When Politics and Sports Collide...

About two months ago I posted a note about the various "fashions for sale" at the official online stores of most of the 2008 presidential candidates ("When Politics and Fashion Collide..., 10.26.2007). And now, politics and sports are colliding! Sports Illustrated posted this fun slide show of Barack Obama's one-on-one game against a Sports Illustrated senior writer while on the campaign trail in Spencer, Iowa. The pictures suggest that the senator from Illinois takes his basketball game very seriously.

A College Football Fan's Dream

I just discovered the BCS Guru (www.bcsguru.com), an insightful and intelligent blog that carefully sizes up college football matches, demystifies the BCS, and makes fans like me who are in constant pursuit of more college football knowledge very happy. Thank you, CNN article on the revenue that bloggers generate by posting ads on their sites, for the heads up. If only I had known about the Guru at the beginning of this year's college football season...

Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2007

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's first female prime minister, was assassinated on Thursday in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Extensive coverage from CNN can be found here, and extensive coverage from The New York Times can be found here.

Better Late Than Never...

Two more days and I would have gone an entire month without a single entry! Unfortunately, blogging took a back seat during the month of December, first to final exam preparation, and then to holiday preparation. But now, in preparation for another holiday (Happy New Year!), I am resolving to blog more regularly.

With that out of the way, two things:

1. After a thrilling season, college football is ending on a fairly anticlimactic note this year. Perhaps I am speaking prematurely; after all, most of the major bowl games have yet to be played. I am looking forward to the Capital One Bowl--my favorite team, the Florida Gators, will play my dad's favorite team, the Michigan Wolverines (my dad is once again comfortable pulling for the Wolverines now that Lloyd Carr has passed the torch to Rich Rodriguez), on January 1. And when Ohio State and LSU meet in the National Championship game on January 7, I will tune in to show my support for the Southeastern Conference (go Tigers!). But I'm just not as excited as I would have hoped. Of course, following Florida's stellar football and basketball championship seasons last year, I was bound to be a little disappointed this year.

2. On the other hand, the presidential primary season has never been more exciting! With neither an incumbent nor a consistent front-runner among the Republican and Democratic hopefuls, the candidates are campaigning harder than ever and the pundits are (over)analyzing more than ever: What's the impact of Obama's Oprah-factor? How about Hillary's Bill-factor? What caused Mike Huckabee's rapid rise in the polls? What caused Rudy Giuliani's steady decline in the polls? Keeping up with the candidates and those who seek answers to these questions (nightly, and before a national audience) has become a new obsession of mine. I think that I may be looking forward to the Iowa caucuses on January 3 as much as I am looking forward to the aforementioned bowl games. Gasp!