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Guest Host: Michael Smerconish
Guests: Howard Fineman, Mark Halperin, Hampton
Pearson, Michael Eric Dyson, Susan Page, Sam Stein, Todd Harris, Steve McMahon, Clarence page
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, GUEST HOST: Fall into the gender gap.
Let`s play some HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Michael Smerconish in New York, sitting in for
Chris Matthews, who`s in Paris with his wife, Kathleen.
Leading off tonight: Mind the gap, the gender gap. Let`s agree on
this much. The Republican Party has a problem with women, and Mitt Romney
will lose the election if he can`t close a growing gender gap. So enter
Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC, who said today the gender gap exists
only as a media fiction, and then he somehow worked "caterpillars" into his
quote. It`s not clear how caterpillars feel about Republicans, but this
certainly didn`t help with women. And the DNC has been only too eager to
take advantage.
Plus: Mitt happens. How did it come to this? The most conservative
Republican Party, now dominated by Tea Partiers, is about to nominate
perhaps the most moderate candidate in the field. If Mitt Romney goes on
to lose the election, might we see the kind of bloodletting that hasn`t
happened in the Republican Party since the Goldwater wipeout in `64? Could
that send the Republican Party even further to the right in 2016?
Also, Orrin Hatch says the Obama campaign will go after Romney because
he`s a Mormon. Really? Where`s the evidence for that?
And the 50th anniversary of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is being
celebrated with a screening at the White House tonight. Then President
Obama will introduce the movie when it airs on the USA network on Saturday
night. We`ll talk about why the movie and its themes remain so relevant
And "Let Me Finish" tonight with a crime, the death penalty, and a
question of justice.
We begin with the RNC chairman`s comments about the war on women.
Susan Page is Washington bureau chief for "USA Today" and Howard Fineman is
the editorial director of the Huffington Post Media Group. He`s also an
MSNBC political analyst.
Well, here it is. Today, RNC chair Reince Priebus was asked about his
party`s problems with female voters. Priebus used an interesting analogy
to explain what was behind it. Let`s watch.
REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: If the Democrats said we had a war on
caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that
Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we`d have problems with
caterpillars. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is it`s a fiction.
SMERCONISH: Susan Page, it`s all your fault.
SMERCONISH: What brought you to this conclusion?
SUSAN PAGE, "USA TODAY": You know, it`s -- I know that the chairman
didn`t mean to compare women to caterpillars in an insulting way, he meant
to compare, you know, the Democratic charge in an insulting way to insects.
But a poor choice of words, I think he would acknowledge. It`s very
Etch-a-Sketch like in that he`s trying to make some other point, but the
image is such that he just gets himself wrapped up in a whole new
SMERCONISH: Well, bugs aside, I mean, there`s some substance that
lies behind, you know, the charge that there`s a gender gap. And the
Democrats very quick to jump on the comments, Howard. Take a look at this
tweet from Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, who said, "From the
department of clueless, RNC chair says GOP problems women are contrived by
the media."
How significant an issue is this in the 2012 cycle? I don`t mean
caterpillars per se, but I mean the gender gap.
Oh, it`s hugely significant. And Priebus was clueless. And I was e-
mailing this afternoon with some of those same people at Obama
headquarters, and one reason that they`re pretty confident right now is the
fact that there`s at least an 18-point gender gap between President Obama
and Mitt Romney and between the Democrats and the Republicans in the
polling right now -- 18 points.
That`s huge. And that`s something that gives the Democrats and the
Obama campaign confidence and something they`re going to try to build on
and something that comments like the Republican chairman`s just make all
that much worse.
SMERCONISH: Howard, I have that to which you refer. Look at these
incredible numbers from a new "USA Today" Gallup poll out this week. Men
and women in 12 key battleground states, asked about the presidential race,
there was a big gender gap.
Among men, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a virtual tie, but look at
this. Women support Obama over Romney by an 18-point margin.
And Susan, my hunch is that this is not a Romney-specific finding, but
this is a GOP brand issue as much as anything else. What specifically do
you think lies behind that data?
PAGE: Well, I think we find men and women have different priorities.
We asked men what their top priority was. They ranked the debt and deficit
there. Women ranked health care. Women have a different view of the
economy. Women are very concerned about the economy, to be sure, but it`s
women who are often dealing with health care, putting gas in the car,
buying food at the grocery store, worried about sending their kids to
college and affording the tuition.
So -- and we also found that the debate over contraception is not the
sole driver of this, but it is one factor. We found one out of four women
in this country say they were paying -- saying that issue extremely
important to determining their vote. Other issues are more important, but
that`s a significant portion of women saying they`re really paying
attention to that debate.
SMERCONISH: Well, and here`s the divide on the issues to which you
refer. According to that recent survey in 12 swing states, men and women
prioritized the issues that are important to them differently.
Howard, take a look at this. For men, the most important issue,
deficit reduction and the national debt, gas ranks second, followed by
health care, international issues, unemployment.
Switch over to women, however, health care is the most important
issue. Deficit reduction and the national debt ranks number four. I
recognize that birth control regulation comes in at number six. I can`t
help but think that when some females were saying, Health care is my top
priority, they were encompassing a whole host of -- including female-
oriented medical issues.
FINEMAN: No, it`s because women are the ones who have to worry, for
the most part, about the health care of their families. And that is number
And if I can slice it a little further, in talking to Democrats who
are working on key swing constituencies, like the Hispanic vote, which is
going to be absolutely crucial, just as this whole gender gap thing is --
for Hispanics, and especially Hispanic women, health care is over the top
the most important issue, to the point of, like, 60, 70, 80 percent.
And there are going to be advertisements by the Democrats in Spanish
appealing to Hispanic women about this health care issue, trying to say
that the Democrats are the party that wanted reform, that wanted to spread
health care costs, that wanted to make health care available to all, to all
your families, to all of your kids, et cetera, and that government has a
role in this.
And that`s going to be a consistent message for President Obama.
It`ll be very interesting to see what happens with the Supreme Court, how
they rule on that. But however the Supreme Court rules, it`s going to be
key to the whole Democratic appeal all the way from now to election day.
SMERCONISH: Susan Page, is it the sort of a problem that Mitt Romney
can solve with one decision, meaning his VP pick?
PAGE: No. I don`t think so. We know that -- there`s traditionally a
gender gap of some size. It`s the time -- women tend to be more Democratic
than men. But it becomes very problematic for Republicans when it gets
into double digits. You know, you can live with a gender gap of maybe 5
points, but when you get to 15 points or 18 points, that`s when it becomes
an issue that is going to defeat you at the polls.
It is not something, I think, for which there is one single bullet,
not even the pick of a vice president -- vice presidential running mate
that can fix. It`s a longer-term process and it`s something they need to
start working on now, and I`m sure they are.
SMERCONISH: All right, speaking of women, White House press secretary
Jay Carney was asked today whether the president would weigh in on a hot
button topic -- I can tell you it`s hot on talk radio -- whether women
should be allowed to join the Augusta National Golf Club, the private club
which hosts the Masters Tournament, not under way, and has never had a
female member.
Here`s how Carney responded.
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president`s answer to
this question is yes, he believes -- his personal opinion is that women
should be admitted.
SMERCONISH: Now, Mitt Romney was also asked to weigh in on the
question of women and Augusta. He agreed with the president.
MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), FMR. GOV., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, of
course. I`m not a member of August. (INAUDIBLE) don`t know that I would
qualify by (INAUDIBLE) but certainly, if I were a member and if I were --
if I (INAUDIBLE) Augusta, which (INAUDIBLE) could happen, but of course I`d
have women in Augusta.
SMERCONISH: Susan, everything`s relevant. You know, in a 24/7 news
bubble with a campaign, as we are now facing, everything, I think, is fair
game, including this. Do you see this issue having legs in a presidential
context, or because they loosely agreed, perhaps not?
PAGE: You know, I think it -- I think it goes to -- I do think it has
some -- I think it`s part of this whole debate about women. I would just
note that I am the daughter of a member -- my mother is in the Kansas Golf
Hall of Fame as a former state champion. And the idea that she can`t be a
member of Augusta, it seems ridiculous in the 21st century.
Amy Walter, our friend from ABC, sent out a tweet suggesting that
memberships should be based on your handicap, not on your gender. And I
think that makes a lot of sense to a lot of people.
SMERCONISH: Howard, I believe in the right of free association, but I
got hosed by a country club once.
FINEMAN: Well, I don`t think -- and I`m not much of a golfer, but I
don`t think it should be based on handicap, therefore. But I think in the
department of -- in the department of the clueless, I would put the people
who run Augusta.
If you have Mitt Romney, who sort of sounded like he wanted to become
a member of Augusta, agreeing that women should be admitted, I think it`s
time for the people at Augusta to understand, especially when the CEO of
IBM, which is -- which is a big sponsor of the Masters and which -- and who
is traditionally given membership, invited to membership in the Augusta
Golf Club -- that person happens to be a female right now, and she has not
been invited to join Augusta. If I were she, I would pull the IBM
SMERCONISH: Well, what I notice is that the spokesman for Augusta
very careful to say that they have no express prohibition. They`ve just
never had a female member.
SMERCONISH: And of course, that begs the question, Well, who exactly
are you waiting for? You know, what does she look like and what does she
do for a living?
FINEMAN: Well, I think if she`s CEO of IBM, that`d probably be good
enough. I think they -- those guys need to wake up and wake up fast.
SMERCONISH: I can remember we went through this, Susan, a couple of
years ago -- in fact, by now, maybe a decade ago -- and the culmination was
that, if memory serves correct, they ran the Masters a couple of years with
no commercials.
