jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Actually, there are no connections that I'm aware of. I'm just looking forward to the top-to-bottom ass whoopin' the repubs are going to get two weeks from now.
:snowball fight:
:snowball fight:
Obama and the Ski Industry
- Thread starter jamesdeluxe
- Start date
rfarren
New member
Unless one of the candidates is giving away free lift tickets, I don't think this subject should get tossed around on a ski forum. If we want to talk about Sonny Bono's demise, thats fine by me, it was a ski related accident. Frankly, when you ski are you shouldn't be worrying about politics? Don't get me wrong, but I just like to read about ski-related issues. Maybe that is because I live in NYC and I want to live vicariously through all you guys out in the mountains. But please, I beg you, spare me the political stuff. It's gone too far when it shows up on a ski forum.
Be careful what you wish for. In this era of polarized political parties divided government does the least damage, and definitely exerts the most fiscal responsibility. I think this is one lesson of 2002-2006.
In recent history one could argue that the most sensible legislation was enacted under Reagan (Dems had the House the whole time) and last 6 years of Clinton (Reps had both House and Senate). This is McCain's best argument (and he has a track record of working with opposition to prove it) but he hasn't been making it, though his former campaign manager Mike Murphy is.
Admin":2ca6ei7s said:
I thought they were both funny too. I just didn't know McCain well enough to know that he was funny too.
As Admin well knows, I've never read any of the rules of the forum, so I'm not sure if politics is allowed in the OT or not, but I'm assuming that since he's contributing to the thread it's ok.
Over at another forum they have a unwritten thing going on...The "skiing" forums are about skiing in "season" whatever that is, and almost anything else off season.
Then they have thay WAY OT, which is for all that stuff that gets you in trouble - politics, global warming, the war and the evolution of man. It's all the stuff where no ones' opinion will ever change. If you go in there you know what you're getting.
On Tony's point...I agree with that except...up until now I've been really unsure about whether to "cut and run" in Iraq or try to go for a more orderly exit to preserve order. (This from a guy who is rabidly anti-war.)
I now think that we've got to get out asap. We are bleeding cash. There's a chance that even if the bailout works our govt bonds will become worthless to the rest of the world. And both Shia and Sunni are demonstrating in the streets - they seem to both agree. Get the GD Americans out of here. It's time to go. Now.
I think a Dem pres and congress will get us out faster. Either option is scary as hell (thanks W), but it is what it is.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I'll try to steer this back to SR territory...
How many presidents or vice presidents were skiers? The only one that comes to mind is Gerald Ford. I remember him being all involved with some ski area in Colorado.
How many presidents or vice presidents were skiers? The only one that comes to mind is Gerald Ford. I remember him being all involved with some ski area in Colorado.
jamesdeluxe":2swww9b0 said:
Beaver Creek. He had a home in the base area.
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/index. ... e&sid=1726
I can't think of any others, either.
Officially, anything goes here, too. I've just never seen any of these political threads end up well.
Patrick
Active member
Admin":287tkyk2 said:
We'll I can add my two Canadian two cents.
I remember readying that Stéphane Dion skis (Liberal leader that probably going to resign tomorrow after the election lost).
Haven't seen any info regarding skiing about the current Canadian PM, Stephen Harper. He's more into Hockey.
Jean Chrétien 1993-2004 was a skier. He even got into probably went he skipped on the Jordanian's president state funeral and keep his Whistler vacation.
Regarding the previous PMs (Paul Martin (2004-05), Kim Campbell (1993), Brian Mulroney (1984-93) John Turner (1984) and Joe Clark (1979)), I don't recall about hearing about them skiing.
Prior to them, Pierre Trudeau was an avid skier and outdoor man. His youngest son became a liftee at Red. He died in a fall avalanche and was slept away in the unfrozen Kootenay lake below back in November 1998.
http://archives.cbc.ca/environment/natu ... lips/9934/
I was curious and I did a bit of research..this article sums it up.
From Ski Canada (winter 2006)
First Tracks
The politics of skiing
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Interesting article, Patrick. I like Ski Canada magazine. I'm always interested to know what kind of outdoors stuff (if any) our leaders are into, and what it says about them.
I've read that Obama works out punctually for 45 minutes first thing in the morning, but not sure what he does (weights? machines?). We've heard all about Palin's moose/wolf hunting... I guess Biden and McCain are too long in the tooth for sports?
I've read that Obama works out punctually for 45 minutes first thing in the morning, but not sure what he does (weights? machines?). We've heard all about Palin's moose/wolf hunting... I guess Biden and McCain are too long in the tooth for sports?
Not too surprising about Canadian politicians being more likely skiers. US has 10x Canada's population but only 3x Canada's skier visits.
Gerald Ford was the only avid skiing president I know about. I recall from 2004 that John Kerry snowboards. Our governator Arnold is an excellent skier and owns a place in Sun Valley. On that tack we know that many of the Kennedy family ski, though I don't know whether JFK did.
Obama's exercise is basketball. Recent L.A. Times article says he takes it very seriously. Some of his advisors play also, and they try to fill in with pick-ups when they are on the road. The only time mentioned when advisors insisted he not play was the day of the Denver stadium speech.
McCain doesn't do much other than hike. His war injuries preclude many other types of exercise, including using a keyboard.
1) Events on the ground have overtaken. The Iraqi government thinks it will be strong enough to get along without us within a year or two, and have already negotiated an agreement in that direction with Bush admin. Either candidate will be likely to honor that agreement due to both financial pressure and the desire to allocate more military resources to Afghanistan.
2) More importantly, the electorate is mostly focused on the economic issues at the moment. Obama's probability went from ~70% to 90+% during those 2 weeks when the bailout bill was being debated.
