The short memories of the voting public

A recent poll by a left wing organization showed the number one issue among left leaning voters is gun control. "If we'd done this poll two months ago, gun control would have been in the single digits," said a spokesperson for the Democratic leaning Public Policy Polling. Does this spell the death knell for Republican candidates this fall? Hardly. Two things are operative. Voters on the right aren’t likely to change their stance on 2^nd Amendment rights and it’s a long way from March (when the poll was published) to November. Lots can happen to Joe or Josephine Voter – loss of job, bigger paycheck, a hurricane or two or trouble overseas to name a few. Voters have short attention spans – just look at what happened to the anti-gun numbers six months after the shootings in Newtown, CT. In short, memories are short. Check back with us in mid-July.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Michelle Wolf’s career is now on the same path as that of Kathy Griffin. When you get panned by such diverse individuals as Sean Spicer and Andrea Mitchell –along with the New York Times, your future doesn’t look extremely bright.

2. This month, “Florida’s Best Newspaper” gets a new business editor. We ask the same question we asked when the last one was appointed – wouldn’t it make sense to have a business editor who had actually been in business at some point in their career?

3. We wish to announce we do not plan to run for mayor of Tampa next year. Apparently, everybody else in the bay area is.

4. We got several answers to our rhetorical question last week (TBRR 4/29/18) about not using glass soda bottles these days. The most logical answer is the weight differential between glass and plastic/aluminum.

5. Breaking international news from the 5:05 Newsletter: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding cake will be lemon elderflower instead of the traditional fruitcake. Incidentally, “Lemon Elderflower” is the name Queen Elizabeth uses on Tinder.

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. USF’s football schedule is out beginning with North Carolina’s Elon University and ending with UCF. We like the fact that the UCF-USF game is becoming a Florida-FSU, Georgia-Georgia Tech or Clemson-South Carolina type game.

7. This is scary if you happen to have the Atlanta Braves on your schedule. Last week, the Braves had the three youngest players in baseball in their line-up. One, Mike Soroka, started and won the game with a one-run major league debut; another, Ozzie Albies, leads the NL in homers and the third, MLB’s top prospect Ronald Acuna, entered the game hitting a sizzling .417.

8. Over the years, Ford has produced the Model A, Falcon, Taurus, Fairlane, Galaxie, Crown Victoria, the infamous Edsel and the iconic Mustang and Thunderbird vehicles. Within three years, there will be only a couple sedans (including the Mustang) left in the Ford inventory as they focus almost completely on SUVs and trucks.

9. With TV season nearing an end, the two new breakout shows for the year were: Drama – The Good Doctor and Comedy – Young Sheldon – both ranked in the Top 10 of most watched shows.

10. This week we take a look at yet another expansion franchises’ best players/pitchers – the Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers. It’s safe to say no one will ever enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Pilots trident. But some Brewers are there and the two best are career Brewer Robin Yount and their best pitcher, who also had some great years in Oakland, but Rollie Fingers was the best of all the Brewers to this point.

The SS United States and Amelia Earhart

Last month (TBRR April 1 and 8), we had pieces on America’s last flag liner – SS United States. And recently, several news sources have reported new evidence that famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart may have perished, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, as castaways on the Pacific’s tiny Gardner Island. The connection between the ship and the aviatrix is this – Noonan was not her original navigator – the future Captain of the United States, Harry Manning, was; but due to delays caused by the plane’s mechanical issues, Manning had to return to his normal profession as a liner captain. Noonan, a good navigator, but one who reputedly had troubles with the bottle, replaced Manning. Would Manning’s presence in the cockpit have made a difference in history? Like Earhart’s ultimate fate, we’ll never know.

UP NEXT: Strong Mayor, Pt. 1; current Hall of Famers; red light scam