Veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s primary runoff win in Mississippi was a surprise to many after he lost in the initial voting to a Tea Party candidate. His race is interesting from several perspectives.

One, many pundits and prognosticators (PandP’s) predicted he was going to lose to his Tea Party challenger. For some context, this was after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was shocked in his primary in Virginia, losing to a Tea Party candidate. So, in the PandP’s eyes, the Tea Party was on the rise, again. They had momentum (as if “momentum” from a win in one state’s House race translates to victory in another state's Senate race).

Two, he won by reaching out to Democratic voters, who happened to be black. This, of course, is an irony that shocks watchers of Mississippi politics who think all Republicans are racist and love pointing out that this old, white Republican saved his tenure by reaching out to blacks. Ok, I’ll admit, that’s a bit surprising but isn’t it equally, or more, surprising that those black voters actually responded and came out to save his tenure??

Granted, in some people’s minds, Thad Cochran is far superior to any Tea Party candidate, and I get that. But they could have just stayed home and waited to be, maybe, energized by a Democrat candidate who could beat a Tea Party guy. After all, wouldn’t a Tea Party guy (or woman) be the ideal candidate for Democrats to run against in Mississippi? If, for no other reason, to leverage that race to show what racists, extremists and nuts Republicans are?

Look, I’m a great admirer of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who once was my boss at the Republican National Committee, and who gets a lot of credit for saving Cochran’s seat. Barbour is one of the smartest politicians I’ve ever met. But he can’t make black voters vote for an old, white Republican. They have to see some benefit. And they did. Thank goodness.

The other part of the horse race (a phrase carefully chosen) in Mississippi is PandP’s were excited because they saw this as a key race for the “Tea Party vs. GOP establishment narrative” they’ve created. Is there a struggle in the Republican Party? Yes, of course. Same as in the Democratic Party on the other end of the political spectrum. I mean, do you believe liberals are 100 percent still infatuated still with President Obama?. But you can’t keep score one race at a time. You have to look at the patterns. The pattern, this year, is the establishment is winning. The pattern in the past has been mixed. But if the Tea Party can’t win in Mississippi, shouldn’t that spur a lot of stories about the Tea Party’s “weakness”?

My point is the media, of which I am in general a huge supporter, is going a bit nuts over the intra-GOP battle going on. They want to declare winners and losers and it’s way too soon for that. Some “Tea Partyers” in the Congress already are moderating somewhat as they position themselves to try for national office. They know that such perceived extremist views will not play in a national vote.

These guys, some of whom are not such true believers, are much like the GOP of the 80s when the party relied so heavily on the Religious Right that the Religious Right was taking over the party from the establishment. They didn’t. And here’s hoping the same is true of the current situation.

I took up golf a little later in life than most. I was into my 50s. By then, I figured, I didn’t care as much about hitting it long and scoring low. Well, “as much” being the key phrase. I still cared, just didn’t dwell on it. With more time on my hands now, I play more often; and equally as poorly, so far.

So, I took a lesson because I kept squibbing shots off the tee that would go about 10 yards forward and 40 yards to the right. Could NOT figure out what I was doing wrong, but clearly it was something. So, I went to see Steve the Pro, who I took a couple lessons from before.

He diagnosed it pretty quickly: I wasn’t taking my swing back far enough and, thus, didn’t have room for my hands to do what they need to do for an effective swing. To use technical golf terms:  I was squinched up thus squibbed balls to the right.

Funny, when you’re right there with the pro, your wedge shots, which before were traveling maybe 80 yards and offline, now would go wayyyy upppp in the airrrrr and fly about 25 percent or more further -- and straight! If only I could afford for Steve the Pro to follow me onto the course for a round or three.

Now, I’ll take that lesson to the course and see if I can swing as well as I was swinging with Steve the Pro watching. I also realize that Steve the Pro was doing a job a lot like I did when I was a consultant: I’d advise clients, basically, what they were doing wrong. After all, if I was telling them what they did right, why would they need me? And, more importantly, why would they gladly pay me? Like I happily paid Steve the Pro to tell me something I should have known on my own (like my former clients).

I like Steve the Pro. He doesn’t seem to take the game too seriously. And he tells me not to take it too seriously. I’ve also learned that the better a golfer is, the less seriously he tells others to take the game. Easy for him to say. He goes out and shoots par golf while the rest of us are shooting 115 on a good day.

 Seriously.

When we moved to the south coast of Massachusetts a few weeks ago, I acquired a solar-powered alarm clock. It’s called, The Sun.

We’re a little further east than our former home in Washington, D.C., so the sun rises earlier. And, so do I.

Lately, I wake up at 5 or 5:30 in the morning. I was never a late sleeper, but 5 or 5:30?  AM? Adding to the solar-powered alarm clock, when we did work on the house over the years, we put on what the architect calls a “ribbon of glass” along the back of the house. The “ribbon” is, basically, floor to ceiling windows so we can enjoy the view of the salt water river behind us. And, well, those big windows -- which allow us to enjoy the sunrises and sunsets – also allows that big, yellow thing in the sky to serve as an automatic alarm clock, set for 5 or 5:30. Like clockwork or, better, as reliable as the sunrise.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. The view is worth it. I am very lucky to live in this small house in this small town. 

There are also these things that fly around the house early in the morning and make very odd and different sounds that I’m not used to from D.C. These things, are called -- Hitchcock Alert --  birds.   And, they are birds which make sounds I’ve never heard before. This morning, I was dreaming about something or other and the fellow in my dream had a pager (remember those?) that made this sound like an alarm clock, going off over and over…and over… again. I couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t just press the button and shut it down. 

