Obama Snubs Fox News

I read a few online articles that indicate that President Obama has snubbed Fox News on interviews. He did the rounds of just about everyone (inlcuding Univision) yet skipped over Fox News. The articles theorize that it is because Fox News' Glenn Beck called him a racist. I don't know if Glenn Beck did or not, I don't watch him and do my best to ignore him; he's yet another good example of TV News putting on a commentator and calling him a journalist. CNN does it with Lou Dobbs and MSNBC does it with Keith Olberman so no one is innocent. What bothers me is that Obama's administration is looking not so much different from the Bush administration.

Obama came into office promising to run things differently. So far, in my opinion, he has not delivered. This is a perfect example. Bush played favorites with Fox News because he preferred their politics. In this case, Obama is just doing the opposite, snubbing Fox News because he doesn't like their politics. In the end, there is no difference.

While I'm thinking about Obama, what is this business with him telling the Governor of New York not to run in the next election. What business of it is the President's? That decision should be up to the Governor and New York's Democratic Party and the President should stay out of it. Obama has clearly overstepped his bounds in this instance.

Mac McCormick III

Renault F1 Discraces F1 and Demeans Motor Sports in General

NASCAR likes to use the blanket violation of "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" to penalize those that transgress against NASCAR. Over the past year, Renault F1 has defined what "Actions Detrimental to the Sport" truly are. There are several versions of the story, but essentially here is what transpired at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Flavio Briatore, team principal of Renault and manager for driver Nelson Piquet Jr. along with chief engineer Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. arranged for Piquet Jr. to crash out of the race at an opportune time for the other Renault driver Fernando Alonso. Piquet did so and it essentially handed the race to Alonso who ultimately won the race. It took over a year for this to publicly come to light; Piquet Jr. went to the FIA when he was fired from Renault by Briatore in the last couple of months. In the ensuing investigation, Piquet was given immunity for his testimony, Briatore and Symonds left Renault ultimately being handed by the FIA a lifetime and five year ban respectively. I don't believe that the FIA went far enough; those actions truly were detrimental not only to F1 but motor sport in general. It put the whole sport into disrepute.

• Some reports indicate that Nelson Piquet Sr. informed the FIA of the above at the 2008 Brazilian GP. No further action was taken because no one involved stepped forward? The FIA was informed of cheating and attempted race fixing and no investigation was begun because no one INVOLVED stepped forward? As if you really expect them to?
• Nelson Piquet Jr. waited until he was fired from Renault to go to the FIA. He was given immunity for his testimony. The FIA already knew that he was involved if you believe that Nelson Piquet Sr. had already told the FIA what happened. He didn't deserve immunity. Ultimately, it also came to light through testimony from multiple sources that Piquet was the one who thought up the stunt; because of the immunity he got off with no punishment.
• Renault was allowed to keep the win. If it was proven that they cheated and attempted to fix the race, the win should have been stripped. Simply put, the FIA rewarded cheating.
• The FIA should not allow the same person to be both a team principal and driver manager. It is a conflict of interest. Imagine yourself in a young driver's position when your boss, who is also your manager tells you to "do this or else." You are forced to chose between evaporating your developing career and committing a dishonorable act, essentially a choice between worse and worse. Not a position that I would envy.

Mac McCormick III

Earnhardt Jr. Runs Off at the Mouth

Apparently Dale Earnhardt Jr. has continued to carry on throughout the week and throughout the weekend at Dover about the contact between David Reutimann and he at Loudon last weekend. Apparently hurling insults in the garage area wasn't enough for Earnhardt Jr. First thing first: he should take a page out of his Daddy's book and not say a word. File it away in the back of your head and take care of business later. Second, you shouldn't take to denigrating another driver when you're not on top of your game. Earnhardt Jr. telling Reutimann that he needs to "polish up his craft" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

I came across this gem in a David Newton piece on ESPN.com:

Reutimann admitted he made a mistake. He looked NASCAR's most popular driver in the eye and said he was sorry.

But Earnhardt still criticized him after the race and did so again at Dover. Just a guess, but this has to do more with frustration from a disappointing season for Earnhardt than Reutimann, or one wreck.

"He definitely hasn't had the kind of season I'm sure he would like," Reutimann said Saturday. "A lot of us haven't. He obviously had a very good racecar. When you get taken out, that's not going to sit very well with you.

"I can't blame him, but I've been hand-whipped pretty hard this week. … You can only talk about somebody for so long before you get tired of it. That's kind of the point I'm at right now."

For the record, Reutimann didn't comment on how many times Earnhardt has missed his pit stall this season. He also didn't note that he qualified fifth this weekend and his chief critic will start 24th.

Mac McCormick III

Discourse

Obama is no more a socialist than Bush was a Facist.

Our country is going down the tubes not because Obama is President and not because Bush was President. Our country is going down the tubes because we don't know how to sit down and settle our differences. Instead we are selfish, inflexible and resort to name calling.

This is what happens when our elected officials are politicians instead of representatives. They are concerned not with doing what is best for the country, but only what will get them re-elected during the next campaign. We become tools of the PACs and follow their media messages like lemmings.

We're all part of the problem.

Mac McCormick III