Cerrato Headed to the White House for Pasta Dinner

The White House is honoring Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi tonight, and the guest list reads like a cross between Fat Tony’s known associates and the nightly specials at Olive Garden. It seems like anyone with an Italian last name is invited tonight, and I mean anyone. Among those on the guest list: Washington Redskins general manager Vinny Cerrato. How else to explain how a guy who could’ve been fired months ago is getting a White House invite?

"There’s Going to Be a Whole Bunch of Things We Don’t Tell Mrs. Clinton."

“Saturday Night Live” is getting good press recently for its parodies of the presidential and vice presidential candidates — okay, well, really just of Sarah Palin — and it got me thinking about the best “SNL” political sketches of all time. The 2000 debates have to be considered, but for my money, it doesn’t get much better than Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton stopping by a D.C. McDonald’s.

Enjoy:

A Sign That I’m Living in Missouri

So this story came across my laptop tonight:

Clint Malarchuk, the former NHL goalie best known for having his jugular vein slashed by a skate in a 1989 game with Buffalo, is recovering after accidentally shooting himself in the chin with a rifle.

Wife Christy told sheriff’s deputies that the .22-caliber rifle discharged after her husband placed the butt on the ground between his legs. He had been shooting rabbits.

After reading that to my roommate, his first comment was not, “What an idiot!” or “He did what?” No, his first comment was: “A .22-caliber? That’s his first mistake. He should be using a shotgun to shoot rabbits.”

Mid-Missouri: where irony comes to die.

A Kodak Moment

Maybe it’s just because I spent the summer pointing out the unusual and sometimes subliminal advertising during the Beijing Olympics, but when I saw this Getty Images photo on the front page of washingtonpost.com last night, I had only one question: did Kodak sponsor last night’s debate? Because I can’t remember seeing four people with non-digital cameras in the same place since…. well, probably the Clinton presidency. Kodak had at least some role in the first debate, but to whomever passed out those point-and-shoots last night in Nashville, well done.

Missouri Goes Blue?

I’ve been given a front row seat here in Columbia to Democratic politics, watching as the Obama campaign ramps up marketing in Boone County. (Full disclosure: my roommate is running the re-election campaign for this state senator.) I’ve watched as the Democrats canvassed Columbia, handing out yard signs and posters and signing up voters en masse. The McCain campaign, it should be noted, has no noticeable presence in town.

So it’s no surprise to me that political insiders are starting to think that Missouri could tip for Obama. One very strong reason to believe that this is the case: pollsters have not been including first time voters — a large majority of whom are black or youth voters, likely to vote for Obama — in their polls. Add in a potential windfall from the cell phone vote and two huge resources in St. Louis and Kansas City, and Missouri could well be a blue state this fall.

The Sober Truth

I know kids who played the Sarah Palin drinking game, where every time she made a statement backed by specific details tonight, they took a shot.

They ended up quite sober.