Highs and lows of a sports weekend: Rangers up, Nets dow. Jets? Who the hell knows. And Obama kills it at the silly Correspondents Dinner

This past weekend was one of those rare times of year when my three favorite pro sports teams were all making news and doing big things: The Rangers, the Nets, and the Jets all either delighted me, angered me and left me scratching my head and pulling out my few hairs left.

It was a worlds-colliding kind of sports weekend. Some highlights/lowlights from my point of view as a NY sports fan:

**The Nets: Since I’d like to get the misery out of the way first, that was one of the all-time brutal, gut-punching losses Brooklyn suffered Saturday. Deron Williams and Co. were up 14 points with less than four minutes to play … and lost.
That’s really, really hard to do. But if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. Turnovers, missed free throws, and some holy spirit of Magic Johnson got into Nate Robinson of the Bulls (the most obnoxious player in the NBA, am I right?), and all of a sudden the game went to overtime.
Where of course, the agony got drawn out for us Nets fans, as it stretched to three OT’s before the Bulls won.
Just a horrendous performance at the end by the Nets, and P.J. Carlesimo’s coaching job was as bad as the players’ performance. Series is now 3-1 Bulls, but it’s basically over. Damn.
**The Rangers: On a much happier note, my favorite hockey team appears to finally have stopped underachieving the last few weeks, and roll into the playoffs on a high note. Very excited to see Rick Nash and Derek Stepan scoring so much, and I think the Rangers have a very winnable first-round series against the Capitals. (Gotta love the NHL playoffs, the best in any sport).
Not saying the Rangers are winning the Cup or anything; they’re nowhere near as good as Pittsburgh, Chicago, Anaheim or Boston. But at least finally, after 3 months of mediocre hockey, they’re showing what’s possible with all that talent on the team.

**The Jets: Finally, the New York Jets, America’s most dysfunctional football team. I don’t know what the hell to think about a team with so few offensive weapons deciding that, instead of drafting some, let’s take a QB in the 2nd round who back in October was considered a Top 5 pick, yet by April wasn’t even worthy of a first-round choice.
Which is to say, the more everyone saw of Geno Smith, the less they liked him. Except for the Jets, who apparently decided five QBs on the roster already weren’t enough.
I spent Saturday trying to talk myself into the Geno Smith era: Hey, at least it means I won’t have to watch Mark Sanchez anymore, and maybe the kid will prove all his critics wrong who say he fumbles too much and can’t read defenses well. And maybe the Jets will be smart with him and let him learn on the bench behind David Garrard for at least half a season…

But who the hell am I kidding? I was rationalizing big-time. Taking Smith was not a good move by my Jets; I can’t see any way he can succeed this year with such little talent around him.
But it’s April; no sense stressing over the Jets’ miseries just yet.  There’ll be plenty of time for that in the fall.

Let’s go Rangers.

**Finally today, I say in this space every year how ridiculous and unprofessional I think the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is.

Reporters whose job it is to investigate and cover politicians in that town get together and share drinks and back-slaps with the same people they’re supposed to be impartial about.

It reeks of unprofessionalism and “insider-ness”  and everything people suspect about the culture of Washington.

But they’re going to keep having it every year, and with a pretty funny President in office, I usually get some good chuckles out of the POTUS speech.

Some of his best lines from the video above:
– “You know, sometimes I look in the mirror and realize I’m not the strapping young Muslim socialist I used to be.”
– “CNN covers ever angle of a story, just in case they stumble onto the right one.”
– “Sheldon Adelson spent $100 million in 2012 to try to get Republicans elected. He would’ve been better off offering me $100 million not to run.”

Obama asks for and promises the moon in State of the Union. Duke-Carolina: It’s on again. And a tribute to Esther Vergeer, the most dominating athlete in the world

Well, I’d say Mr. Barack Obama has gotten his swagger back.
Not since the days of the ’08 campaign have I seen the guy I saw last night, standing in front of Mr. Agent Orange and Crazy Uncle Joe at the State of the Union.
This Obama was having his “I’m Keith Hernandez” moment as immortalized in “Seinfeld.” What I mean by that is he basically was saying to the world, and Congress: I won a second term, this is my last chance to do big things for the country, and I’m going to demand you get on board or get out of the way.

