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Next up: Some random items that either reflect on previous posts or I haven’t thought of a way to blow out into a full blog post….

Jonathan Chait of The New Republic has an interesting blog post on the politics and press coverage of health care reform.    As he notes, as long as the story focuses on process (and to an equal extent, cost), the Obama administration and the Democrats will be put on the defensive. 

Reuters ran a similar report.  Buried at the end of the story is an important shift in language that the Obama administration trotted out recently (and largely lost in the Gates flap).  It is now talking about “health insurance reform” as opposed to “health care reform.”  If the administration is successful in this rhetorical shift, it could be important as it could calm the fears of people with health insurance who are now hearing that what they currently have could be pared back.  These are the folks who have been showing up in polls as increasingly opposing the administration’s effort.  Since the Senate (at least) will not act on a bill until after Labor Day, that gives the administration about six weeks for its new argument to gain traction.  The ultimate question is, with Americans traditionally tuning out politics in August and the president sinking in the polls (and viewership of his press conferences dropping), can he turn the debate around or is he too late?

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The second quarter GDP report comes out this Friday.  According to Bloomberg, the consensus is that the economy shrunk 1.5% in the previous quarter.  Reuters concurs.  Not good, but certainly better than previous and apparently better than it was thought to be several weeks ago.  Look for the administration to trumpet the numbers as a sign the stimulus is working.

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On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how the administration spins the revision of the budget deficit number.  The number, which Lou Dobbs continually reminds us is overdue (no surprise — given precedent from administrations), may be a harder number to spin if the deficit climbs significantly.  As Jeanne Cummings reported recently in the Politico,  the general consensus is that the administration’s initial estimates were too optimistic regarding growth moving forward.  Any significant revisions could lead to significant increases in the deficit projections.  (For example, if the administration predicts that growth in 2012 is 2%, instead of the projected 4%, that would add another $700 billion to the deficit.)  This could significantly crimp the some of the administration’s plans moving forward (along with its promises to cut the deficit).

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Following up on an earlier post regarding the WNBA, ESPN.com did a series of stories last week looking at the business of women’s sports.  In addition to an overview column, there are pieces on the WNBA, the LPGA, the WTA, the NPSL, and WPS (that’s the softball and soccer leagues if you are unfamiliar with the last two).

For those who are wondering how this relates to the public relations industry, there is a simple answer — corporate America provides the sponsorship dollars that these leagues rely upon for their survival.  Lack of corporate sponsorship is what doomed the LPGA’s former commissioner and what may be helping to keep some WNBA franchises alive.  Obviously retrenchment in the economy has hurt all sports. However, it seems that, to the extent that companies are still putting their marketing dollars into sports, they think they are seeing better returns elsewhere.  It also means that for companies that target women and are beginning to see a rebound, there are a lot of opportunities out there.

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If you thought California politics were already expensive, 2010 could be mind boggling.  Not only will you have an expensive governor’s race with the likes of Gavin Newsom, Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown and Steve Poizner  either able to self-finance or raise buckets of cash, but at least one recent poll shows that California’s junior senator, Barbara Boxer, might be vulnerable to the right challenge.  Like the gubernatorial candidates, Boxer is a good fundraiser, but if the Republicans’ dream candidate, Carly Fiorina, enters the raise, this could be a competitive race.  Yes, I know that businessmen of both parties have a history of crashing an burning in statewide elections, but I think 2010 could be the year you can throw out past precedent in the increasingly tarnished Golden State.

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In a sure sign that the Twitter has jumped the shark, I have signed up and started twittering (tweating? whatever…).  My online handle is gregstanko.  I’m trying to tweat at least once a day with something I find interesting or noteworthy at the intersection of public relations and issues management.   I’ll also try to blow out some additional thoughts here on the blog.  Let me know what you think.

A friend sent me the follow story from the folks at Minyanville that he caught on MSN Money.  It lists the eight sports team and two professional leagues that are most in danger financially and may be required to move or close up shop.  As with Top 10 lists, you could pretty much argue that there are others that belong on the list, such as the LPGA.  But it does bring up a number of interesting points that go to the interesection of public relations, government relations and sports.

In a good number of these cases, the teams are clamoring for new stadiums with government help — see the New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Sacramento Kings and potentially the Buffalo Bills.  New government funded arenas are controversial even in the best of times.  With state and local governments scrambling to keep the lights on, can these teams count on local governments to help keep them in the current market. Or, in the case of the Islanders and Kings, will they be moving to (or in the case of the Kings back to) Kansas City, a town with an largely empty arena?

By most counts, the WNBA has never made money and, if it did, it never made much.  The collapse of the Houston Comets this year was a black eye for the one women’s professional sports team leagues that has lasted for more than a few years.  If the NBA owners decide to pull the plug on the league or if a number of the teams go the way of the Comets, what does this say about whether the United States will ever be able to support professional women’s team leagues even after all of the successes of Title IX and women’s college team athletics.

A couple of years ago, CNBC ran an interesting documentary titled “NASCAR Gold,” trumpeting the league’s rise from a regional favorite to a national powerhouse.  Now, NASCAR even is in trouble with U.S. automakers in bankruptcy, declining sponsorships, lower attendance and shrinking television rations.  While you can blame the first two on the economy, as Michael Hiestand, the TV sports writer for USA Today, has said more than once, it doesn’t cost you much to sit on your couch and watch the race.  CNBC regognized this last week with a new documentary that looked at NASCAR’s troubles.  The thing that is even scarier for the association and the France family is that the situation will get worse before it gets better.  NASCAR.com wrote recently about whether there will be a future for the two feeder series — the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series — with lots of cars running without sponsors and teams laying off crew and pinching pennies.  Is this a temporary retreat for NASCAR or has the NASCAR bubble popped — with sponsors and fans?