THE CAMPAIGN COMBINE

(by Burke)

There are a lot of things to pay attention to during the fall months. Football, the World Series (Editor’s Note for Cubs fans: The World Series is where the two best teams in baseball play to determine the champion) a movie about Scientology, there’s a lot going on. Let me lighten your load and tell you one thing you don’t have to pay attention to, the Presidential campaign. Barack Obama has this campaign sewn up for the same reason Ronald Reagan had the 1984 election sewn up sometime in 1983.

Politics is like sports. Some politicians are great political athletes. Other politicians are journeymen political athletes. Since television became the medium through which the country decided political elections in 1960 the better political athlete has won every Presidential election.

Imagine that every day from May till November Tiger Woods played 18 holes of golf against the 30^th best player in the world, Jason Day. Are there going to be a few days where Day beats Tiger? Sure. But at the end of those six months Tiger is going to have won a lot more because he is the better golfer. A Presidential campaign is a six month, daily competition between two political athletes.

Tiger Woods                Jason Day

Politicians have their strategists -- think of them as swing coaches. The media tries to keep things interesting for as long as possible -- think of them as the announcers you’ve heard trying to instill drama in a game you know is long over. If you want to know who is going to win, block out that noise and size up the two men running. Which one is the better politician?

Mitt Romney was a hugely successful private equity guy. He gives a ton of money to charity. There are plenty of stories of his personal acts of kindness. He is a guy who has succeeded at everything he’s ever done. At some point he decided that he wanted to become President. So he has spent the last 20 years turning himself into something he isn’t:  a politician. Doggedness and money could win him some elections. But defeating Shannon O’Brien in the race for Massachusetts Governor is like the 30^th best golfer in the world beating the 300^th best golfer in the world. And beating Herman Cain and Michelle Bachman for the Republican nomination is like the 30^th best golfer defeating….well, it’s like defeating a bunch of drunks who wander onto the golf course with hockey sticks.

But in this race, just like against Ted Kennedy in 1994 and John McCain in 2008, Romney is running against an opponent who is a much better political athlete. That doesn’t make Romney a bad guy. But it will make him the loser come November 6^th.