There were so many policy initiatives that had to thrill liberals, many of them drawing cheers from me and Mom who was watching with me.
Obama hit on, among other things:
– Raising the minimum wage
– Stricter climate change legislation
– Expanded pre-K education
– Immigration reform
– Unicorns for every American

OK, so I made the last one up. Still, it was refreshing to see topics hardly ever raised in the first four years (climate change, immigration, education, gun law reform) actually sound like priorities to Obama now.

I think he realizes this is his moment, his last chance to do something real. Realistically, he’s got 2 years before everyone starts looking toward 2016 and he becomes a bit of a lame duck.

I hope he follows through on what he said Tuesday. It was a soaring, inspiring speech that hit many high notes. Maybe, finally, this is the President we voted for in 2008.

**My two favorite words in all of sports get put together again tonight. It only happens twice a year, or if we’re really lucky, three times a year.
Duke-Carolina. Greatest rivalry in all of sports. Eight miles apart. Two of the top 4 programs in all of college basketball.
Hatred. Respect. Animosity. The grudging realization that without the other, one wouldn’t be as great.
OK, enough hype. They play tonight at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and on paper it looks like it’ll be a rout. My Blue Devils, even without Ryan Kelly, seem to be the far superior team. I even had a few Facebook friends who root for UNC pre-emptively congratulate me on tonight’s win.
I told them to shut up. Too many crazy things have happened in this rivalry for anything to surprise me. It’s so much worse when UNC wins in Cameron, though, so I really, really would hate to see it tonight.

Ah, so nice to once again yell the words: “Go to hell Carolina, go to hell (clap clap).

Can’t wait for 9 p.m.

**Finally today, a few words about an athlete I’m sure 99 percent of you have never heard of.  Her name is Esther Vergeer, she’s a 31-year-old Dutch woman, and she retired Tuesday from her sport.
That sport was tennis, and she was so good at it that she makes Roger Federer look like a club pro from Des Moines.
Vergeer was a star in wheelchair tennis, and she retired with a 470-match winning streak.
That’s right:  She hadn’t lost a match since Jan. 2003. That’s before we invaded Iraq, people; that’s how long ago it was.

Vergeer became paraplegic after spinal surgery at 8. Her first forays into wheelchair sports were in basketball, but she picked up tennis at 12 and decided to focus on it in 1998. By 1999, Vergeer had reached the No. 1 ranking.

Vergeer was so much more powerful than other wheelchair players; check out some video of her here. She brought her sport to new heights, and for that, I think she should be saluted today.

The kitchen of the future, as seen from 1967. Young people believe in government as a force of good. And a crazy new twist on a full-court shot

I’m a sucker for those “predictions for the future” videos from 30-40 years ago. I mean, they’re so easy to make fun of, because nobody can ever get things totally correct.

But this one, from the legendary Walter Cronkite from 1967, cracked me up big-time. It’s called “the Kitchen of the Future,” and it talks about what food preparation will be like in that faraway year of 2001.”

If only, Walter, if only.

**A story like this one makes me feel so much better about America. Because all you seem to hear from Republicans for the last 20 years is how government is bad, government is evil, too much government is bad for you, yada yada yada.

Happily, though, more and more young people are completely rejecting that theory. Check out this New York Times story that reports, among other things, a large trend toward younger people believing government is there to help people, and the Pew Research Group reported that the under-30 demographic is “the only age group in which a majority said the government should do more to fix problems.”

Maybe, just maybe, some of what Barack Obama has been saying (and, mostly, doing) for the past four years is sinking in.

Speaking of our Fearless Leader, I’m anxiously awaiting tonight’s State of the Union. After he declares himself the new Pope (just seeing if you’re paying attention), I would love to hear a full-throated presentation of what his priorities will be this term.

And you know, if he could clear up the shameless and disgusting practice, reported widely in the past week, that he has the power to kill any American citizen whom he deems a terrorist, without due process, that would be nice, too.

This man who I enthusiastically helped get elected has never come closer to the era of W. than he has with this “targeted killing” awfulness. Truly repulsive and unconstitutional, and I’m glad it’s finally coming to light.