PAGE: Yes. Well, as you know, I don`t know quite what they`re
waiting for because -- isn`t this a fight we`ve had, that -- and settled?
I mean, I don`t know...
SMERCONISH: I don`t know if we settled it.
SMERCONISH: Anyway, thank you, Susan Page. Thank you, Howard
Fineman, as always.
FINEMAN: Thank you.
PAGE: Thank you, Michael.
SMERCONISH: Coming up: The Republican Party is dominated by Tea
Partiers, and somehow, it`s about to nominate a moderate as their standard-
bearer. How did this happen?
This is HARDBALL.
SMERCONISH: New poll numbers on the Republican primary in
Pennsylvania, and it`s not good for Rick Santorum. Let`s check the
HARDBALL "Scoreboard."
A new PPP poll has Mitt Romney now in the lead over native son
Santorum 42 percent to 37 percent. This is the first time that Romney has
overtaken Santorum in his home state, and it will no doubt up the pressure
on Santorum to get out before the April 24th contest.
And one more poll number to tell you about, New York, the third
biggest delegate haul in the primary campaign. No surprise here, Mitt
Romney is up big in a new Quinnipiac poll, 54 percent to 21 percent.
We`ll be right back.
SMERCONISH: Mitt Romney is on the verge of defying a historical trend
in the Republican Party. The GOP is moving sharply to the right, and yet
somehow, the so-called Massachusetts moderate is closing in on the party`s
nomination. How did he manage that? And what kind of political
bloodletting might we see in the GOP if Romney loses in November?
Mark Halperin is "Time" magazine`s editor-at-large and a senior MSNBC
political analyst, and Sam Stein covers politics for the HuffingtonPost.
Sam, is it as simple as, well, there were too many conservatives all
dividing the vote and Romney was able to squeak in?
SAM STEIN, HUFFINGTONPOST: No, I actually don`t think so. I just
think that the template for what is a perfect Tea Party candidate is
unachievable. Every one of these people had their flaws, even the people
who didn`t jump in. Chris Christie would have had his flaws on the social
issues. (INAUDIBLE) would have had his flaws on the budget issues.
They all have certain deficiencies. Even Jim DeMint, for instance,
once backed "Romney care" a couple years ago when he was endorsing Mitt
Romney. So the question then became who do you find more electable, and in
that regard, I think people just gravitated towards Romney.
SMERCONISH: You know, Mark, when I sit here and think about being in
this chair in Chris`s stead in the midst of 2010 and the whole Tea Party
movement and the Gadsden flags everywhere, if you said to me then the net
effect of this is going to be a GOP takeover of the House, and then it`s
going to be Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee? Where is the disconnect?
MARK HALPERIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE, MSNBC SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Michael,
I`m going to risk hurting myself, patting myself on the back while I`ve got
my microphone and (INAUDIBLE) There was an open question going into this
nomination season. How much would the normal rules prevail? How much
would the establishment of the Republican Party, which in the modern era
has always picked the nominee from the person whose turn it was -- how much
would they still dominate the process?
I thought, in the end, they would dominate. They would have less
influence than they`ve ever had. Mitt Romney without a doubt is more out
of step with the Tea Party than many of the people who ran. But he has run
as a Tea Party candidate, talking about being anti the president, anti
"Obama care," anti big spending, and he`s the establishment candidate.
He`s not the perfect establishment candidate by some measures, but of
all the people who ran, he clearly had the profile of the kind of person
who the party always nominates.
SMERCONISH: So yet another victory for the establishment. Mark, by
the way, you were on "MORNING JOE" when Joe Scarborough described the gloom
and doom within the GOP about Mitt Romney`s chances this fall. Let`s watch
JOE SCARBOROUGH, CO-HOST, "MORNING JOE": Let me just say this for
everybody at home.
HALPERIN: He might.
SCARBOROUGH: The Republican establishment...
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, CO-HOST, "MORNING JOE": He might.
SCARBOROUGH: I`ve yet to meet a single person of the Republican
establishment who thinks Mitt Romney`s going to win the general election
this year. They won`t say it on TV because they`ve got to go on TV and
they don`t want people writing them nasty e-mails. I obviously don`t care.
But I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that
worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican Congress, that
worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney`s going to win the general
SMERCONISH: As we await the sequel to "Game Change," does that
comport with your reporting? Is that what you, Mark Halperin, are hearing
from the GOP folks?
HALPERIN: Michael, I`ve worked in TV for 25 years. When the host of
a show says something, you have two choices. You can say, That`s exactly
right, Joe...
SMERCONISH: Or nothing!
HALPERIN: ... or you can follow the advice of Bambi`s mother. If you
don`t have something nice to say, don`t say anything at all.
I don`t agree with Joe on that. I do agree that there is pretty
broad-based pessimism among some elements of the establishment. There are
some people who are waiting to see if -- to have Romney prove to them that
he can actually win this.
But look, he signed Ed Gillespie up -- Ed Gillespie, one of the best
strategists in the Republican Party. If he can put his imprimatur (ph) on
the Romney campaign, I think there are plenty of Republicans who are
cautiously optimistic but who believe that Mitt Romney can win this.
SMERCONISH: Sam Stein, what`s your vibe on this whole issue of
whether these will all be bygones when we head toward the fall?
STEIN: I absolutely think they`ll be bygones. We have seven months
before the election. That`s an eternity. We don`t know how the economy`s
(INAUDIBLE) Obviously, it`s going in a positive direction, but there`s
worries that the recovery will slow down over the summer. And when that
happens, you basically recast (ph) the entire race.
And again, Mitt Romney has always been a more comfortable candidate in
a general election showdown, as opposed to a primary election, where he has
to convince people that he`s, you know, conservative enough.
So there are certain dynamics that we`ve yet to see play out. I don`t
think that the pessimism is warranted among conservatives. And keep in
mind, the ultimate wild card here is super-PAC money. There`s going to be
a ton of it thrown into this race, much more than we`ve ever seen...
SMERCONISH: Well, and I...
STEIN: ... and that could level the playing field in ways we can`t
even imagine.
SMERCONISH: And I still believe, as I`ve believed from day one, that
largely, in the end, it`s a referendum on the president.
Mark, you write in "Time" magazine, quote, "Romney`s prospects rely on
two tracks, abandoning the effort to be likable and settling instead for
awkwardly endearing, though his public image is a long way off from that,
and using a series of upcoming framing speeches to condemn the Obama
economic record."
I guess we just got a little taste of how he`s headed in the latter
direction with the speech before the AP that attacked the Ryan plan.
HALPERIN: That`s right. And the president, I think, in his own AP
speech, did a really brilliant thing of drawing the Republicans in to
debate all these process questions, to make it a debate between the Romney
vision of the economy and the Ryan plan and the president`s vision, rather
than the president`s record.
Now, we`ll get a jobs number tomorrow that everybody thinks is going
to be better, but I think if Mitt Romney has a chance, again, as I say in
"Time," it`s to make this a referendum on the president.
We`ve said this for months. The president wants it to be a choice,
the Republicans want it to be a referendum on the president`s record. It`s
playing out right now as the general election starts. That`s what each of
the -- both sides are trying to do, exactly what they thought.
And I think again, beyond (INAUDIBLE) to come across as -- as
endearing and goofy in a lovable way, I think is (ph) his (ph) best hope to
try to equalize the personal gap, Romney has to make this about the economy
or I don`t think he has a chance to win.
SMERCONISH: The funny thing, one issue that I think both sides can agree
on, they would like to see Paul Ryan be the V.P. pick.
SMERCONISH: In that House behind you, Sam, is that the vibe, like,
sure, bring on Ryan, this would be perfect, because we can shoot at that
STEIN: Of course. Of course.
It wasn`t all too long ago that Newt Gingrich, who still is in this
race, called the Ryan plan right-wing social engineering. I would bet a
lot of money that that quote is played back to Mitt Romney and alongside of
him calling the Ryan budget marvelous.
That budget is very much a conservative budget and Mitt Romney has
embraced it. To go back to the first question, I don`t think conservatives
really lost as much as we think they have lost. They got Mitt Romney to
move very far right on issues that are very critical to them, the budget.
He also had to revamp his tax reform policy in late February to make
it steeper and more aggressive, so they did win some concessions out of
SMERCONISH: That would be the most conservative pick -- I don`t mean
conservative in terms of politics, Mark Halperin. I mean safest play, as
far from a game change as you could possibly get.
HALPERIN: Well, I think there are safer picks only because although
Paul Ryan is pretty well known in inside circles, he`s never had the full
cavity search that some of the other people who might be picked have had.
And he`s a young guy, and I think picking a younger guy or younger
person is a bit of a risk as well. I don`t think he`s the safest pick. In
one respect, though, he`s quite safe, which is, you`re right, he would
please probably the most people who pay close attention to politics,
because the left would love him because they could run more foursquarely
against the Ryan budget, and the right would love him because he`s a hero
amongst a lot of conservatives.
SMERCONISH: Mark Halperin...
STEIN: Yes, but he also -- he also -- he also goes against Mitt
Romney`s mantra, which is you need someone who has not been in government
to go into Washington and turn it around. Paul Ryan spent a lot of time in
Washington up from the staff level to the elected.
SMERCONISH: Mark Halperin, Sam Stein, thank you both as usual. We
appreciate your comments.
HALPERIN: Thank you, Michael.
STEIN: Thanks.
SMERCONISH: Up next, you might not know it, but MSNBC`s David
Gregory, he is a master of impressions. His take on some of the Republican
presidential candidates is next in the "Sideshow."
