Wednesday afternoon inanity for discussion over tea and crumpets

OK, first off, I'm tired, and sort of punchy, so forgive the title. Secondly, while I'm not too big of football (my Bears are good, but they're not going to the Super Bowl anytime soon; college ball, in my opinion, is better, but I've go too many to follow when that season starts. Besides they play on the weekends, so this doesn't affect them.) Geraghty the Indispensable has made a shocking discovery -- The NFL kicks off this season on the day the Republican National Convention's nominee, John McCain, will be giving his acceptance speech:

On paper, John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican Convention this year is scheduled to conflict with the opening game of the NFL season.

(The NFL for the past couple years has played the first game of the season — usually between two pretty good teams — on the Thursday before the opening weekend.)

This blog goes through some options, and this sportswriter says the NFL is aware of the conflict and is reviewing options.

One option not mentioned: play the opening game the Tuesday night of the convention. Parties usually put their biggest non-nominee names on Monday, the Vice Presidential nominee on Wednesday night, and the Presidential nominee closes the convention on Thursday night. Tuesday night is the red-headed step-child of the convention. Sometimes you get a surprisingly good speech from a rising star in the party (Arnold Schwarzenegger); sometimes you're left with a blah speech (Teresa Heinz).

This fall, Monday will probably belong to the rising stars of the party (Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin?). Wednesday will belong to the running mate, and Thursday will be McCain. (You can't move McCain to Wednesday, otherwise there's no point to everyone sticking around until Thursday night.) Let whoever is speaking on Tuesday (Huckabee or Romney?) go up against the football game.

You could even counter-program the football game by making Tuesday night be ladies' night - Cindy McCain, Laura Bush, Condi Rice, Carly Fiorina... No, scratch that. Passionate football fan Condi would probably want to watch the game.

Now while a lot of people sit back and yawn at this, bear in mind that football is IMPORTANT to a lot of people. (I'm just an anomaly.) He makes a good point about the layout of the convention, and the importance of each day except Tuesday. He recognizes that someone might give one helluva speech, and some people may miss that. (Well, duh, but that's what blogs are for for the politically-savvy NFL fan.) I'll even make it a point to watch the whole bloody Tuesday festivities, and I'll take note of any important, significant speech.

Now, about the ladies night posited idea. Bear in mind that for the most part, when I'm blogging at home, I have another set of eyes paying half-attention to what I'm writing about. So, I have to take in the female perspective of things. To put it bluntly, ladies night wouldn't be a good idea. If Tuesday they lumped all the keynote ladies in one night, they're not going to be watched. That ticks off Marcie something fierce. She's got a point. We've got some significantly intelligent ladies coming up through the ranks. Sarah Palin and Carly Fiorina among them, and ones that have been floated as possible running mates for John McCain. (Neither would be smart if McCain's focus will be on the relative inexperience; both women are just as inexperienced as the two stooges on the other side.)

I don't know who you'd put on Tuesday, but while they might be good speakers (which we usually don't put up yawners), it'd best be those that won't be slighted if the more diehard football fans that are political junkies decide to flip the channel to watch the pigskin.

Publius II