The Norcross Oracle

Time for a few predictions, seeing as the last batch was moderately accurate...

Okay, your Wandering Gentile blew the name of the Republican nominee, but desires partial credit for getting the fact that the GOP would pick a moderate, not a fevered anti-immigrant conservative theocrat. Or not.

McCain should pick Huckabee, lest Bob Barr's Libertarian campaign go Nader on them...not that the Democrats will mind. Reverend Huckabee may believe that he's a rising star in his party, but the Republicans are likely to embrace a campaign that gets two thorns out of their side, keeping Mitt Romney, the guy they think has a chance of making Obama a one-term president, clean and useful for 2012.

It has come to your Wandering Gentile's attention that some of our friends in cyberspace are still enthusiastic about Senator Clinton. We respect their opinion, but she has hung out past her date with destiny. The appearance of the heavy culling of her support among superdelegates, mated with the amargous tone and subtle racial undertone over the last few weeks has made the Senator from New York radioactive.

This meltdown has been slow, but appears to be gaining velocity. Clinton has passed Paris Hilton for severity of the train wreck, is approaching Britney Spears, and may peak at Amy Winehouse levels. Hillary doesn't want to go to rehab, no no no.

Obama 's best choice still seems to be Governor Bill Richardson. This shores up weakness for the Democratic ticket in the Southwest, and puts Texas into play. An Obama-Richardson ticket could make an electoral college map that looks like a horseshoe, given Obama's strength among African-Americans in the Deep South, and liberals on the East Coast. With Richardson he could trade weakness in the Great Lakes states for Texas.

Figure that New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California are going to go Blue no matter what. Florida and Ohio are tossups, as they have been for quite some time. An energized African-American electorate brings every state in the old confederacy into play, and if one combines that with a Latino electorate in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, one may see a polar shift in the function of American politics that could go for two generations.

As we see underrepresented populations come into the flowering of their franchise, the promise of America's splendid Constitution will see full realization. This shift, which was merely a dream of disenfranchised groups throughout America forty years ago, signals not a balkanization of the US population, but a moment when the American people discovered individual voices and the meaning of citizenship that had been withheld for too long.

When individuals discover that their voice has power, their interests have merit, and their potential has no boundaries, patriotism is a natural byproduct. This is a stellar era to watch. I only wish that the poll workers from that earthen dam in Philadelphia, Mississippi were here to share it with us.

All right, enough with politics for a few minutes. There will be enough time for that later.

FULL SERVICE is coming back soon to a gas station near you. For readers in New Jersey and Oregon, it never really left. It just makes sense that somebody in a market like Atlanta or Dallas will realize that a guy making US$7.00 an hour is a great selling point for drivers harried about fuel costs and a strong line of defense against drive offs.

Once the first station pulls this so-old-it's-new idea out of their behind, look for it to spread like a new Youtube video from Obama Girl.

As digital tuners make their way into homes, the question is not if, but how long it will take networks to realize that they can leverage some of their popular cable properties onto unused digital channels. The technology is impressive, and the digital signal is the equal of cable on my, uh, classic, 19 inch bedroom screen.

Credit goes to PBS and religious broadcasters for moving the ball forward on the way this can work. One sees an advantage, for example, where an NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a city without a Spanish-language channel, but with a Spanish-speaking population, puts Telemundo on Channel 8.2, and draws an audience that had not been served by a local broadcaster. (Telemundo is owned by NBC.)

The opposite could be true in San Juan, where NBC could put their lineup on 2.2, piggybacking on WKAQ's affiliation with Telemundo. When one considers how many channels with popular content are associated with major networks, it would not be a surprise to see ESPN and Disney Channel on an ABC affiliate's subchannel; Fox News and FX with the local Fox Channel; Comedy Central, MTV, TV Land, and Nickelodeon going to a CBS or CW affiliate.

Digital has the potential to be a major pain in Cable's behind.

As most people in the US see the cost of a fill-up soar into the cosmos, may it be suggested that the worst is over. Oil prices are sitting on a bubble, and there will be a great and terrible wail from the Middle East before long, as consumption wanes in the US and the price of their petroleum fades back to the US$60 per barrel range.

Anyone who remembers the dot-com run up or Enron may wish to stay tuned. That also goes for those who recall the lessons of the Tulip Trade, Beanie Babies, or Baseball Cards. Do Americans like toys and gadgets? Of course we do. But we are not quite as stupid as some people beyond our boundaries think.

We are the people who thought up mass produced affluence, and put a man on the moon. Americans can do any blessed thing once they decide to. Woe be unto the person who dismisses the resolve of 300 million people who find a way to thrust a middle digit even when they're being strangled.

If I were a Ferrari dealer in Riyadh, I would insist on full payment up front, hehehe.