Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Heh.

By Brendan Loy

TNR's Christopher Orr says Hillary Clinton has joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

Meanwhile, blogger Cameron Fredman has found some counts that show Clinton ahead. My favorite:

Average Highest Elevation

CLINTON: 6135 Feet
OBAMA:  6097 Feet

Frankly, I’m surprised that more attention hasn’t been drawn to this.  Obama claims to want to elevate the level of discourse, but he has failed in states with the highest elevations.  Clinton has won on Mount Whitney (California), Humphreys Peak (Arizona), Boundary Peak (Nevada), and Wheeler Peak (New Mexico). Perhaps more significantly, there are so few peaks left that despite the close margins, Obama has no hope of regaining the altitude vote.  Clinton also leads among states with the highest average mean elevation: (Clinton:  1908.8 feet    Obama:  1457.7 feet).

I fully expect Howard Wolfson to be citing that one within days. (Hat tip: TNR.)

P.S. And another "Heh," courtesy of James Carville, opening a speech at a finance conference: "Governor Richardson was going to introduce me, but he got pinned down by sniper fire at the airport.”

P.P.S. And yet another "Heh," courtesy of Wonkette:

NIT Pool down to a Final 3

By Brendan Loy

Ole Miss beat Virginia Tech tonight to become the third straight NIT #2 seed to knock off a #1 seed on its home floor -- and in the process, the Rebels eliminated Josh Krause, Dan Port, Pat Caplin, Jeff Burch and Joey Perucki from any chance of winning the 4th annual Irish Trojan NIT Pool.

The pool is now down to a final three: defending champion Gary Kirby ("gahrie"), who attended USC from 1983-1987; Brian Dupuis ("DUP"), a 2004 LSU alum; and Chris Bravo ("cdbavg400"), a 2007 USC alum and current Arizona grad student.

Bravo needs Dayton to beat Ohio State in a game that's still in progress. If the Flyers win tonight, Bravo will win the pool if UMass wins the NIT and the total number of points scored in the title game is 128 or less. On the other hand, if the Buckeyes win tonight, Bravo is eliminated. Meanwhile, regardless of tonight's outcome, Dupuis will win the pool if Florida wins the NIT. And Kirby will repeat as pool champion in every other scenario (including the one where UMass wins a title game in which 129 or more points are scored).

I'll post a full update tomorrow, but that's where things stand in terms of the scenarios.

Shuttle to land tonight

By Brendan Loy

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center at 8:39 PM EDT. Complete coverage here.

UPDATE: The Shuttle landed safely.

Krause, defending champion Kirby tied atop NIT Pool; Gardner eliminated

By Brendan Loy

Barely 24 hours removed from pursuing a perfect bracket, Mark Gardner is suddenly out of the running in the Irish Trojan NIT Pool -- and defending champion Gary Kirby is back in the catbird seat.

Kirby, a.k.a. "gahrie," is tied with Josh Krause for first place, and is statistically the most likely to win the pool, prevailing in 14 of the 32 remaining scenarios. He is also the only contestant guaranteed to still be mathematically alive after tonight's final two quarterfinals. For now, however, eight contestants are  alive to win: Kirby, Krause, Dan Port, Brian Dupuis (DUP), Pat Caplin, Jeff Burch, Chris Bravo and Joey Perucki.

Gardner, who was perfect until the tournament's 22nd game and entered last night's action with a 23-1 prediction record, was mathematically eliminated by a pair of quarterfinal upsets: wins by #2 seeds UMass and Florida over homestanding top seeds Syracuse and Arizona State, respectively. The Syracuse loss especially hurt, as the Orange were Gardner's predicted runner-up. He can now finish no better than third place.

Kirby, for his part, appears to have an uncommon gift for predicting the NIT. In addition to winning the 2007 pool, he finished second in 2006. (He did not compete in 2005.) This year, he has gotten only two games wrong to date.

