd, a Pittsburgh McCain campaign volunteer, claimed to have been mugged and sexually assaulted by "a dark-skinned black man, 6 feet 4 inches tall, 200 pounds with a medium build, short black hair and brown eyes." And after noticing the McCain sticker on her car, "he" used a knife to scratch the letter "B" into her face. Backwards, as it turns out.



All this must look pretty convincing in the mirror, but not so much to skeptical police and an outright disbelieving blogosphere. Next thing you know the names "Tawana Bradley" and "Morton Downey Jr." are being bandied about, and empathy on the left and the right evaporated. And as I type this, local media's reporting that cops have a confession of fabrication on her part. Nice.

A FOX News VP is saying that this means the end of the McCain candidacy, but that's ridiculous on five different levels -- yes, Pennsylvania's a swing state, but it isn't populated by idiots, Ashley Todd notwithstanding. The left and the right were keen to clue into the sub-Encyclopedia-Brown-level clues that something wasn't quite kosher here, and this obviously disturbed individual's actions and allegations are not the product of policy or politics. Linking McCain, his party or his philosophies to this event does a disservice to the national dialogue, and I don't see it gaining traction with anyone except the most superficial observers. Hm.