A Somewhat Uninspiring Sunday

For me, the process of enjoying this past Sunday was more difficult than it otherwise might have been, for two reasons:

1.) On that day, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (who, among other things, is also a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a former U.S. Energy Secretary, and a former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.) withdrew his name from the congressional cabinet confirmation process, and therefore will not be the next U.S. Commerce Secretary. He is most likely doing this under pressure from people close to President-Elect Obama, who believe that a grand jury investigation into whether an energy company made unlawful contributions to a political group affiliated with Governor Richardson could hamper their attempt to fill the various Obama Administration cabinet posts swiftly and with minimal levels of political damage.

I am a fan of Governor Richardson. I have followed his career for about fifteen years now, and have found him to be an impressive leader in both the domestic and foreign arenas. He's stumbled from time to time (as have all big-name politicians with resumes as lengthy as his), but he is pragmatic, energetic, smart, and tough, and I therefore hope that his name will be cleared with regards to any wrongdoing in this political affair. Whether or not he ends up serving in some future capacity in the Obama Administration (which both he and the president-elect have suggested could still happen sometime down the road), his career as a governor, an international hostage negotiator, and a diplomatic liaison will surely continue.

2.) Halfway through the fourth and final quarter of Sunday's NFC playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles, I thought that the two teams were evenly-matched, with the Vikings perhaps slightly outplaying the Eagles. (The score at that point, 16-14 in favor of the Eagles, would have attested to the closeness of the game.) But the Vikings made too many avoidable mistakes in the final eight-or-so minutes, which allowed the Eagles, who are always capable of turning their opponents mistakes into big plays, to win in front of a hostile Minnesota crowd by the score of 26-14. The Eagles kept their cool down the stretch, and therefore deserved the win. The Vikings are now officially finished playing until next autumn.

With the Minnesota Wild (professional ice hockey) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (professional basketball) having sub-par seasons to this point, I may have to shelve a lot of my sports enthusiasm until April, when the Minnesota Twins begin the 2009 baseball season. Well, I've always thought (and often said) that baseball is the greatest sport ever conceived, so I'm not very bothered by the fact that the Minnesota teams competing in other sports are inspiring little confidence at this point.