Dean O'Hara to step down in 2009

By Brendan Loy

Above The Law has confirmed the legitimacy of the leaked U.S. News law-school rankings, which I blogged last night. As I mentioned in that post, they show Notre Dame Law School erasing last year's decline and returning to #22.

Meanwhile, there is breaking news at NDLS. Less than an hour ago, Dean Patty O'Hara wrote an e-mail to the student body, announcing that she is stepping down at the end of next year. The e-mail was forwarded to me, and it's printed in full after the jump.

Gravel vs. Paul? Bring it on!

By Brendan Loy

Mike Gravel, the former Democratic presidential candidate who once made a creepy YouTube ad in which he stared at the camera for like two minutes, will run for the Libertarian nomination for president.

So far, Ron Paul -- who was the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1988 -- says he's not running in 2008. But man, wouldn't that be awesome? Mike Gravel vs. Ron Paul? The Democrats' fringe also-ran vs. the Republicans' fringe also-ran, duking it out for the Libertarian nomination? It'd be the political equivalent of the NIT championship game!

The audacity of hopelessness

By Brendan Loy

David Brooks had a good column about Hillary Clinton in yesterday's New York Times. He estimates her chances of capturing the nomination at 5 percent, and then professes himself astounded at "what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance." She appears intent on attempting to destroy Obama, even though there's a 95 percent chance her efforts will only help McCain. "When you step back and think about it, she is amazing," Brooks writes. "She possesses the audacity of hopelessness."

Interesting stuff, but even moreso when it's read in concert with today's Maureen Dowd column, which suggests that Hillary might consider this lifeline to McCain a feature, not a bug. After all, if Obama loses the general election, Hillary can take another stab at the presidency in 2012. And a 76-year-old President McCain could hardly play the age card against a 65-year-old opponent.

Chuck Wessell leads women's pool

By Brendan Loy

Chuck Wessell, a Ph.D. student at N.C. State, leads the 11th annual Living Room Times women's basketball pool heading into the Sweet Sixteen.

Wessell picked both of last night's mild upsets -- by #5 seeds Notre Dame and Old Dominion, both in overtime over #4 seeds -- to break the deadlock at the top of the standings. He has 243 out of a possible 272 points. Maryland alum Josh Rubin and Evansville alum Jeremy Gist are tied for second place with 240 points. The pool is scored on a 5-7-10-15-20-25 basis. Complete standings here and after the jump.

44 of the 91 contestants -- nearly half -- are still mathematically alive to win the pool, as you can see on the Possible Outcomes page. (To sort that page by mathematical likelihood of winning, instead of by current rank, click twice on the column header "# First.")

I'll post an NIT Pool update later today, sometime before tonight's last two quarterfinals tip off at 7:00 PM EDT.

SHA girl needs your votes!

By Brendan Loy

Since I was being mean to Buffalo yesterday, I figured I should do something nice for a Buffalo native this morning. And, conveniently enough, one of Becky's high-school classmates needs my, and your, help!

Sara Crowther (née Alpsan) is competing in the "Be a Milk Rock Star with Rascal Flatts" contest. She uploaded a video of herself singing "God Bless the Broken Road," and it's currently ranked 14th out of 219 entries, based on viewers' votes. That's up from like 85th or something when I first checked! You can help keep that momentum ("Crow-mentum"?) going by clicking the above link and voting for Sara!

Sara doesn't need to finish first -- she just needs to crack the Top 10 by April 15. Then Rascal Flatts and MilkRocks.com will pick the winner from the Top 10 entries. Whoever they choose will, according to the contest rules,  "win a trip for them, and three friends, to see the band live and perform their song entry onstage with Rascal Flatts; a Gibson Les Paul Studio Guitar autographed by Rascal Flatts; their own backstage dressing room, a meet and greet with the band; VIP accommodations to and from the concert on the Gibson Guitar Tour Bus and a webcast featuring their performance aired for 30 days on MilkRocks.com."

So anyway... vote for Sara! Here's her video: