by Christine Whitmarsh

Created on: April 24, 2008   Last Updated: April 25, 2008

Career sports commentators certainly have good reason to be insulted lately, based on the usurping of their rightful duties calling game plays, by the likes of Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer and friends. I have heard the Obama vs. Clinton political race been compared to the Patriots/Giants Superbowl, the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry and every major boxing match in sporting history. These two presidential candidates have apparently been scoring more knock out blows, flags on plays, field goals, touchdowns, fly balls, homeruns, grand slams, strikeouts and holes in one than even the most exciting sporting year could rightfully produce.

Even worse, the sporting analogies are being peppered with enough dead president analogies to make presidential corpses spin in their grave faster than Papelbon's fastball. The Republicans are trying to reincarnate Reagan while Caroline Kennedy is working hard to make Obama into her dead father. And don't think that if this fall's main event is a heavy weight bout between Obama and McCain, the Kennedy v Nixon comparisons won't cause a whole new wave of voter nausea.

This is a nation of television viewers, programmed by reality show producers and advertising campaigns to accept nothing less than high drama and last moment twists and turns in every moment and the simplest thoughts that can be summed up in five words or less (or are otherwise worthless). The rapid fire sports viewer mentality (he shoots, he scores!) has overflowed from ESPN to all the other networks, leaving us chronically on the edges of our seats, impatient for the next unexpected touchdown, field goal, half court shot or grand slam. The political analysts have likened themselves to the Marv Alberts of selecting the next president, and it has become a challenge when flipping through channels, to quickly tell if someone has executed a slam dunk or won a state primary.

It's no wonder so many American voters have no idea what they're supposed to be looking for in a president. This is a country of voters who don't know that American Idol is a singing competition so they keep voting for cute guys with Farah Fawcett hairdos.

So, is it any wonder that when it comes to the most important vote of all, people are trying to figure out if a white woman can jump and a black man has got game?

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