Thursday, February 3 2005
THE SOTU AND THE SUPERBOWL: I'm not going to bore you with a review of the speech last night - the President finished just over 14 hours ago and there's already been enough commentary written about it to choke a horse. Instead, I'll bore you with something completely different.

My first thought after Bush finished speaking last night was, "he did it again." Did what again, you ask? "Outperformed expectations" and "delivered a strong performance" are two of the most commonly heard cliches.

But then it occurred to me how silly it was to think in those terms. Bush ALWAYS delivers. In fact, with the exception of the first presidential debate last year I can't think of another example when Bush didn't come through in big moments. And he's faced more than his share of big moments over the last four years.

Now switch gears with me and think about the Superbowl. Think about the players who will be taking the field this Sunday. If you had to pick a player who reminded you most of President Bush and the way he conducts himself, who would it be? It seems to me the answer is so obvious it verges on making the question rhetorical.

Tom Brady isn't the most physically gifted player around. He's not flashy. He wasn't very highly regarded coming out of college (in the 2000 draft, no less). But he's a tremendous leader, a relentless competitor, and a ruthlessly disciplined and consistent player. He has developed into the league's best quarterback and even at the tender age of 27 he's already cemented his position as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Now, just for the sake of fun, consider the Democrats. Which players would they represent? The answer isn't very obvious at all. Harry Reid, who I'm sure is a very nice man, doesn't look like he should be on the field at all - unless he was a referee or a member of the chain gang.

Best case scenario for Howard Dean would be to see him as a John Gruden-type coach roaming the sidelines. Worse case Dean is a face-painted fan in the 36th row who keeps spilling his beer onto the people in front of him while ranting about how dirty the other team is.

Ted Kennedy? John Kerry? Nancy Pelosi? I don't have a clue. Hillary Clinton is currently the only figure in the party with the substance and smarts to be competitive, but at the moment she seems to be reading from a different playbook than a lot of other players on the team.

Now, I fully admit this post falls in the category of "not very serious", but I've been sick for nearly a week and frankly I'm not in the mood. But I do think this silliness is illustrative of a larger, relevant point: right now the Democrats simply do not have anyone with enough stature and charisma to compete on the national level with this President. Last night was just one more example of that fact.

To go back to the analogy one last time, the Democrats are a team without a coach and without any star players. Meanwhile, on the other side, George W. Bush just keeps moving the ball down the field and scoring touchdowns. - T. Bevan 11:35 am Link | Email | Send to a Friend