Sunday Bloody Sunday

It happens every so often. You sit down on the couch to cheer your favorite team on, and whoops, it seems as though your favorite team didn't bother to show up. In a vague, physical sense, they are there, but they don't seem to have any kind of vested interest in what is taking place around them. Which is too bad, since there's not much I can do from my couch but sit, slack-jawed, and watch the evisceration take place. That's what happened last Sunday in Denver. The Broncos gave up three touchdowns before I had settled into my proper viewing position. They gave up those three touchdowns to the much detested and loathed Oakland Raiders. I tried, in vain, to get my family interested in sharing my pain. My son looked at the score and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Dad, I've got better things to do." I watched it all unfold like a slow motion train wreck. How could a group of professionals show up so woefully unprepared? Were these two teams so horribly mismatched that someone should have simply thrown in the towel at halftime?
That's what I'm starting to feel about the Democrats in the upcoming elections. My team seems ill-prepared at best to do what it takes to win the game. Nothing that I have seen or heard makes me think about switching parties or crossing the line to vote Republican, but I keep wondering why it is that my party seems so ready to simply drop back five, and punt. Just two years ago, we won the Super Bowl, right? I understand that repeating that success is a tough road, but the Denver Broncos did it once upon a time. Bill Clinton too. If you're a true fan, you don't just hop on the bandwagon of another team, but maybe you wonder what is going through the coach's head, or where the quarterback might be playing next year. And while you're watching the massacre, you might find yourself wondering the relative competitiveness of the rest of the players on your team. Are they content to play out the string, or will they rise up and give it their best effort when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys. I don't know where I'll be then Rock, but I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.