You`re watching HARDBALL.
SMERCONISH: Back to HARDBALL and now for the "Sideshow."
First up, we saw no shortage of the GOP debates this election cycle,
that`s for sure. But did you ever wonder what the candidates were up to
during the commercial breaks?
Well, NBC`s David Gregory, who moderated one of the face-offs, sat
down with Jay Leno last night and he gave an inside scoop.
DAVID GREGORY, MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": They`re doing the debate.
And then the commercial starts and they all leave. Nobody wants to be seen
standing at their podium. They think it will make them look weak or
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Oh, OK.
GREGORY: Everybody has got their thing they want to tell you.
Rick Santorum, he looks a little stressed out and he kind of walks up
and he said, David, you didn`t come back to me on the Medicare -- on the
exception on the Medicare. I want to be able to respond on the Ryan plan.
Gingrich comes over and after he attacks the press, and then he will say, I
only got one question. I should get two questions every segment.
And then there was Rick Perry who came back and said, Gregory, this is
great. Having a great time.
SMERCONISH: Pretty solid impression, though I notice Romney didn`t
get a nod there.
Next up, the Obama campaign has officially declared a game on with
Mitt Romney, and the proof is in the ad wars. Team Obama got a new theme
under way yesterday, Mitt Romney vs. reality.
It`s turned into something of a miniseries, and here`s what they dug
up for part two.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He went around the world and
apologized for America.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not apologize
for our way of life.
ROMNEY: He has also failed to communicate that military options are
on the table.
OBAMA: I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to
defend the United States and its interests.
ROMNEY: In his State of the Union address, he didn`t even mention the
debt or the deficits.
OBAMA: When it comes to the deficit, we have already agreed to more
than $2 trillion in cuts and savings. Debt. The deficit. Deficit.
Deficit. Deficit. Debt. That`s how we will reduce our deficit.
SMERCONISH: I`m not sure which is worse for the Republicans, that or
ads where Mitt Romney contradicts Mitt Romney.
And finally in yesterday`s "Sideshow," we took a look back at some of
the greatest hits, if you will, that Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum
leveled at Mitt Romney. Take this one, for example.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And there`s something so
grotesquely hypocritical about the Romney campaign.
SMERCONISH: So, last night, Newt Gingrich was asked the very same
question we had. Will team Obama use biting comments like that one to slam
Mitt Romney in the general election? Newt seemed less than concerned.
QUESTION: When the time comes that somebody wins this nomination, can
those of you who have been running stand on stage together and honestly
with a straight face say, I support the...
GINGRICH: Absolutely.
QUESTION: But aren`t the Democrats going to use your words against
each other?
GINGRICH: Yes, but it doesn`t matter, because they just make stuff up
SMERCONISH: OK. So once the Obama campaign gets ahold of Newt`s own
statements about Mitt Romney, they lose any shred of truth. I would say
it`s more likely that we`re going to see some backpedaling from those soon-
to-be-Romney backers.
Up next: Republican Senator Orrin Hatch says the Obama campaign will
play the Mormon card against Mitt Romney. But is Hatch forgetting who went
President Obama claiming he`s a Muslim?
By the way, you can follow me on Twitter so long as you can spell
You`re watching HARDBALL.
HAMPTON PEARSON, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Hampton Pearson with your
CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks search for direction ahead of Friday`s jobs report. The Dow
shedding 14 points. The S&P was off a fraction, the Nasdaq gaining 12
points. Weekly jobless claims continued their downward trend, falling
6,000 to their lowest level since April of 2008. Retailers posted solid
gains last month thanks to warmer weather. And Facebook will reportedly
list its shares on the Nasdaq when it makes its trading debut next month.
That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide -- now back to
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Our HARDBALL strategists are back tonight to discuss two trending
topics on the campaign trail this week. Number one, Rick Santorum met with
conservatives today to try to bring together the conservative vote and that
also meant discussing how to get Newt Gingrich to drop out. And second,
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch predicts the Obama campaign will use Romney`s
Mormon faith used against him in the general election, a charge Democrats
With that, we welcome our HARDBALL strategists, Democrat Steve
McMahon, Republican Todd Harris.
Todd, give some advice to Senator Santorum. If you had his ear today,
what would you be telling him to do?
TODD HARRIS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Two words: Drop out.
The legacy of the Santorum campaign is going to be -- it`s going to
boil down, really, to one of two things. There is everything that has
happened until this moment, and then everything going forward. If he were
to get out now, I think the legacy of his campaign would be, look, this is
a leader who came from behind, he went from also ran to near front-runner
status virtually overnight. He ran a hell of a race.
If he stays in and runs a smear campaign against the guy that
everybody knows is going to be the nominee, Mitt Romney, he risks his
legacy being that of a petulant politician who put self-interest ahead of
defeating the president.
SMERCONISH: Well, I argued -- I argued here last night that I thought
the reason he was hanging tough for three more weeks was because he wanted
to erase that part of his legacy, which is an 18-point loss to Bob Casey
And now, bad news for Rick Santorum in the form of new PPP polls from
Pennsylvania that show 42 percent chose Mitt Romney as their choice for the
nominee to just 37 percent for native son Santorum.
So, Steve, that option might be off the table, that option of, hey, I
win in Pennsylvania and then back -- when we come back in 2016, at least
nobody is going to ask me about the Casey loss anymore.
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, I think you just said
something that`s very important to remember, when we come back in 2016.
And that`s really what`s going on here. It was a group of
conservative leaders who obviously want to defeat Mitt Romney, and they
have wanted to from the beginning and they haven`t been very successful so
far. They hold a secret meeting that`s promptly leaked to "The Washington
Post" and everybody else who write about it.
And I think Rick Santorum is caught in between, as Todd suggests, a
legacy of a sore loser and perhaps a spoiler, and someone who wants be the
conservative choice in 2016. So he`s playing footsie with all the
conservative leaders who can put him in that position four years down the
road. And he`s worried about his legacy. And I think it`s a very
legitimate concern. If he loses Pennsylvania, he may have nothing left.
SMERCONISH: Hey, Todd, I want to change my strategy question to this
one. You`re in the room today with the conservatives, with Santorum. Now
advise the group. If the objective here is conservative policy going
forward, what should they as a group be doing?
HARRIS: Well, look, if -- just because they`re not wild about Mitt
Romney, this group of conservatives, A., compared to President Obama, I
think that every person in that room would probably agree that Mitt Romney
is a far better option.
But if they can`t get excited about Romney, then go get excited about
some of these House races that are really competitive. Go get excited
about trying to take over the Senate. There are all kinds of avenues where
the energy of the conservative movement could be flowing and could be
channeled that are much more productive than this quixotic dream of somehow
getting Newt out and that would somehow put Santorum over the top.
SMERCONISH: Well, I`m not convinced that would change the dynamic at
Let me show you this. Campaigning in Pennsylvania yesterday, Santorum
again made the point that the GOP needs to go with a real conservative
nominee this time.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The best chance for us to
win is to put up a candidate like we did in 1980, not like we did in 1976.
And that`s what the focus is going to be. Let`s try to make sure that we
have the strongest possible candidate to be able to win a very, very
critical election.
SMERCONISH: And, Steve McMahon, after a lot of well-paid-for speeches
and maybe a stint at FOX, it`s now 2017. And he says, I told you so. You
nominated the moderate. That`s why we lost. This year, we need a real
MCMAHON: That`s exactly what he says. And you can actually take that
clip and you could change the date in it and refer it back to 2012 and
that`s what he will be saying in 2013 and `14 and `15 leading up to the
next race.
The Republican establishment believes, I think, for the most part --
they won`t say it publicly, but Jeff Scarborough is right -- they`re
worried that Mitt Romney is going to lose this time. And after he loses,
Rick Santorum is going to rise and say, if we had nominated a true
conservative, given people a real choice, we would have been successful.
There are a lot of people in the Republican Party who believe that.
And Mitt -- for Rick Santorum, the question is how do you get out and
preserve that opportunity and preserve that viability for the future?
Staying in and getting beat 10 more times isn`t going to make the case that
you`re the best nominee next time.
SMERCONISH: Well, a differing interpretation, and we can save this
debate for later, would be that the party went off the rails, lost all the
moderates, and consequently should have moved back to the center before
they drove all those folks away.
I want to move on. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, a Mormon,
predicted earlier this week that the Obama campaign will use Mitt Romney`s
religion against him. On Tuesday, he said -- quote -- "You watch, they are
going to throw the Mormon Church at him like you can`t believe it."
And Wednesday he said -- quote -- "For them to say they aren`t going
to smear Mitt Romney is baloney. It`s way out of bounds, but that is what
is going to happen."
The Obama reelection campaign said The Huffington Post earlier this
year -- quote -- "Attacking a candidate`s religion is out of bounds and our
campaign will not engage in it."
And here`s what Democratic Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman
Schultz had to say yesterday on MSNBC.
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: That is just
preposterous. That suggestion is utter nonsense. I mean, let`s remember
that President Obama has had so many things hurled at him, birth
certificate questions, whether he is or is not a Christian.
I mean, for them to suggest that religion will be injected by
President Obama and the Democratic Party, I mean, they need to take a look
inwards at the accusations that their party and their supporters have
hurled before they take that step.
SMERCONISH: Todd Harris, I don`t expect that to happen, but, you
know, the media is everybody in P.J.s, some of which have feet in them.
