Presidential politics and sports

Thanks to James Taranto, I found out two interesting things today. I strongly suggest subscribing to his daily email called "Best of the Web". (The following are directly lifted from the 28 October 2004 edition)

• Back in August, Kerry had this to say (link in MP3): "We've been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and . . . if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I'm going to take the White House."

No shock there, he sold out the US Military in 1970, and now he has sold out his "favorite" baseball team, which leaves one question. Is his favorite Red Sox player still Eddie Yost, or does he now prefer Manny Ortez?

• On Tuesday we discussed the "Redskins rule," according to which if the Washington NFL team wins its last game before a presidential election, the incumbent party prevails; otherwise, it goes down to defeat. "As in sports," we noted, quoting an earlier article of ours, "streaks and slumps in politics go on only until they end."

  Well, it turns out this particular streak already ended, eight years ago. According to blogger Justin Taylor, on whose posting we relied, the Redskins beat the Indianapolis Colts in 1996's last pre-election game, and the incumbent, Bill Clinton, was re-elected.

  It's true of course that Clinton won, and the Redskins did beat the Colts, 31-16--but that game took place Oct. 27, eight years ago yesterday. On Nov. 3, the 7-1 Skins lost to the 5-3 Buffalo Bills, 38-13--and the incumbent president won two days later.

So much for that straw being grasped at by the Democrats this evening...