As we in Buffalo know very well, there is frequently a close connection between politics and sports. After all, some of the biggest names in local politics first rose to prominence through athletics: former Congressman Hank Nowak, former Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello (both one-time Canisius College basketball stars), former Congressman Jack Kemp, and former Erie County Executive Ed Rutkowski (a pair of ex-Buffalo Bills), to name just a few.
Sports, politics and TV came together in a big way Monday evening, as the half-time show on the Election Eve “Monday Night Football” game featured a pre-taped segment in which presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama fielded questions from sportscaster Chris Berman.
Presidential candidates making “soft” TV appearances probably goes back to 1968 when Richard Nixon, running for president, appeared on the popular youth-oriented TV comedy, Laugh-In. Nixon was not considered to be very popular with the show’s mostly young audience, but he agreed to go on camera saying one of the show’s catchphrases, “Sock it to me?” Nixon’s opponent, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, declined an invitation to appear. Humphrey lost a very close race, and many observers thought that his refusal to appear on Laugh-In made a difference.
The use of television, outside of televised debates and news shows, has been very evident in this year’s presidential election, starting with John McCain announcing his candidacy on Late Night with David Letterman. More recently, the Republican ticket tried to reach the 18 to 49 audience through appearances on Saturday Night Live. A show this past October which featured Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin drew more than 13 million viewers, and was the highest-rated “SNL” since 1994.
A combination of TV and sports was even more attractive for the candidates. A Monday Night Football appearance by the presidential candidates the night before the election not only held the promise of being a big ratings winner, but it also gave both men a chance to demonstrate that they love sports as much as the TV audience. While sometimes former athletes are stereotyped as “dumb jocks,” in politics it seems that candidates with sports backgrounds are viewed as “regular guys” who can relate to the common man, and vice versa. Neither Obama nor McCain were great athletes but they both love sports, and they wanted voters to know that.
Not surprisingly, nothing ground-breaking emerged from the interviews. Both candidates paid tribute to their high school coaches. Asked by Berman what they would like to change about sports, Obama said it is “about time that we had playoffs in college football”; McCain advocated “significant action to prevent the spread and use of performance-enhancing substances.”
Although the interviews with the presidential candidates reached millions of viewers the night before the big election, it provided nothing of substance to those tuned in to ESPN on Monday night. Both candidates were probably satisfied that they enhanced their images with sports fans, but nothing was revealed that could be expected to help an undecided voter make his or her decision. Perhaps if the segments were handled by someone from the ABC News department rather than a sportscaster, the result might have been more informative and enlightening. On the other hand, if someone other than Chris Berman were to conduct the interviews, perhaps neither campaign would have consented to be interviewed. Still, while Chris Berman will never be confused with Mike Wallace, I had expected him to ask questions that were a little more insightful than “If you could change one thing in sports, what would that be?” and “If, as President, you could attend one sports event a year, what would that be?”
The half-time feature had the potential to inform millions of football fans, many of whom might have been too busy following the travails of Tom Brady and Payton Manning to pay much attention to Barrack Obama and John McCain. As it was, the feature was mildly entertaining, and not much more. I suppose it was better than showing a few minutes of NFL highlights–but not by much.
So who was the best politician on Monday Night? Probably Chris Berman. In closing his interview with McCain, he talked about “your Arizona Cardinals that are in first place by — a mile at this point.” Berman then told the Republican candidate that “maybe that’s your omen for the Super Bowl and for tomorrow.” But when the Obama interview was being concluded, Berman told the Democrat: “Your Chicago Bears are in first place. Maybe that’s the omen you need for tomorrow.”
I guess that, if you’re Chris Berman, you can have it both ways.
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