Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama
Mark Davis expresses the conventional wisdom by ruling out a so-called dream ticket of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in whatever order. He does so for all the conventional reasons.
Obama cannot be the change candidate by picking a Clinton for VP. Obama cannot risk being upstaged or embarrassed by Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton cannot risk being upstaged by the more energizing Obama. And America may be barely ready for either the first African-American president or the first woman president. It's hardly ready for both on the same ticket.
There's nothing wrong with the conventional wisdom. These are all good arguments against pairing these two candidates on the same ticket. But sometimes conventional wisdom has to give way to an irrefutable argument. The Democratic Party is at risk of coming apart at the seams. If this nomination fight goes all the way to Denver, the Democrats' hopes for victory in November may be left in tatters on the convention floor. A "dream" ticket may be the only way to salvage a Democrat victory. Whether it comes about will depend on the candidates. If Obama and Clinton want to make it happen, it will happen, regardless of conventional wisdom. And if they don't, it won't happen, regardless of irrefutable logic. It's not up to the voters. It's not up to the delegates or the superdelegates. It's all up two people. And only they can decide whether it's to be or not to be.
New scoreboards for Richardson ISD
The Richardson ISD is considering replacing the ten-year-old scoreboards at its two high school football stadiums. The reason given for needing to replace them is that the old scoreboards are "on their last legs." District officials say they've spent $11,000 on repairs. So, to avoid, say, another $11,000 in repairs, the school board is considering spending up to $2.4M for new scoreboards. It doesn't take an accountant to see that something other than saving money is at work here.
"It is really frustrating to fans who come to a contest if they don't know how much time is left in a quarter," said Bob Dubey, Richardson ISD's athletics director. Regular attendees of RISD football games can attest that this has not really been a problem at RISD games, and the situation is not much better or worse at games at Plano or Garland stadiums. Regardless, it doesn't take $2.4M to show the score and game time. Every school gym, every YMCA gym, every church gym has a scoreboard that displays the time and score and none of those scoreboards cost $2.4M. What would be really frustrating to fans is learning that the school district spent $2.4M to display the score at the football game.
The rest of the story hints at what's really at work here. The consultant that the RISD school board paid to study the scoreboard matter was Titus Sports Marketing, the "firm that will handle advertising for the school district." Everything falls into place. A marketing company that sells advertising sells an ISD on the benefits of new scoreboards with "flashy graphics, instant replay, gigantic displays" and, ... advertising. The ISD can pay for it all through the advertising. How convenient.
Did anyone on the school board bother to research whether flashy graphics, instant replay, and advertising enhance the experience of attending a high school football game? Did anyone on the school board bother to attend a football game in some stadium where such scoreboards are already in place? Did they notice that during timeouts and at halftime the student bands are playing, the student cheerleaders are performing stunts, the drill team is performing? Did they notice how dismaying it is to have the students' efforts drowned out by a scoreboard blaring commercials? Does the school board want to see the post-game ritual where the football team, the cheerleaders, the students and parents in the stands all rise for the playing of the school song by the marching band, interrupted by a local auto dealer's commercial blaring from that fancy new scoreboard? It happens at those other stadiums.
Advice to the school board: Just say no to professional scoreboards at student football games.
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