Thursday, November 06, 2008

More on Obamaball: The Arnovitz Theory

Barack Obama has won North Carolina, officially. And I'd contend it was partly from his basketball obsession.

I call it the "Arnovitz Theory," inspired by an exchange I had with super-hoops blogger Kevin Arnovitz, who is guest-blogging over at TrueHoop and was nice enough to link to my "Obamaball" theory from yesterday.

The Arnovitz Theory holds that Barack Obama's wins in Indiana and North Carolina -- incredibly, "flipping" both traditionally "red" states to "blue" -- can be attributed at least indirectly (but perhaps directly) to his two most high-profile campaign events related to his love of basketball:

*In Indiana, Obama issued that challenge, offering to play 3-on-3 with whoever registered the most new Indiana voters.

*In North Carolina, Obama scored a P.R. coup by playing hoops with the Tar Heels.

In hoops-crazy states where basketball transcends traditional party politics, those moments may well have each been THE defining moment for Obama when it came to wooing a majority of the voters in each state.

Folks talk about Obama being "post-racial" or "post-ideological" or "post-partisan," but -- in reality -- maybe he's just got game in the post.

Obamaball.

-- D.S.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's also important to note that because Hillary (and many of us bemoaned at the time) stayed in the race all the way until May 6, the date of the Democratic Primaries in both NC and Ind.

Because the race was still being contested, Obamaphiles were actually forced by Clinton to organize, grow, and campaign in those states.

So those basketball events are nice in theory, but I think we can thank Hillary for helping Barack lay the groundwork to flip those states in 08.

Unknown said...

This is a joke, right? I mean, yeah, both states are known to sports fans for college bball. But come on, Dan. MAYBE people would look at him as a legit candidate because of his bball cred, but even if there are people who might like him more because of this, no one would actually VOTE for him because of it. I will say that I agree with your basic premise that bball will be more relevant with him in office, though.