When the test flight goes awry, check the cockpit. Same for Campaign 08.
By streetwise Posted in 2008 — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Easy come, easy go - $140MM down the drain at the factory. Brand new Airbus A340 aircraft jumps its chocks during testing at Toulouse. With fuel prices these days, the customer might make more off of insurance than flying it!
Super Bowl day might be a good day for us to get reacquainted with a basic fact of life. The game doesn't always go as planned. There is a good deal of residual bitterness, anger and disappointment coursing through the RS blogs arising from the failure of our preferred candidates. Guys, we didn't fail- they did!
Some thoughts on these failures.
Fred. He should have done better than he did. To a degree, part of the problem lies in the inherent instability of draft-a-candidate campaigns. Since Fred's run was a spontaneous event, it understandably suffered from a lack of planning. Fred had no experience running large, complex organizations, and this showed as the campaign got underway. Fred also relied on the notion of an unconventional, image-heavy campaign. But he did not have the Reagan touch here. He announced on Leno; Reagan at the Statue of Liberty. Fred pursued a classic Rose Garden strategy, but without the Rose Garden. The primary voters wanted more, and voted accordingly.
Rudy. He also should have done better. I began to suspect trouble for Rudy when he was asked why he was pulling money out of so many states. He replied that his expert team of advisers was allocating the money where it would do the most good. This is the technocrat's trap: Controlled Flight Into Terrain, similar to the accident depicted above. You simply can't drop out of sight for the month of January in a compressed primary schedule. You also can't claim to be able to wage a 50 state campaign and be utterly dependent on one state, Florida.
Huck. The Huck aircraft is still aloft. But he's trying to fly from Los Angeles to Paris in the same regional jet he used in Arkansas. Not enough lift, not enough load, not enough space. He will be forced to land for refueling once too often, and then find out that he's broke and the passengers have deplaned, never to come back.
Yes, it's disappointing. Yes, it's unfair. Yes, maybe they deserved better. But them's the breaks. We just have to deal with it.
For the Big Two, I will have to find another airplane analogy. Maybe A10 Warthog vs Gulfstream IV! Or has Mitt upgraded?
... according to investigators.
Failure to follow procedure perhaps..or rather apparently..
the a-4 known as the "scooter". nice little working aircraft. (so i've heard) quick and nimble and could haul a lot of stuff for it's size. well loved by it's pilots with few bad habits.