Today, three or four quick things come to mind.
First topic:
Kathleen Sebelius, the recently fired Secretary of Health and Human Services and by most accounts guilty – by action or inaction – of the terrible rollout of Obamacare, has announced that she is thinking about running for the U.S. Senate from Kansas.
This year.
If Sebelius had headed a publicly traded company, it would have been carried out of the executive suite on a railing, with boxed goods thrown behind it.
That is, if she hadn’t been the subject of a federal indictment for lying to shareholders about her company’s largest enterprise status.
Bernie Madoff? Meet your up-to-date roommate, former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. You two kids, behave!
Sebelius was governor of Kansas for two terms, but six years as a member of the Obama administration robbed him of any semblance of a chance of defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.
Public Policy Polling – a Democratic polling firm – has Sebelius’s approval/disapproval numbers at 38-55, which is even worse than President Obama’s numbers (44-52 according to the RealClearPolitics.com average).
I hope she runs and takes advantage of Obamacare. This would nationalize the Kansas Senate race and give every other Republican candidate in the country – including Marietta, Ohio’s 45750 City Council candidates – a turning point in connecting with their voters.
Second topic.
Wendy Davis is a Texas state senator who made national news when she defeated a bill restricting abortion in the Lone Star State.
She immediately became a national heroine (heroine? Can I say that?) among liberals and was talked into running for governor against incumbent Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Bad choice.
The same Democratic polling firm, Public Policy Polling, released numbers that show Abbott defeated Davis by a fairly decisive 51-37 margin.
This isn’t bad news for Davis. The bad news is that Abbott beats her in the Texas women’s field 49-41.
Which once again proves the oft-cited rule: Texas is not the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Third topic.
Sunday is April 20. 4/20. From now until Sunday, you will hear, see and read a lot about the number 420.
Why? Because 420 has become code for marijuana. It seems to have started in Marin County (across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco) and was nurtured by the Grateful Dead.
I’m telling you this because while you’re probably much more culturally aware than I am (a Jurassic-era fossil is more culturally aware than I am), you may have wondered about this 420 business.
I’m here to serve.
Last topic.
I don’t always agree with Arizona’s senior senator, John McCain. However, during a trip to Eastern Europe, he criticized the European Union over its lukewarm response to Russia’s continued efforts in Ukraine.
He called EU sanctions “almost a joke.” According to FoxNews.com:
“McCain said EU sanctions against several Russians and one financial institution were ‘minimal.’
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One today that “we stand ready to impose new sanctions,” but gave no indication of what they might be.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “a US official said that unless there is a dramatic escalation in Ukraine, sanctions will not affect key sectors of the Russian economy.”
So what would the up-to-date sanctions consist of? And if they don’t “hit key sectors of the Russian economy,” why should Putin care?
I believe the seeds of the Russia-Ukraine crisis were sown when President Obama relinquished (see what I did there?) control of the imaginary Red Line in Syria to Putin after President Assad used chemical weapons on his own citizens last summer.
Putin has realized that Obama is an empty threat wearing an empty suit and that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants.
Bonus topic.
I’m reading Michael Lewis’ up-to-date book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.
Contains probably the best footnote of all time.
It seems that in order to bypass the high-frequency traders who were manipulating the game, a group of very intelligent guys wanted to start their own exchange. But that’s not the point.
The thing is that they wanted to call their business “Investor Exchange”, but they had to shorten the name to IEX.
Why? Because the URL of the Investor Exchange page would be:
investorexchange.com
I live for these things.
