fits and starts ....holidays .....failures .....weather .....new classes .....but I've finally finished my first speed week.  Fair.  Now my 400's become 500's, 100's become 200's and 500's become 600's, although there will be a few less of them.

Back when I was a camp counselor we had a camper who whined and complained of EVERY activity "Do I HAVE to?"  After about three days of this a fellow counselor exploded and said "No.  You DON'T have to.  You GET to!"  Pretty much changed everybodys attitude.  That's where I am with speed work.  There are "want to" days. "get to" days and "have to" days.  Today was a get to - fall creeping into the air. Still a bit humid.  Andpace work (aerobic as opposed to anaerobic). 

Moving on.

edit to add: finally clocked a sub 8 mile

Madeleine Albright has said, “I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney.” During the last election cycle, Harry Reid said, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay?”

I don’t know why anybody would vote for a party whose leaders have so little understanding of their fellow human beings — and who are so insulting and condescending to them.

That's what the conventions are about these days.  VDH knows what story he wants to hear.

Can he demonstrate why the GM bailout worked, and how we gained valuable research insight by funding green companies like Solyndra? Can he defend Obamacare and show how it will save money, protect Medicare, and improve care and that’s why the people like it? By the same token, will he explain why the new deficits are not all that bad, and an additional $5 trillion in debt is easily manageable? Or abroad, reset with Russia was a brilliant pivot; we are closer with allies in Eastern Europe and Israel; defense can be cut substantially without worry; talking to Iran and reopening the embassy in Syria smoothed the waters; Afghanistan is now at last controllable; and there is a new transparency about U.S. national security operations that allows the public first-hand inside information about what we are doing in Iran or did on the bin Laden raid or in Yemen? In matters of ethics, can he argue that he stopped the revolving door, earmarks, and the hiring of lobbyists, while offering more transparency at more frequent press conferences and demanding an end to silly Washington games, as he brought candor to campaign fundraising and a new level of civility in campaign decorum?

 

On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday show, Jessica Yellin said she interviewed Obama for a forthcoming documentary and asked him why he did not do more outreach to Republicans in the beginning of his term to bridge the divides Obama often rails against. 

Yellin said Obama told her one of the reasons he did not was because he wanted to spend more time at home with his kids and family. 

"He was trying to spend some time at home with his family in the evenings and on the weekends,” Yellin said. 

So it's Malia and Natasha's fault!

January 3, 2007.  Thats the day Democrat majorities took control of both the House and the Senate. 

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of
the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the
fourth straight decline in deficit spending.