Baller-in-Chief

(From The Daily Kos)

A Governor is not a Point Guard

I know it’s absurd to bring up Barack Obama in a diary about Sarah Palin, but just as a point of comparison, when Barack mentioned basketball during the campaign it usually was “I may be skinny, but I’ve got sharp elbows”. Translated that means I’m not afraid to go down low and mix it up with the big boys. It was him saying I can play the post, I can fill the role.

Lost in the loopiness of Friday’s press conference was the complete inaccuracy of her basketball analogy. A Governor is not Bob Cousy or Steve Nash, he is Wilt Chamberlin or Shaq. A Governor is the dominating presence in the middle, so powerful that the offense runs through him to accommodate his game. He doesn’t throw the alley oop, he’s the one who catches it and jams it through the hoop. He’s the one when the team misses the shot he gets the rebound and slams it through the hoop. He’s the one who gets the ball down low and powers his way under the basket and slams it through the hoop. It’s called signing bills and transforming ideas into laws.

And on the other end, when the other team is close to making the shot, he’s the last line of defense, the one who swats away the shot, vetoes their attempt to score. A good point guard is a legislator, perhaps a majority leader or whip, someone who is a facilitator, not a scorer. This isn’t difficult stuff, it’s a pretty simple and simplistic analogy.

So what does it say about Sarah Palin that she would get it so wrong? Some may say it shows a basic misunderstanding of what the job is all about. Certainly much of her actions as Governor have shown either lack of fully grasping the role or a severe disinterest in it. Some may say this is a reflection of her narcissism – I was a point guard therefore the Governor is a point guard. But I think the reality is a lot more shallow than that. We all know people like her. She’s stuck in High School. She still lives in her home town and even as Governor couldn’t bring herself to make the move to Capital. She married her high school sweetheart. And she still exhibits the pettiness and petulance of a high school girl who thinks she’s the be all and end all.

We all know people like her. They don’t make it in College, often drifting from school to school until returning to their home town to stay for good, sheltered in their past success, unable to move on. For Sarah, the Governor is a point guard because she’s incapable of the personal growth required to become something different, something bigger, something better.

I know it’s absurd to bring up Barack Obama in a diary about Sarah Palin, but just as a point of comparison, when Barack mentioned basketball during the campaign it usually was “I may be skinny, but I’ve got sharp elbows”. Translated that means I’m not afraid to go down low and mix it up with the big boys. It was him saying I can play the post, I can fill the role. Far different than the image of the point guard dribbling the ball through a full court press and then passing once she gets it over mid-court. Which brings me to the last point of her analogy in strict basketball terms: the full-court press.

That is a very effective defense…in High School. You occasionally see it in College. In the pros, it’s a sucker move. In this year’s championship, a key moment was when Phil Jackson decided to take the ball out at the far end of the court. Van Gundy fell for it, put a press on which just spread out the defense and allowed Derek Fisher to get off the open three to tie the game. It was the turning point of the series and the play that really showed the weakness in the Magic’s game – the coaching.

Van Gundy, like Sarah Palin, showed he wasn’t ready for the big time (though I would put him far above Palin in terms of preparedness). Sarah’s hoop game is still High School, just as Sarah herself is still stuck there, telling the increasingly fewer people of her past glories, big fish, small state. Did you know she was Miss Wasilla? She was. She still is.

(From Joseph Curl for The Washington Times Online)

Obama dominates news media with full-court press

Although the White House basketball court is still under construction, President Obama on Tuesday got in a quick game of hoops, throwing some sharp elbows, batting down weak shots and eventually falling back into a one-man, four-corners defense to run out the clock.

His opponents, the White House press corps, looked at times like the Washington Generals, known for their long-running losing streak against the invincible Harlem Globetrotters. The president put on a clinic of fancy dribbling just like Curly Neal, and even played Meadowlark Lemon to the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney, when he asked the Internet site “reporter” to lob up an alley-oop question so he could slam-dunk the answer.

