I find James Fallows' reaction to Palin's interview with Gibson to be interesting. http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/the_palin_interview.php#more I think the sports radio comparison is dead on. This blog entry reminds me of, of all things, some of the rather embarassing calls Carmichael Dave and Ron Artest received from Houston callers that first night Ron was on after the trade. (For those of you who didn't listen to the show, the "Asian Sandwich" reference relates to one chick who called in to say that Yao Ming and herself would form an Asian Sandwich with Artest in the middle). You can't tell these callers, while enthusiasitc, are rather casual fans. In any case, I find it kind of interesting to compare presidential elections to the hiring of a sports franchise's GM/coach. Of course, there are differences-- fans of a team don't really get to "vote" for GM or coah, but they do express their opinions about the GM or coach on message boards and talk radio. What I find curious is that, as far as I can tell, the "Can this person 'relate' to me?" factor is much stronger in terms of a political election than in fans opinions about the head of their sports franchise. Competence is actually a bigger factor in opinions about sports than it is about the presidency fo the United States. I mean, would anyone hire the equivalent of Sarah Palin to be the assistant GM of the Rocket and take over in the event of Morey's death because the fan base can relate to her?
Yeah, seriously, how could she not know what the Bush Doctrine was? Even after all those weeks of coaching before being allowed to do an interview?
The whole Fallows piece is brilliant. He is probably my favorite magazine reporter/writer. Very smart, very grounded and straight forward.
I'm of the mind that this race is close because the media wants it to be. Honestly I don't know if we'll ever have another blowout election as long as this country exists, because having a close one makes for better TV. It's just physically impossible for me to conceive of the type of people that would be swayed over to the Republican side, or "reenergized" into voting R as a result of Sarah Palin. Seriously? A housewife backing up the potential oldest president in history, who has had four cancers already? But if the media says it's close, then it must be, right?
That's a very insightful statement. I think that its easier to understand the affect or a player or a coach has on a team and the results are a lot more immediate so competance is easier to grasp in sports than it is in government. Especially for the office of President where I don't think many people completely understand the role of president or how the government works so political elections are often reduced to popularity contests based on traits that might not have that much of an affect on how well one governs.
Not really. It's just that the third string QB usually doesn't run attack ads or demean and sabotage the play of his teammate while trying to appeal to the fans. And the first stringer is probably in there because he wants to win while the third-stringer wants in so he can do car dealership ads and get chicks.
