Playin' Ball

Revelation #1 about out Hero: I save everything.

Looking through old issues of the NYtimes (which only get filed once I read them) I found an article that suggests that one's personality can be ascertained by the way that one plays basketball.


Thus, according to Obama's brother-in-law, (the couch of Brown University's Men's team) Obama will be a good president. Not a ball hog, good at admitting mistakes, and with nothing to prove.

I think the NYtimes just gave the Obama Campaign an idea for a fundraiser. $100 hoops with Barack.

You get a 30 seconds in an hour long pick-up game, and Obama's team assignment is random, but the commercial-friendly participants get put on his team (so the opposing team is a bunch of rich white guys who (thank heavens) left the Republican party over the Iraq war, out-of-control fiscal spending, the Patriot Act, or the Terry Schiavo incident.

120 (30 sec. spots) x 9 (players) x $100 = $108,000 of fundraising if he plays continuously for an hour. And it saves him the hour of senate gym time that he talks about in the Audacity of Hope.

The Clintons would prefer a market-based incentivized strategy- an auction: the person who could bundle the most $2,300 checks gets to have an argument with Hilary about any subject of their choice for an hour.

I wonder which campaign would raise more.

I think the more interesting insight of the article is the sport that the candidate picks, in that it speaks to their socioeconomic class and lifestyle identification.

Some Test Cases:
-Clinton's golfing was an attempt to mimic the entrepreneurs of the late 80's and 90's.
-Gerry Ford actually played football. This wasn't contrived, it got him a scholarship and was important for upward mobility.
-David Dinkins' big mistake was to play Tennis in New York City. Who plays Tennis in NY?
-Elliot Spitzer is a distance runner. I always thought this was enigmatic. He runs alone...

Which politician has the most interesting sporting hobby?