SMERCONISH: Somebody is going to play this up, and then it is going
to be a question of whether you can tie it to a campaign. How do you see
HARRIS: Well, Senator Hatch is in the middle of a tough primary
battle back home in Utah, and my guess is that he was looking to fire up
his base a little bit.
I don`t think there`s a lot to this story. I would be shocked if, in
any overt way, the Romney -- or the Obama campaign or the DNC did anything
to challenge Governor Romney based on -- on his faith. That doesn`t mean
that -- that there won`t be whisper campaigns and, say, people talking
about, see, he`s just not like us for this whole host of reasons.
I would also be shocked if that didn`t happen. But, as far as openly
making Governor Romney`s faith an issue, I just don`t think it`s going to
SMERCONISH: I -- I thought that David Gregory said something wise,
David Gregory, of course, from "Meet the Press," when he was on "The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno" last night, and described Mitt Romney`s faith
as being, you know, his core, central to who he is. Here`s how he said it.
DAVID GREGORY, MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": Let`s be honest. This
is the core of who Mitt Romney is. He was a missionary in France for two
years. He was a bishop in the church, which in the Mormon Church is
effectively like the police.
Philanthropically, he`s made huge contributions. He`s had a big
impact on the church, and yet he doesn`t talk about it. It`s a core of who
is and yet he doesn`t feel like it`s safe to talk about it.
SMERCONISH: I think there`s a lot of truth to that, Steve. Advise
the other side of the aisle. If you were whispering in Mitt Romney`s ear,
would you be saying to him, if you had his best interest at heart, hey,
it`s OK, go out and address some of these things?
MCMAHON: I actually think that he probably would benefit from doing
that. Remember, John Kennedy went and gave a speech in Texas, I think, at
a religious group where he basically said, I`m a Catholic. It is part of
the core of my being. I believe in the tenets of my church, but I`m
perfectly capable of being president of the United States and recognizing
separation of church and state.
I honestly don`t think Mitt Romney has a religion problem, but I do
think that people would be reassured if they heard that from him. And
because it is such a big part of his core -- and this will surprise people
because many of us thought he didn`t have a core -- he ought to at least
address it and make it part of his narrative, because people are wondering
who he is, he has this awkward way about him.
And his wife who fell in love with him and says he`s not only funny,
but witty and charming and all those things we haven`t seen -- if people
saw a little bit more of that from him, including his core, he probably
would be better off.
I still think the president would beat him because he`s wrong on the
issues, but it would be a much more difficult race if people had a better
understanding of him as a person.
SMERCONISH: I agree with you, for what it`s worth, and I also think
self-deprecation works. He ought to be the guy cracking up about himself,
you know, before waiting for all the late night comedians.
Anyway, thank you, Steve McMahon. And thank you, Todd Harris. We
appreciate it.
MCMAHON: Thank you.
SMERCONISH: Up next, President Obama screens the classic film "To
Kill a Mockingbird" tonight at the White House and will introduce a special
airing of the movie this weekend on USA. The film has been around for 50
years but these days, it`s as relevant as ever.
This is HARDBALL.
SMERCONISH: Nevada is one of those key battleground states that will
help decide the presidential election. And right now, the Silver State is
looking golden for President Obama.
Let`s check the HARDBALL scoreboard. Right now, if the election were
held today, President Obama would beat Mitt Romney, 51-43, in Nevada.
That`s according to a new PPP poll. That eight-point margin, the same
margin Obama won the state by back in 2008.
We`ll be right back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so, a cry of humble, respectable Negro who
has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman has had to
put his word against two white peoples. This defendant is not guilty.
SMERCONISH: That, of course, is Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in "To
Kill a Mockingbird," the classic story of race and the struggle for justice
which is set in 1930s Alabama.
President Obama is honoring the film`s 50th anniversary by hosting a
private screening at the White House tonight and with a televised
introduction to the national broadcast on Saturday.
MSNBC political analyst Michael Eric Dyson and "Chicago Tribune"
columnist Clarence Page join me now.
Michael, this resonated so much with my wife, that Atticus made the
short list for first names for our firstborn, but Smerconish and Atticus
just didn`t roll off the tongue.
ERIC MICHAEL DYSON, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
SMERCONISH: Why does it have so much staying power?
DYSON: Well, I think it speaks, Michael, to very moral conscience
that is at the heart of the struggle over black and white, over right and
wrong, and over the self definition of America as a great nation, able to
rise above the weight of its legendary and an often storied past, also
sorry past, to go into a great future.
And I think when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about appealing to the
consciences of white people, Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch was a stand in
within the white community to speak volumes about the ethical necessity to
treat one`s brother and sister regardless of color as an equal.
And I think in this case, it appeals to so many white people, and it
appealed to them because it wasn`t a message coming from the outside, from
an African-American, but being generated from within the culture itself.
SMERCONISH: Well, did that make it easy to broach some of these
subjects, Clarence, given the fact that Harper Lee, who wrote it, was a
Caucasian female? And by the way, still with us, I`m happy to say.
CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: She is, indeed. And she was very
much in the middle of that kind of situation. They`re real life people,
including her own father, and the character of Scout that leads the story.
That corresponds to her up in the colored balcony at the courthouse
back when her father used to be a trial lawyer, and he had a couple of
unsuccessful cases of trying to save the lives of black defendants who are
innocent and he stopped practicing trial law after that. I mean, there are
so many layers to this story.
But Michael is right. This really depicts a narrative that haunts
America`s memory. And throughout American history, you can see books like
this. "Uncle Tom`s Cabin" is the perfect example of one which black
readers will also ambivalent about, but that really struck white leaders at
the time. It was the biggest best seller of that era. It helped lead to
the Civil War, according to Abraham Lincoln.
You see this kind of story recurring, and it`s also what made the
O.J. Simpson verdict so shocking, because in the eyes of many people,
especially white Americans, this was upside of that narrative, you know?
It turned it on its head.
SMERCONISH: Yes.
PAGE: And black folks were relieved that a black man got a fair
trial, white folks were alarmed that a possible double murderer got off.
SMERCONISH: Here is a scene, gentlemen, from the movie where Bob
Ewell, the father of the young woman who`s accused the black man of rape,
learns that Atticus Finch isn`t willing to play by the town`s unspoken
rules. Let`s watch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain, somebody told me just now that they
thought that you believed Tom Robinson`s story. You know, I said -- I said
you`re wrong, man. You`re dead wrong. Mr. Finch isn`t taking his side.
Well, he was wrong, wasn`t he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve been appointed to defend of Tom Robinson.
Now that he`s been charged, that`s what I intend to do.
SMERCONISH: Michael, the president screening the movie tonight, rate
him -- meaning President Obama on matters of race. Are you satisfied with
the way in which he`s engaged the nation in dialogue on these sensitive
DYSON: Well, President Obama is in a very difficult situation. Most
white Americans don`t want to hear anything about race, especially from a
primarily African-American perspective that seeks to even bring some calm
and restore some order to what is often a chaotic and undisciplined affair.
At the same time, the president knows he has to speak to serious issues
that matter most, not only to African American people but to American
people -- 17.5 percent unemployment between African-American people is not
a black tragedy, it`s an American tragedy.
And yet, when he speaks out on issues of race, he is lambasted. Look
at what happened when he spoke out in regard to Professor Henry Louis Gates
at Harvard. Look at what happened even he said, "If I had a son, he`d look
like Trayvon" -- and the right wing made mincemeat of that statement.
So, the president has to walk a very genuinely delicate line on the
one hand between offending the masses of white Americans. And by the way,
not just the right wing, but many liberals don`t engage on issue of race
either. We`d all rather just not deal with it rather than confront it head
And so, I think in that sense, President Obama has not been the
educator-in-chief when it comes to issues of race, because he realizes he
doesn`t have as much as white privilege as a guy like Bill Clinton, who can
engage us more robustly on the issues and matters of race than he can, even
as president of the United States of America as a black man.
SMERCONISH: Clarence, is that an assessment that you share? How do
you assess the president`s handling of matters on the sensitive issues of
PAGE: Well, it`s certainly, whenever Barack Obama has spoken on race
off the cuff, he`s run into problems. There are only a few teachable
moments available to him, and I think "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a perfect
example of it.
When Chicago started their read a book program, they pushed for every
child in Chicago to read "To Kill a Mockingbird." That was the first novel
that was picked out for the very reasons that it has sold so well. I`ve
read that it`s the best selling book on race, best selling fictional book
on race in American history if that`s possible, because it`s certainly very
popular these days.
And yet, it touches these very, very sensitive issues that we`re
afraid to talk about here in the real world, but maybe this would be a
launch pad for it.
SMERCONISH: Well, one subject I think we can all agree on, it`s a
sensational movie, and it`s timeless. And hopefully, this will prompt
folks to go and rent it and watch it again.
Thank you very much, Michael Eric Dyson, and, Clarence Page, for your
time tonight.
PAGE: Thank you, Michael.
SMERCONISH: You can watch "To Kill a Mockingbird" with a special
introduction by President Obama this Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on
the USA Network.
When we return, "Let Me Finish" with a matter of life and death.
You`re watching HARDBALL.
SMERCONISH: "Let Me Finish" tonight with this:
Early this morning, Connecticut took a big step toward becoming the
17th state to abolish the death penalty. At 2:00 a.m., the state Senate
passed the measure largely along partisan lines, that would replace capital
punishment with life in prison and no chance of release. Now, it goes to
statehouse where it has support and Governor Dannel Malloy has pledged to
sign it.
Any time a state makes a change in course on the death penalty, it`s
significant. But even more so in Connecticut because of what happened on
Cheshire in July 23rd, 2007. That day, two criminal recidivists broke into
a Dr. William Petit`s home, bludgeoned him with a baseball bat and tied him
up in the basement.
