Watching Doug Ford handing out $20 bills at a TCH building last week made me realize that the Fords don't follow the usual guidelines and conventions other politicians do regarding the optics of their various activities, appearances and public statements. Common sense would clearly say that the optics of randomly handing out cash at a public housing building, with TV cameras rolling, are not likely to be positive or helpful. And then to explain it by saying that he had simply run out of time to purchase $20 Tim Horton's gift cards, as he had apparently done in the past. As if that would have made it any better. Rob Ford received considerable support from residents of TCH buildings in the 2010 election, due in large part to the personal connections he made as a councillor with thousands of TCH tenants by returning their phone calls to his office and personally attending at their residences to hear their concerns. It's en example of highly effective retail politics and it earned him those votes fair and square. But I would hope that those who witnessed Doug Ford's cash free-for-all would have found it insulting - as it was.
Here's how Tabatha Southey described the Conrad Black interview of Rob Ford which aired on Vision TV's The Zoomer: "I'll say now that his interview made the queries of a good mall Santa to a child seated on his knee look like Frost/Nixon." The interview has vanished from the Vision TV website and from YouTube due, I presume, to the libel action initiated by Daniel Dale last week. And so it goes: on and on and on. Downtown Relief Line be damned; let's just keep talking about this stuff. Oh, and Doug Ford says that Dale's legal action is nothing more than another Toronto Star strategy to sell papers. Doesn't it seem more like the Fords themselves are the Star's most effective tool for growing readership?
And on to NFL football: the Buffalo Bills have played the maximum number of regular season road games possible in the state of Florida this year, which is 3. And they've won two of those games in the Sunshine State, accounting for all of their road wins. Yesterday's seven point win in Jacksonville was neither particularly inspiring nor disheartening. It just felt like two teams playing out the third last games of their respective lost seasons. Bills fans were interesting in seeing more progression from EJ Manuel but, like the game itself, he produced mixed results, looking dreadful in the early going before playing much better at times later in the game. Stevie Johnson decided to play in the game despite receiving news of his mother's unexpected passing on Saturday evening. Coach Marrone apparently gave him the option of leaving the team immediately to be with his family but he decided to play anyway.
As the NFL regular season comes down to its final two weeks, the most certain thing we can say is that the road to the first cold weather Superbowl goes through the Pacific Northwest. The Seahawks next game away from home is likely to be at the Meadowlands in early February as they finish the season with two home games and have the decided edge on home field advantage in the NFC. Maybe Carolina can win in Seattle but it seems like a long shot. In the AFC, the Broncos occupy the top spot right now, even after stumbling against the Chargers but it's much more wide open than the NFC is.
The Bills host the Dolphins next week at the Ralph in their final home game of 2013 before closing out the season in New England. These next two games - in cold weather and against teams with much to play for - will be a much better test for EJ Manuel than yesterday's game was.
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