**Finally today, I’m proud to say that this is something I’ve never seen before in basketball. A girl named Anna Olson at a high school in Wyoming tried to throw the ball the length of the court and, well, this happened.

Not even LeBron James could do that if he tried 100 times.

A winter getaway to Florida brings back fresh memories. Thoughts on the Inaugural speech. And Seattle gets its Sonics back

Still jazzed up as I write this, minutes after a fantastic women’s tennis match at the Australian Open Tuesday night. 19-year-old Sloane Stephens stunned the greatest player in the world, Serena Williams, with a three-set win in the Aussie quarterfinals. American tennis has a new star, and it’s about time. Look at that kid’s smile!

Sorry there was no blog post Tuesday; your humble correspondent was traveling back from a weekend trip to Florida, where new memories collided with old ones for me.

It was my first time back in the state since I left in the summer of 2011, when I chucked my career as a journalist to become a teacher, and Florida is also the place where my marriage ended.

So even though life is going awesome right now, with a new career and a fiance who I can’t wait to marry in a few months, I was a little nervous about going back to the Sunshine State.

We went down to see some dear friends who live outside Orlando, and I was afraid that every 10 minutes I’d see painful memories of what my life used to be there.

Instead, it was fabulous. My friends Jen and Greg were wonderful hosts, and their two adorable daughters showed us a good time. We went to Blue Springs State Park in DeLeon Springs, which I visited once before when I lived in Daytona Beach, and saw the manatees. The weather was great, I saw some of my old friends in Daytona, and only good memories came flooding back, not painful ones.

Plus, I got on a plane Friday and it was 35 degrees, and stepped off a few hours later into 68 degrees. Can’t beat that

Couple other airplane related thoughts, which I always seem to have after a trip:
– Is there a law that I’m unaware of that says I have to get the middle seat on every flight from now on? I swear I’m on like a 12 “B” seats in a row streak.
– Flying JetBlue > flying any other airline. It’s not just the TV that makes it better; more legroom, friendlier flight attendants, and always have an enjoyable ride. I love JetBlue so much.

**Didn’t get a chance to comment on Barack Obama’s inaugural address Monday. I thought it was terrific, as I expected, and I’m so glad he sounded so many liberal notes in it. It was powerful to hear him talk about gay marriage, and even climate change got mentioned.

I wish I could say I was real optimistic about “Obama the Liberal” getting a lot of major legislation passed on guns, climate change, poverty, and a ton of other progressive ideals.

But I don’t know. Hey, maybe this is a good sign: Mitch McConnell said the “era of liberalism” is back.

We can only hope.

**Finally, the world of sports seems to offer karmic payback every once in a while, but not without someone else getting hurt.

The good sports fans of Seattle had their NBA team ripped away by owner/hijacker Clay Bennett in 2008, an outsider who bought the team then drove them off to Oklahoma City right after drafting some kid named Kevin Durant (he ever amount to much, that kid?).

It was not quite as bad as Art Modell stealing the Cleveland Browns, but it was close. The Sonics fans supported their team through thick and thin, and now were left bereft of a hoops team.

Well, five years later, the Sonics are coming back to Seattle, in the form of the Sacramento Kings, who of course are another team that was once loved, once a civic institution, but fell victim to a bad arena deal and owners who couldn’t convince the city fathers in Sacramento to buy them a new building.

So Seattle gets a team back, which is only right, but now Sacramento loses out. On the karmic justice scale of sports, that’s still a win.

We’ve got Harbaugh-palooza in the Super Bowl. Two baseball legends die on the same day. And do we really need inaugurations anymore?

We’re all going to get really sick of the Harbaugh brothers in the next two weeks.

But I don’t care, I’m jazzed up about the upcoming Super Bowl after two pretty thrilling conference title games Sunday.

The San Francisco 49ers, with their amazing running and throwing quarterback, made yet another dramatic comeback Sunday to beat the choking Atlanta Falcons, to reach the Super Bowl.

And then we got the Baltimore Ravens, looking for a half like they’d throw up another valiant but losing effort to the forces of evil that are the New England Patriots, before waking up at halftime and ripping off 21 consecutive points, making Tom Brady cry (OK I can’t prove he cried) and turning Bill Belichick into a sore loser, once again.

