Record Rains, Heat Wave

Give up. There's neither rhyme nor reason to our weather around here. But the plants in my backyard are loving it.

There's a different kind of weather in Washington, D.C. As always, I like watching political events and evaluating them and then switching off the pundits -- right, left, whatever.

I recommend this for everyone. The problem with listening to people who either agree or disagree with you too much is you may not keep your own intellectual muscles sharp.

So, if you did watch President Obama's press conference this week, like I did, and if you also ignored the pundits, right, left or whatever, then you may have an opinion as uninfluenced by others as mine.

FWIW, here's mine:

Obama is a master at the art of press conferences. He controlled the tempo, stayed on his message, and didn't answer any question he didn't want to answer.

He also laid down a series of challenges to Congress that may give him an advantage in the looming battle to avoid the prospect of the U.S. government, for the first time ever, failing to make a payment on a debt.

Or not. Maybe the Congressional Republicans will calculate that the game of chicken they've been playing for months still favors them and they will force this dangerous confrontation to the last possible moment.

As I watched Obama play his hand, somehow I sensed that he is no longer having fun. I know he is a competitor, a good one, but when he brought his daughters into the argument, I was surprised.

It is my impression that he values their privacy so much that he rarely mentions them. But by bringing their homework habits into this debate, in an effort to shame Congressional Republicans, I felt he was overplaying his hand.

It felt unfair and unwise.

But that's only me, and who am I to question those who toil in the Swamp in summer? If you've never lived in Washington, D.C., you may not understand what I am talking about, but it is truly one of the most uncomfortable places on earth to be this time of year, and it can easily fry your brain.

A conclusion?

I suspect Obama is going to win this round. I think the GOP leaders are having nightmares that if they follow their most extreme base and force the government to default on payments they will also forfeit whatever remote chance they might have had to unseat Obama in next year's Presidential election.

So, to continue the Chicken analogy, it's probably time for them to pull off of the road and make sure a head-on collision does not occur.

On the other hand, in order to make that decision, they have to figure out who is this Obama guy? Is he as gutsy as he sometimes appears to be or just another Liberal wimp?

Here is my advice, FWIW. In trying to gauge Obama and what he is willing to do in games of risk, consider what he did to Osama bin-Laden. That was probably the riskiest thing any President has done since Kennedy undertook the Bay of Pigs invasion, which proved to be a complete disaster.

By contrast, Obama played his hand and won. Do you really want to take on a man like that?

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p.s. Prediction: Obama will be re-elected by a margin of 60-40 over whatever Republican wins that party's nomination.

Season's End

UPDATE 6.27.11:

Tonight, I am worried about the injury my son suffered to his neck as described below. Yes, he is tough, but today his neck hurts and I fear he may have a whiplash injury. I am seeking advice (from anyone who may read this blog) on how to treat this type of injury. Of course, since this is America, we cannot afford and therefore do not have health insurance.

Watching #16 out there today in Hayward was fun. He's a defender, and anytime his team shuts out their opponent, he can feel good, because his role, as center back, is the last line of defense in front of his keeper.

Sometimes it's about cutting off angles; other times it's about being physical. Whatever needs to be done, he has to do it.

Shutouts, therefore, are special, very special, especially when they are playing against a team with a better record and on their home field.

Of course, soccer is very rough game, but he's grown into a very rugged kid, who can dish it as well as he takes it.

My heart did skip a beat or two today when he was crushed to the ground after successfully stripping the ball from a striker by two opponents who "sandwiched" him.

As I watched him fly through the air and land backwards on the ball, I also saw his head snap backwards to the turf.

A teammate picked up the ball and sent it wide out of harm's way, but he stayed down for a minute. When he finally got up he looked woozy and later he told me he felt dizzy.

But after another minute he was back in the fray, dishing some impressive punishment to the guys who had knocked him down.

The ref saw it all and never whistled. When A tackled one of the guys, cleanly, preventing a goal, the downed player flopped and raised his hands in the familiar "what?" gesture of soccer players everywhere.

The ref shook his head and pointed at A as if to say, "you took him out, he took you out. What's the problem?"

I like it. I like having a tough kid playing a tough sport. And the bottom line? He helped pitch a shutout.

That would be my son. Look into his eyes. Would you really want to challenge a kid like him? Trust me, he's a sweetie pie, just not on the pitch...There he is a holy terror.

But he's only one of my sons, and we are a complicated family.

Another son is my gentle young intellectual, my book lover, who was at the Gay Pride Parade today with his friends, both girls and boys, appreciating one of our great festivals in SF, and I am so impressed by his ability to figure out our confusing bus system here to get back home tonight on his own.

My oldest son, meanwhile, was making his way to his new home in Seattle from Pasadena, to finish his PhD in neuroscience.

Three boys all very different and all equally impressive in their Dad's eyes. In fact, like all Dads I'm sure, I love them just as they are more than any words will ever be able to express, but I suppose they already know that...



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