Over several hours, Petit`s wife Jennifer was taken to the bank to
withdraw money, raped and ultimately strangled to death. Daughter
Michaela, age 11, sexually assaulted, tied her to bed, and another daughter
also tied to their bed. Daughter Hayley, age 17, also died to her bed.
The girls died of smoke inhalation when the two attackers poured gasoline
throughout the house and set it on fire.
Now, both assailants were captured. They were convicted and they
were sentenced to death. Yesterday, Dr. Petit was among those who oppose
the death penalty repeal, despite the measure`s perspective nature, meaning
the bill stipulates that the 11 men currently on Connecticut`s death row,
Dr. Petit`s torturers among them, would still face execution.
Capital punishment would only be abolished for those convicted of
capital offenses in the future.
I happen to think that the men who killed Dr. Petit`s family should
pay with their lives. When a jury imposes such a sentence, it`s important
that it`d be carried out.
I doubt, however, that caveat is comforting to Dr. Petit, especially
where Connecticut has executed one man since 1960. And by waiving his
appeals, that inmate essentially asked for it.
That`s similar to my home state of Pennsylvania, where we too have
the death penalty in name only. Since capital punishment was reinstated in
the commonwealth back in 1978, only three people have been put to death,
and again, they each gave up their appeals.
The state`s last contested execution was carried way back in 1962.
In the intervening five decades, the justice system has been gradually
manipulated into a process that coddles its worst offenders at the expense
of real victims. Men like Dr. Petit are victimized twice when they lose
loved ones, and then watch helplessly as their legal issues devolved into a
never ending cycle of appeals because the court system will not act upon an
outcome that a legislature permitted and a jury selected. And that is the
greatest injustice of all.
That`s HARDBALL for now. Thank you for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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text:
Started yesterday, but didn't get anywhere as much as I wanted to done. Got the last two door panels, both parts of the rear seat and front seats clean. That was a massive effort, there was one section of the rear seat that took 5 scrubbings it, it didn't look that bad until I started clean it. And I had to redo the lower fronts again this morning, when they dried they didn't look very good.
I also pulled the current seats and swapped the lower foam pieces over. The ones on the new seats weren't bad, the ones on the old seats are mint though. This morning I worked on getting the headrest freed up, they were really difficult to move up and down. Also lubed the hinges. Need to clean and treat all the vinyl before I can start installing anything. I plan to work s little bit each night on it and drive the Cabriolet to work this week.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Google met revenue estimates and blew away EPS. Some hair on the quarter, but obviously miles from the disaster some had feared. Eric reiterated the company has not seen any macro-economic impact. Stock up $75 in aftermarket.
Gross revenue exactly in line with consensus--$5.2 billion, up 42%. Net revenue $3.7 billion, slightly ahead of consensus. Non-GAAP EPS of $4.84 blew away consensus of $4.52.
The US business did decelerate materially: from 40% in Q4 to 30% in Q1--far from a disaster, but enough to justify some of the mid-quarter concern (If estimates hadn't come down, Google would have missed them). Paid clicks also continued rapid deceleration, from 45% in Q3 to 30% in Q4 to 20% this quarter. Free cash flow dropped sequentially on shockingly high capital expenditures of $842 million (where on earth is this money going?) If Google ever starts to really rein in CAPEX, the stock should soar.
Doubleclick only contributed to two weeks of the quarter: immaterial to revenue and slightly dilutive to earnings. Google talked a lot more about the display opportunity: It intends to rapidly become the biggest display platform in the world. That said, the company still appears reluctant to put display ads on its own Google.com property (which would be an immediate, huge boost to bottom line).
Bottom line: Deceleration continues, which will keep a lid on multiple expansion. Stock will likely settle in around 25X-30X free cash flow. From a high level, though, the company's performance remains nothing short of extraordinary.
Webcast (1:30PM / 4:30PM)
SAI Spreadsheet: Google Financial Analysis
Eric: Strong quarter, well-positioned regardless of business environment. Ads showing transformative effects. Paid click growth higher than had been speculated by third parties. (Gets the dig in early). Quality improving. Fewer but much better ads. More and more flexibility control in hands of advertisers. DoubleClick has been added, allows much more comprehensive solution.
Apps: Working to build out whole new online experience. Salesforce allows integration for enterprise.
George: Results include DoubleClick. Immaterial to revenue and slightly dilutive...
Paid clicks... up 20% y/y. "On google.com in US remains healthy" (ie., COMSCORE IS FULL OF IT). International also strong.
Google's own hiring has slowed dramatically: 800 in Q1. 10% of DoubleClick laid off in early April. Another 15% expected to leave. These headcount reductions apply only to US and don't include divestitures. So far, no headcount reductions intl.
Operating margin increased sequentially, which reverses trend. This is good signs.
$842 million CAPEX. IT infrastructure, data center, networking equipment. This is shockingly high. Free cash flow nearly $1 billion, but down sequentially. When will Google finally be able to scale back CAPEX?
Sergey: Huge improvements in search. Yawn.
Larry: Ads and applications. AdSense improvements. Yawn. AdWords: conversion optimizer....customer conversion rather than clicks. Analytics: added industry benchmarking.
YouTube: 10 hours of video uploaded every minute. In-video ads great adoption, customers increasing size. Also launched Adsense for video...perform well, much better than banner ads.
DoubleClick...we're working on combining ad networks. Huge opportunities there.
Apps: Google Sites, offline docs--allows folks to run offline. Very excited about Salesforce partnership...integrated, seamless.
Culture: Fortune's best place to work two years in a row.
CFO search: George still here. No offers yet. Good candidates.
DoubleClick: What going to do? Omid's answer largely content free. Integrating YouTube into the network.
We will become world's largest display publisher. 90% of our pages can handle display ads. [THIS IS BIG STATEMENT]. Can integrate video, search, display, Feedburner, etc.
Display model--on your own pages? YouTube, yes. Haven't made decision on other sites. No specific plans. We're making progress in our network. Jonathan: Now that have DoubleClick, we can integrate DART for advertisers...
MACRO ECONOMY IMPACT: Eric: We have looked at it really carefully, and we do not see an impact at this time. Also looked at what would happen...we think we're well-positioned. Does well in most scenarios.
Quality improvements: Fewer hit quarter than usual, because more of them came late in quarter. Biggest ones are the landing page quality improvements. Also some policy changes: Users always know where they end up when clicking. Automatic matching beta test...that is relatively modest. We often don't know improvement very short term.
Mobile Search: Anecdotally... In high-end markets like Japan, mobile search and ads work very well. Nothing to dissuade that it's worse than desktop. In US and Europe...will increasingly see greater volume, usage, and conversion. Big challenge: screens small. But have much more relevant and timely info--location, etc.
Paid Clicks--Still Lots of deceleration: We look at this as a quality issue. If we improve quality, aggregate clicks will grow (as will price). Model of staying focused on quality will work. [AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY]
Seasonality: Eric says hard to say it's changing. There is a seasonality, hard to know exactly where it is. Q2 and Q3 usually weak. Jonathan: There are things that make each year different...Leap Year made this quarter 1% bigger, etc. Also highly dependent on share: When we have high share, it looks more seasonal than in past.
Social Networking monetization--any progress?: Applying lots of new technologies. I'm optimistic, but this is balanced against tremendous inventory levels.
Yahoo test: Nice to be working with Yahoo. We like them very much. (Awesome non-answer)
Any ad sectors weak? We tend to see...clicks do grow less rapidly in sensitive areas, but all still showing healthy growth in ad revenue. In UK clicking higher on travel. In US, even foreclosures do pretty well... In general, we are seeing absolute growth even in sensitive areas [AMAZING]. Possible prices go up.
China: Things going well. Seeing good marketshare growth. Market so large that numbers huge. Significant new products: Chinese knowledge, users, search, etc.
Big advertisers vs. small--which grew faster in US?: Larger customers are the bigger drivers... the analytic tools get adopted by the larger ones. As advertisers adopt, it fuels growth.
YouTube ads: What are barriers to runings ads on user-gen content: Working with YouTube management. Streamlining DoubleClick integration. How do we work with users...much better targeting of ads, promotions. 2008 plan...specific milestones.
Display vs text: Trying to set up auction so they have to compete with each other.
US revenues grew $29mm sequentially... without Dclick, FLAT. Far lower than in past. Is this where we are in search cycle? We know that it's not macroeconomic. Timing of deals, product rollouts, maturity of US market. Have to be very careful with year over year... Base quarter last year, we added lots of big partners to AdSense. Relative to last year, we didn't have that many. That's what makes it look like a reduction in the US. Also the AdSense for domains clean-up. Eric: Those two are the primary cause.
We won't rehash the full debate, but here are the highlights. In Q1, the market has seen:
- Violent slowdown in US paid click growth, per Comscore: From 25% year-over-year in Q4 to 2% year-over-year in Q1.
- Some anecdotal reports of weak US spending on Google in Q1 offset by many reports of strong US spending (conflicting data points)
- Major cuts in analyst estimates for Q1 and full-year 2008
- A 30% drop in the stock, from $650 to $450.
We know Google is intentionally reducing "accidental clicks" to improve ROIs for advertisers. We also know that, as late as early March, Eric Schmidt said the company still hadn't seen any impact from the weakening economy. The bulls argue that the company's click- quality improvement programs will lead to higher prices-per-click for the remaining clicks, thus offsetting the loss of revenue units. The bears argue that price increases can't possibly offset the drastic slowdown and that Google will see a sharp deceleration in US revenue in Q1.
