Is the national sports obsession affecting the Democratic race? Woods, Jeter...Obama?

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Sports of The Times
The Primary Season Is Embracing Sports Images
By GEORGE VECSEY
Published: March 2, 2008


(Punahoe Schools, via AP)
Senator Barack Obama played high school basketball in Hawaii, and he continues to play at age 46 whenever he can.

....The endless presidential primary season — kind of like the Stanley Cup playoffs but without the scruffy spring beards — has made me wonder if the national sports obsession is affecting the Democratic race.

According to the most recent CBS News/New York Times poll, Senator Barack Obama’s support among white men has grown to 61 percent, from 23 percent on Jan. 8, while Senator Hillary Clinton’s support has dropped to 33 percent, from 38. Just thinking out loud here, but is it possible that the younger generations of white men feel familiar with sports stars of African-American heritage, and this carries over to Obama?

“He has a different background and he is an academic and he plays ball,” said Michael Dawson, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. People who have read Obama’s touching coming-of-age book, “Dreams From My Father,” know that he played high school basketball in Hawaii, and that he continues to play hoops whenever he can. It’s also hard to miss his limber 46-year-old frame. “People know he can play basketball well enough for an amateur,” Dawson said. “It’s something like the Kennedys playing touch football on the lawn.”...

“Whites have become much more accustomed to having black professionals tend to their needs (doctors, lawyers, accountants, business consultants, etc.),” Donna Brazile, a prominent Democrat and commentator for CNN, wrote in a recent e-mail message. “For those who see the job from that view, why not have a black (superstar) politician represent them in the statehouse, White House or halls of Congress?”

My guess is that Obama is the beneficiary of an unspoken familiarity from the other side of glowing television sets all over America. Some portion of the electorate feels that it knows him, and that he is O.K. “Many black candidates have suffered from the phenomenon of white voters’ voting for white candidates once inside the booth, but Obama has transcended that so far,” said Michael D’Innocenzo, a professor of history at Hofstra University....

Obama is of mixed ancestry — a white mother from Kansas, a father from Kenya — like some admirable sports figures, including Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, James Blake and Herman Edwards. Although agreeing that mixed ancestry might be a factor, Dawson noted that “Woods and Obama have a similar self-image, that it’s not about race.” “It’s a central part of Obama’s campaign,” Dawson said. “He can transcend race.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/sports/02vecsey.html?ref=sports

[revolve]

1. He's black & plays basketball

that must be why they are voting for him