A raft of Republicans that included Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani and a host of Fox News pundits lambasted the president for filling out his NCAA 2014 Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket ?on Tuesday March 18th. The critique could have been copied on the same Xerox machine concentrating on the new budget still to be submitted by the President.
Senator Graham elucidated his concern by saying:
“Do you realize he’s never received one vote for any of his previous budgets? If he can pick one winner right in the brackets, he’s trumped what he’s able to do on getting votes for his own budget.”
The President’s Final Four picks included the Louisville Cardinals, the Florida Gators, Arizona Wildcats, and the Michigan State Spartans. Obama picked Michigan State to win the tournament.
The President may have been a little conservative in his selections since Florida is ranked as the Number 1 team in the country and holds the top seed for the tournament. The Florida Gators were therefore a pretty safe pick. His choice of the Arizona Wildcats was also a bit of a conservative pick, probably the only time you will hear the President referred to as a conservative. Arizona has been a strong team all year so choosing them for the Final Four was again a safe move.
Both the Louisville Cardinals and the Michigan State Spartans were also relatively safe picks. While they are only Number 4 seeds they both seem to be on a real hot streak. Louisville is coming off a national title in 2013 and was in the running for the Number 1 seed this year.
Michigan State is an example of the President picking the underdog in this four way match up. They were not considered stand outs this year but are a consistently competitive team during the tournament season. ??The President is criticized as being too conservative in these picks, perhaps the Pres is concerned this may tarnish his Liberal standing.
2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Bracket
The President has filled out a NCAA Bracket for the last four years. His love of basketball could be compared to those images one sees of President Eisenhower playing golf on the White House lawn.
Not to be out done, Rush Limbaugh entered the fray on this one. Rush Limbaugh weighed in to the battle making it clear that the President’s actions threatened the territorial integrity of Russian border countries.
“Well, here’s a headline that says it all: ‘Vladimir Putin Redraws Russian Borders; Obama Unveils Bracket Picks.’ Does that not say it all? Vladimir Putin is reassembling the Soviet Union, and while all that’s going on, Obama is filling out his March Madness bracket picks. In fact, that is such a big story that CNN broke away from the coverage of the Malaysian airliner disappearance to report on Obama filling out his NCAA March Madness bracket picks.”
Jason Easley of Politicus USA responded to the boisterous radio shock jock’s statement and other Republican hand wringing over the President’s bracket picks by saying:
“Republicans have completely lost their minds over President Obama’s bracket. No one, but the most diehard of Obama haters, would see the president filling out a tourney bracket as the moment when America reached its valley of steepest decline.”
Edited/Published by: SB