As a Jets fan, you take your joy where you can get it, and seeing the Patriots suffer is always nice.

But this should be a fascinating Super Bowl, even if, like me, you’re sick of Preacher Man Ray Lewis. Joe Flacco (a fellow Blue Hen!) becoming a big-time QB before our eyes. Two great running backs, Ray Rice and SF’s Frank Gore, going head to head. Two excellent defenses. And, you know, two brothers coaching against each other in a Super Bowl for the first time.

Should be a great game. And if you’re a Harbaugh family member of any kind, even a fourth cousin, your phone will be ringing off the hook this week.

**Tough day for baseball fans on Saturday, as two legends of the game died within hours of each other.

Earl Weaver, the legendary Baltimore Orioles manager who infuriated umpires but took the O’s to four World Series appearances, died at age 82. I always loved, as a kid, watching Earl stomp around the field berating umpires, and this is my favorite clip of him, though I warn you there’s a teeny bit of foul language. Weaver loved home runs, hated bunts, and didn’t take any crap from anybody, becoming one of the best managers in baseball history. He’ll be missed, especially now that today’s managers seem mostly devoid of personality.

And then a short time later Saturday, Stan (The Man) Musial, maybe one of the 2-3 greatest hitters who ever lived, and by universal agreement one of the finest gentlemen who ever lived, died at 92. Musial was before my time, but his Hall of Fame career ranks with anyone who ever played the game, and I’ve never read a bad word about him.

In St. Louis, where he is a God, there is much mourning today. The great Joe Posnanski, who tried for years to get Musial to cooperate on a book, has of course written a gorgeous tribute to Musial; read it here to appreciate the man.

**Finally today, the once every four years tradition of a Presidential Inauguration is taking place.

All weekend there have been parties, speeches and celebrations to hip-hip-hooray the fact that Barack Obama is still the President of the United States. And believe me, I’m thrilled he’s still the President, and not Willard Romney. I think Obama’s second term could be filled with greatness, from gun control laws to immigration reform to who knows what else he may grow a backbone about over the next four years.

But I mean, why do we need to go nuts and spend millions of dollars on an Inauguration when the same guy is basically just keeping the job? I understand why you need an inauguration when someone new takes over; you’ve got to swear him in, go over all the things he has to do Constitutionally, yada yada yada.

But when a President is re-elected, can’t we just go on with our lives and let him keep doing the job?

Just seems like a big waste of time to me.

Spending a day with a 7-year-old, and escaping thoughts of Newtown. Obama’s beautiful speech hits right notes. And a feel-good video about a traffic ticket

There is so much grief we all have been feeling since Friday morning, when news broke that a 20-year-old man broke into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and slaughtered 26 people, including 20 children.

Since Friday afternoon, when I heard the news while substitute teaching in, of all  places, an elementary school, I have been obsessing about this story. Reading everything I can about those beautiful children (two of whom are above). Reading everything I can about the monster who did this, and his mother, and trying to make any kind of sense of it.

I read this exhaustive yet terrific report from The Hartford Courant, and about the heroic 6-year-old girl who played dead and stayed alive, while all of her first-grade classmates fell around her.

I am angry and sad and horrified and fearful and everything else you all are feeling, but Sunday, I felt good for a few hours.
A long-planned day with a 7-year-old made me feel better. My nephew had never done the Manhattan holiday tourist bit, and so my fiancee, my sister and I showed a boy who knows nothing of what happened Friday some goodness in the world.

We looked at the Macy’s windows and smiled. I marveled at his smile upon seeing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and the famous skating rink up close.

And seeing him at FAO Schwarz, walking among the giant stuffed animals and the piano from “Big” and the Lego stuff, each few steps bringing about new wonder, was a tonic for my soul.

Nobody his age should ever, ever, ever have to deal with what those kids at Sandy Hook Elementary did. It should always be about robot helicopters and hackey-sacks and 200-trick magic sets.

But it’s not, and that’s unspeakably sad. For a few hours, though, I got to see what a 7-year-old’s life should mostly be about:

Joy.

**I thought President Obama gave a pitch-perfect address Sunday night at the Newtown vigil. Now, follow it up. Push for tighter gun control laws. Stop cutting funding for mental health care in this nation; fund it in the extreme at the school and hospital levels.

