"Baracketology"

[babylonsister]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/03/obamas-brackets-and-the-espn-vote.html

Obama’s Brackets and the ESPN Vote
Posted by Amy Davidson



“Was our President helping you follow the game?” Clark Kellogg asked Prime Minister David Cameron, who was attending his “very first” basketball game ever, in Dayton, Ohio. “Yes, he was giving me some tips, he’s going to help me fill out my bracket,” Cameron said. It was an on-court interview at a play-in game between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky, and Obama offered up some analysis—both teams were “shooting terribly”—before talking about how much he’d wanted to bring Cameron to Ohio, and not just a coast: “the heartland is what it’s all about.” (That, and swing states.) Cameron looked game, or at least like he appreciated Kellogg referring to soccer as “football,” and giving him a chance to promote the London Olympics. (“You’ve got a pretty good event coming up in your country!”) But let’s face it: no one does sports-political pandering better than the forty-fourth President of the United States.

The apogee of that phenomenon has, in past years, been ESPN’s full-throated rollout of the Presidential bracket—or, as it is known, Baracketology—an event that always causes one to wonder if the network is the Fox News of the Obama Administration. This year’s picks, unveiled this morning to ESPN’s Andy Katz (video below), also raise the question of whether up-for-grabs electoral votes are a quantifiable basketball statistic. His Final Four are Ohio State, Missouri, North Carolina, and Kentucky, which is the only one not in play; is that why he has them losing to the Tar Heels in the championship game?

Video @ link~

But if ESPN is the base, how does it feel about Obama running his own pool on on his campaign Web site? The page, where visitors can fill out both men’s’ and women’s’ brackets, includes a photo of Obama, in a T-shirt, shooting the ball. There is no actual betting—everyone who does better than the President gets some play—except, perhaps, about the number of e-mail addresses this move yields for the campaign. There’s another factor in Obama’s blatant appeal to the fan vote: the First Lady. If you watch a fair amount of ESPN or other sports programming, you’ll eventually see public-service announcements involving her fitness and anti-childhood-obesity initiatives. (This may explain why most middle-schoolers of my acquaintance are completely in the tank for Michelle.)

In fairness to to Obama, and ESPN, he earns it. Rather than talk, as Mitt Romney just keeps doing, about the team owners he knows, he can go on and on about player injuries and teams’ strengths and histories and styles (“I think the perimeter play of Missouri right now is outstanding”) and gives the other analysts something to talk about (“Is the President overoptimistic about V.C.U. this year?”). He also took the time to fill out a women’s bracket. There was one potential pitfall; Harvard made it into the tournament, and both Kellogg and Katz reminded him and America that he went there. He turned it into a reminder that he had hired a Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who had played college basketball. He also had the Crimson losing to Vanderbilt in the first round. (“I’ll be rooting for Harvard, but it’s just too much,” he told Katz.) Sports are like dogs; a politician has to know how to talk about them. Obama does, and also how, at certain moments, to push the question off the court. “I’m big on momentum,” he said, explaining his bracket strategy. He added that, after losing last time with Kansas, he was counting on the Tar Heels: “Hopefully I’ll be able to get a little redemption for the last two years.” Is that what it takes?

[JoePhilly]

1. Go Tar Heels!!!!