Easy and Difficult

Some things are difficult to figure.  They happen without warning and seem unconnected to things that have previously occurred.  Some of these things have obscure previous histories and therefore seem ever-so-fresh.

Then the history bubbles forth and lo and behold the surprising occurrence becomes not so surprising.  Some of the nonsense with Herman Cain fits into that category.  At first we think of Mr. Cain as a surprising new voice.  His history, such as we know of it, does not predict his stunning surge to the top of the political polls.  Then, suddenly, there are unexpected charges and everybody sighs, here we go again.  But wait, Cain is a black conservative and, therefore, the worst of nightmares for the far-left liberal media.  Whether you like Cain or not, you know, from history, that the media will be gunning hard for him, with the intent to eliminate him as a legitimate threat.  Are the charges bubbling forth connected to the certainty of the left's hard charge.  Do we assume they are or do we wait and see?

Had they occurred when Cain was hardly attracting any political or popular support, you would probably assume they were unconnected to the left's objectives.  But instead, they occurred just at the very moment Cain's months of hard campaigning are paying off and his poll numbers are soaring.  They occur at the very instant he is moving into the lead in the GOP race.   If you are naive you wait and if you are politically savvy, you don't. If you have the least little bit of common sense, you don't wait at all. And sure enough, the first "victim" that shows herself publicly is accompanied by liberal doyen Gloria Aldridge.  If someone making charges against obama were to appear at their first press briefing with, say, Andrew Breitbart or Sean Hannity, would you thing differently? (This isn't to say that either or these two gentlemen are as manipulative as Aldridge, they are not, and I apologize in advance).

How long ago did someone on the left first know there were people out there who could go a long way toward ruining Cain?  Right now we have no factual answer, but don't say you don't have a clue.  If it were 3 am in Washington and someone asks if daybreak will occur, don't say you have no clue.  You have a long history of knowing that the answer to the question is yes, unless hell freezes over.

There are other late revelations on the political front.  In the last week or two obama has officially delayed the huge pipeline project that even the left concedes will produce somewhere between 200,000 and one-half-million jobs  obama cited environmental concerns despite a long history of the safety of similar projects and the desperate need for both the petroleum destined to flow through the pipes and the jobs that will be created to build and maintain the pipeline.  obama said he would consider the project again next year.  the canadians are not waiting and are moving to enter into a similarly lucrative deal with asian buyers.  If this reaction by those injured by obama's intransigence when it comes to energy production seems familiar it is because it is.  Remember when obama refused to reopen Gulf of Mexico oil pumping platforms even though many were not of the kind involved in the recent terrible spill there, and were causing catastrophic job losses along the Gulf coast?  When obama blew off the platforms he didn't count on the oil companies doing all they could to cut to cut their losses.  Many - if not most - of the platforms were simply packed up and floated to places where they could be used at once.  One of the most infuriating places where these platforms turned up was the Atlantic Ocean off of Brazil.  There, the Brazilian government, in conjunction with the oil companies, were exploring and then pumping huge petroleum reserves located there.  The Brazilian government is financing the exploration project with money from guess where?  The obama administration.  So obama won't allow the United States to pump its own oil but is paying for the Brazilian Government to pump their oil?

A few days after obama threw a dagger into the Canadian Job-Producing Bonanza, he did the same thing to oil shale production in the midwest, chiefly Ohio.  He tried to say that ranchers in the midwest were in support of his position even though they were not, but the press, largely, did not cover that.  The only problems with oil shale hydrolic blasting occurred many years ago when early attempts were made at a comparatively shallow depth.  In recent decades that blasting is done at such a great depth that ground water and other natural resources are completely unaffected.  Apparently, such things as proof of safe production doesn't faze a man beholden to far left ideology, which is the most stable part of his badly depleted base.

Let me turn to sports, a much happier subject.  The football game on Thanksgiving night may be a preview of the Super Bowl, but don't tell the sports press which are seemingly married to the line that the Packers are a lock to win it all.  In recent weeks the Packers have seemed just a bit beatable, winning yesterday against a Tampa Bay team that wasn't supposed to stay in a game against the monsters of the tundra.

