Politics and sports, especially team sports, have a lot in common. Both involve competition. Both are covered by journalists who love the activity but cannot, or will not, play the game. Both involve teams, and both are closely followed by people who believe that they know more than the professionals.
Most bloggers, even ones who follow politics closely, have never run for office and/or managed a campaign. They don't have the practical experience of people who have done both. This makes them very similar to sports fans. How often have you heard a friend who is a sports fanatic tell you how stupid a coach is, or a team's general manager, or a player, or how bad their decisions were or are?
The same is true, of course, among political junkies. Most of the bloggers who follow politics on the Internet are passionate about their opinions. They want their side to win. As mentioned above, though, they don't have the practical experience of actually doing politics as opposed to talking about politics.
This was brought to mind by this post by Arianna Huffington. Here's a woman who has never managed a political campaign, has only run for office one time herself, and was soundly beaten. She is presuming to give advice to Barack Obama whose team just beat the Clintons and who has both won and lost political campaigns. Which one would you trust when it comes to knowing how to get elected?
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1 comment:
Well said. People love to give their opinion regardless of how baseless it is. It is one way that people display their passion for a sport. They are not often questioned on these opinions and will never be in the position where they have to prove themself so they feel comfortble making bold statements. Oh well. Sporting events would be less colourful without these people :)
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