Google generates about half of its revenue from the US, so if the US slowdown is significant, international would have to be extremely strong to offset it. Consensus estimates have dropped significantly since the start of the quarter, however, so the bar is considerably lower than it was three months ago.
We have modeled the quarter in detail, and we believe the company could survive a slowdown in the US business to about 25% Y/Y versus 40% in Q4 (and reported paid-click growth in Q1 of 2%). Any more of a slowdown, and Google will probably miss the current revenue consensus. (The EPS consensus is easier: Unless Google has continued to increase spending in the face of a sharp revenue slowdown, the company should easily beat EPS consensus).
Key Metrics
- Gross Revenue: $5.2 billion consensus, up 41%
- Net Revenue: $3.1 billion consensus, up 42% (deceleration from 52% in Q4)
- EPS: $4.52 (Should be plenty of upside here, unless company really blows it)
- Consensus Outlook:
- June Q: $3.8 billion Revenue / $4.64 EPS
- 2008: $15.9 billion / $19.55
- 2009: $20.2 billion / $24.09
SAI Spreadsheet: Google Financial Analysis
Get the latest Google stock price here.


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text:
Total Members Voted: 9
I'm pretty sure Persians are "classified" as Caucasian. Most certainly NOT Pacific Islander (why would that even be up for consideration?) If you're not comfortable labeling yourself as "White," then put Other, or don't answer it at all.
Technically you are considered caucasian. I'm Moroccan, so I looked into it pretty thoroughly. With respect to applications caucasian is equivalent with the US conception of "white," which includes Europeans, North Africans and MIddle Easterners.


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FFA congress showdown set for Oct 2 EGM
The final showdown in Football Federation Australia's congress war has been set down for October 2, when a raft of governance reforms endorsed by FIFA - but opposed by Sport Australia - will be put to a vote.
An extraordinary general meeting of FFA was called for on Friday, giving the 10 voting members of the national governing body just under a month to prepare for the all-important ballot.
If the mooted reforms are passed, it will effectively spell the end of Steven Lowy's reign as chairman and pave the way for a new-look board to be elected.
If they're blocked, FIFA is expected to either sack the FFA board and replace them with a normalisation committee, or opt for the "nuclear option" of suspending the country's membership - which could have disastrous outcomes for the Socceroos and Matildas.
Either way, the face of football in Australia will change dramatically.
Pro-reformists had spent weeks wrangling over fine print as they sought to digest the recommendations of the FIFA-backed congress review working group (CRWG) and turn them into resolutions to be put up at the EGM to change the FFA constitution.
That arduous task was finally completed on Friday afternoon - just in time, too, given FIFA had stipulated the EGM had to be called by September 7.
Eight votes out of 10 are needed to enact the reforms, which aim to expand the FFA congress and set the A-League on a path to independence.
However, four state federations - northern NSW, Tasmania, the ACT and Northern Territory - are still believed to be opposed to the some of the CRWG's key findings and can block the vote if they continue stick firm.
Their views are aligned with Lowy and the FFA board, while they've also gained support from Sport Australia CEO Kate Palmer.
It emerged on Friday that Palmer had written a letter to the FFA membership declaring it would be a "concern" to Sport Australia if all of the CRWG's recommendations were passed, saying some of them did not meet their own governance principles.
Sport Australia, a federal government agency, was immediately warned they were at risk of breaching FIFA's strict rules around government intervention in football.
A spokesperson for Sport Australia later said it "does not want to see any changes made that would weaken the governance of such an important sport to the Australian community."
A FIFA spokesperson told AAP: "FIFA is closely monitoring the ongoing process. We have no further comment at this stage."
Australian Associated Press


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Pilgrim's Wilderness (Hardcover)
A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier
Crown Publishing Group (NY), 9780307587824, 309pp.
Publication Date: July 16, 2013
Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (7/15/2013)
Paperback (7/15/2014)
Compact Disc (7/16/2013)
When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children in tow, his new neighbors had little idea of the trouble to come. The Pilgrim Family presented themselves as a shining example of the homespun Christian ideal, with their proud piety and beautiful old-timey music, but their true story ran dark and deep. Within weeks, Papa had bulldozed a road through the mountains to the new family home at an abandoned copper mine, sparking a tense confrontation with the National Park Service and forcing his ghost town neighbors to take sides in an ever-more volatile battle over where a citizen's rights end and the government's power begins.
In "Pilgrim's Wilderness," veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover's FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of "Easy Rider." And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive.
About the Author
Praise For Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier…
#5 on Amazon's Best 100 Books of the Year
A Mother Jones Best Book of the Year
An Outside Best Adventure Book of the Year
"Extraordinary...Mr. Kizzia has done an outstanding job unpacking Pilgrim's story; the book is superbly researched, the writing clear and unflinching." —Wall Street Journal
"Pilgrim's Wilderness is measured, painstakingly reported and gripping, giving us a true look at an escapist nightmare in America's mythic and fading frontier." —Los Angeles Times
"Not since The Shining has family life off the grid seemed as terrifying as it does in Pilgrim's Wilderness, by Tom Kizzia, but this time the chills come from nonfiction."
– Arts Beat, New York Times
"With even reporting and spare, lovely prose, Kizzia exposes the tyrannies of faith, and a family's desperate unraveling. It will make your skin crawl."–The Daily Beast
"For those awaiting the next Jon Krakauer-esque classic, look to an Alaskan writer named Tom Kizzia… A gripping nonfiction thriller told with masterful clarity…I'm betting it will be the sleeper hit of the summer. Put it at the top of your stack."–Outside Magazine
"Reads like a bewitching, brilliant novel... Even in the hands of a mediocre writer, this story would be mesmerizing. But Kizzia's gifts as a journalist and writer are such that it is a powerhouse of a book, destined to become a wilderness-tale classic like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. On one level, it's a brilliant exploration of the kinds of frontier issues that most of America put away more than 100 years ago — rugged individualism vs. community cooperation and compromise, and wilderness harnessers vs. preservationists. But most and best of all, it is the story of how a pack of illiterate, brainwashed children came to realize that the man they looked up to as a god was actually a tyrant, and how they found the courage to break free. Here's to them, and to Kizzia for telling their incredible story."
– Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Kizzia is a smart, tough reporter who knows a good story when he sees one and doesn't let go… [Pilgrim's Wilderness] is a masterful book. One of its strengths is that by sticking to the story and not trying to do too much, it does just about everything. Another is the way Kizzia withholds information until the right moment, building suspense by staying with a linear narrative that gradually reveals the monster at the center." – Portland Oregonian
"Absorbing...The family's brutal unraveling is a shocking tale readers won't soon forget." - Seattle Times
"The central figure in this book crosses paths with an incredible constellation of the famous and notorious and becomes a sort of evil, Alaskan Forrest Gump….an irresistible page-turner." – Dallas Morning News
"The mixture of Texas weirdness with Alaska nativism provides for riveting reading...Kizzia expertly goes back and forth in time to reveal the details of Papa Pilgrim's journey from would-be messiah to pariah."–Austin American Statesman
"As the Pilgrims go from activists championed by Sarah Palin to musicians beloved by Portland hipsters to a horrifying fall from grace, Kizzia's clear-eyed depiction never wavers. His even-handed and, at times, sympathetic treatment of the Pilgrims makes the full reveal of Hale's monstrous behavior that much more appalling—and the tale of redemption that ends the book that much more heart-wrenching." – Metropulse
"A riveting read." – Texas Monthly
"Sends readers on a roller-coaster ride that is as thrilling as it is shocking. Kizzia's work is a testament to both the cruelty and resiliency of the human spirit, capturing the sort of life-and-death struggle that can only occur on the fringes of modern-day civilization." –Publishers Weekly
"Meticulously researched, Pilgrim's Wilderness is an absorbing and substantive education on America's Last Frontier encased in a blood-pumping, nightmarish family drama as brutal as the wilderness itself. Kizzia writes of Alaska with the affection and steadiness of a weathered travel guide—the kind who knows the best route in. And the best route out."–Kirkus Reviews
"Strong work of reportage... [Papa Pilgrim's] intriguing past crumbles in comparison to his excruciating cruelty and to the inspiring grace and strength of his children."–Booklist
"The riveting story of a megalomaniacal sociopath who left a trail of woe from Texas to the Great White North, Pilgrim's Wilderness lends credence to the maxim that the unadulterated truth, when conveyed with sufficient skill, is not only more illuminating than fiction, but also more entertaining. Tom Kizzia has written an uncommonly insightful book about post-frontier Alaska, an ambitious literary work disguised as a page-turner, very much in the tradition of Edward Hoagland's Notes From the Century Before and John McPhee's Coming into the Country." –Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven
"This is a riveting, mesmerizing story, stunning and eloquent all at the same time. I simply couldn't put it down." —Ken Burns, filmmaker, The Civil War and The National Parks: America's Best Idea
"Tom Kizzia's superb book is startling, unpredictable, haunting, clear-eyed, unrelenting, sad, and beautiful. Pilgrim's Wilderness, in other words, is like Alaska itself, a subject the author understands deeply and evokes with uncommon skill." – David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered and They Marched into Sunlight
"What an epic story – sociopathy and crazy ideology hits the final frontier. Jon Krakauer couldn't have done it any better." – Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth and Deep Economy
"Pilgrim's Wilderness is a fine book, methodically narrating a tale of libertarianism gone haywire on a genuine frontier." – Edward Hoagland, author of Children Are Diamonds
"Pilgrim's Wilderness is a terrifying masterpiece, elegantly written, painstakingly researched, and impossible to put down. Tom Kizzia has created a classic American Gothic, chilling, irresistible and wise." – Blaine Harden, author of Escape from Camp 14
"Tom Kizzia's Pilgrim's Wilderness is a bizarre and twisted Alaska saga of mythic proportions. This nonfiction gem has 'Hollywood hit' written all over it. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down." – Douglas Brinkley, author of The Quiet World
"There isn't a bad sentence in Pilgrim's Wilderness, not a dull page or sour note. A masterpiece of reporting and storytelling." – Zev Chafets, author of Cooperstown Confidential and A Match Made in Heaven
"The bizarre and tragic true story that unfolds in the pages of this extraordinary book is like nothing else I have ever read. Through prodigious research, blending compassion with investigative skill, Tom Kizzia has woven a mythic tale out of that most mythic of American landscapes – Alaska." – David Roberts, author of Alone on the Ice
"Tom Kizzia hasn't just observed and written about Alaska for three-plus decades, he's lived it. Pilgrim's Wilderness is a story that needed to be told by the only man who could tell it." – Tom Bodett, author of Williwaw! and The End of the Road
"Alaska as a land of self-invention and frontier contradictions has never been better captured than in Pilgrim's Wilderness. Tom Kizzia, "Neighbor Tom" to the enigmatic figure at the center of this riveting story, combines an insider's view with thorough and compassionate investigative reporting. This fascinating, harrowing, ultimately redemptive, and beautifully written account is sure to become a classic." – Nancy Lord, former Alaska Writer Laureate and author of Fish Camp, Beluga Days and Early Warming
"In Pilgrim's Wilderness Tom Kizzia uncovers the tragic confrontation between America's frontier past and its settled future. "The Last Frontier" is the hot bed and Alaskans probably the most divided and conflicted of all. Mix this with the attraction that frontiers have for the unstable, darker forces in the human personality and we get the startling case of Papa Pilgrim and his family, as well as a hell of a yarn." —Carl Pope, former executive director of The Sierra Club and author of Strategic Ignorance
"A stunning and downright scary tale by one of Alaska's most knowledgeable journalists. Tom Kizzia's investigative talents and his love of America's frontier state come through clearly in this true story that reads like a novel." –James Risser, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting
"Pilgrim's Wilderness is not a book -- it's a powerful magnet, and once you begin you will not be able to pull yourself away. This spellbinding, shocking, and, yes, inspirational story of a family's journey into the heart of darkness delivers the raw power and revelatory truth of a Scorcese film. Except better, because every word is true." –Daniel Coyle,author of The Secret Race and The Talent Code.


