Football and the GOP race

There's an axiom within NFL circles (first related to us years ago by an ace sportswriter-turned-Hollywood type who said he heard it from Oakland Raiders' boss Al Davis): in choosing winners in the latter part of the season, go with the teams that have the most riding on the games.

So far, that would have been the best guide for betting on the Republican presidential race.

Mike Huckabee had to win the Iowa caucuses to prove he truly could play with the big boys.

John McCain had to win the New Hampshire primary to confirm that he still is a contender.

Mitt Romney had to win Tuesday's primary in Michigan to shake his also-ran label (and avoid the embarrassment of losing in his native state).

So with Saturday's South Carolina primary looming as the next big GOP showdown, who has to win?

Fred Thompson, who has been campaigning nowhere else of late.

Oh well, this is where the phrase "an exception to every rule" probably comes into play.

-- Don Frederick

January 16, 2008 in Campaigning, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Presidential Campaign, Republican Politics, South Carolina | Permalink

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Comments

Well, that explains not only Rudy's insistance that he's still a contender since he has so much riding on Florida...

but also the success of the Chargers, who need to win big in order to get the push for their new stadium.

Posted by: politicalsanity | January 17, 2008 at 01:19 AM

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Don Frederick has served as an editor helping guide coverage of every presidential election since 1984. He is a third-generation Washingtonian, so watching the political world comes naturally to him.

A graduate of Northwestern University, he was a reporter for newspapers in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas before joining the (now-defunct) Los Angeles Herald Examiner in 1983. Hired by The Times in 1989, he has worked in its Washington bureau since 1996 — a perch providing him a close-up view of the impeachment of President Clinton, the government's response to 9/11 and the day-to-day wrangling of the two major parties.

Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000.

A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.