Words were beautiful. Now show me action. You’re a second-term President holding your last public office. Show us some action.

**Finally, here’s something that will put a smile on your face today. A police officer in Plano, Texas, at a traffic stop, gave a man $100 the other day.

There is still so much good in the world. Never forget that.

A glorious night in America, as an African-American gets re-elected President.

Warning: This blog post may be only semi-coherent, as I’m beginning to write it at 3:04 a.m….

Four more years. Four more years of a decent, honorable, well-meaning man of color, continuing to make history and change lives, sitting in the Oval Office.

Four more years of the equal rights of women and gays to do with their own bodies, and love whoever they want to, being respected.

Four more years of science being taken seriously. Four more years of economic recovery, and immigration reform, and maybe even a few new Supreme Court justices who are (gasp) liberal.

Four years where maybe, real progress is made on climate change and the drug war and economic policies that help the neediest.

Most importantly, four years where universal health care becomes a reality.

Barack Obama got it done Tuesday, and in a huge way. 332 Electoral votes (I’m counting Fla.) in this day and age is massive, and absolutely gives him a strong push for a second term that’s historic and revolutionary.

His acceptance speech was beautiful and touching and rousing, the kind of speech Obama gave in 2008. It made me proud to have voted for him.

I’m exhausted but happy and thrilled to be an American tonight.

Some other huge headlines on a election night when liberals like me couldn’t have asked for much more:
– The Senate races fell about as great as possible for the Dems. Chris Murphy won in Connecticut (hey Linda McMahon, what did that $77 million get you?). Elizabeth Warren and Heidi Heitkamp won, too.

– Tammy Baldwin, the newest Senator from Wisconsin, deserves her own paragraph. She’s the first openly gay Senator in U.S. history, and what a wonderful pioneer she will be. A great night for women politicians all around.

– A terrific night to see two silly barriers start to come down. First, Maine and Maryland legalized same-sex marriage, the first state voters to approve this enormous change. Washington state may do the same, although full results for that won’t be in for a few days. And a constitutional amendment declaring that marriage is only between a man and a woman was defeated, too. Gay marriage for all in America is now irreversible, don’t you think?

And Colorado and Washington state citizens legalized marijuana, a long-overdue move. I know the federal gov’t won’t allow people in Denver and Seattle to just start smoking up in public, but finally, the people have spoken and acknowledged how silly it is for pot to be criminalized.

– Thank you, Florida Democrats, for refusing to let Rick Scott and his disgusting voter-suppression tactics give Romney a win there.
– Fox News was fascinating after the race was called, with Karl Rove bitching that Fox News’ own analysts shouldn’t have called Ohio for Obama so fast. Bizarre stuff.

– Oh, and just when I thought the night couldn’t get any better, with Dems making gains in the Senate and Obama cruising to re-election, at least 1 and maybe 2 of the most radical, dangerous GOP House members go down to defeat. Allen West of Florida lost by about 2,000 votes to Patrick Murphy, and Michele Bachmann as of this writing is clinging to a 900-vote lead in Minnesota, with 11 percent of the vote still to be counted.

I know, I know, it’s too much to ask for. But if Bachmann could somehow lose, I’d be so, so happy.

– “Hillary 2016″ was trending on Twitter tonight. Heaven help us, Dems, do we really want to go back to that? Won’t it be time for some fresh blood? Ah, not gonna let the specter of another Hillary run get me down tonight. I’m in too good a mood.

– The best line in any speech Tuesday night came from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who will be a serious 2016 Prez candidate if he wants to be. This is what he said about the pot legalization victory:

“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or goldfish just yet.”

– I have no idea where Mitt Romney goes from here. I thought his concession speech was OK. This election was there to be won by a better candidate who actually help positions and consistent beliefs.

– Finally, let’s never take for granted that we get to have peaceful elections in this country. It’s a wonderful thing.

1 day out from Election Day, and the end of Mitt Romney. Andrew Luck and the Steelers star on an NFL Sunday. And the Hurricane Sandy concert rocked

Finally, the endless campaign is about over.
The undecideds have all finally decided. The constant barrage of emails begging me for money (which have turned my stomach in the past week as the really important reason to give money and time, the recovery/relief efforts of Hurricane Sandy, is so much more vital) are through.

