A much-needed Political Sports Analogy

(photo credit)

As the one who's supposed to contribute sports-related content to this blog, I figured this was a perfect start...

I was listening to a radio morning show in the Bay Area (Alice 97.3) when I heard the announcement of McCain's VP pick.

The station was taking ANY callers who had ANY information about this woman (since no one knew who the hell she was) and one very friendly man phoned in to give listeners some perspective.

He claimed that Palin was no wimp--apparently she played through a broken ankle in a state championship basketball game, fighting to help her team win the title.

The radio host hung up on him and said something along the lines of "I'm sorry, that's really great, but how in the world does playing basketball on a broken ankle qualify you for the VICE PRESIDENCY?"

Answer? It doesn't.

Sarah's the All-American gal who is trying desperately to appeal to all those soccer moms, hockey moms, and pitbulls with lipstick out there who are dumb enough to elect ANY woman to office, regardless of her actual skills, for the sake of seeing their chromosome promoted to an important public office position. McCain made a rash, uninformed decision-- sensing that his campaign was losing mass appeal among voters--to try to capture those voters by naming a female running mate.

In sports terms, he made an offensive move to attack his competitors and catch them off-guard, forcing them to react to a different game plan than they expected. For a while, the GOP might see a brief roar in the crowd as they acknowledge the showboat maneuver he pulled off. But the crowd will die down when he runs back down the court and plays lousy defense because he doesn't remember what his team's strategy even is anymore.

Sports mantra tells us, "Offense wins games, defense wins championships."

Obama isn't showboating to win the election with sex appeal and unexpected twists and turns in his campaign strategy ("charisma" is not the same thing as "selling out"). He's relying on the actual politics to help him win, and at the end of the day, that's what matters most to our country.

Sarah Palin can go back to Alaska and shoot wolves from helicopters to make herself feel better--and maybe she'll realize that she owes her country (and her gender) more than just a pretty face.