No this Obama issue has to do with his personal NCAA MARCH MADNESS Tournament Bracket.
About a week ago, President Obama appeared on ESPN networks for an interview. He filled out his presidential bracket which they deemed "Barack-otology" a play on words of the famous myth science of the tournament; brackettology.
At the time Obama caught a lot of slack from critics and the GOP because they wondered if he was sending the right message with all the terror going on in the world. Personally I think it was the right move. He has done it every other year that he's been president. It's a major part of American society to fill out a bracket. Even if your not a fan you fill out a bracket. To be honest, Obama definetly appeared to me as if he rushed through it just to finish and get to more pressing issues. He picked the top 4 teams by ranking to make it to the final four and arguably the best team KANSAS to win.
Now the president can ball. He loves basketball, he renovated the white house to add a full court, he even keeps former Duke Blue Devil and NCAA champion Reggie Love as his assitant. He's played all his life and is an avid Chicago Bulls Fan. That is why it is no suprise that his bracket started off on fire.
He picked 29 of 32 games correctly in the first few rounds. For perspective, "Only 491 of the 5.9 million brackets had more correct picks". This sucess had the president in the top 99.9 percentile of results. In short he was balling. Then it all came crashing down.
He still had four of the remaning eight teams heading into the weekend. He picked everygame of this round wrong. He didn't pick one of the final four teams correctly and his national champion Kansas was upset by Cinderella VCU (Virginia Common Wealth). It's safe to say he's no longer in that top percentiles, but he still did very well.
What I'm wondering is if a paralell can be made between Baracks bracket sucess this year and his entire tenure presedential sucess. To me they are similar. He started off well in the bracket just as he started off well as president. Everyone was excited to see an African American elected to president for the first time ever. People were ready to see this "Change" that he constantly spoke of and there was just a general buzz of hope around america. Then we got to where we are now. We have gone through tough economic times, a weak solution to the healthcare problem, and unemployment at historic highs. Were seeing everyone around us soar above in education. Our armor as the worlds most powerful nation is starting to rust. Of course not everything should be blamed on one main but ultimately it will.
It remains to be seen how President Obama finishes his tenure. Perhaps he will deliver us out of this mess and point us in the right direction moving forward so we can truly "win the future". Or maybe it will follow the brakcet pattern and everything will blow up in his face. If that's the case then we could have our first one term president since 1993.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-president-obamas-ncaa-bracket-2011-3#ixzz1Huka9boE
I think Obamas decision to make a big public display of his bracket is, in fact, a bit indicative of his term so far in one specific way: he has, above all, focused his powers on playing politics the most effective way possible. Those critics who claim he should have focused on other issues are silly, its doubtful the President even filled out the bracket himself, and the fifteen minutes he spent on the ESPN segment doubtfully led him to overlook a more important issue.
ReplyDeleteStill, it was an obvious method of making him look like an “everyday” sort of guy, just as when he resolved race relations between a police officer and a professor over a staged “beer and chips” meeting. His obvious and enduring desire to play the part of just another guy would be welcome in my opinion if it just didn’t feel a bit forced, and a bit of a play at a political angle. But, as he has always proven, he is a supreme campaigner and supreme politician in the sense he has a firm grasp of the political game. This is just another, albeit “cute-sie” and meaningless, example of such.
Thanks for the comment. I sense you have some issues with the Prez Obama. That's what makes America great. I didn't look at it as a political thing but that makes sense. Why wouldn't he want to gain exposure to as many markets as possible. And this is a way to do that.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say,
Those critics who claim he should have focused on other issues are silly, its doubtful the President even filled out the bracket himself, and the fifteen minutes he spent on the ESPN segment doubtfully led him to overlook a more important issue.
I think that's wrong. I bet he did fill it out himself. He enjoys basketball and he is a regular everyday guy at some point in his day. It wouldn't take more than two minutes to fill out a bracket if you just guessed on every single one.
Your Counterargument is well appreciated.