What will happen Tuesday? Obama will win. Oh sure, I’m a little concerned and pissed that the state of Florida seems to be pulling some more crap by turning people away from the polls and cutting hours early, but I cannot believe this election is going to come down to Florida. Too many things would have to break right for Romney all at once on Tuesday for him to win this election. He’d have to get Ohio and Florida and Wisconsin and Virginia and that’s just not happening.

The Senate is what concerns me more; I’ll write more about that in Tuesday’s blog.
Right now though, I’m feeling two conflicting emotions: I can’t wait for Tuesday night to get here, because I freaking love the thrill of election nights.

And two, I can’t wait for Tuesday night to be over.

**Some NFL thoughts on a rare day when I didn’t see much football, but caught up through highlights:

– What in the name of Steve Pelluer is going on with Indianapolis? The Colts were supposed to be terrible this year as rookie QB Andrew Luck learned to play the position at the pro level.
Except he threw for 433 yards Sunday in beating the Dolphins, and Indy is now 5-3 and very much a playoff team in the AFC. Crazy to see that both Peyton Manning’s former team AND his current team have the same record. And check out this speech (above) by Colts coach Chuck Pagano, who’s battling leukemia and has been away for the team for a while, but came to the game Sunday and gave this stirring post-game speech.

— Terrible collapse by the Giants Sunday against the Steelers; Eli Manning and the offense apparently fell asleep at halftime and did squat in the fourth quarter. Even though they won, thought it was a terrible idea for Mike Tomlin to run a fake FG down 20-17 in the fourth quarter. Way too big of a risk. But a hell of a win for the Steelers.

– I guess Obama’s doomed; the Redskins lost their last home game before the election, and 17 of the last 18 times, that means the incumbent party in the White House lost the election. Oh well. President Romney it is.

– How good is the Bears defense? Every damn week they score a TD. My best fantasy football move ever was picking them up in week 2.

–Those Seahawks uniforms are by far the ugliest thing in the NFL right now. Except for Mark Sanchez’s quarterback play, of course.

**Not sure how many of you saw Friday night’s Hurricane Sandy benefit concert on NBC, but it was just outstanding. Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others performed in a quiet studio and all sung beautiful, somber songs that really captured the mood of New York right now.

(The one bizarre note of the whole show was Jimmy Fallon, God love ‘em, singing lead vocals on “Under the Boardwalk” while Springsteen, Joel and Steven Tyler sang backup. Whose idea was that?

The full one-hour concert (which can be seen here)  raised more than $22 million for the Red Cross. Fantastic job, all involved.

Mitt wants to be just like Barack. A compilation of great “Sportscenter” ads. And “Homeland,” holy bleep was it good

And now, there’s nothing left except the voting.
For the second straight presidential debate, Barack Obama wiped the floor with Mitt Romney, a man who continues to set new standards for lying and shape-shifting in a human being.
All night Monday I was looking at Romney’s blather about how Obama was right about Afghanistan, about how Romney believes in teachers (how the hell that came up in a foreign policy debate, I’ll never know), and how as President Mitt will “get tougher” with China and Iran, and I simply marveled at how quickly and easily he’s forgotten about all his previous positions on this issue.

I thought Obama was confident, clear, and did a good job reminding voters that what Romney is saying now isn’t what he’s said before (he was particularly good talking about Romney’s stances on Detroit and Afghanistan).

I thought Bob Schieffer did a poor job as moderator, not including nearly enough topics besides the Middle East (Mexican drug war, anyone? European economic crisis, anyone?) and not asking any follow-up questions. After him and Lehrer, I think only women should moderate presidential debates.

And Obama had the slam-dunk rebuttal to Romney’s worrying about our Navy being smaller than it was in 1917:

Look, the fact that this election is going to be close now is all because the President failed to show up for the first debate. I still have complete confidence that at the end of the day, people will see the 37 different versions of Mittens and not know which one would be sitting in the Oval Office every day, and they won’t vote for him.

Two weeks left. I think Obama has done enough. And Mitt, if you feel like agreeing with Obama as much as you did last night, I’m sure there’s a place for you in the next Cabinet.

