CNN (no link) reports that John McCain and Sarah Palin are going to call the remainder of their campaign the ‘Joe the Plumber Tour’. Why does this campaign double down on every Epic Fail? Joe the Plumber is a lot like Sarah Palin. The McCain Campaign picked both of them without vetting them. In both cases, this led to an immediate unraveling of the narrative they wanted to tell. And, now, as in Palin’s case, they’re just going to go ahead and tell a debunked narrative anyway, as if it weren’t a national joke.
This is the equivalent of fighting the heavyweight champion of the world with both hands tied behind your back. If Howard Cosell were covering this, he’d be outraged that the referee hasn’t stopped the fight, and he’d refuse to cover any political events in the future.
The 1982 title fight between defending heavyweight ruler Larry Holmes and challenger Randall “Tex” Cobb was so one-sided, the very fact that the match was permitted to carry on for mismatched round after mismatched round brought about the retirement of commentator Howard Cosell. Never again would Howard sit behind a microphone and describe the action from a pro boxing match.. And despite Cobb’s faculties being in fine enough working order after the fight to be able to utter the memorable quote he came out with upon hearing of Cosell’s actions – namely that he could provide his sport with no greater service – this quip did not in any way lessen the fact of just how one sided and pitiful the bout had been to watch.
The ‘Joe the Plumber Tour’? Seriously? I actually think Randall “Tex” Cobb had more skills.
Is it just me or is skinhead the new black?
Tex Cobb was on with Johnny Carson after that fight and said he would go another 12 rounds with Holmes if it got Cosell off Monday Night Football too.
And it launched a slight movie career. He was perfect in Raising Arizona.
he was fantastic in Raising Arizona. He’s a good guy, and funny. But he shouldn’t have tried to fight Larry Holmes in his prime.
Given that he lived and his dim prospects growing up in Abilene, TX I think it turned out pretty well for him… assuming he got any money out of Don King.
But to your point, given how cluelessly and divisively he has run his campaign, McCain is showing he has no business being president.
good point. I had no idea he lived in West Philly. How strange.
I think he trained in Smokin’ Joe’s gym there.
maybe cobb would have done better against holmes if he didn’t come to the fight wearing all those hand grenades.
Totally true trivia fact: Tex Cobb lives in my neighborhood. last summer, i’d always bump into him down by the Sunoco at 45th and Baltimore Avenues (their atm only charges 50 cents). Cobb would typically be walking a very small dog, a chihuahua or maybe a yorkie.
Ah, yes, the fight that made me quit watching boxing.
To me, Cobb will always be remembered as the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse, however:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxCR5KA47kU
(embed not working on this website, btw)
like picking a VP whose CV scrubs their strongest point – “readiness”
electing to go with Joe-the-plumber, the last wheelchair left in the home stretch, counter to their point on “taxes” – and the media reminds that under Obama Joe would have a tax cut.
don’t bang your head.
loooong ago, the McCain people told us they don’t care how the media reports.
….they’re running a campaign on their terms, oblivious to how their message resonates with voters. Who knows…perhaps the McCain camp is in a parallel universe…or on the yellow brick road to the mad hatters tea party.
inanity.
At least Tex Cobb knows how to take a beating with honor.
McCain . . . fights more like this guy when he’s losing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9EjHpAtYUc
More trivia.
Howard Cosell bit the dust after he called a Black Washington Redskin wide receiver “that monkey….” He was trying to be laudatory while using an overt racist expression, apparently without realizing it. OJ, yeah, that OJ, who was once on Monday Night Football commentator along with Cosell, called him up and gave him hell.
He caught crap for that, but worked almost another 2 years on MNF after making that remark. By 84 MNF was looking to shake things up as ratings were beginning a slow long decline.
Who remembers Cosell doing the play by play of the assassination at the beginning of Woody Allen’s Bananas and the consummation of Woody’s marriage at the end?
Brilliant.
There also used to be a bar, I think in Cleveland, that was famous for selling raffle tickets to throw a brick at Cosell’s televised face during Monday Night games.
I thought the brick was for Simpson and the bar was in Michigan. In the Rose Bowl, USC scored a touchdown on Michigan, but the replay showed that the rusher had fumbled before crossing the goal line. I think it cost Michigan the game. But OJ, a USC alum, said something like, “Well, they deserved to score, anyway.”
But it may be that the Cosell thing in Ohio predated and inspired the OJ thing in Michigan.