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How's President Obama Doing With His NCAA Picks?
March 23, 2009 11:15 AM
As long as the president's putting some light-hearted stuff out there -- his NCAA picks, as reported by our colleagues at ESPN -- we shall cover it.
If for no other reason than as a brief respite from all these banking and economic and war plans.
So how's President Obama looking as the nation's basketball fans prepare for the Sweet 16?
Not awful.
It looked iffy there after Round One of the NCAA tournament.
Thankfully the Stock Market wasn't open by the time it was all done; no doubt some jittery traders (and CNBC commentators?) would blame the sinking Dow on the president's inability to correctly predict the winner in 13 out of 32 games, including two big upsets.
The President had picked 4th-seed Wake Forest to make it past round one. But Wake was highest seeded team to fall, losing badly -- 84-69 -- to No. 13 Cleveland State.
He'd also picked No. 5 seed Florida State, which narrowly lost in overtime to 12th seeded Wisconsin.
Plus he incorrectly predicted that the better-ranked team would win in the following games.
#8 Ohio State would beat #9 Siena (Siena, 74-72);
#5 Utah would beat #12 Arizona (Arizona, 84-71);
#6 West Virginia would beat #11 Dayton (Dayton, 68-60);
#7 Boston College would beat #10 USC (USC, 72-55);
#8 BYU would beat #9 Texas A&M (Texas A&M, 79-66);
#5 Illinois would beat #12 W. Kentucky (W. Kentucky, 76-72);
#7 Clemson would beat #10 Michigan (Michigan, 62-59);
And that:
#9 Butler would beat #8 LSU (LSU, 75-71);
#9 Tennessee would beat #8 Oklahoma State (Oklahoma State, 77-75);
And he predicted two upsets that never happened:
#11 Temple would beat #6 Arizona State (Arizona State, 66-57); and
#11 VCU would beat #6 UCLA (UCLA, 65-64).
Interesting that twice Mr. Obama bet against schools from the home state of his former opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. (And in this instance, if not in bigger face-offs, Mr. McCain won.)
After that first round, the President ranked lower than 95% of his fellow participants in ESPN's pool.
Ouch.
But by Sunday, after the buzzer sounded in the final game of Round 2, President Obama's picks looked much better -- he'd correctly chosen 14 of the final sweet 16.
He's in the 53rd percentile now -- slightly better than in the middle.
Most of the teams the president had bet against in Round One were defeated in Round Two.
His early bets against Xavier and Arizona are the only picks still haunting him. As of now.
And isn't that what the president is always saying, it's important to get the long-term bigger picture right and not get caught up in the day-to-day games?
Anyway, on to the Sweet 16.
- jpt
March 23, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (31)
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My tax dollars at work.........thanks barrack.
Posted by: ReallyMeanIt | Mar 24, 2009 4:29:49 PM
Lessee..the dude goes chalk from the Sweet 16 on. Hell, my wife did that and she knows little about basketball. Pick the higher seeds? Man!, that's hard!
Posted by: Dave | Mar 23, 2009 10:31:18 PM
Well I copied down President Obama's picks and sent them in with my picks...Obama is currently in 2nd to last place...I'm in last! So he's not doing so good! And neither am I! haha
Posted by: Alissa | Mar 23, 2009 6:46:59 PM
What a difference a day makes...LOL all the hot air balloons are a little weak today, these are only half hearted jabs..don't lose heart maybe america will fail tomorrow and you will have something to cheer about again....
Posted by: cowgirl | Mar 23, 2009 6:41:48 PM
Very good Jake, we all need a break from the heavy lifting....
Posted by: cowgirl | Mar 23, 2009 6:35:16 PM
Howard B, I'm not right wing, but I am a card-carrying Republican, which I realize in your book is the same thing, so I'll respond to your taunt: "Wall Street is up 500 points today in the wake of the bank plan announcement. Home sales are up. Let's see what the right wing will have to say about this news."
What do I have to say about this? For openers, I'm glad things are improving, especially in the area of home sales. I was pleased the market upturn, given that my portfolio is worth 1/3 of what it was worth last year. It will take many many days like today for my spouse and I to begin to recover our investment in the market. (And by that, I mean investment, not profit. Not only is my portfolio worth approximately 32% of what it was worth at its high, it is also worth a considerable amount less than the money I spent to accumulate it. I am not just failing to make any gains on my investment, I am losing money in the market-- big time.)
