Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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Baby Booming

Friday March 28, 2008

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spoke on Wednesday afternoon to a meeting of business people who have products and services designed for Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers, for those of you born sometime after the end of the Eisenhower Administration, are people born in the midst of the post-World War II exuberance.

As I was born nine months TO THE DAY after my dad got off the troop ship in New York, I can tell you that I am at the outer edge of baby boomers.

To prove the point, I was reading the agenda of the meeting and saw a breakout session titled: "Partnering for Success."

Fine. Except - and this is true - I thought the agenda read: Pandering for Success," and wondered why I had not been invited to speak to that group.

As it happened I was scheduled to speak about politics and I wanted to make the point that nearly everything everyone says is absolutely guaranteed is going to happen - doesn't.

Just to test my own theory (which I generally do not do because once I have settled upon a theory the last thing I want to know is: "Is this correct?") I went back six months to look at what the polling was telling us back then.

First of all, back in the dark days of the Fall of 2007, there were some 19 candidates on both sides in the running.

Six months ago, according to national polls, Hillary R. (!) Clinton was leading on the Democratic side with 53% of the vote in September of 2007. On the Republican side the leader with 34% of the GOP vote was Rudy Giuliani.

But wait! There's more!

The second place runners on each side were Barack H. (!) Obama with 20% for the Dems and Fred Thompson with 22% for the Republicans.

It gets spookier.

The third place holders on each side were John Edwards (13%) and John McCain (15%).

So, just about as far back as there is to go forward before the November election Hillary R. (!) Clinton had a THIRTY ONE percentage point lead over Barack H. (!) Obama and Rudy Giuliani was cruising along with a 12 percentage point lead over his nearest competitor Fred Thompson.

If you are watching any of the cable news channels and someone who (including me) who pretends to be a strategist tells you they know what is going to happen in the November election switch immediately to the DIY channel and learn how to re-caulk your shower.

I bring that up because that is exactly what I did: I watched the DIY (Do It Yourself) network and plugged the leak in my shower by following the instructions. This is important because I have long been an adherent of the theory that, if something around the house needs to be repaired, replaced or reinstalled, I "call the guy."

But, what with the credit crunch and all, I decided to DIMS (Do It MySelf) and, so far, the ceiling underneath the shower has not fallen into the living room, so I am now "the guy" other people can call.

Opening Day for the Washington Nationals baseball team is Sunday night. I know that sounds odd - Opening Day being Sunday Night - but this is Your Nation's Capital and so it is not any more incongruous than anything else that comes out of here.

For the third season I will be the credentialed reporter covering the Nationals for the Alexandria Times (the publisher, Jon Arundel, has asked me to stop referring to the paper as the Mighty Alexandria Times).

I went to the stadium yesterday for a final tour and sat both in my season ticket seats behind the visitor's dugout on the third base side AND I sat in my seat in the press box (which is six - SIX - floors up and the elevators weren't operating yet so I walked up the 140-or-so steps.

I did not have to take a nitro, so this Baby Boomer intends to be around for a while.

I will post my columns for the Migh � the Alexandria Times on MULLINGS. If you haven't read the Spring Training Travelogues, you should so you are not disappointed when little of what I write about has to do with the actual games I am watching.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: The polling referenced above, and links to the Spring Training Travelogues and my pre-season-opener essay in the Migh� the Alexandria Times, a Mullfoto from the paper and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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