Then, that big yellow thing in the sky shone me awake and, wouldn’t you know it, it was some bird I’d never heard before making an alarm clock/beeper kind of noise. LOUDLY.

 Again, I am not complaining. We’re very lucky to live where we do and have the view that we have. And to hear nature buzzing and tweeting (the old-fashioned tweeting that’s a noise not 140 characters on The Twitter) all around us.

Actually, I always liked waking up early (though maybe not this early). It’s mostly a very quiet time of day. Good for reading the newspaper. Most days now, I move to the living room, which has the same size windows, and read the The Washington Post, well I read the digital version on my iPad Mini, and have the mostly quiet of an early morning surrounding me as I drink a cup of coffee.

Funny how those birds seem to know I’m now awake and I don’t hear them for the rest of the day.

Ah, nature.

The media and the pundits (who make their living off the media) are over-analyzing the results in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning loss to an underfunded, formerly unknown professor from a little-known college. Simply, Eric Cantor forgot whence he came.

Was this a repudiation of immigration reform? Was it the Tea Party, which has been losing race after race, breathing life anew into its threat to life as we know it? Is it the door opening for the Tea Party to take over leadership of the House of Representatives? I don’t think so. This was a multi-term congressman taking his re-election for granted and, thus, taking victory in his primary for granted.  

On the day of the primary, he was clinking Chardonnay glasses at a fund raising lunch in Washington, not shaking hands at the polls in this district. And, me thinks, therein lies the problem.

He poured a million bucks or so into ads to dump on his opponent. Money that likely worked to his opponent’s advantage and boosted his opponent’s name recognition and his image as an insurgent taking on the folks in DC who everybody loves to hate because no one likes the way the country is going. The voters took it out on Cantor. Is he “right” enough for the Tea Party? And on top of it, he was visibly reaching out to the Tea Party’s hated opponent, the “establishment.” A guy (Cantor) who was perceived as a right wing nut in DC but who back home was considered part of the problem in DC. Poof, gone.

Is it the end of immigration reform? Probably, for this year. And, that’s because 36,110  voters voted for Cantor’s opponent, David Brat.  36,110 voters are deciding immigration reform? The mind boggles how some in the media are saying that. A self-fulfilling prophecy. I get it, I know that other Republicans will be afraid to take action because of those 36,110 voters, who don’t vote in their districts.

And that’s what we call political strength these days. Oy.

Today is my 64th birthday.

First thought. WHAT????

Second thought, I first heard the Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” 47 years ago. I was 17. Paul McCartney was 16 when he wrote it. 

Third thought, WHAT????

But seriously, folks, as Henny Youngman would say, 64 is far better than the alternative. Reaching this age (and I know I’m going to hear 64 is the new 44 a few times today, but not as often as the Beatles’ song will be sung to me) is great.

I’m married to a wonderful woman. My kids are doing well and I’m going to see them more often now that I’m retired (not to mention my grandkids. Wait! Grandkids??? At least that development I’ve had time to adapt to since my oldest grandsons are 19.) I’m retired which means that on nice days I can play golf whenever I want. Although, I did play today and quit after three holes, having already lost six balls. Wait, fourth thought. I didn’t finish the third hole, and walked off! But I did email a local pro for a lesson. SOON). I also will get to see my mom, brother and sister more often, which is wonderful, and, I hope to reconnect with old friends I grew away from because, unfortunately, of distance, which was not a good reason.

What else does 64 mean? Well, I’ve had a good career with one good job coming along after another and the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people around. And none of them, to my knowledge, figured out I really didn’t know what I was doing. Although, I wonder if they were thinking the same thing.

So, last thought,  I’m quite grateful for the life I’ve had to this point and to all the various people, good and bad, who have crossed my path because I learned from them all. And, my health is good, knock wood (if anyone can find wood anymore).

Now, John, George, Paul, and Ringo, please….encore!

Big controversy over the negotiated release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl whose freedom was won by trading five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. Let’s take it step by step.

1) The President says the U.S. doesn’t leave brothers or sisters behind. Correct, and he was right to go after Bergdahl.

2) The President didn’t notify Congress 30 days ahead of time, as required by law. True, but sometimes a President has to do what a President has to do as commander in chief.

3) Will Bergdahl be prosecuted for desertion? To be determined but he will be back home when he’s investigated. If guilty, then he likely needs to be punished especially since he is alleged to have left his post voluntarily and walked away. People will argue that five years as a POW is punishment enough, but not in this case.  Still, we need to learn what really happened.

4) The U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Correct and in this case technically we didn’t. But clearly we did, we just used Qatar as the middle man. A technicality but one that could cost us in the future.

5) The toughest one, for me, is we gave up five terrorists for one soldier. Of course, in a normal situation, five terrorists for an American is a cheap price. In this case, a closer call. We don’t know what assurances we received from Qatar about how they promise to keep these guys from rejoining the fight and, of course, logic tells us that one or more will rejoin the fight. No conclusion here, just an observation. A price that we likely will pay in the future.

These are, as Hillary Clinton would call them, the “hard choices” presidents have to make. Many times these difficult choices are never known to the public. This President made another one when he okay-ed the mission to get Bin Laden. That one could have cost him his presidency. But he made the right choice, as it turned out.

This one may have been even harder in a way because if it is proven that Bergdahl did abandon his post, many who already are questioning this decision will question it even more.

Don’t know what I would have done had I had to make the decisions. Do you?