Political Football

As I was perusing the Intertubes to get a sense of people's reactions to both Obama's speech and to McCain's VP pick, I was struck my the way things were going. It was like watching a big football game. On one hand, we had the Democrats, who are the popular team, and who many expected to win. On the other side of the field, were the Republicans, with a history of cheap shots and playing dirty.

As the game started, the Democrats, with Obama playing quarterback, were on a tear. They were beating teams they weren't supposed to beat, to get to the big game. The Republicans, the defending champs, were going on as business as usual, but were becoming increasingly nervous as the game approached.

The game started with the Dems having the ball. There were running plays and passing plays, some gained little yardage, others were long balls that put the team in the position for the score. Some drives ended in field goals, some in touchdowns. Each player did their job, following the basics, which allowed Obama to throw a deep touchdown pass, that looked like they cinched the game.

When the Repubs had the ball, with McCain under center, they would often run plays that got them little or no yardage, and only the scores were the very infrequent field goal. Meanwhile, they kept taking their cheap shots, their late hits and any other trick they thought might give them the advantage. But all their efforts were still falling short.

The Repubs were furious and started screaming about dirty blows, cheap shots and that the refs (the media) were bought and were rigging the game. Ironic, since they are the ones with the long history of doing what they were accusing the Dems of doing.

Then, after Obama's long bomb for the seeming clinching win, McCain, on first and ten, started to punt.

That is when the fans started cheering the second string quarterback. Actually, the fans were confused. Some thought they were cheering the second string quarterback, and some thought they were cheering for the cheerleader. Others, for some strange reason, thought that their second string quarter back, who hadn't taken a snap in a regular season game, would make half of the other team's fans switch jerseys. (I still don't get that one, and neither does the targeted side of the fans.)

And that sports fans, leads you up to the second quarter. We will rejoin the game for the second quarter (the Repub convention) after these words from our sponsors...