Sports Illustrated has the questions.
Should there be college football playoffs? Obama says yes. ("I'm tired of all the confusion and controversy that boils over at the end of every college football season, and I think an eight-team playoff would make a lot of sense.") McCain says ideally, yes, but practically, no, and it's no business of the federal government.
What sports will they bring to the White House? Obama might put in a basketball court. McCain's favorite sport is boxing, but he thinks "it would be inappropriate for the president to spend taxpayers' dollars on luxury improvements to the White House."
November 4, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
26 comments:
I love John McCain.
I feel very badly that more of my neighbors won't vote to put this man of History into the White House.
Where will Obama install the prayer rugs so they best face Mecca?
What's odd about boxing? Okay, well, other than the fact that boxing is corrupt and dirty, that is.
feel bad, of course
How does McCain box with his injuries?
I must be missing something.
Oh, I read the link.
He was considering inviting poor (including minorities?) kids to box at the White House for his amusement.
Odd.
If I was president, I'd build a big-ass climbing wall, like a really big one, a hundred feet high. And, I'd hire someone who's only job would be to belay me. I'd also build, like, an MTB course or something in the back there. But, not a fake thing, but something real with rocks and stuff.
Boxing isn't odd, just so old school. My grandfather used to like to listen to Joe Louis fights on the radio. Today, he would he even care about?
Boxing is big in Rhode Island. The interim mayor of Providence, after Buddy Cianci was convicted, listed as one of his accomplishments the bringing of boxing back to the civic center.
Obama is wrong about NCAA football playoffs. The NCAA is already overprofessionalized. Keep the pageantry of the bowls the way they are.
But I'm amazed the White House doesn't have a basketball court already. That's not a luxury. That's a necessity. I'm sure the money's there. Sell some silverware or cancel some state dinners.
If Obama believes Michigan beat Michigan State in college football two weekends ago and that Wisconsin beat Michigan State in college football last Saturday, should I still vote for him??
I am torn and need some counseling.
GO SPARTANS!!!
Henry,
Don't misunderstand; I love boxing. When properly taught, it's an exceptional way to teach kids discipline and the concept of sportsmanship even after extreme confrontation.
But, it is odd for McCain to contemplate the construction of a boxing ring so he can watch poor (minority?) kids amuse him by fighting at the White House.
I completely understand how he innocently came to his answer. He's forced to be a spectator because of injuries. And, he enjoys watching boxing. And, he knows that the White House reaches out to disadvantaged young sports folks.
But, these circumstances do add up to an odd visual where McCain would be watching young poor (minorities?) beating each other to a pulp for his amusement. And, many folks would misunderstand the situation because they wouldn't love the discipline and sportsmanship of boxing--they'd only see the obvious violence.
I don't think we will have to worry about a boxing ring in the White House.
McCain likely boxed at the Naval Academy, unlike Obama snorting coke probably was not an option (the lowest ranking grad from the Academy probably works harder than the valedictorian at Hah-vad).
George Bush had T-ball tournaments, his dad's rich friends probably bought him the teams.
1jpb:
While I think you're correct on the idea that many would misunderstand the boxing thing, it would probably be because (a) boxing is no longer (if it ever was) a 'mainstream' sport, and (b) many of those people are prone to getting hung up on the meaningless race component of a president that happens to be white, and athletes in the sport that may be disproportionately "poor (minorities?)", in your words.
Seriously, get over the race thing; it makes you sound narrow-minded, like one of those gremlins that judges people first by the color of their skin, and later (if at all) by the content of their character. Stop this nonsense, or surrender the "progressive" label, because that attitude is anything but.
p.s. Anyone who thinks that in general, amateur athletes wouldn't be thrilled to be invited to participate in sporting events (or any events) at the WH, or where the president of the USA would be in attendance, probably needs to dial back the cynicism and take a vacation from the (highly cynical and overly-ideologically-charged) blogosphere.
