President Obama chose UNC to win it all at the NCAA Final Four tournament this year, but Kansas ended UNC’s chances with a stunning 80 to 67 victory. Last year, President Obama’s Final Four predictions were just as bad. In fact, his Final Four handicapping since he became president has been pathetic. He got one lucky break in 2009 when UNC won the tournament, but that was the only team he selected in 2009 that even made it to the Final Four.
There is a lesson in this: Obama can’t pick winners, so he should stop trying. He professes to be a lover of round ball, and he pretends to know something about the game. If he can’t pick winners in basketball, there is no way under the sun that he can pick winners in areas where he has no knowledge or expertise – energy and healthcare, for example. He and we would be better off if he stuck to what he knows best, community organizing, but he shouldn’t do it from the White House. He needs to go home to Chicago where he is among friends and comrades who need his help, because we don’t.
Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.
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