“Nico, I know you, and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming out of Iran,” Mr. Obama said from the podium. “I know there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?”

“Yes, I did,” said Mr. Pitney, who, according CBS News’ Mark Knoller, said the White House called him Tuesday morning and invited him to ask an Iran question at the news conference.

Many in the hard-pressed press corps played along throughout the hourlong show, turning the ball over again and again – “accidentally,” of course.

“I answered your question, which is that we don’t yet know how this is going to play out. OK?” Mr. Obama said dismissively to NBC News’ Chuck Todd, who had asked an open-ended query on the “consequences” for Iran after its disputed election.

Reporter Macarena Vidal of the Spanish news service EFE all but handed the hoopster-in-chief the ball when she brought up democracy efforts in Latin America. “Have you noticed any particular progress in these two months?” Another presidential tomahawk dunk.

Several times, the president simply ignored the question. When USA Today’s David Jackson asked a specific question about health care, Mr. Obama pulled back in a delay offense: “Well, let’s talk first of all about health care reform more broadly,” he said, before expounding at clock-eating length about generalities.

When Mr. Obama wasn’t slashing through the defense for an easy layup, he was swinging elbows, backing reporters off.

“Hold on one second, let me answer the question,” he said to American Urban Radio Network’s April Ryan before proceeding to dodge the question. When press corps doyenne Helen Thomas tried to ask a question, he said: “Hold on a second, Helen. That’s – that’s a different question” – which he also didn’t answer.

And Mr. Obama got away with a blatant offensive charge when he ran over McClatchy’s Margaret Talev, who asked about the president’s on-and-off smoking habit, in light of his decision Monday to sign a law regulating the tobacco industry.

“I think it’s fair, Margaret, to just say that you just think it’s neat to ask me about my smoking, as opposed to it being relevant to my new law,” Mr. Obama said.

But not all reporters were willing to play ball. Fox News’ Major Garrett drove to the hoop with a strong question on Mr. Obama’s new, stronger position on Iran: “What took you so long to say those words?”

Throughout, though, the president talked over reporters seeking to follow up on their non-answered questions. He ignored a follow-up from Mr. Garrett, and called on another reporter when Mr. Jackson bluntly re-asked whether the president’s “public” health care plan “is non-negotiable.”

The news conference, Mr. Obama’s fourth at the White House, was moved from the Rose Garden to the briefing room at the last minute. White House officials said the shift was related to the summer heat, and denied it was made because teleprompters, which Mr. Obama relies on at nearly every speaking engagement, could not be seen in the bright, sunny garden.

Officials set up teleprompters in the briefing room, only to break them down an hour before the news conference.

But Mr. Obama stuck with his game plan, even working the referees when calls didn’t go his way. When ABC News’ Jake Tapper, also not playing ball with the dribbler-in-chief, stepped up to once again ask Mr. Jackson’s question, the president put on a dazzling act of having been fiercely fouled.

“Are you the ombudsman for the White House press corps? What’s your question? Is that your question?” Mr. Obama said to raucous laughter from the room, although Mr. Tapper held his ground, unamused and unsmiling.

Much has been made about the giddy laughter among the White House press corps during presidential news conferences, but Tuesday offered a window into just who packed into the tiny briefing room for the show.

A slew of nonworking “journalists” stood along one side of the room. One woman, who identified herself as working for “Hungary News TV,” took pictures with a small camera throughout the hour. Another very young woman stood among the working reporters, taking no notes. Asked afterward who she was, Rebecca Cooper, a reporter for WJLA-Channel 7 in Washington, stepped in to answer: “She’s an intern.”

“Everybody wants to see an Obama press conference!” she said happily.

Speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend, comedian Wanda Sykes ripped President Barack Obama about his basketball playing:

I must say Mr. President that I thought that, you know, when you got into office that you would put a swift end to your basketball pickup playing, you know … pickup basketball playing, you know? I mean, c’mon, first black president, playing basketball.  That’s one step forward, two steps back!  And, and really.  Are you any good?  I betcha you think your game is really nice right now, don’t you?  Yeah!  You really do got good moves, huh?  I mean, c’mon!  Nobody’s gonna give the president a hard foul with the Secret Service standing there!  He’s probably braggin’ and everything.  “You shoulda seen me today baby, I was ballin’!”  You know.  Hmm.  Yeah.  They just strokin’ your ego.  Like, “Ooh Mr. President you really shook me that time!  Ya know.  I thought you was goin’ this way, and then I saw Secret Service do this so I went that way.  Right to the hole sir, right to the hole.  But that’s the thing about you sir, you’re so likeable because you’re so accessible.

Sykes’ delivery and timing were perfect, and her other comments were just as hilarious.  Here is the complete video in two parts:

(From Paul Bedard for The U.S. News & World Report Online)

He’d never suggest it, since everybody around ousted General Motors boss Rick Wagoner says he’s the most optimistic and professional guy they know. But there’s a yarn in auto circles that Wagoner’s rich Duke University roots—student, Blue Devil player, trustee, cheerleader—added to his woes in President Obama’s eyes.

Why? How about because Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski panned Obama’s NCAA picks that had Duke—correctly—not making the Final Four. “The Blue Devils get bounced from the tournament Thursday night, and you’re asked to resign Friday? Not sure if Coach K’s comments about the president’s picks had anything to do with the ouster,” says a friend. It probably didn’t, and our tipster was just using the story to explain that despite a very bad week, Wagoner remained upbeat about his and GM’s prospects as the company fights for its life. Right after getting the bad news from the White House, “he seemed in remarkably good spirits for a guy who was just asked to step down,” says the insider.

We saw the same attitude recently when Wagoner took time from pitching Congress and the administration on GM’s bailout plans to make a personal case to Whispers for the new V-6 Camaro. We asked the obvious question: Why go with the smaller engine when a V-8 is available for the muscle-car redux? “Close the doors, and promise not to tell anyone,” Wagoner said. “Actually, from a drive and handling perspective, the V-6 feels a little bit better.” It’s a little cheaper, too, something he plans to remind his sons of as they seek a car now that Dad’s driving off into the Detroit sunset. And they’d better not argue. “A Camaro,” he says, “was my first car, the cheapest car I could find.”

(From Jason Linkins for The Huffington Post)

So, in case you missed it, CNN’s Ed Henry showed up at this week’s Obama press conference, having received some drunken advice from Wolf Blitzer at the Gridiron dinner that boiled down to, “Ask him three questions at once, about how dreamy Andrew Cuomo is, and why he won’t get mad! Doesn’t he love his daughters?” And Ed Henry attempted this, and was humbled, utterly, by a withering response from the president. So Ed Henry wrote an article for CNN that attempted to “rewrite the narrative” and “win the Ed Henry newscycle” with a long and addled alternate account of the incident, in which he was the hero and defeated the president like David Frost won the love of the cheerleader. I have already optioned Ed Henry’s article for a movie I’m working on, tentatively titled Untitled Zac Efron J-School Sex Comedy.

Anyway, here’s a video of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Eugene Robinson, dumping all over poor old Ed.

OLBERMANN: So, Mr. Henry has a rather sanguine view of himself! is it shared by anybody, did he win that battle of wits and we didn’t notice?
ROBINSON: You know I just don’t think you are going to see that analysis being picked up very widely. I mean, look, it’s like guarding Kobe Bryant. He comes down and does a reverse 360 windmill tomahawk jam in your face, the ball actually hits you in the face on the way down, and then picking yourself up off the court and acknowledging the cheers of the crowd. I mean, dude, you just got owned. Dude, the guy just made you his companion.

I guess this means that President Obama sexually assaulted Ed Henry at a hotel in Eagle, Colorado.

Anyway, I wouldn’t talk so big, MSNBCers. It’s not like your guy exactly distinguished himself, with this awesome question.