2008-11-05T14:09:43-05:00 2008-11-04T23:27:45-05:00 15 2008-11-04T23:27:45-05:00 1 2 10 2008-11-05T14:09:43-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/624/7/thumb/DC_Shirt.jpg 82 DC Was Buf., Now Was. Washington 6267 15 Knowing about the pols' sports tastes is interesting, but not as sports news. It's more of something I'd expect in something like People Magazine than in Sports Illustrated. Now, if President Obama becomes a regular in the DC Kickball leagues next year, *that* should be reported in SI. 3252560 2008-11-05T12:14:13-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/118/724/thumb/Hefty.jpg 2886 ca #00 Out On Bail 119024 14 preach on Hankmeister... 3251128 2008-11-05T10:38:55-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/445/234/thumb/bsm.gif 907 CA Nam Vet2 Rosamond 445674 13 I will be pressing to Amend the United States Constitution: Amendment 28 &quot;Separation between Sports and State&quot; One of the main reason I love sports and watch sports is to get away from the daily distractions, politics and the 24 hour news channels that I'm forced to watch at work. I don't care that McCain wants to clean up sports or that Obama wants a playoff system for college football. I've heard this all before from fans and sports writers, why would I want to hear this from politicians? I don???t care who Lebron James or Curt Schilling plans to vote for or any other celebrity endorsements for that matter. I'm sick of Senator Arlen Spector, Baseball Senate hearing, Roger Clemens hearings and Sammy Sosa not speaking English in a courtroom. Let's keep sports on ESPN and politics on CNN. Hank, you are so on the money with this. 3249669 2008-11-05T10:33:11-05:00 2 DC scm650 Washington 599792 12 I agree with the idea for an amendment: SEPARATION OF SPORTS OF STATE! We have enough problems with the likes of jerry jones and daniel snyder screwing up our teams, we do not need a cadre of DC based dirt bags helping out. 3249604 2008-11-05T10:20:59-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/571/621/thumb/desean.jpg 393 _PHILLY_PHAN Puerto Rico 572101 11 Go head pres Obama.... You should of posted up McCain...lol... 3249393 2008-11-05T09:16:39-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/576/543/thumb/bourbon.jpg 581 NC Bourbon:TheAnswer Titletown 577083 10 The E:60 story last night about him and Reggie Love (Obama's Bodyman) was pretty cool. Obama taking Hoosiers Set-Shots without leaving the ground, and Reggie Love bashing on some poor guys at the local YMCA with a blackberry on his hip. It was pretty funny. 3248414 2008-11-05T07:16:51-05:00 2 NJ dungears Nutley 599475 7 Obama should stay away from sports after scoring a 37 in 7 frames of bowling. 3247826 2008-11-05T09:11:42-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/845/22/thumb/1282new_storyimage5218509_full.jpg 180 OH nahlij1 Galloway 84822 Obama should stay away from sports after scoring a 37 in 7 frames of bowling. 9 If I'm great at basketball, but can't ice-skate a lick, do I have to stay away from sports? Who cares if he can't bowl....that's a dating game.....when he could dunk on your **** and impress all of the chick. Besides, McCain wouldn't even try to bowl, with that one smaller arm he has.... 3248376 2008-11-05T00:28:21-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/585/507/thumb/Mondo.jpg 12761 HQ Mondo Jay Fan Nation 586107 3 in the picture he's using some white guy. just like real life. 3246385 2008-11-05T08:34:30-05:00 6913 MD eugenemcgirt Nottingham 540699 in the picture he's using some white guy. just like real life. 8 That's funny lol 3247976 2008-11-05T07:16:51-05:00 2 NJ dungears Nutley 599475 7 Obama should stay away from sports after scoring a 37 in 7 frames of bowling. 3247826 2008-11-05T03:37:17-05:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/109/47/thumb/m_a55022e11631f95571554f749e2feeb4_1__1_.jpg 203 PA IRISH-DOC 10967 6 Black N Gold..... Yes We Can!!!!! 3246893 15 <div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/ftr.obama.ap.jpg" alt="Ftr" width="298" height="300" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Barack Obama loves his pickup hoops.<br />AP</div> </div> <p>I never thought there was a connection between politics and sports. Sure many politicians have played sports, watched sports and talked about sports when they weren't on the campaign trail, but I never thought there was a tangible connection between the two. Until this year.</p> <p>Senator <strong>Barack Obama</strong> and Senator <strong>John McCain</strong> made no secret about their unabashed love of sports early on in this race and made themselves accessible to sports mediums like no other candidates before them. They made calls into sports radio talk shows, spoke during halftime of Monday Night Football, attended sporting events, Obama played pick-up basketball with anyone who dared challenge him and both candidates even answered <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/11/04/obama.mccain/index.html" target="_blank">some sports questions from me </a>this week, which I guess shows how desperate both were to get any last votes on Election Day.</p> <p>While I initially believed that this sports connection was nothing more than a trivial side note, I soon realized that it was so much more. I never felt more of a connection to the candidates than while listening to them talk about sports. It was one of the few times I viewed them as regular people rather than filibustering presidential candidates and felt I was actually on par (or at least in the same ballpark) with them in terms of the subject matter. I may not know how to fix the economy or end the war in Iraq, but I have a few theories on how to set up a college football playoff.</p> <p>When I spoke with an Obama spokesperson this morning after SI.com's interview with both candidates was posted, I asked how Obama was doing and she told me he had just left to play a pick-up basketball game at a gym on the west side of Chicago, a tradition he began during the Democratic primary campaign. While McCain didn't play basketball, he was tracking the Monday Night Football game the previous night while he campaigned and couldn't have been happy with the final result. Not because he's a Redskins fan (he supports the Cardinals) but because of the infamous Redskins Rule. Starting in 1936, if the Redskins won their last home game before the election, the incumbent party stayed in party. That rule was broken in 2004, when both the Redskins and <strong>John Kerry</strong> lost. On Monday the Redskins lost 23-6 to the Steelers, meaning McCain would likely lose as well.</p> <p>Although the presidency will not be in McCain's future if the Redskins Rule and more importantly early projections hold up, he, like Obama, has at least made a connection with the American people through sports -- once again proving that sports are truly one of the few things in this world that can bridge the gap between race, gender, religion, age and political affiliation.&nbsp;</p> <p>Now that the race is over, what did you think of both candidates reaching out to sports fans in this election? Did it matter that they were on ESPN as well as CNN and that they sat down with Time as well as Sports Illustrated? Did that make any difference to you on Election Day?</p> http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/396/7/thumb/markazi_arash.jpg 118 CA Arash Markazi Los Angeles 3987 20481 <div class="photo_container image_right" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/ftr.obama.ap.jpg" alt="Ftr" width="298" height="300" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: left;">Barack Obama loves his pickup hoops.<br />AP</div> </div> <p>I never thought there was a connection between politics and sports. Sure many politicians have played sports, watched sports and talked about sports when they weren't on the campaign trail, but I never thought there was a tangible connection between the two. Until this year.</p> <p>Senator <strong>Barack Obama</strong> and Senator <strong>John McCain</strong> made no secret about their unabashed love of sports early on in this race and made themselves accessible to sports mediums like no other candidates before them. They made calls into sports radio talk shows, spoke during halftime of Monday Night Football, attended sporting events, Obama played pick-up basketball with anyone who dared challenge him and both candidates even answered <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/11/04/obama.mccain/index.html" target="_blank">some sports questions from me </a>this week, which I guess shows how desperate both were to get any last votes on Election Day.</p>