Opinion: Mediocre J.V. athlete John McCain eager to watch Olympics

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Sen. John McCain thinks it’s a swell idea that his Democratic opponent Barack Obama is taking a week off now with his family in Hawaii. And not just because it leaves the publicity all to the continuously campaigning underdog Republican candidate.

In another one of his chats with a few reporters traveling with him last night, according to The Times’ Bob Drogin, McCain admitted an eagerness to watch as much of the Olympics as possible without the imminent threat of some incoming political shells. Although he still plans a full week of campaigning.

All McCain’s got to do like the rest of us is figure out how this bizarre tape-delayed NBC time fits in with the standard time zones that humans are accustomed to.

‘You’ve got the Olympics,’ McCain said. ‘You’ve got vacation. You got people on the beach. If you were going to take a week off, this is probably an intelligent time to do it. I’ll be watching the Olympics. I’ll be watching the Olympics as much as possible.’

Like millions of American armchair sports enthusiasts, McCain will focus on the world’s highest-paid ‘amateur’ athletes, the NBA stars on the U.S. Olympic team.

‘I’ll be interested in seeing the basketball team,’ McCain added. ‘It’s sort of the standard ones. I’ll be interested in seeing how the basketball team does. How the baseball team does. You know. I like it all.

‘We’re all caught up in the excitement of it, especially us mediocre high school junior varsity athletes.’

Now, there’s something that many voters can identify with.

-- Andrew Malcolm