Opinion: The awful sacrifices Barack Obama must make to become president

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The sacrifices these presidential candidates are willing to make to occupy a white house is truly amazing.

Word today from our Swamp blogging colleague John McCormick, on the campaign plane of Democrat Barack Obama, is that he didn’t get to watch his favorite Chicago White Sox get dumped from the baseball playoffs.

Probably the nation’s highest-profile ChiSox fan, Obama was apparently too busy with political business to watch his team get knocked out last night.

Does the country really want that kind of lack of devotion in the Oval Office?

According to chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, ‘The senator was actually working during the game, but was dismayed to hear the news.’

Axelrod spoke on a flight from Asheville, N.C., where Obama has been campaigning and in debate preparations since Saturday evening, to Nashville for tonight’s townhall debate-style presidential forum.

On the other hand, with Illinois’ electoral votes presumably already up on his scoreboard, maybe Obama really did watch and root for Chicago but just doesn’t want to offend one single Devil Rays fan/voter from the crucial state of Florida.

Did Obama see any of the Sox playoff games?

‘He saw very little,’ said Axelrod, also a Chicagoan. ‘You know, running for president is a demanding thing, man. You gotta make sacrifices.’’ As a long-suffering Cubs fan, Axelrod should know.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, didn’t have to worry about such athletic distractions.

His D’backs were, well, already out on the golf course.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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