Gambling, Catholics, and Obama's win-win situation

Ah yes, gambling. I don't consider myself a gambler. If the Powerball jackpot gets up over $100 million, I'll purchase a ticket or two. I'll usually bet my girlfriend a dollar on something I think I'm right about...only to find out that I'm wrong and have to pay out. I've been to the casinos once for my birthday a couple years back and I remember being in Las Vegas as a kid and watching a guy ride around on a 3" bicycle at Circus Circus. That's about the extent of my gambling experience. However, tomorrow I'll be heading up to Iowa and will be hittin' the nickel slots (gotta make that money last!) hard. Hopefully, I'll come back with a few hundred thousand dollars to build a studio for Dead Lantern. Good thing we're not doing the Splattercast on Monday because I'll probably be losing my pants at the black jack tables.

I did an interesting survey this evening where I asked Catholics and former Catholics how they felt about their faith. It wasn't pretty. Out of the all the surveys I did this weekend, practicing Catholics are pretty jaded by the whole church sex abuse/cover up stuff. At least half of the Catholics I spoke to either left the Church entirely, stopped going to Mass, or have distanced themselves from the Church. Word to the wise: When you find out a zillion Priests are molesting your followers, expose and kick their asses out.

I'm writing my second film paper right now. I've got about two pages left to write. I feel a burning desire to watch Demons right after I'm finished...

This Obama/Hillary "feud" that the press is playing up is pretty hilarious. The election cycle has started so early that the press is desperate to find something, anything, to try and make a story out of. I had the idea the other day that Obama has no intention of winning the primary. I'm sure that isn't true, but here's something to wonder about: Obama is obviously a political star on the rise. Unlike John Edwards in 2004, he's not facing a tough re-election for Senate next year in the event he doesn't win the primary. It's pretty much understood that unless Hillary makes some black hole-esque mistake, Obama just isn't going to be able to beat her in the primary. It's a massive upset that just doesn't have any chance of occurring (I'd love to be wrong though) so why is Obama running?

It's one of two reasons: either he wants to be vice president, or he wants to introduce himself to the American public.

If Clinton picked Obama as her running mate, you'd have a trillion dollars flowing into the presidential campaign. They'd probably have to store all those donations in Fort Knox. Assuming a Hillary win, Obama gets the "experience" his detractors claim is his weak spot by getting all that great foreign relations/national defense stuff for the next 4-8 years with Hillary in the White House.

However, If Obama refuses a VP role (if Hillary even offers), he goes right back to the Senate where he can spend more time orating, drafting bills, and getting his name on legislation to quell those "just 2 years in the Senate!" screams. Not only does he have a safe place to land, but he's gotten something more important. He's introduced himself to the American public. By the time the ads start heating up and he's toured the country over and over, the name "Barack Obama" will be well ingrained on the American consciousness. He'll be a name politician, which means he'd be well positioned for a future, Non-Clinton presidential primary (maybe running against me and Jeb in 2016?).

So really, this is all a win-win scenario for Obama. If he doesn't get president this time around, he'll be set up well for a future run. Personally, I'm hoping with every ounce of the fiber from the apple I just ate that he pulls off some miraculous defeat of Hillary. The country needs to move on from Clinton/Bush. We'll see what happens, I guess.