Personally, I'm relishing the end of this election, as its absence will make it easier to avoid this political internet pugilism stuff. Whoever wins tonight, wish 'em luck and grab the popcorn; it's going to be an interesting 4 years in any event.
kind regards,
vic
1jpb -- McCain said he would have boxers visit the White House, not fight there. He's expressing support for recognizing champions of the sport, exactly the way Olympic medalists and NCAA champions are honored. I agree with you that it is a poorly worded response subject to easy misinterpretation.
I do regret that Rudy Guiliani won't be bringing opera to the White House. That would be a great thing.
Rudy would've been so great in Madame Butterfly!
The most important issue is where do the stand on the designated hitter rule!
(All plebes at both USMA and USNA have to take boxing and it's also an intramural sport.)
If Obama wins, the WH bowling alley is toast, to be replaced by a basketball court.
Link
If Obama loses, then McCain wins!
Yay!
I should add that if Obama wins overall, but loses Pennsylvania, he'll make it a priority to rip out that wretched bowling alley!
No. No playoff. This is just one more thing that Obama is silly about. The New York Giants were either 10-6 or 11-5 last year and they got lucky and won the Super Bowl. Sorry, Trooper, but I think that's crap.
In college football, every game counts. And if you don't win the national championship, you still get a nice bowl game. There's lots of money in them there bowl games, a lot more than if there were some silly playoff where a 9-3 team could get hot and win.
The poll system is great. I liked the old one better. I have no problem with three champions.
Vic,
I'm not being a race-monger.
I was thinking of the fact that minority kids are disproportionately impoverished. And, McCain explicitly referred to kids from "lower-income and disadvantaged environments."
My use of "poor (minorities?)" was carefully NOT latching on to a certain assumption about race, but still acknowledging that the folks in question are disproportionately minorities. I left plenty of room for the possibility that the kids would not be minorities because 1) I realize that disproportionate doesn't account for the overall sizes of demographic groups, and 2) I don't know the racial statistics regarding kids from "lower-income and disadvantaged environments" who participate in boxing.
PC police on both sides now. Get over it.
Hey Seven, we won fair and square. We beat every team we had to beat on the And we are on a roll this year to win back to back Super Bowls. You can look forward to me talking about THE WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK GIANTS for another year.
Did I tell you lately that the Giants won the Super Bowl?
Sorry 1jpb, nothing to get over here, but thanks anyway.
I didn't see the McCain reference, so if my comments were overblown that's my fault.
The reasons I jumped to thinking of boxing as a generally disproportionately minority sport are (a) nearly every boxing match I see advertised (billboards here in LA tout the upcoming matches in LV and/or television with regularity) feature black and Latino contenders, with an occasional Russian thrown into the mix, and (b) in my experience living in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and L.A., with exceeding few exceptions, the true "boxing gyms" (i.e. not the single punching bag at the local equinox) are all located in predominantly minority neighborhoods and patronized mostly by the local residents. Strictly anecdotal, perhaps; "PC"? let's not be silly.
I'm glad to see we're not (at least I don't feel we are) arguing about any points worth being disagreeable over.
Question: do you think that minority kids are disproportionately impoverished, or is that true only in the urban context? If one factors in the hinterlands of the great flyover country, appalachia, the rural south (the rural anywhere, for that matter), does that change any? I'm guessing that there'd be a lot more impoverished white kids, but more poor minority kids too. Then again, I'm not a sociologist.
1jpb, by the way, if I called you a race-monger, or if you took that from my earlier comment, I take it back.
begin the beguine,
vic
Obama is a secret lover of the Curl.
I wonder if a candidate, especially a male one, could get away with not being interested in sports. I don't mean anti-sports, just not into them.
The bowls are so much more liberal than a playoff system. With the bowls, half the teams end their season with a win. With a playoff, it's the savage triumph of the fittest. Obama should be for bowls.
Then again, thinking an 8 team playoff would eliminate confusion and controversy is so naive, it's quintessential liberal.
It doesn't matter if there would be a playoff to determine the college football champion, Notre Dame is always number one! That's what Sister O'Malley and Father Flynn and even Sister Teresa Marotta with the black her growing out of the tip of her nose told me. And I didn't even go to Catholic school!
Post a Comment