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Monday, August 19, 2013
If you've ever wanted to tour a rescue boat, watch a car extrication demo, or soar into the sky in a tall rescue ladder, the annual Edgartown Fireman's Association Open House and Pancake Breakfast, held Sunday at the fire station, was the place to be. Firefighters dished up pancakes and bacon with a side of fire safety info to hundreds of hungry kids and adults. Training demonstrations enthralled all ages, but only the youngest future firefighters took home shiny red hats. Sparky the Fire Dog also made an appearance, high-fiving the crowd and posing for photos.


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SÖÖR wooden bow tie. Unique and hand crafted Finnish design by Hermanni Vuorisalo
Every SÖÖR wooden bow tie is hand crafted at Hermanni Vuorisalo's shop in Turku, Finland. Ethics and ecology are the backbone of Hermanni's design. No colourants, solvents or toxins are used. All bowties come in a custom made box made of heat-treated birch tree from Central Finland, also designed by Hermanni. HERMANDIA Collection Bow ties come with new tray that makes traveling with SÖÖR much safer. The new bow ties come also with new choker that keeps SÖÖR bow tie sturdy and straight.
Wood: Wenge
Origin: West Africa
Fabric: 370g Worsted wool 100%, recycled
Color: Grey green
Ribbon: cotton woven in Finland


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Diverting calls to another number
Setting up my mobile phone for email
Diverting calls to my voicemail
List of display icons
Inserting a SIM into my mobile phone
You can make a call with hidden caller identification, your number will then not be shown at the receiving end. You can also turn off your own caller identification for all calls.
Make a call with hidden caller identification
Tap Phone.
Tap Keypad.
Key in #31# followed by the number you want to call.
Eg.: #31#123456789
Tap the call icon.
Tap anywhere to dismiss
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"Fujitsu did a great job in scoping the project, designing a migration plan and then executing on that plan. In the space of six months, it has transformed our IT architecture to provide a responsive, stable system"
Andrea Chapman, Project Manager, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) is the UK's department for economic growth. It invests in skills and education to promote trade, boost innovation and help people to start and grow a business. BIS also protects consumers and reduces the impact of regulation. It is a ministerial department, supported by 48 agencies and public bodies.
ELGAR is an outsourcing contract to supply and manage IT equipment and core services and was originally put in place by the former Department for Trade and Industry. BIS relies on the ELGAR platform for its IT infrastructure and for the past five years has been responsible for maintaining and refreshing the servers and software, however, the technology was approaching end-of-life and enduring multiple failures leading to significant downtime. The department needed a cohesive technology refresh programme that would make the platform supportable again.
"We were struggling to keep the machines alive and functioning because they were no longer supported due to the late stage in the lifecycle. This meant some systems being down for up to five days at a time which clearly impacted on the business," explains Andrea Chapman, Project Manager, BIS. "We needed to replace the aging servers and outdated software without disrupting the day to day operations of the business."
Fujitsu is the primary supplier within the ELGAR framework and so was the ideal partner to overhaul the existing technology and replace it with a solution more fit for purpose. Following extensive negotiations, BIS and Fujitsu agreed a six month plan to replace 28 servers supporting 4,500 users across 24 locations.
Fujitsu designed a process that would enable the transition to a new fleet of PRIMERGY S6 and S7 servers without impacting on the Department's operations. A dedicated team of six engineers focused on the architecture refresh and a total of almost 12,000 man hours was devoted to the project. This covered Programme and Project Management, Technical Design and Approvals, Test and Validation, Procurement, Implementation, Service Support and Migrations.
"The success of the migration was down to Fujitsu's careful planning and its great project managers," adds Chapman. "This ensured we could gradually migrate services without affecting the business."
Within the scope of the project, Fujitsu upgraded Microsoft Exchange from 2003 to 2010; migrated in total over 6,000 user and group mailboxes; and updated 14 user servers and 14 Microsoft Exchange servers. By working overnight and at weekends, the process was as unobtrusive as possible, meaning end-users were largely unaware of the significant changes happening behind the scenes.
"We notified our employees that certain systems would be offline from 6pm on a specific day, for example, so everyone would know to expect outages but as it took place after hours, it did not pose much of an inconvenience," continues Chapman. "Everything went to schedule and within six months, we had a new infrastructure that could be supported by Fujitsu within the agreed SLAs."
The system hosts a variety of office productivity applications, user files, shared databases and Active Directory.
As a result of the technology refresh programme, BIS is now enjoying much higher performance and vastly improved reliability. It also now has disaster recovery functionality for its Exchange servers, which was not previously available. This adds further resilience to the architecture.
"Since the project was completed, we have had no downtime across any of the servers which makes our users more productive. In addition, the services are much faster which reduces user frustration," says Chapman. "I've had lots of feedback from Director-level and beyond saying that the new platform is a huge improvement."
The project has also created extra inbox capacity, added storage and a refreshed archiving system. Altogether it has reduced the service cost considerably through the stability of the hardware.
"Fujitsu did a great job in scoping the project, designing a migration plan and then executing on that plan. In the space of six months, it transformed our IT architecture to provide a responsive, stable system," comments Chapman. "Thanks to that reliability, the cost of maintaining the technology has reduced and, if there are any problems, we will be able to resolve them much more quickly and effectively."
With the ELGAR framework due to come to the end of its contract in March 2014, BIS is confident it has a robust and reliable backbone to provide business critical applications and services to its staff now and in the future.
"Fujitsu's team was very responsive and great at coming up with creative solutions to issues as they arise. As a result, we enjoyed a seamless, well planned transition that has given us a server platform that is reliable and high-performing. The result is a much improved platform that stands us in good stead for the future."
Download the Department for Business Innovation & Skills case study (303 KB/A4, 2 pages)
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When going for a property purchase, what is it that you have on top of your mind? This can be really a tricky question because there are lot of things you have to consider before choosing the perfect dream home. However, in the back of your head, there are few things that you know for sure which you cannot compromise with. These are called the non-negotiable parts of your property purchase.
In India and around the world, researches have been conducted to know what all things home buyers can't compromise on when searching for their dream home. There is nothing like a perfect home. The definition of perfection also differs from person to person. Someone would like a sprawling villa estate in a suburb while someone would prefer a studio flat in a high-rise apartment complex. [Read more…]


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Ancestry Finder
The Ancestry Finder is tucked away in Ancestry Labs. It's more useful that it seems at first glance.
The blurb says that Ancestry Finder will help you find out which countries your Ancestors may have lived in, fueled by the "Where are you from?" survey - which I recommend that genealogists on 23andMe should complete so that they will appear in Ancestry Finder. There is a link to the survey on the Ancestry Finder page, if you haven't seen it elsewhere.
The default view looks at the countries that your matches have said all four grandparents come from, and colour codes a chromosome chart at the appropriate location. Matches who haven't completed the "Where are you from?" survey aren't included.