The game on Thanksgiving is between the once-beaten San Francisco 49ers and the AFC-North leading Baltimore Ravens, holders of a 7-3 record and winners yesterday in a battle for first place with the up and coming Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens are led by a quarterback often skewered by the national press, an emotional running back who wears his feelings on his sleeve and rookie wide receiver (the Ravens regularly play two from the University of Maryland) whose is only now learning that he might be the most unstoppable offensive weapon in the league.  Both teams are coached by a set of brothers, one the master of delegation and one who can't stay out of anything.  Joe Flacco had one big lead weight around his neck going into this season:  he couldn't beat the Steelers in big games.  It was a misleading weight he was carrying since he had rallied the Ravens to a victory last season in Pittsburg during the regular season and had the snake-bitten Baltimore Team marching to victory at the end of the unbelievable playoff game, also in Pittsburg, when Anquan Boldin, of all people, dropped a ball.   Earlier in that game Ray Rice had fumbled after breaking into the open field and Flacco had fumbled a snap.  This season Flacco has led the Ravens to two wins over his arch-rivals.  The first came on opening weekend in Baltimore and it was a doozy.  Flacco was impeccable.  Then a few weeks back he rallied the Ravens by marching them the length of the field in the waning seconds, and hitting that rookie receiver receiver, Torrey Smith, on a 28 yard strike just seconds after the rookie had dropped a touchdown pass in the endzone.

Yesterday, Smith and Flacco were at it again.  A long completion to the former-Terrapin (and please, as might have guessed, I went to Maryland and I know you are never a "former" Terp) set up a Ray Rice touchdown run in the first half.  In the second half, a beautiful bomb to Smith  - when Flacco threw the ball, Smith had not even caught up to the two defenders also running with him, but when the ball came down in his hands he was three strides past both of them - was the game's decisive score.  The decisive play was made by the game's best pass rusher, Terrell Suggs.  With the Bengals in position to tie the score and playing a first and goal at the Raven 8-yard-line, and the Ravens only rushing three men, Suggs broke through a multi-team of blockers and sacked the Bengals' outstanding rookie quarterback, Andrew Dalton.  As he was falling Dalton made an uncommon mistake under pressure: he threw the ball away.  Since he was still in the box and clearly had no receiver in mind when he let it go, it was called intentional grounding and moved the Bengals back near the 20-yard line. On fourth down, Pernell McPhee again broke through the multiple blockers and hit Dalton as he threw.  The wobbly ball fell harmless to Earth a few feet away and the Ravens won.

To an observer, Flacco has become the leader the Ravens need him to be.  The vets on the defense now accept him as a legitimate big game leader, even if they still wonder about some of the game plans dreamt up by offensive guru Cam Cameron.  The three losses the Ravens "sport" are all to poor teams (Seattle, Jacksonville and Tennessee) and in all three games the offense was to blame because they did not score.  All three came after huge wins the week before over really good teams.  They have lost both games they played the week after beating Pittsburgh, and if they end up not getting a bye or not making the playoffs at all, heaven forbid, those two losses will be the reason why.  In the Tennessee loss the decision to put Lee Evans on the active list for the game was hard to understand. The Titans knew Evans - with his injury = could not get deep and this allowed them to swarm all over Boldin.  The following week Evens was inactive and Smith started and caught three TD passes in the FIRST QUARTER.  It may, perhaps, be hard for veteran football minds to comprehend just how fast Smith is.  His long stride combined with tremendous foot and leg speed allow him to explode past even the fastest defender.  Now that Flacco knows how to use him, it might be Katy Bar the Door.

The 49ers are also a surpirse.  They have pulled off a stunning number of close wins, and believe they are never out of a game.  Jim Harbaugh is their new coach and he has them believing in themselves.  A key factor in the game is whether Ray Lewis can play.  He missed yesterday's game and the Ravens survived.  But they gave up way more yards than they usually do and now the 49ers can use video from the game to see where the difference is between the Ravens with Lewis and the Ravens without the man named Lewis.  I have a good feeling about the Ravens chances.  The game, going in, reminds me of the game two years back (or was it three) when the Ravens went into Dallas the night they were closing the old stadium.  All of the old Cowboys were there and most everyone thought Dallas would roll.  But Flacco kept finding Derrick Mason and Todd Heap and the Ravens broke off two long touchdown runs when Dallas thought they would be killing the clock.  The NFL network had that game, too.  I like the Ravens to win, 34-14.