Heaps and Barrels

TOP OF THE HEAP

Runners-up:

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh gets a runner-up position because he’s not supporting John McCain.  Huh?  Conservative radio has always been portrayed by the mainstream media as a tool for the Republican party.  But Limbaugh is sticking with the conviction that McCain would not be a good President, a point of view he held in 2000 when McCain last ran for President.  Limbaugh’s in a no-win situation here:  root for McCain and be labeled a hypocrite for his 2000 remarks, or root against him and draw ire from the conservative establishment.  Good for Limbaugh for sticking with his original thesis.

Barack Obama

You have to admit, Barack Obama has coordinated a brilliant campaign, so brilliant that he is poised to win the Democratic Presidential nomination.  Six months ago, everyone thought the primary season would be a coronation for Hillary Clinton, but Obama’s campaign speeches have attracted many young people, a segment of the population that doesn’t normally vote. Obama has also conducted a positive and classy campaign.

Top of the Top Of The Heap:

New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII victors

Was that a great game or what!  Tell you what, more than a few people were predicting the upset on this game, so many that Las Vegas lost money on this game.  Tom Coughlin completely out-coached Bill Belichick, and his defensive unit gave Tom Brady fits all night.  Eli Manning had a magical postseason run and all the offensive plays went his way.  How did Manning elude three tacklers and convert that 35-yard bomb to David Tyree?  Seems like the Giants added by subtracting Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber.  Perhaps NBC can add by subtracting Tiki Barber next year!
The trick will be returning to the big dance, as nowadays an NFC team in the Super Bowl does poorly the following year.  Their division might actually be worse next year, so that’s a plus for them.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Runners-up:

Jane Fonda

Here’s a washed-up actress and Vietnam-war traitor who needs a little publicity.  What does she choose to do?  Drop the C-bomb on the Today show.  That’s great, Jane; say that vulgar word during morning viewing.  As far as I’m concerned, she lived off her father’s name to start her career, and married Ted Turner to keep her name in the news.  Now that she’s no longer married to Turner, guess she needs this kind of publicity to keep her name out there.

Michael Medved

Aww, other conservative talk show hosts not voting the way you want, Mikey?  So you feel they’re not as bright as you, as thoughtful as you?  And since they won’t support your guy, you feel they’re “liberal” and overly-emotional?  Maybe Olbermann is right (gasp!), you should go back to reviewing movies.

Bill Belichick, New England Patriots head coach

Face it, Tom Coughlin out-coached you and based on you running off the field with 1 second left in the game, you were outclassed.  Look, you should have won the game; if Asante Samuel has caught that possible interception with 2 minutes left, or if Eli Manning was sacked instead of converting that 35-yard bomb, your team would have been 19-0.  But as the leader of the Patriots, you needed to be a classy loser.

Mercury Morris, former ‘72 Dolphins running back

This is the reason why I was rooting for the Patriots, because I’m sick and tired of these angry, bitter Dolphins rooting for teams to lose every year.  When it looked like the Patriots would go undefeated, the ‘72 Dolphins, led by Mercury Morris, had the gall to say they’d be second-best because they were the second the be undefeated.  And he rubbed it in big time when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl.  What a low-class individual.  Care to discuss the .400-average opponent’s record that year?  Lucked out when Terry Bradshaw was injured too, huh?  Oh, what about your drug abuse?

Montel Williams

Lots of runners-up this time around!  Trash TV icon Montel Williams was on Fox & Friends to discuss the death of Heath Ledger.  Montel decided he would take a shot at the hosts of Fox & Friends by stating the show spends too much time on tabloid fodder.  Exactly what does Montel discuss on his show?  When Montel said they should talk about fallen soldiers in Iraq, host Greg Kelly (a military veteran) asked Montel to talk about a soldier that had recently died in Iraq.  Predictably, a flustered Montel could not identify a fallen soldier to discuss.  Hey Montel, we all know you couldn’t care less about fallen soldiers.  Nice try though.

David Shuster

Another angry personality on MSNBC.  Usually, Shuster directs his ire at the Bush administration, but this time he decided to tell his audience that Hillary Clinton was “pimping out” her daughter Chelsea.  I’m not sure if it was his overt bias toward Obama or misogynism, but nobody deserves to be talked to like that.  Good for Hillary Clinton for calling him and MSNBC on it, and Shuster deserved to be suspended.  Oh, where did he get the idea to use the “pimping” term?  Olbermann’s earlier statement that Bush was “pimping out” General David Petraeus when Petraeus discussed the success of the Iraq war surge.

Bottom of the Bottom Of The Barrel:

Mike Huckabee

I make no bones about it; I have no respect for Mike Huckabee.  I firmly believe that he uses God to pursue his political, personal, and professional ambition.  His Baptist ministry was a stepping stone to a political career, and he continues to play this card to court social conservatives during his quixotic run for President.
Clearly, Huckabee struck a deal with John McCain to “win” the West Virginia primary, in order to knock Mitt Romney out of the race.  How?  First, the media already portrays the South as a bunch of hick evangelicals.  Second, the victory was announced in the early afternoon, so this got plenty of play in the media.  I’m sure many potential voters then concluded that a vote for Romney was a losing vote, so voila!  Huckabee takes all the southern states, and McCain takes everything else.
Now we are seeing the real Huckabee.  Now that John McCain has sewn up the nomination and Mitt Romney has thrown his support to McCain, Huckabee says he’s staying in until the convention.  Blind ambition from Mike Huckabee — so blind that he may have forfeited his spot as a running mate.
As a Georgian, I am thoroughly embarrassed that Huckabee won this state’s primary.   John McCain would be ill-served having Huckabee on the ticket or in his cabinet.