Project Logic Ga

In college, the jam band “The Time” served as a perfect complement to Prince; the two acts pushed each other like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.  After success as producers of several Janet Jackson albums, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis said something while receiving a lifetime achievement award that will always stay with me.  Lewis said thanks to the people who believed in them but more importantly thanks to those who did not because they provided the producers’ catalyst for success. 

Bird and Johnson step on the national stage during NCAA March Madness in 1979.  I picked Louisville to win the 2009 championship because a guy who grew up across the street from me started on their 1980 championship team; I am loyal like that.   Wiley Brown would have taken Olympic gold if President Carter did not boycott Moscow Olympics because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.  The 1980 Louisville Cardinals, the 1980 national football champion Georgia Bulldogs and those Afghan nuts proved that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The teams not playing in the NCAA tournament this year missed “the big dance” because they lacked wins over quality opponents.  My gut feelings told me that Barrack Obama was not quite ready for the presidency after his win in the Iowa Caucus and that a win in New Hampshire for him would make voters think he was untested and green.  When Hillary Clinton got emotional into that café and spoke from her heart, she stepped her game up and elevated Obama’s game to the presidential level.  I always said Clinton verse Dole should have been Elizabeth against Hillary; and the current first lady is the real senior policy advisor.

I believe in quality opponents–the loyal opposition, divided government, arch-rivals, nemesis, worthy adversary.  Competition brings out the best.  The philosophers in my church parking lot think today’s Black youth are soft because they did not face the racial strife we did.  Let kids be kids but put down the game controller and rake the yard.  I am not going into that “all that does not kill you makes you stronger” stuff because I am not for near-death experiences.

I think members of Congress without quality opponents tend to get “nationalized,” content and soft.  Without opposition, they rubberstamp the dictates of the national party.  House Minority Whip Eric Cantor was correct to say that congressional conservatives must pull President Obama to the center and insist on budgetary constraints.   That attitude is much better than conservative partisans who want the nation to struggle under Democratic leadership so they can win future elections.

What if Herman Cain beat Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Jim Marshall last November?  Cain would be having monthly meeting with President Obama to outline his objections to White House proposals and programs.  Since Cain won’t leave his successful empire to be a House freshman, GOP Georgia state representative Austin Scott should reconsider his run for governor and beat that Blue Dog who never supported Obama.  How does Marshall vote for liberal Nancy Pelosi for speaker but never said he voted for less-liberal Obama for president?