Presidential Candidates Grilled Over NCAA Tournament Picks
Presidential candidates have to visit reality once in a while, and right now in the United States reality consists of the NCAA Basketball Championship and March Madness. Therfore, among the thousands of questions the potential nominees must answer is the one about which team they think might win the big tourney.
Barack Obama gave the most decisive and definitive answer by choosing North Carolina. Two games in, the Tarheels have made the Illinois Senator look like a wise judge of talent.
John McCain ran a pool for his campaign staff; but, because the Senator is an opponent of gambling on college sports, he did not allow entry fees, and will award only a "John McCain 2008" fleece pullover as the prize.
Hillary Clinton played the question as she does everything, a political point to be exploited and answered not with truth, but doubletalk designed to inhance her candidacy (remember her wavering response years ago to her favorite baseball team?). She at first referred the inquiry to Bill, who passed on answering. After all, upcoming primaries are happening in states with teams in play!
Later, on famed lunatic James Carville's radio show, Bill did pick a Final Four: North Carolina, Memphis, Ucla, and Georgetown. As Georgetown, the only one of the ex-President's picks not a top seed, has already been eliminated, perhaps he should have done the blandest possible choice and picked all 1 seeds.
Law enforcement has been squawking about the illegality of basketball pools, but even politicians needing to appear without flaw or vice accept the reality of America's love affair with gambling on the NCAA tournament. Whether the cops like it or not, this activity has been de facto legalized by the monstrous numbers participating, and the impossibility of enforcing such a farcical statute.
Perhaps legislators would be wise to stop passing laws that cause massive numbers of scofflaws to pop up, so that respect for important laws is not diluted by the nonsense of vice laws.
