Monday Newsbreak: 10/06

--Just a small note about the presidential campaign: the mudslinging final stretch is now underway! View media coverage at your own risk. You’ve been warned!

--The Minnesota senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, Democrat Al Franken, and Independent Dean Barkley demonstrates the futility of depending on public opinion polls to ascertain who’s winning. At the same time, two different polls came out. One showed Coleman opening up a ten-percent lead over Franken, while the other showed Franken turning the tables on Coleman while opening up a nine-percent lead! Are we dealing with parallel states of Minnesota, existing in alternate dimensions? Quick, somebody call Art Bell!

--My home state of Florida is pulling the utterly cynical act of having a vote on the ballot that would add prohibition of gay marriage to the state’s constitution. According to Florida state law, gay marriage is already illegal. Although the proponents of this amendment say they want it because of what they call “activist” judges overturning state laws in other states. I think this “every-four-years” fomenting of homophobic passions is deliberately designed as a ploy to draw folks to the polls to “save marriage” and--oh by the way--vote for whomever the Republican candidate for president is.

--So congress approved the $700 billion financial bailout and Presidential Bush quickly signed it into law. What are they going to do now if the banks and the financial markets continue to tank?

--The National Football League Miami Dolphins just won their second straight game of the year over one of last year’s playoff teams, this time 17-10 over San Diego. I watched part of the game and was very impressed with the play of both the Dolphins’ offense and defense. This is a team that I can follow without (unlike last year) wincing every few minutes. And they’re having fun out there!

--Unlike the Dolphins, who seem to enjoy playing football, my hometown Florida Gators seem to be drenched in misery, even after convincingly beating Arkansas on the road 38-7. Two Gator running backs ran for more than 100 yards in the game. Having a diversified running game is something they had been hoping for this season, and new stars are rising on the team to fill this void from last season. It was gratifying to see freshmen Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey do so well. It bodes well for the team’s prospects for the rest of the year, although it must be admitted that Arkansas hasn’t had a very good run defense this year. Still, if Florida can win the time-of-possession contest next week against the LSU Tigers and consistently have good, long, time-consuming scoring drives during the game, that would go a long way toward keeping their defense fresh and the dangerous LSU offense off the field. In the recent past, Florida has lost three close games to the Tigers, largely due to their defense tiring from being out on the field way too long. UF did well against Arkansas, although if you saw or heard coach Urban Meyer or quarterback Tim Tebow after the game, you might have come away with the conclusion that they had lost.