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To my readers and friends:

Red Zone Blogitics is taking a short hiatus from the blogosphere until the Democratic nomination process for president is decided. Basically, with all of the hot-air speculation around the election, I got tired of hearing my own writing — along with everyone else’s. But I offer a few nuggets here in brief:

Who’s TRULY ‘Elitist’? The PRESS – Even the Comedians

In the wake of the recent clutsy rhetoric by Barack Obama to a San Franciso donor audience that exposed the candidate to accusations of “classism,” I think it’s important to acknowledge the cultural cluelessness of the most frustrated elitist brigade of all – NOT the politicians, but the PRESS. This includes the so-called “parodists” — those who lace their punditry with the sweet skepticism of comedy.

For example, Bill Maher says he’s “bitter” about the decision by some embittered blue-collar whites in this great nation to subject the rest of us to the George W. Bush administration. Yet Maher has had every opportunity to gain an understanding into the perceptual strategy Democrats should have been adopting for YEARS. Why? Because I sent him my book, “Democrats in the Red Zone.” But he obviously hasn’t read it, because he remains as self-righteous in his indignation and as mystified at the “way things have played out” (my emphasis) as any diehard liberal in his/her culturally insular cocoon. It doesn’t have to be this way, Bill. You ACTUALLY can get some relief from your terminal frustration by ACTUALLY READING SOMETHING THAT IS NOT BY ONE OF YOUR FAMOUS OR TRENDY FRIENDS IN THE PANTHEON OF CULTURAL SELF-CONGRATULATION.

To be  fair, I don’t know if Maher ever got my book, because his “people” apparently don’t have the courtesy or the political common sense to return phone calls from people who aren’t on their social radar. In any case, Maher made a rare and confusing comment the other night when — while seemingly trying to paint Obama as a truthteller for his comments about “bitterness” in the so-called Heartland — he insisted that the people who were truly clueless were “the hopeful,” even as he projected an image of Obama, who has used “hope” as one of his overriding themes. For someone who prides himself on sharp, witty double entendres, it was unclear what his point was.

In my view, the whole spinning of the “hope” ideal comes down to whether American voters will continue to buy into false hope (the promotion of pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that can be the province of certain religious sects and that is often used to excuse cultural prejudice) versus active hope (promoting actual compassion and right-thinking actions).

Then there’s Jon Stewart, who I generally think of as a smart rebel but who seems to be suffering from an acute lack of imagination when it comes to his choice of guests (for example: authors from the political establishment versus the politically independent arena — which is why I haven’t bothered to send him my book). For all his anti-establishment humor, Stewart is as culturally timid as the next liberal media host in terms of who he invites onto his show: i.e., only “famous” personalities from the belly of America’s social establishment.

Like Maher, Stewart last week made his own blooper, and what was even more embarrassing is how blind he was to how clueless he looked. Here’s what I saw: In an apparent attempt to help cover Obama’s back on the “elitism” thing, he ended up exposing his liberal blind spot to football fans across America — the most fertile of hunting grounds for Democrats looking for inroads into the “guy vote.”

So what did Stewart do? He asked his audience whether they didn’t, in fact, WANT a president whose theme song is the stately “Hail to the Chief” instead of the theme to Monday Night Football (”Are you ready for some football?”). For both examples, he played a clip of President Bush walking into the House of Representatives to deliver one of his State of the Union addresses. The implication was, of course, that the kind of people who equate the Commander in Chief to a glorified quarterback are idiots.

Here’s the problem with that assumption, Jon: Football is the all-American team sport. It brings America together in ways that liberal hand-wringing over issues we SHOULD care about never will. Barack Obama gave the intro to Monday Night Football two seasons ago. JFK made sure his handlers got pics of him playing touch football with his brothers, and they made sure voters SAW those pictures. You see, Jon, we football fans do not equate our game and the men who play it with a lack of smarts. The game is about “action” and the unique permutations of intelligence that come with understanding how to play that game. To many voters — especially those who decide elections, including the men who Democrats seem to have been in terminal popularity deficit with over the years: men — the president IS a glorified QB.

If you want to get a clue, Jon, get one of your helpers to pick up my book for you. It actually might be useful to your audience because it was NOT written by one of the typical insiders you have on your show.

‘Patriotism’ on the Cheap

Here’s some food for thought, which you or anyone you see fit to send this to should feel free to comment on by going to the site and making your voice heard: How do YOU define “patriotism”? Is it slapping an American flag symbol on your house, your car, or your lapel — which, for some reason, Obama gets a lot of grief for NOT doing while neither Clinton and McCain seem to wear one on a regular basis EITHER — or is it a bit deeper than that?

Steelers’ CEO Endorses Obama

The owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney has endorsed Barack Obama and the team has been hosting rallies for the biracial candidate. To read Rooney’s endorsement letter, go to http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/owner_of_pittsburgh_steelers_e.php.

We do politics AND football here, so with the NFL draft approaching April 26, it may be fun to compare where NFL teams need to beef up their offense and defense to how the presidential candidates’ respective teams have performed. Feel free to comment.

Signing off for now,

A.F. Cook