Reflections on a Super Week - Obama & NY Giant Wins

The Realities of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday

By: Dwayne Crenshaw
February 6, 2008

In what has amounted to a “Super Week” in America, record numbers of us watched the Super Bowl and turned out to vote. Despite our worries about the economic downturn, a lingering war in Iraq and severe, and in some places, tragic weather we came together to enjoy our nation’s premiere sporting event and express our best hopes for the future of our country at the ballot box. It was a Super Week.

The realities of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday extend further into the competitions and competitors themselves. On Sunday, it was the 12-point favorite New England Patriots on the verge of completing their perfect season against the underdog New York Giants. Tuesday, it was the former First Lady and two-term New York Senator Hillary Clinton who for over the last year was seemingly the perfect candidate and inevitable Democratic Party nominee against the upstart junior Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Like the New York Giants, Barack Obama was an underdog as the available polls in every state except Illinois showed him trailing the favorite Hillary Clinton by margins of 15 percent to as many as 30 percent as recently as two weeks ago. Then the competitions happened and the underdogs won!

The New York Giants scored a last minute 3-point victory. In a last minute surge, Barack Obama won more states (13 of 21), more delegates and by the time the votes are all counted, perhaps more popular votes. Both of these upset victories are undeniable. Well, at least that’s the case with the Super Bowl. This is where the similarities between the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday start to fall apart. The difference is political spin.

Can you imagine our disbelief if Patriot quarterback Tom Brady or the commentators on ESPN suggested the Patriots actually won the Super Bowl because they kept it close; held it to a virtual tie. Or that the Patriots won because on the big things in football they were ahead – more first downs, fewer yards penalized and their quarterback threw more completions for more yards. Laughable.

It is also laughable that Hillary Clinton, her campaign spin team and the talking heads at CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the other news outlets are suggesting that Clinton’s loss was virtually a tie because she won the big states of California and her own state of New York (I imagine the good people of Massachusetts still believe the New England Patriots are the best team ever). And in California, the huge head start Hillary Clinton enjoyed in absentee and early voting before the campaign really began in the state is akin to the advantage the New England Patriots would have had if they were able to videotape the New York Giants play calls during the Super Bowl.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick reflecting on the Super Bowl commented, "It's a disappointing end to a lot of good things that happened this season. We played a lot of good football, but we're certainly disappointed about the way it ended. We came so close, but it just didn't work out.” The same kind of honest reflection from the Clinton campaign and the political pundits about Obama’s historic win on Super Tuesday would be a super ending to a Super Week.