Skattershooting while pondering Florida:

• I read in Newsweek that when MSNBC called Florida for Al Gore at 7:30 p.m. not all of the Florida polls were closed. That is, election precincts in Western Florida were still open.
• Another Newsweek zinger: Will it be the "Ruthless Prince" (Gore) or the "Accidental President" (Bush)?
• Two days before the election, I proclaimed in my office that we would all know who the next President would be at 9:05 p.m. on election night - A time that I calculated to be five minutes after California closed its polling doors. I missed it by a little bit.
• For you talk radio junkies, WBAP's new 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. guy, Gary McNamara, is not a rocket scientist.  On the other hand, WBAP's Mark Davis, despite his right wing slant, is still a joy to listen to.
• Al Gore jogs like a girl and plays football like a girl.
• After we've witnessed the effect of Ross Perot and Ralph Nadar, there is no question that any third party candidate with name identification can absolutely determine who holds the presidency.
• In any other nation, there would be tanks in the streets as the recounting of votes is ongoing. In America, however, we are more intrigued about the possibility that shortstop Alex Rodriguez will earn $20 million a year from whichever team that signs him.
• I find myself strangely attracted to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
• I would have paid big money to have heard Al Gore call George W. Bush "snippy" when he retracted his earlier concession telephone call.
• There were two county wide races in Wise County during the election and both were decided by a greater margin than Bush's current lead over Gore in Florida.  We don't realize how amazingly close the Florida vote is.
• Talking sports for a second . . . would someone try to convince me that any NFL game this year was half as entertaining as the Oklahoma-A&M match up.
• When the Fox network called Florida for Bush at 1:15 a.m., Bush campaign advisor Karl Rowe said, "It's just Fox". Once again, credit Newsweek.
• Changing subjects again. In the November 17th edition of the Dallas Morning News, eighteen year old Melissa Marsac wrote a letter to the editor criticizing credit card companies for making their product available to people her age. "Most [of the kids in my position] are too busy with school to earn the money to pay for the extensive amounts of debt their credit cards can accumulate." This argument always drives me crazy. It's as if the card got in car and drove down to The Gap all by itself.
• I've now turned on Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football. I'm all for bringing in someone funny to trick up the broadcast, but he is ill-suited for the job. To make matters worse, the broadcast team promotes Britannica.com's "Dennis Miller Annotated". It's like calling yourself witty and intelligent. It's OK for someone else to do it, but don't say it yourself.
• I went and saw Charlie's Angels and, ashamedly, I think I enjoyed it.
• Maverick's owner Mark Cuban was described to me as "the equivalent of a monkey with a hand grenade".
• Here's my prediction: George W. will be sworn in as President in January of 2001. (Update as of 8:58 p.m. on the night I first wrote this: The Florida Supreme Court will allow manual recounts. All bets are off).