Just like sports, only politics

by: Jason Springer

Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 09:51:54 AM EST

While Jon Runyan winds down his playing career in San Diego, he's trying to get a crash course on politics and campaiging. He has decided that his new career path could be just like the prior one:

Runyan, meanwhile, says he'll ramp up his campaign efforts after the Chargers' season is done. He said he hopes he can concentrate on football until the Super Bowl in February.
He said he has learned already that pro sports and politics have one big thing in common: "Dealing with the scrutiny of everybody watching your every move all the time."

I'm sure there are plenty more similarities we could find if we looked hard enough. He may be surprised to know that they go to take you out at the knees in politics too.

Jason Springer :: Just like sports, only politics

Tags: jon runyan, George Gilmore, nj-3, NJ3, John Adler, Chris Connors, mo hill, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

Just like sports, only politics | 2 comments

Other parallels: (0.00 / 0)

Only two sides.

Some teams pay a lot of money for their teams members.

The false appearance of unbiased referees.

Participants are not always the brightest people in the world.

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

by: Jersey Shore John @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 14:56:55 PM UTC

No rules (0.00 / 0)

Wait until Runyan finds out all the unpredictable variables and nut cases he has to deal with. After spending six months in Jersey politics he'll be ready to go back to football.

One variable he has to deal with are the whackjobs in Ocean County, a group of rightwing misfits and malcontents who call themselves "Traditional Republicans" and whose candidates two years ago came within a few points of derailing the machine-picked favorites. Their congressional candidate, an unreconstructed Reaganista, Justin Murphy got 30% of the Ocean county vote in the primary. Murphy says he'll run again this year and criticized Runyan for being pro-choice.

Runyan is ill-prepared to manage a respectable campaign against a seasoned veteran like John Adler, and my guess is after having to fend off attacks from the wingnut fringe in the primary, ala Chris Myers two years ago, he'll be too weak to effectively take on Adler.

Also, assuming the wingnuts go after Runyan in the primary and make a strong showing, my guess is many of them will stay home in November. Republicans need a heavy turnout on their side to have a chance to defeat Adler, and if the wingnut insurgents are successful in slapping the RINO label on Runyan that turnout may be alot smaller.

http://christiegonewild.blogsp...

by: ken bank @ Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 21:12:05 PM UTC