Scott Helman reports that Mitt probably will take that trip to fry steaks and cook up bucks in Iowa, or whatever it is they do there. (Maybe he’ll eat, or at least identify, one of these things in the upper left corner:)
I don’t expect His Excellency to take advice from this site, but I actually mean this sincerely: He would do much better for his Presidential ambitions by sticking around and doing a hands-on job. The magic-marker thing was gold. Yeah, he’s 3½ years too late on this thing, but it does conjure up the ol’ Salt Lake City magic.
Mitt doesn’t have enough time to “fix” the Big Dig before he goes. He definitely doesn’t have enough time to run for President out of state and “fix” the Big Dig. It was always going to be hard for Mitt to run on a record of accomplishment (even health care may still be politically hazardous to him come ’08), but this is an opportunity for him — albeit a probably insurmountable challenge, as well.
But what are you gonna do in his position? Throw up your hands and go to Iowa? Not smart.
UPDATE: Kim Atkins says he’s on the road tomorrow: DC, to hang out with the Cheneys. It is an event honoring Nantucket author Nathaniel Philbrick, don’t you know. Isn’t that just delightful beyond description? He’s learning about cannibalism from the Cheneys! (Didn’t you just know it?)
As I remember, his father ran for the nomination in ’64 when he was still newly elected by the people of Michigan. Michigan survived and George stayed Governor until ’68 or ’69. Didn’t we just have a Senator that stayed away from his post even more than usual to run for President? Who was that?
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Where the Governorship is an Executive Office, maybe he just has someone else do the work. I’ve found that putting more managers into a problem does not guarantee a solution. Maybe it would be better were he to go for a few weeks. I don’t mean anything bad by that, but my experience is that problems get solved better when the big bosses are gone.
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Does anyone believe that the Big Dig problems will be solved in the next ten years? I’ve heard this record played before. It goes like this.
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The Feds will nab (state authorities rarely nab in corruption cases) some more contractors on the Big Dig, then contractors on the repairs, then contactors on the repairs of the repairs. Add a few officials and politicians somewhere in there. My bet is that fifteen years from now the scandals from the Big Dig will die down, until then the newspapers can keep writing the same story with different names and titles.
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Mitt doesn’t have the time to do a substantively good job on the Big Dig. He does have time to make style points, though. Seems like that’s as good a use of his time as getting cannibalism tips from the Cheneys.
Is Nathaniel Philbrick a Republican? Aaarrrrgh!
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I’ve read all of his books and am plowing through Mayflower I’ll be soooo bummed if he’s Republican.
books written by Democrats are good for you.
according to the database to which I have access. Good for him for promoting his Mayflower book in a bipartisan way, though. Maybe he can teach the Cheneys and the Romneys a thing or two about the General good of the Colony.
Heart attack du jour … it sort of looks like a burger covered in cheese sauce. Iowa, the culinary capital of America.
That it was a bowl of mustard.
Have you ever had Cheddarwurst sausage? Beef sausage veined with cheese? Or pimento dip – three cheeses with pimento bits? It’s a whole different dairy world out there.
I’m told it’s a baked potato smothered in Velveeta.
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Read more of what the presidential hopefuls have to eat at my friend Benji’s old blog, including Power Rankings of many fine eateries: Your Man in Iowa.
I believe that it looks like a chicken-fried steak, although this is more of a Texan delicacy than Iowan. And pretty good, too, though not to be consumed if you have a cholesterol test coming up.
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Funny story: When I lived in Texas, the nuts from the Center for Science and the Public Interest came to do one of their protests at a local (not a chain) restaurant famous for chicken-fried (i.e., deep-fried) steak, served with a gooey cream-laden gravy that looks a lot like the picture above. The dish had a lot of calories! Many of wich were fat! And saturated fat at that! Serve steamed broccoli with nothing instead!
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In response to the picketers, the restaurant reluctantly changed its menu, by adding chicken-fried bacon. A two inch slab of deep fried bacon, covered in a cream-laden gravy. The lines were down the block, even in Texas heat. The protest ended quietly, and CSPI moved on to protest some other food item.
BTW – the Texas Roadhouse chain here in MA does a pretty good job on replicating it! MOST chicken fried steak in this part of the country is AWFUL.
It appears that the consensus is that it is yellow; looked like nit could be white to me.