Default view
My default view looks like this:
|23andMe "Ancestry Finder" on default settings
It's hard to get excited about this view. A relative who matches with me on chromosome one had four Norwegian grandparents. I've no Norwegian family connections that I'm aware of, but our common ancestor may have been (probably was) a very long time ago. There is also a match on my X chromosome with someone whose four grandparents are from Ireland. This not unexpected. Each of my parents' maternal lines have Irish connections.
Advanced controls
The view gets more interesting when you start to use the 'advanced' controls. The first setting I changed was the threshold for showing matches. I reduced it to the minimum allowed.
|23andMe "Ancestry Finder" at the minimum threshold for matches
The default view hides matches from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. When I allow matches with all four grandparents from those countries to show, the display looks like this...
|23andMe "Ancestry Finder" at the minimum threshold for matches, including USA, Canada etc
The display is interactive. If I click or hover over a country in the legend the chart below will show only that country. If I hover over a coloured patch on the chart a box will pop up showing me the countries represented and the length of the match, in centimorgans. The pop up box in the image above relates to the uppermost match on my X chromosome. If the match happens to be a 'public' match, the pop up box includes their name, photo, and a link to their 23andMe profile. I imagine this would be very helpful if you are working on a theory involving a particular segment of DNA and you just want to be able to contact your matches at that location without having to send out 100's of introduction messages at the rate of 5 per day, and hope!
Data download
Another feature is the button that allows you to download a CSV file of your Ancestry finder match data. It includes names of public matches. Other matches are "Anonymous" with a number identifier. The file includes the start and endpoints of each match, so it's easy to sort by chromosome and start (or end) point and see where overlaps and clusters are.
Here's an example line from the file. The location shown happens to be a "hot spot" where I have 33 very similar matches in Ancestry Finder. One of the people I have made contact with is in this "hot spot" and has directed me to some further reading on the subject - but at one week into the DNA journey it's a bit over my head. Perhaps by the time I'm ready to take it in someone will have worked out what it all means.
|United States
|United States
|United States
|United States
While the Ancestry Finder download is useful, it doesn't include all the information that the Relative Finder does - such as predicted relationship and a list of surnames once you've made contact.
The downloads from the two "Finders" also have different sets of people in them. Ancestry Finder includes more distant matches, but only identifies "public" individuals who have taken the appropriate survey. Not all Relative Finder contacts will have necessarily done the survey and you won't see their name, even if you are sharing genomes, if they are not "public". You can find the match data for contacts you are sharing with, but you have to get the information for then one at a time.
The inability to just get the data that you have access one way or another in a combined format is not bothering me too much yet, but I'm sure it will. I've also sent off a kit to Family Tree DNA and will be very interested to see what I get back from them.


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The Financial Services Institute is claiming victory in its legislative fight "to protect investors' access to affordable, independent financial advice."
The legislation in question, signed into law late Friday by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, makes it a "notice-filing state" for branch office applications. The law makes it easier for advisors to make changes to their business, no longer forcing them to close for the application process, which would cost them revenue and clients.
While this pertains to Florida, FSI says the implications are nationwide, since it affects every financial services firm with affiliated financial advisors in Florida, regardless of where the firm is headquartered. FSI worked closely with Rep. Dane Eagle (R-77) and Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-22) in crafting this legislation.
"This law is another historic step forward for FSI members, who have united once again to affect positive change," FSI President and CEO Dale Brown said in a statement. "We applaud the elected officials and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, who all came together with our members to make a positive difference. This is exactly how government/private partnerships should work to serve our mutual constituencies. And it shows how much FSI's members can accomplish when they work together and speak with one voice."
Some scenarios of when advisors need to re-file, or file for the first time, which would cause the delays include:
1.) When an advisor changes broker-dealer affiliation
2.) When an advisor moves his current office address to another address
3.) When a firm operating in another state wants to open a new branch office in Florida
4.) When a firm already operating in Florida opens a new branch office
The new law places the filing system online and mandates approval be automatic, keeping the advisor working and protecting clients' access to their advice.
After working with the Office of Financial Regulation to find common ground on the legislation language, FSI agreed to language that makes Florida a notice-filing state, but allows the OFR to require broker-dealers to resolve deficiencies in their filing within 30 days.
Check out Florida's Notice-Filing Legislation Affects Advisors Nationwide on AdvisorOne.


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In a crazy crash that was caught on a surveillance camera, a British man flipped what appears to be a Peugeot 406 over a wall and into a yard.
As if that wasn't nuts enough, he crashed through the sunroof as the car was flipping and walked away. We don't know for sure, but you typically don't fall out of a car like that when you're wearing a seat belt.
While the Peugeot was probably a write off, the driver is lucky to have just a bruised ego...oh, and probably a bruised rib cage.
Source: Buzzfeed, H/T to Jeff!


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"Battleship" is big, dumb fun that knows it's big, dumb fun and enthusiastically embraces its big, dumb, fun nature.
Director Peter Berg has crafted an almost fetishistic homage to Michael Bay - like Bay's "Transformers" series, this is yet another action extravaganza inspired by a Hasbro product - with its epic set pieces, swaggering bravado, panoramic skies and cheesy romance. It doesn't lean all the way into parody, but rather feels more like a faithful and knowing approximation of a very specific, muscular genre: one of those the-world-is-ending-we're-all-gonna-die movies. And because it's a little cheeky and doesn't seem to take itself totally seriously, it's more enjoyable than one might expect from a movie based on a board game created in the 1960s.
Yes, it can be deafeningly noisy between the crunch and shriek of giant metal objects fighting each other and the blaring rock anthems meant to pump up the crowd even further. (The soundtrack includes AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" at one significant moment, a song that's seemingly been played during the final two minutes of every NBA playoff game since the dawn of time. But it is effective.) No, it's not subtle between the annihilation caused by alien invaders and the rousing sense of patriotism that's the real weapon in this battle.
Then again, would you really expect (or want) subtlety from this type of big-budget summer escape? At least screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber showed enough restraint to avoid including the famous line from game's TV commercials: "You sank my battleship!"
Speaking of blockbusters, Taylor Kitsch gets more to work with here than he did earlier this year in another behemoth, "John Carter," as our hero, Alex Hopper. A slacker and troublemaker at the film's start, he joins the Navy at the insistence of his straight-laced older brother, Stone (Alexander Skarsgard). A certain gorgeous blonde named Sam (Brooklyn Decker) also provides some inspiration.
Flash forward and Alex is a lieutenant on one Naval destroyer while Stone is the commanding officer of another. Both answer to Admiral Shane (a withering, well-cast Liam Neeson) who happens to be Sam's father. They're all taking part in some international war games off the Hawaiian coast when - oops! - a friendly satellite signal sent to a newly discovered planet that looks a lot like ours in a neighboring galaxy provokes some angry extra-terrestrials.
What could these beings possibly want, besides the usual world domination? It's never really clear and theoretically it doesn't really matter; gawking at the ensuing spectacle is the reason we're all here. A cluster of spaceships hurtles toward Earth, shredding sections of Hong Kong before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. Alex and a couple other crew members - one of whom is a weapons expert played by a smart-alecky Rihanna in her film debut - hop in a smaller boat to have a little look-see at the strange, giant objects protruding from the water and trigger a massive, dome-like force field.
From there, "Battleship" consists of an increasingly intense but ultimately repetitive back-and-forth between our military might and the aliens' more sophisticated ships. The action sequences are impressively glossy and detailed and not inscrutable like some of the protracted "Transformers" showdowns; the bad guys' mean, circular doo-dads that resemble giant tires with vicious metal teeth are especially cool. What we lack comparatively in weaponry we make up for in heart and moxie, by golly. The aliens, meanwhile, are personality-free predators whose one weakness seems illogical given that they come from a planet whose atmosphere and climate are just like Earth's, but whatever.
At the same time, Sam, a physical therapist, finds herself trapped while hiking on Oahu with one of her patients, an Army lieutenant who lost his legs in combat. (He's played by Gregory D. Gadson, a decorated Iraq war veteran who had both legs amputated after suffering injuries from an improvised explosive device; it's an inspiring film debut). Of all the mountains on all the islands in all the world, they just happen to be right near the remote satellite center that the aliens want to take over to ... phone home, maybe? Again, the motives are a tad blurry. Suffice it to say, the script needed to put Alex's girlfriend in danger. This also allows them to team up with the skittish Cal (Hamish Linklater), the scientist who ran the place that originated the transmissions, for a little nerdy comic relief.
And if nothing within this multitude of elements works for you, don't worry. There's surely a movie based on Connect Four in the works somewhere.
"Battleship," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language. Running time: 131 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.


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26 March, 2013 | (01 hr)
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the key questions that will be addressed:
- What are some of the key elements to consider when developing a scenario planning exercise?
- Where is scenario planning best applied: at a division, department, or enterprise level?
- After we've been through a scenario planning exercise, then what?
- What kind of risk indicators and ongoing processes are required to ensure that companies can respond quickly and effectively as scenarios play out differently than expected?
Who should attend
ERM leaders, Strategy Executives, Business Unit leaders, Strategic Workforce Planning Executives; Managers and Executives who have a role in planning
Matt Ranen
Matt holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and a B.A. in applied math from Harvard University.
Matt Ranen is an Specialist Leader within Monitor Deloitte's GBN practice helping c...Full Bio
Ellen Hexter
Ellen Hexter is senior advisor, enterprise risk management at The Conference Board. She has served on the faculty of The Conference Board Directors' Institute and worked with boards to provide director training in risk management practices and the role of the board in ERM oversight.


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