Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Cueball thoughts (and bonus Quinn thoughts) for Sunday, Nov. 18…

1. K-State blues…

Although I did not attend Kansas State University, I adopted the Wildcats as my favorite sports college and have been doing so for more than 20 years now. So I wake up this morning with a massive depression. 

I have to admit, when I ran the K-State poll on Wednesday about K-State’s chances, I knew something wasn’t quite right. Everything just felt wrong about the team’s trip to Waco to play the Baylor Bears. Perhaps, it was the Sports Illustrated jinx which featured Kansas State quarterback Collin Kline on the cover. The SI jinx is a phenomenon in which a player is put on the cover of the national magazine which is followed by complete disaster. Boy the jinx never worked better than this weekend. Klein was quite simply atrocious, after a season of brilliance.

Or maybe I typify the normal K-Stater, expecting the worst to happen at any given second.

Whatever it was, when K-State opened the game with two uncharacteristic offsides penalties that sparked a Baylor game-opening touchdown drive, I felt impending doom. It felt like 1998 all over again when K-State’s national championship aspirations were derailed by Texas A&M with a fourth-quarter collapse in the Big 12 Championship game.

One thing I have to keep telling myself. It’s only a football game. There hasn’t been one game in any sport that has ever affected my life personally or has made a bit of difference in my state of happiness over the long run.

But that would be rational. It hasn’t been 12 hours from this writing since the KSU loss. I’m not ready to be rational.

2. Twinkies no more…

Nobody probably has contributed more to the nation’s girth than the Hostess corporation. After all, who doesn’t like popping in a cream-filled sponge cake into their mouth, knowing full well that they have already lost that day’s version of the battle of the bulge?

Still, the thought of not having Hostess Twinkies around seems incomprehensible.  I feel thinner just thinking about it.

The sad fact is, here’s an American iconic institution that is being shut down over a greedy battle between a corporation in financial straits, and an uncompromising baker’s union. Now, 18,000 workers are unemployed, including 500 bakery employees in Emporia.

It’s a classic example in today’s world that compromise and working for a solution has taken a back seat to political dogmatism.

3. Romney blues…

I read an editorial piece the other day about the Mitt Romney campaign which I completely agree with. The editorial spoke about how Romney lost the election in August when he chose Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate.

Ryan not only failed to deliver Wisconsin, a key swing state, to the Republicans in the general election, but he also failed to deliver his home county. He brought nothing to the campaign.

In the meantime, key states like Ohio and Florida faded away safely in the Barack Obama camp on election day.

Hindsight is 20/20, but had Romney selected Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Senator from Florida, it would most certainly have given him a more winnable edge in Florida than Ryan in Wisconsin. It would also have helped him amongst hispanic voters, for which he received less than 30 percent of the vote. When George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 he had over 40 percent of the hispanic vote.

Instead, Romney focused on trying to energize the right wing side of the Republican party. It didn’t work. The right wing never was too keen on Romney in the first place and many of them didn’t show up at the election booth because of it.

Over the long run, the Republicans are probably better off not getting Romney elected. Romney lacked political savvy as was demonstrated with the Ryan pick. His decision making is suspect and that right there would make him a poor president.  He had that Jimmy Carter feel about him, and I never felt the man had any kind of convictions.

With Obama you know what you are going to get — a heaping pile of U.S. Constitutional busting socialism.

And if the next four years are disastrous for Obama, I assure you with the right candidate at top, the Republicans can clean house in 2016.

4. Thanksgiving food…

It seems like anymore people are busy trying to be different with their Thanksgiving feast as if they are trying to justify their hours of watching the Food Network. Instead of baking the turkey in the oven, they barbecue it or deep fry it or replace it with another bird like an ostrich or something.

Enough already! It’s Thanksgiving. Get a turkey from the supermarket, thaw the thing, bake it and serve it with stuffing, mash potatoes and pie like we have been doing for the past 100 years.

I want to fight over the white meat and dark meat. I want to make a mess at the table. I want to see a bad Detroit Lions team play football on my television. I want my family to get into some family squabble about something stupid. Stop turning Thanksgiving into some communistic exotic day of enlightenment served with a bird from New Zealand with secret herbs and spices.

Dang it.

5. Shout out of the week… 

I’m going to give this one to K-Staters everywhere. Boy, do you need one this morning.

6. Bonus thoughts by Quinn McCue

Quinn McCue

Quinn, my 11 year old son, wanted to write some of his thoughts. Here it goes…

1. I think the world will be over run by an adorable kitten witch everyone will follow his command because he is cute.

2.I have a new best word tryptophan (it’s what makes you feel tired after you eat turkey.)

3. Water is like a flavorless liquid.

4. I like ice cream!!! 😀

5. I am giving away a free T-shirt! Whoever can answer this question first wins a newscow t-shirt. What is the most common blood type in the U.S.A and what is the percentage of caucasians that have this blood type? Post your answers in the comment box below. First one to answer correctly wins!Good Luck! (Editor’s note: Include your name, address and telephone number. Once we confirm the right answer, people no longer have to participate).