Gerald Ford was the only avid skiing president I know about. I recall from 2004 that John Kerry snowboards. Our governator Arnold is an excellent skier and owns a place in Sun Valley. On that tack we know that many of the Kennedy family ski, though I don't know whether JFK did.
Obama's exercise is basketball. Recent L.A. Times article says he takes it very seriously. Some of his advisors play also, and they try to fill in with pick-ups when they are on the road. The only time mentioned when advisors insisted he not play was the day of the Denver stadium speech.
McCain doesn't do much other than hike. His war injuries preclude many other types of exercise, including using a keyboard.
Allegedly Ski Canada is viewed like SKI and SKIING here. But I get that from Leslie Anthony, who was the founding editor of SBC Skier, more in the Powder mold. I'll defer to our Canadian posters in analyzing the relative merits/maket positions of those mags.
McCain has historically done very well with the press, and making the rounds of the talk shows. This was very evident the first time he ran in 2000. Unfortunately, he's contracted "political advisor" disease this time. Listening to these people, many of whom were successful working for Bush (hello, the political landscape is different this time!?!?!) has not served McCain well. I tend to ignore the campaign BS, and thus tend to believe we'll get the 2000 version of McCain if he wins. But he has only a 7% chance according to http://fivethirtyeight.com.
I believe Iraq has almost gone away as a campaign issue, despite its salience in getting Obama launched a year+ ago.
1) Events on the ground have overtaken. The Iraqi government thinks it will be strong enough to get along without us within a year or two, and have already negotiated an agreement in that direction with Bush admin. Either candidate will be likely to honor that agreement due to both financial pressure and the desire to allocate more military resources to Afghanistan.
2) More importantly, the electorate is mostly focused on the economic issues at the moment. Obama's probability went from ~70% to 90+% during those 2 weeks when the bailout bill was being debated.
rfarren
New member
McCain could still win, I mean the Red Sox came back... didn't they? ....No... they didn't...... HURRAY!!!! This is a good omen for the eastern ski season!
I wonder what the correlation is for good ski season in the east and the red sox losing... It probably doesn't work at all considering they spent the vast majority of the last 100 years not winning. On the other hand, there is a strong correlation between the Yankees losing or not making the series and democrats winning the presidency.
I wonder what the correlation is for good ski season in the east and the red sox losing... It probably doesn't work at all considering they spent the vast majority of the last 100 years not winning. On the other hand, there is a strong correlation between the Yankees losing or not making the series and democrats winning the presidency.
YES: 2000, 1992, 1956, 1952, 1948, 1944, 1940, 1928
NO: 2004, 1996, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1972, 1968, 1964, 1960, 1936, 1932, 1924 (Yankees never in WS before 1921)
No correlation at all in recent times, but I found the era in which this rumor must have originated, when the Yankees were in the Series over half the time. I think there was a stretch where stock market performance correlated with whether a pre-merger NFL team won the Super Bowl.
Tony Crocker":3ht3xifn said:
No questioned McCain got Roved, although not in the traditional sense of the word. In the beginning, when it was narrowed to the big 3 (Hillary, Obama and McCain) this life long democrat was seriously considering going for McCain. He is/was the most moderate of the three. Now a few things are tripping me up.
His age and the the stress of running and being president. Did you hear him accidentally call an audience "my fellow prisoners?"
Palin. At 72, there's a reasonable chance we may really need the VP.
The gas tax holiday....pure pandering (Hillary was for it too.)
And I hate to admit it....Rove. I just don't like the fact that McCain gave up control.
I think Tony is right...there's a good chance we'll get the old McCain back if he wins.
Anyone see Colin Powell on Meet the Press? There's a guy I would vote for. What a great interview.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I remember the 2000 version of McCain was very likeable, relatively moderate, and actually lived up to the now-annoying "maverick within his party" label. That was his big chance and I was bummed when he had to bail.
Wonder how things would've turned out (for him and for the country) if he'd won the 2000 repub primary instead of W. He definitely blew it in this election by tracking so far to the right... though you have to wonder, given the economy right now, how any GOP candidate could have pulled this one out.
Wonder how things would've turned out (for him and for the country) if he'd won the 2000 repub primary instead of W. He definitely blew it in this election by tracking so far to the right... though you have to wonder, given the economy right now, how any GOP candidate could have pulled this one out.
jamesdeluxe":3o81oomh said:
I'd bet my house that we wouldn't have spent close to a trillion in Iraq if almost ANYBODY other than W had won in 2000. No way McCain would have us in this mess.
I still don't understand the motivation for being there. I don't buy that it was to make money for Haliburton or whatever. There are way easier ways to scam the system to benefit your friends.
I'm pretty sure I heard Powell say that he was done with politics yesterday and at other times. I know he asks to be called general, not secretary.
Patrick
Active member
Tony Crocker":1c4i15xp said:
Yes, but the fact that all the Conservative (old Progressive Conservateur or old Reform/Alliance) prime ministers or leaders from areas near great skiing are all none skiers versus the Liberals which are all skiers is a strange coincidence. I didn't say it, the Ski Canada article did.
I believe JFK and Robert Kennedy did. I remember seeing pictures of them (JFK and Jackie) at Tremblant/Gray Rocks in the 60s.Tony Crocker":1c4i15xp said:
Tony Crocker":1c4i15xp said:
I wouldn't go as far to associate Ski Canada to SKI magazine, but it's pretty much a blend of SKI and Skiing in one magazine. I've had a subscriptions for a number of years, I sometimes wondering why I kept renewing it? SBC is defintely in a different Mold as is Powder. Actually bought the latest SBC on Saturday.