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.

Sippin' on gin and (prune) juice

McCain infuriates me. A mention of his name literally causes me to ball my hand into a fist and smash it into a child. Unfortunately the way the press has covered the elections, issues take backseat to the mega-sporting event spectacular "WHOAZzzzzzz OBAMA AHEAD BY..." aura of the whole ordeal.



For example, rarely does one hear McCain mention his pro-life stance, especially since the primaries have heated up— a brilliant possum strategy unimaginable from the other candidates. Even more perplexing is McCain’s appeal to voters who oppose the war in Iraq, a fact again revealed by the Associated Press exit polls. Consider this snippet from McCain’s own website concerning his position on Iraq:

A greater military commitment now is necessary if we are to achieve long-term success in Iraq. John McCain agrees with retired Army General Jack Keane that there are simply not enough American forces in Iraq. More troops are necessary to clear and hold insurgent strongholds; to provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies; to halt sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias; to dismantle al Qaeda; to train the Iraqi Army; and to embed American personnel in Iraqi police units. Accomplishing each of these goals will require more troops and is a crucial prerequisite for needed economic and political development in the country.
That is the first paragraph in the section on his site on Iraq. The “we started it so we have to finish it” mentality is understandable, even honorable, but how is he alone with this stance in winning over voters who oppose the war? The unabashed McCain view is that Operation Iraqi Freedom is simply a means toward the end of securing a U.S. (-friendly) stronghold in the Middle East. On its face, it would regain none of the political capital we have lost among Middle Eastern governments and people on the street over the past five years.

All this seems either brilliant or a perfect-storm kind of confluence that has drawn enough votes to place him ahead of his two major vein-popping, flip-flopping opponents as well as the minister from Arkansas.

But who would McCain appoint to the Supreme Court? Who would he install as Attorney General? Will that person offer more than a whimper of protest when the Patriot Act is up for renewal? How much longer can the struggling U.S. economy finance “operations” in Iraq? Or long can we prop-up the Iraqi non-government? How much can we spend on rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure we’ve destroyed? A few new schools, relative calm in Anbar, and a firestorm of underground resentment don’t quite cut it, Johnny.

Neither does McCain’s tight-rope act.

Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!

Throughout history, the most powerful have always supplemented their might by giving something back to the huddled masses that, frankly, had no say in their government. Not that they ever had to, but in one way or another, the big guy (or girl) usually found time to give a lil' sum'n sum'n to the little guy.

Marie Antoinette gave her people cake. She didn't know any better, but most French folks are brownie kinds of people, so they ended up cutting off her head for the inconvenience. But it's the thought that counts.

Historians say that Cleopatra fellated her entire army when they returned from a successful campaign. Now, I don't know a lot of guys who are into sloppy 50,000ths but again, it's the thought that counts.

It's just human nature to want to be thought of by other people and the same goes for civilians and their leaders today. We're just apathetic anyway until something goes wrong, so we might as well get some treats along the way, right?

In the end, it's all about knocking the powerful off their perches every now and then. We want to see that even they, with their yachts and jets and islands, still like to do the simple things their predecessors once did, like eat cake and brownies and...well, you know what I'm talking about. We like to think that they are just like us.

The same goes for politicians today, especially for those in the middle of a presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton posed with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a King Taco franchise (Hey, I eat tacos!) when she visited Los Angeles. And Barack Obama appeared on Monday Night Football (Hey, I watch football!) a few months back to make a special "announcement".



To quote John Madden: Oi, what a punim!

Speaking of men who know yiddish, John McCain has really took this "I'm just like you only more powerful" thing and ran with it.

For as cheesy and pretentious as his recent Service to America biography tour has been, it is a brilliant stroke of campaign genius. (It's got Karl Rove written all over it, doesn't it?)

When I word associate John McCain, I think of things like prune juice, jazzy chairs, dinosaurs, guys who try to return half-eaten boxes of cereal to the grocery store, things like that.

But it never occurred to me that he was ever in high school until this week.

Having him hit up all the places of his youth—the naval academy in Annapolis, his old high school, the hangar where he first touched American soil after returning from a Viet Cong POW camp—has gotten him in touch with young, prospective voters better than any taco or hat could ever do.

Not that the tour has gone completely without hiccups. CNN reported that when a student at Episcopal High School in Alexandria—McCain's alma mater—asked him what his appearance was about if not political (which McCain has maintained throughout the tour), the grumpy nominee-elect snapped, "I knew I should have cut this thing off. This meeting is over."

But as Obama and Clinton dirty each other with insults and innuendo, it's easy to see how beneficial this bio tour has been for McCain.

It gives him a chance to tell his stories without accusations of editorial and affords him many opportunities to flash that magnanimous, poo-punting grin that has become a trademark for so many powerful Republican politicians; see Bush, George W. (Check out McCain's smile at :58 to see what I mean)



It could be argued that McCain is the favorite right now, although that is taking into account that there is no Democratic nominee at the moment.

How will Obama and Clinton regain national face time?

Well, there's always baseball season for Barack (I got the Cubs winning the Central this year. So should he.)

As far as Hillary is concerned...well...she could always learn a thing or two from Cleopatra.


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