Political Football

Ilove football and football stadiums. I love the Los Angeles Coliseum, even when the Trojans beat my beloved Buckeyes there. Years ago, as a Long Beach City Council member, I tried to draw support for a coastal stadium in hopes of attracting a National Football League franchise. I wasn't persuaded by the almost universal conclusion of economists that football stadiums rarely deliver on their promise of an economic boon, or those who claim stadiums actually result in a net loss of jobs.

President Obama and Mitt Romney are running for sports fan in chief as well as president and commander in chief and both men got brief auditions during halftime of “Monday Night Football” on election eve. In an interview with host Chris Berman, Obama heralded the college football playoff system to be instituted in a couple of years - which he had called for while running for president - but said he would like to see the postseason expanded...

Republicans quickly seized on S&P's decision to downgrade its outlook on the United States' credit to "negative," injecting the news into the debate over federal spending. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) called the decision "a wake-up call" that supports the party's case for including further budget cuts as part of any move to raise the nation's debt limit. "Today’s announcement makes clear that the debt limit increase proposed by the Obama Administration must be accompanied by meaningful fiscal reforms that immediately reduce federal spending and stop our nation from digging itself further into debt," he said in a statement.

It was probably too much to expect that Republicans would ignore the political possibilities in the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya and the Obama administration's evolving explanations of what exactly occurred. But, predictable or not, their indictment is so overbroad as to be self-defeating. Not only is the administration accused of disregarding warnings about the security situation in Benghazi (with the implication that the attack could have been avoided), but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

President Obama and Mitt Romney are running for sports fan in chief as well as president and commander in chief and both men got brief auditions during halftime of “Monday Night Football” on election eve. In an interview with host Chris Berman, Obama heralded the college football playoff system to be instituted in a couple of years - which he had called for while running for president - but said he would like to see the postseason expanded...

President Obama's deputy national security advisor accused Republicans on Sunday of using national security as a "political football" and of being disingenuous in criticizing the treatment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Christmas Day airliner attack. On NBC's "Meet the Press," John Brennan was asked about GOP criticism that the Obama administration was treating the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane as a routine criminal case rather than a terrorist plot.

Very entertaining article on Dodger catcher Mike Piazza [March 28]. But I could use a little clarification on one point. Mike advises dissatisfied U.S. citizens, "If it's so bad here, leave the country." Yet, in the next paragraph, he criticizes the same government and the "liberal attitude that has taken the country over." Should I save him a seat on the plane? ROBYN ROGERS Cypress How has Mike Piazza, raised in a privileged background, managed to accumulate so much character, common sense and wisdom in only 27 years?

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It's never easy for a candidate to distill wonky debates about tax policy into terms voters can easily understand. Of late, the Obama campaign has borrowed heavily from the master, using former President Clinton's line about “arithmetic” to make the case that the Romney-Ryan plan doesn't add up. But Monday in Columbus, President Obama took a stab at explaining it in terms Ohio State University football fans would understand....

One day deep in the administration of George W. Bush — a time of tumult among environmentalists and conservationists — Roger Kennedy found himself shaking his head and sighing. The Endangered Species Act was in the cross hairs of a Republican Congress and his beloved National Park Service, which Kennedy directed from 1993 to 1997, was under assault. Kennedy was disgusted by the partisan bickering. When had stewardship of the environment become a political football, he asked, posing a rhetorical question to a reporter.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is standing firm in insisting that Social Security, the federal government's insurance programs for retirees and disabled, is a Ponzi scheme designed to deceive the young. In a weekend campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa, Perry, who has surged into the lead in the Republican presidential sweepstakes in at least one major poll, repeated his characterization of the social insurance program that is generally supported by the electorate. He has made the same point before, especially in his book, “Fed Up!

Republicans quickly seized on S&P's decision to downgrade its outlook on the United States' credit to "negative," injecting the news into the debate over federal spending. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) called the decision "a wake-up call" that supports the party's case for including further budget cuts as part of any move to raise the nation's debt limit. "Today’s announcement makes clear that the debt limit increase proposed by the Obama Administration must be accompanied by meaningful fiscal reforms that immediately reduce federal spending and stop our nation from digging itself further into debt," he said in a statement.

While most Super Bowl viewers were stuck at halftime with Day-Glo dancers and hip-hop singers, the guests at Gary and Cherna Gitnick's Super Bowl party got to listen to a panel of city leaders pontificate on the problems facing city schools. It was about as entertaining as it sounds. Eleven experts, 45 minutes, and a moderator whose first question was as broad and unwieldy as the Los Angeles school system: How do we develop the school district's infrastructure so that it is efficient, respects parent input, and promotes high school graduation and college enrollment?

As top Republicans including House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attack plans for an Islamic community center and mosque near the destroyed World Trade Center site, a larger schism is opening up in the GOP over the inflammatory issue. Some Republicans fear that pressing the issue carries risks, diverting attention from bread-and-butter issues and undercutting the party's efforts to broaden its base — just as it is losing ground among other ethnic minorities such as Latinos.

In a move that has angered police union leaders, Los Angeles Police Department officials have decided that four officers who were scheduled to attend a conference and training session in Tucson next month will not go after all. The trip to the annual Airborne Law Enforcement Assn. conference for the members of the LAPD's air unit was thrown into question last month after the Los Angeles City Council voted to suspend most travel to Arizona as part of its protest of that state's law dealing with illegal immigration.