But I recall that our fearless leader, the O man, told us not to pay too much attention to the daily ups-and-downs of the market, as it's "sort of like a tracking poll in politics." If I'm not to blame Obama and Timmy when it goes down, I'm not going to praise them when it goes up, now am I?
I am pleased whenever I see signs of improvement in the economy. I want our country to succeed economically beyond all our wildest dreams. Sorry, but I do not think the president's economic policies are going to make that any easier, and will in fact make it harder than it needs to be. However, I'm rooting for our country. So I'm pleased by today's news. Sorry to disappoint you, Howard, honey.
Posted by: moderate | Mar 23, 2009 5:21:27 PM
Wall Street is up 500 points today in the wake of the bank plan announcement. Home sales are up. Let's see what the right wing will have to say about this news.
Posted by: Howard Beale | Mar 23, 2009 4:45:24 PM
oxycon: those are LIES. At no time during the campaign did Obama refer to McCain a "senile old man."
Posted by: Howard Beale | Mar 23, 2009 4:43:20 PM
Why must you insist of trying to make Obama just one of the guys? I wish he'd worked as hard picking his cabinet full of Clinton has beens as he worked on his NCAA bracket.
Posted by: zeke | Mar 23, 2009 4:18:20 PM
This topic brings to mind Michael Wolff's piece in the current Vanity Fair:
"Barack Obama is a Terrible Bore"
$9,300,000,000,000 of unpaid debt. 9.3 Trillion Dollars. That's how much this guy is putting us & our great-grandchildren into debt for. And we're supposed to be mollified by meaningless college basketball discussion?
OBAMA = FAILURE
Posted by: JD | Mar 23, 2009 3:40:43 PM
Actually, Michelle, he has taken the bull by the horns and is, in fact, already showing signs of progress in a shocklingly short period of time.
Posted by: silky | Mar 23, 2009 2:49:14 PM
"More of the same hard hitting journalism from ABC.This is the same people that asked Obama other thoughtfull questions,such as,what kind of dog are you getting and how about that swing set?ABC you need to drop the fluff from your reports and report the news that matter to most Americans.Tax cheats in Congress,bailouts left and right,Wars going on,Economy in shambles,and you call yourselves newsmen,good grief."
While the standard reporting and the three blogs here certainly cover most of what you're refering, I suggest you just cut to the chase and start your own news outlet in order to get it just exactly to your own specs. Otherwise, quit whining about process.
Posted by: silky | Mar 23, 2009 2:47:31 PM
He and I got stumped on a bunch of the same games. I don't feel so bad now!
Posted by: HeidiL | Mar 23, 2009 2:46:26 PM
Emperor Barry has no clothes. He should resign. He cannot and is not doing the J-O-B.
America cannot afford his massive spending and
incompetence.
Posted by: Michelle | Mar 23, 2009 2:42:25 PM
Anyway, 14 out of 16 is solid, but the important question is does he still have all of his elite 8 teams.
Posted by: silky | Mar 23, 2009 2:40:41 PM
More of the same hard hitting journalism from ABC.This is the same people that asked Obama other thoughtfull questions,such as,what kind of dog are you getting and how about that swing set?ABC you need to drop the fluff from your reports and report the news that matter to most Americans.Tax cheats in Congress,bailouts left and right,Wars going on,Economy in shambles,and you call yourselves newsmen,good grief.
Posted by: Johnny L | Mar 23, 2009 2:37:26 PM
"Too bad the President is more concerned about basketball scores than he is about the casualties occurring in Afhaganistan. Guess its more important to be entertained than it is to develop a coherent plan to achieve victory in a far away land where real Americans are dying and being injured on a daily basis. A Commander in Chief we can believe in!"
It's called reality....look into it. It takes all of 5 minutes to fill out a bracket and all of no time to have somebody else write about it.
Posted by: silky | Mar 23, 2009 2:24:54 PM
Nice post Jack!
14 out 16 teams, that's pretty good of our President. I enjoy reading this. Mix of serious and light stuff.
Posted by: Basel20 | Mar 23, 2009 2:23:25 PM
Jake: Thanks for the respite. It's good to have a break from time to time!
Posted by: A Dose of Common Sense | Mar 23, 2009 1:21:56 PM
Too bad the President is more concerned about basketball scores than he is about the casualties occurring in Afhaganistan. Guess its more important to be entertained than it is to develop a coherent plan to achieve victory in a far away land where real Americans are dying and being injured on a daily basis. A Commander in Chief we can believe in!
Posted by: jim | Mar 23, 2009 1:09:59 PM
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