Presidential elections are a sport worth rooting for

It’s go time.

Think of it as the Super Bowl and Game Seven of the World
Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals combined.

That’s right, folks. It’s Election Day.

And come closing time at the polls, one person is going to walk
away the victor after a nearly four-year fight for the White
House.

Yet regardless of the results sure to be ticking across the
bottom of TV screens tonight, no matter which candidate you choose
to support, you have to give these guys some credit for giving
their all to the sport we’ve come to love and adore as
presidential campaigning.

That’s right. The sport.

No matter how hard you try, there’s no getting around the
element of athleticism that paves the road to the White House.

What’s more, this is the big leagues of the big
leagues.

Certainly no single player in major league sports can fill an
entire arena like Boston’s FleetCenter or New York’s
Madison Square Garden. For four days straight at that, as in the
case of the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

And the media attention a sports superstar gets compared to a
presidential candidate is so glaringly stark that I’m sure it
made Shaq at least contemplate moving again and changing careers so
he could have even more of the spotlight.

The funny thing about these campaigns is that there’s no
clear starting date for them. With pro sports, there’s always
something like baseball’s first pitch, which often is thrown
by a prominent political figure such as, ironically enough, the
president.

But with presidential politics there’s somewhat of a dead
period that starts the day after the quadrennial general election
in November.

I liken it to recruiting for NCAA sports. It’s as if
there’s a bunch of talented athletes out there hoping to
catch the eye of a Division I coach (or the media, in the
candidate’s case). But they don’t want to commit to any
school just yet ““ they need to wait things out and see
what’s in it for them.

Then the closer it gets to the election year, you’ll hear
of a few oral commitments (nothing binding, of course) ““ for
primary elections, that is.

When the primaries have their initial signing days in Iowa and
New Hampshire, the recruiting classes of each political party start
to take shape.

And come Super Tuesday, when those letters of intent are due,
there’s no turning back for candidates. They’re totally
committed to playing college ball now ““ in the Electoral
College.

And they’ll stop at nothing to develop the largest fan
base, not just of passive, fair-weather fans, but of belligerent
diehards who make the UCLA-USC rivalry look like a friendly
competition for floor president in the dorms.

They’ll bring out their mascots ““ the elephant and
the donkey ““ and make T-shirts, surely showing the elephant
kicking some ass or the donkey doing whatever donkeys do to
elephants.

Meanwhile, you’ll have the campaign administration
kowtowing to donors like most college athletic departments, trying
to collect the resources that will propel them to victory.

And then Election Day comes and goes (like a Sugar Bowl or NCAA
basketball finals), and the recruiting process starts all over
again.

But we can’t get ahead of ourselves. Today’s the big
dance, and the fat lady is about to sing a little song for us
all.

So do your country a favor. Get out there and vote, no matter
which team you root for.

And let’s all hope we don’t see the confusing
postseason action we did four years ago.

Looper likes political science for no other reason than
being able to impress the ladies with an explanation of
Duverger’s law. Be the first past the post and e-mail him at
[email protected].