Sports and The Election : What a Mix

The next president of the United States will be trying to swing some more voters on the night before the biggest day of their lives.

Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will be on ESPN during Monday Night Football with Chris Berman at halftime of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins game. It seems like the candidates are pandering to the sports audience heavily, as their D-Day nears.

The sports market has been flooded with politics in the last weeks between the World Series in baseball and Monday Night Football in the NFL.

Before game five of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays, Senator Obama purchased a half hour of presidential ad time on FOX, CBS and NBC. In reaction to Obama’s outcry to swing some more votes via commercial, McCain went on with Larry King on Larry Kings Live to shed more light on to why he should be the next president of the United States.

During the interview with Chris Berman at halftime of the Monday Night game, Obama said his best asset was that he “does not get to high or too low when things are going down ” and also stated that if elected president that would be a great quality to have. On a lighter note when asked what the one thing he would change about sports, the senator said he would change the college football playoff system. He once again reiterated how important it was for all to go out to vote and for the voice of the people be heard.

When Berman asked McCain what one thing he would change in sports, McCain said he would do everything he could do to get performance enhancing drugs out of professional and minor league sports. He said that performance enhancing drugs were awful and can be affecting kids playing in high school today who are the future for professional sports. The best advice McCain ever received from someone in sports was to “always have to do the honorable thing even when people are not looking, because you will be looking.” McCain jokingly stated about what he wants voters to be thinking inside the polls quoting a famous touchdown call, “he-could-go-all-the-way…to the white house.”

With only a few hours until the polls open, Senator Obama and Senator McCain have done all they can to persuade the public into making the right choice. They are even trying to get last second votes from football fans across America. And it’s only fitting that this come on a game with the Steelers, because Pennsylvania is a swing state after all.