*If you’re a sports fan at all, you’ve probably seen the brilliant “This is Sportscenter” ad campaign that ESPN has been running for the last 15 years or so. They always make me laugh and shake my head at their cleverness; even the bad ones are pretty good.

Someone with too much time on their hands has put together this compilation of some of the best ads. My favorites? The ones at 1:27 at 11:05.

**Finally, “Homeland.” I run out of adjectives to describe how great this show is; after the amazing final 10 minutes of Sunday’s episode, I just kept mouthing “holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!” at the incredible final two scenes.

First of all, how crazy is Carrie for doing what she did, basically blowing an undercover mission to see exactly who Brody is associated with, just because she’s unstable and is obsessed with him? When she screamed “I loved you,” you saw just how fragile of a person she was, and still is. I also can’t believe Saul and the new CIA guy Peter didn’t have Virgil or someone else stop Carrie when they saw her going to the elevator, up to Brody’s room.

Clare Danes is so terrific in this role; if every scene in “Homeland” was just her and Damien Lewis, I’d be happy.

I thought this was yet another really strong episode, though I can’t believe how fast they’re moving. I thought we’d at least see a few shows of Brody and the CIA circling each other, and now thanks to Carrie’s recklessness, the CIA only has the suicide tape with which to go after Brody.

Also, how cool was that scene between the teenagers at the Washington Monument? Man, the perks of being the VP’s kid.

Obama gets his mojo back in the debate. A haunting “Moth” story from the West Memphis 3. And a sick 4-year-old tries to meet Justin Bieber

Well hot damn and pass the popcorn, that was a hell of a lot better, Mr. President.

In Debate No. 2 of the presidential debate trilogy of ’12, both candidates actually showed up this time. And Barack Obama kicked some serious tushy. The President was feisty, he was aggressive, challenging Mitt Romney on so many lies and changes from his stated positions.
I thought Romney was aggressive too, and pushy, and interrupting of Candy Crowley and the President, and to me, while the Libya stuff (above) was clearly hugely important and a big blow to Romney, two other moments stood out even more:

1. When Romney interrupted Obama and said “You’ll get your chance in a moment, I’m still speaking,” it spoke volumes to the kind of bully Mitt Romney is. I really thought the two might come to blows during that exchange; (watch it here; Romney speaks the line I’m talking about at 1:40.) I really thought they might come to blows about 15 minutes in, and sadly, it’s big for Obama with white male voters that he stood up to Romney like that.

2. The other big moment I thought was very early in the debate, when Obama called out Romney’s economic numbers and said the math didn’t add up. (When Candy Crowley, who I thought did a pretty good job as moderator, asked about the numbers, Romney dismissed her, saying “Of course the numbers add up!”) It was exceedingly important for Obama to stand up and call Romney out on his lies.

Other quick takeaways:
– I thought Romney had a great shot to humanize himself at the end with that softball question about “what’s the biggest misperception about you?” and turned it into an attack on Obama.
– Man, I cringed when Obama talked about W., and basically praised him for not being as far right as Romney. Still too soon for me to think any positive thoughts, at all, about W.
– Great to see a gun control question get asked (but of course still nothing on climate change, or stem cell research). But as usual, both Romney and Obama wimped out. Politicians are so disgustingly afraid of the NRA and gun owners, it’s sad.

I have no idea if Obama will get a big poll bounce after this, but he did all he could do to erase the stench of the first debate. Tonight, I was proud to have voted for him and supported him.

**Every once in a while a story from “The Moth” radio podcast I listen to moves me so much I want to share it here.
Damien Echols is a member of the infamous “West Memphis 3,” the three teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of a 1993 murder, Echols was sentenced to death, but was released from jail in 2011 when new evidence finally cleared the men.

Echols, who has a new book out now, told his story at “The Moth” recently, and it was incredibly powerful. Listen to it here. or on iTunes.

**Finally, I thought this was pretty cool. A school in Wisconsin is trying to help a 4-year-old girl named Hailey Charlotte Roser, who is sick with a rare brain tumor, meet Justin Bieber when he comes to Milwaukee for a concer this weekend. So they made this very cool video to one of Bieber’s songs.

I hope someone shows this to Bieber and he makes this girl’s life just a tiny bit happier.