In Basketball and Politics, Experience is Key

Davidson College had a tremendous basketball program this year.

I hope Barack Obama watches NCAA basketball and got a chance to see Davidson play.

There is much the presidential hopeful can learn from the March Madness basketball tournament, regardless of the strength of Obama’s campaign staff or the cunning of his many savvy strategists.

Tonight, two seasoned NCAA basketball powerhouse schools will face off for the rights to the 2008 collegiate title. No rookie schools survived the battle and typically few do.

Almost each year, around March, we marvel as a team no one has heard of starts beating the well-known competition and begins to fight its way toward the big dance. Last year it was George Mason. This year it was Davidson College.

With every win, thousands of fans join the bandwagon and within weeks, teams like George Mason or Davidson are readily marketed as America’s team. There is something about rooting for an underdog that seems to captivate and arouse our senses as Americans. But rarely does an underdog win it all. At the highest level of competition, the rookies almost never beat the seasoned competitor.
If there is anything to be learned by Obama, it should be never to underestimate a seasoned veteran.

It is truly amazing the way in which so many people underestimate John McCain.
Conventional wisdom, now-a-days, seems to dangerously ignore the possibility of John McCain offering a real fight to the Democratic nominee, presumably Obama.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that, “lots of conservatives and Republicans expect Barack Obama to be our next president.”
Is it because he’s old? Is it that he hid his medical record? Is it because he’s flown below the radar while letting the democratic nominees make the rookie mistake of exhausting themselves before the real fight?

Whatever the reason for discounting the veteran politician, remember one crucial thing: McCain has been here before.
The man has been knocked down more times than most, and each time, he begrudgingly and counter intuitively finds a way to stand back up and regain any lost ground. He is no stranger to beating the odds.

He’s beat cancer, war imprisonment and torture. He’s beat the predictions of every media pundit back in July, who stood on their pedestal and boisterously called for the rapid self-destruction of McCain’s campaign, after the loss of two key strategists.
Articles are already predicting the quick demise of the republican senator, with the Times already saying things like, “The McCain campaign will be slow taking off… It’s going to be a summer of love for Obama, and a tough few months for McCain.”

His track record shows him routinely beating the odds and champions him as the voice of experience and political know-how.
Obama is foolish if he believes the media, and discounts the competition that seemingly belies him.

It may be safe to say Hillary was but a warm-up.

As Obama and Hillary enter the twelfth round of their boxing match for the Democratic nomination, McCain quietly and comfortably rounds the country on his Service to America bus tour. Meanwhile, he is building an army of regional campaign managers, as was reported in the Washington Post over the weekend. They range from former lobbyists, political experts, and even a former Romney advisor.

I believe it will be a close race if Obama and McCain face off, as long as Obama takes
McCain for what he is, which is a tough and ruthless competitor, and not just an old man looking for one last hoorah.

Obama needs to keep in mind that while he is an unquestionably strong candidate- perhaps one of the strongest ever, McCain has just been around so much longer. And it is not just Obama’s lack of years in the U.S. Senate that puts him at a deficit to McCain in terms of experience. It’s that McCain has learned the intricacies of the battle he faces for the Oval Office, in ways Obama hasn’t yet.

Simply put, the University of Kansas, who will play for the championship tonight, opened its doors in 1866, 29 years after Davidson College. But Kansas has seen a lot more championship action than Davidson, and slowly, but surely, exhausted the inexperienced team, then went for the throat. Tonight, our beloved Davidson is an after-thought.

As the old adage says: It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog- even if the dog is old and has weak hips- or something like that.