Is the GOP Playing Nel-O?
May 20th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
This Guest Voice post is by Watching America translator Dorian de Wind, who is also a retired U.S. Air Force officer. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of TMV and its writers.
by Dorian de Wind
The recent Travis Childers victory in the Mississippi special election runoff for Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R) former House seat, gave Democrats their third and biggest special election takeover in recent months.
The three consecutive special election defeats were in districts that President Bush won handily, and twice, in the past and are sending shockwaves through the Republican Party.
These GOP consecutive losses remind me of a game that is one of the oldest and most popular games in Mr. Bush’s home state of Texas.
The game is played with dominos and is called simply “42.” But that is about the only thing that is simple about 42. It is a game of skill, cunning and strategy, and in some ways similar to the card game of bridge. I call it the “poor man’s bridge.”
The history of 42 in Texas goes back more than one hundred years. It is delightfully described in a book by Dennis Roberson called “Winning 42,” that a close friend recently gave to me. Interestingly, the author quotes Laura Bush as saying: “I hope that some day, when George and I have more time to relax and play dominoes, we will pick it up again. We had such fun playing 42 with our good friends.”
I say interestingly because I didn’t know that the Bush’s were 42 enthusiasts. Also, because, as I mentioned, the game requires skill, cunning and strategy and I didn’t think that 42 protocols would permit a Karl Rove to provide such during a game.
As the title of Roberson’s book implies, the desired outcome of 42 is to win the game by winning “tricks” and points through smart bidding, remembering what has been played, good–albeit silent–strategy with your partner, and some good luck.
There is one variation of bidding in 42, however, where the winner is the one who considers his “hand” to be so bad that he foresees that he will take no tricks–not a single trick–and by doing so wins the hand. This version of 42 is called “Nel-O.” In playing his hand, the Nel-O bidder plays his low dominoes–the ones that would be “losers” in regular games–hoping to lose every trick. If he wins a trick, just a single trick, he loses that hand.
Nel-O is not looked upon very favorably by 42 aficionados. In his book, Roberson says: “Nel-O bidding is an unchallenging, inconsistent practice because it rewards bad hands.” As a matter of fact, Nel-O is not permitted in most official 42 tournaments.
If the recent GOP election losses and embarrassments had taken place as part of a 42 game, one could certainly make the case that Republicans are perfecting Nel-O into an art form. As a Democrat, I certainly hope that they keep winning this national Nel-O hand by continuing to lose every upcoming electoral “trick.”
I don’t know how good or bad of a 42 player Bush is, but it is abundantly clear that his unpopularity with Americans will not make him a sought-after 42 partner among Republicans seeking election or re-election this season–unless it is to successfully play Nel-O.
Roberson says that Nel-O bidding rewards bad hands. Probably true. But in this case, the “bad hand” is the one that this nation has been dealt for the past seven years and the only hand Republicans seem to be able to play.
A 42 Nel-O hand consists of seven tricks. If they lose the next four tricks, Republicans can proudly claim that they won a Nel-O hand. But since Democrats will probably win many other general election hands, Democrats should be able to write their own book on how to win 42–”with skill, cunning and a convincing strategy.
Dorian de Wind is a retired U.S. Air Force Officer, born in Ecuador and educated in The Netherlands. He has a bachelor’s degree from of Texas A&M University and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. Dorian has written opinion pieces and travel and other articles for the Austin American-Statesman and for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. He also translates Dutch press articles for watchingamerica.com.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 10:38 am and is filed under Elections, Bush Administration, Republican Party, Texas, Guest Contributor, Republicans, 2008 Elections, Congress, Democrats, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
