Recently, a study indicated that in the 2008 presidential election, Senator John McCain has received substantially more negative reporting than Senator Barack Obama. The study's authors suggest that this may be less a reflection of bias, but more a reflection of Obama running a more effective campaign. (Or perhaps not being photographed making goofy faces after a debate.)Rick Reilly wrote a gushing essay relating his experience getting Obama to help him with his fantasy football team. He wanted to "see what sort of president" they'd make. I'm not sure I'd want fantasy football obsessives running the free world, or else you'd end up with these people with their fingers on the button. <shudder>
To be fair and balanced, Reilly contacted both campaigns to see if they would do it, but only Obama took him up on it. Given McCain's high profile football mixup, McCain's campaign probably doesn't want him doing picks.
So Reilly meets Obama, and it results in a massive Reilly mancrush. Really, it is slightly embarrassing. Probably even to Obama. But if you are the sort of voter who wants to know whether a candidate is the sort of person you'd like to share a beer with, I guess this is that sort of essay.
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10-30-2008 @ 10:13PM
socctty said...
It's probably worth noting who the "have a beer with" original prankster was. It's good political science, at any rate. Obama did a podcast with Bill Simmons about a year ago, too. Pretty clever.
Anyone on the political right who isn't paying attention to the absolute domination Obama's campaign is exhibiting (see fivethirtyeight.com) doesn't have a clue. He did the fantasy team thing for the same reason he's tripped over himself to give magazines interview after interview after interview. It's one small part of an absolute clinic his campaign is conducting in political science.
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