Obama Misses the (Extra) Point

I read a forum post referencing this opinion piece. Here is the opening excerpt:

Politicians pose as the ultimate experts. They may never have worked in an industry or studied an issue before, but after few months of time on a topic they know everything: the types of cars that should be produced, the science of global warming, and how much doctors should charge for different types of surgery.

Outside of studying law, few in Congress even have backgrounds that are closely related to some of the issues covered by government. Just take the Senate this year, almost half, 45, are attorneys. Only one doctor, four farmers, 13 business people, seven teachers, four professors (all law, and three are listed as just adjuncts), and virtually all the others list their past experience as professional politician. No members of the Senate are scientists or economists. One member of the Senate played professional sports, and another owned a professional sports team.

A president and members of Congress deal with thousands of complicated topics each year. But is there anything politicians consider off limits?

Apparently not. Take President-elect Barack Obama’s foray last week into how college football should be run. Obama told CBS’s 60 Minutes:

"I think any sensible person would say that, if you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear, decisive winner, that we should be creating a playoff system. Eight teams, that would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would -- it would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."

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I wanted to share a couple of insightful comments from that forum that really struck home with me.

generally's comment:
I think it says a lot about a person to look at what he spends his time thinking about and talking about.

meadsjn's comment:
The obsession with spectator sports and entertainment icons have reduced our national dialogue to jeers and cheers. Few people among the general public, even among educated professionals, can follow a train of thought needed to read or listen to a complete sentence.

These are people who vote. And they know less than nothing about the candidates or issues. They have picked a side, based on who knows what, and they cheer and jeer with their vote.

Our next season does not look good at all.