No, there are no tall blue people sitting in Congress. No, there aren’t 1,000+ page bills being passed around on the moon Pandora. The bond between these two is a young candidate for Congress named Krystal Ball.

On Christmas night, I decided to head to the movie theaters to catch the 10:45pm showing of “Avatar” in 3-D on the IMAX screen. As I walked toward the queue to purchase my ticket, a young man wearing a campaign badge asking if I was there to watch “Avatar” approached me. I acknowledged yes, and he motioned me inside, saying that I could get a $1.00 discount off the price.

Walking in, there were two ladies sitting at a table accepting money and handing out 3-D glasses. While I was waiting in line, I looked around to find some information on who was providing the discount. There was a pamphlet on the table with the name “Krystal Ball” printed on it. When it was my turn to purchase a ticket, I looked at the two ladies and asked the obvious question of “Who is Krystal Ball?” Expecting a sales pitch, the younger of the two ladies reached across the table to shake my hand, identifying herself as Krystal.

I didn’t get a sales pitch other than the fact that she was running for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s first congressional district (also known as America’s first congressional district). Other than thanking her for the discount and wishing her the best on her campaign, I walked away with knowing little about her. She is a 28 year-old CPA running against retired Army Colonel Scott Robinson for the nomination.

I found it interesting that she chose the highly anticipated movie as part of her campaign. The movie had already been out for a week in the theaters, and I was attending the last showing for the night on Christmas, so you would think that her target audience would be lower than if it was on opening weekend. However, the theater was packed, meaning she introduced herself to many potential voters. Strangely enough, the theater is actually outside of the congressional district she is campaigning for, though it is the closest one with the IMAX showing of the movie.

As a campaign gimmick, I think it worked out well for her, simply because I did not know of her campaign prior to that night. And though she is not in my district, I’ll be interested in questioning her on her positions while tracking her progress during the primary. If you ever run for public office, this might be an event you could consider in your campaign.

Yesterday I had the rare pleasure of meeting BoBo – the administrator and writer of The BoBo Files political blog.  He happened to be in the vicinity making it an opportunity that I could not pass up.  We were able to spend 3 hours together talking about school days, sports, careers . . . oh, and blogging as well! 

Thanks for dinner, BoBo.  It was great having the chance to meet face to face, and I hope we get to do it again sometime in the next year or two.

I’m not one to usually post third-party comments from another site, but this is too funny.  Earlier today, CNN ran on the Political Ticker site the following message:

TITLE:  Obama to make a statement

SUBJECT:  President Obama will make a statement Monday morning at the Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii.  The exact time is not yet known.

That’s it.  No context was provided by the news organization.  Just a simple announcement that the President was going to make a statement.  This obviously left a lot of room for people to poke fun at both CNN and the President (including myself).  The following are some of the better comments:

La Chatte:  Wow, more real news from CNN.

Padraig:  Can’t wait. Oh boy, chills are running down my spine

strong:  Make a statement about what??? C’mon CNN, is this news?  National Enquiror is more specific.

DSC:  Can’t wait to miss that!

Bren:  Whew–I know that I feel better now that Obama is “going to make a statement” (in other words, Obama is going to read the words from the telemprompter).  I will feel even more assured/secure–If Obama writes a “strongly worded letter” as well.

DL in VA:  In other news, I will make a statement in Virginia, at some time tomorrow over a topic that will be announed later. Please save the date.

Bedtime for Obonzo:  Apology alert!

Gale:  Yep, gotta get that teleprompter fired up!

goofy:  With bated breath we shall await the Messiahs utterance and then swoon in its brilliance!

U.S. Common Sense:  WOOHOO!!! I can’t wait!!!  Wait a second. A statement on what? Something important, or did he just realize he hasn’t had any face time on tv recently?  “Today, I walked around in my swim trunks on the beach while much of the nation is currently covered in snow. I do this so I can stress the importance of global warming while highlighting the plight of the unemployed.”

ck:  “I am concerned…. and its all Bush’s fault”

Silence Dogoode:  Could you be a little MORE vague CNN?  was he made an honorary judge on American Idol?

This is just a sample of the 30 comments on the site.  What makes this even more funny is that the site usually has more Obama supporters than detractors.  I guess people are needing a little break in all of the seriousness.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, everyone. For our non-Christian friends and family, we wish the joys of the season upon you all. Take care if you are traveling, and may the New Year bring you new opportunities and wonderful surprises.

Yesterday, I was watching the news and they were covering Harry Reid’s comments on the floor of the Senate following one of the test votes on the Health Care Reform legislation.  Reid stated:

I said when the Senate opened today and I’ll say again because of the long hours we’ve spent here for weeks now, there’s a lot of tension in the Senate, and feelings are high. And that’s fine. Everybody has very strong concerns about everything we have done and have to do. But I would hope that everyone would go back to their gentlemanly ways and I would hope that — I was trying to figure out how to say this … I’ve said to a number of people, Rodney King: “Let’s just all try to get along.”

He hopes “that everyone would go back to their gentlemanly ways?” Isn’t this the same person who said:

Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, “slow down, stop everything, let’s start over.” If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said “slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.” When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn’t quite right. When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.

I’m not sure if Reid is talking to the man in the mirror, but he does need to lead by example. Otherwise, he has no reason to expect others to act more “gentlemanly.”