The following is a quick preview of the medal rounds for US Men's and Women's Basketball and what they will face as both dominant teams continue on.  It represents my personal take on it as of the results that happened last night (through the quarters of the women's draw).

I've been thinking a lot about why the Obama campaign decided to announce their VP choice through a massive text message, rather than the more traditional campaign event announcement.  Al Giordano already covered the strategic advantage, writing:

With the campaign giving every American that text-messages the letters "VP" to telephone number 62262 (that's touchtone-speak for "O-B-A-M-A") the simultaneous opportunity to be the "first to know" about his choice (and thus gathering a multitude more of voters whose cell phone numbers are in his database and will be contacted with other news, invitations, fund appeals and requests over the coming months), there would be a distinct advantage to holding off on the announcement until during the convention itself.

The difficulty inherent in this strategy is that it puts a huge amount of pressure on Obama to really "wow" his supporters with his VP pick.  Does Obama really have a VP trick up his sleeve, I've wondered?  What's he trying to pull?

Then it hit me: (Click over the fold to read more)

I had my first chance to watch the USA men's team play this morning, and I was more than impressed. Not by their athleticism...although that's impressive enough in itself.

But I was more impressed by their selfless style of play, their enthusiasm, their character, and their desire.

A combination of the right players...and the right coach to organize them. A thing of beauty, selflessness, and a group of people working together for a common cause.

More below the fold.

College basketball is probably my favorite sport.  There are very few games that I wouldn't watch start to finish, no matter who was playing.  Of course powerhouse games - Duke/UNC, UCLA/Arizona, Georgetown/Pitt are fun.

But the underdogs - they are my secret love.  It's probably why I got on board with the Obama campaign way back in January of 2007.

And that's why I'll be rooting for Oregon State this year, even though they'll be playing my beloved UW Huskies twice.  Oregon State, you see, didn't win a single PAC 10 game last year.  And they hired someone they thought could turn the program around.  Craig Robinson - a man who happens to be Barack Obama's brother-in-law.

On August 4, Pew’s reported an increase in "Obama fatigue".  Four days later, the Senator from Illinois began a long-planned ten-day vacation.  Coincidence? Unlikely.

Since the early days of this campaign, Team Obama has demonstrated tremendous skills in clock management -- a term that will be familiar to any one who has played or watched sports such as football and basketball.

While basketball requires physical dexterity, clock management is all about planning, preparedness, strategy and intellect -- qualities we’ll find in our next president. Over the course of this campaign, Senator Obama has leveraged winning basketball insights time and again.  Have some fun...

This was the team that many of us had hoped we would see!!!
Even though they beat Turkey by 32 points, there were some glaring weaknesses yesterday that were of great concern. Those concerns were all put to rest today.

FINAL SCORE TEAM USA 120 LITHUANIA 84

Barack Obama's presidential campaign had a pivotal moment, I believe, when he sank the three-point basketball shot in front of the troops. For many voters, this kind of thing strikes all the right chords: it shows athleticism, poise, a willingness to take risk, a sense of fun, and an almost undefinable coolness that has wide popular appeal.

For Obama to even attempt the shot was risky. A three pointer is not easy to make...

Playing against Turkey this morning.

No good so far.

Athleticism on our part, but leaving their shooters wide open for 3 all the time. They got a wide open lay up due to a missed assignment. We are not close enough to close out and contest their shots. We are fouling and have poor interior defense. Poor perimeter defense too for that matter.

As part of my series of Olympics previews, I now present my report on the men's Olympic basketball competition.  What will be the story line, will the Dream Team rise again, or will it be another disappointing performance for Team USA?

Check out this Editorial cartoon in todays Sacramento Bee.

Swish! Nothing but Net!

"Yo man. Let me get this straight. You work five hours a week and they pay you 50 G’s?"

It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Calvin, who as far I know answers only to "Hot Rod," was expecting an answer, and I wasn’t sure what to say – especially since I was pretty sure that Hot Rod didn’t even know that I don’t teach in the summers.

"Dawg, I’m in the classroom five hours, but I spend a lot more time preparing for class. It’s just like out here, baby (I shove the basketball into the pit of his stomach); I only teach your ass for about an hour, but I spent years perfecting those pretty moves."

Hot Rod chuckles at the lie. I play hard, have a passable jump shot, and am a willing passer, but at 35 my quickness and jumping ability ain’t what they used to be, and they never used to be all that good. As Mister Señor Love Daddy likes to say, "that’s the truth, Ruth," but I’m not complaining – far from it. I get to hoop three or four times per week, which isn’t too bad considering that, my conversation with Hot Rod notwithstanding, teaching is just one of several professional activities that I and other university faculty juggle. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

AP - WASHINGTON - John McCain, acting through surrogates, today withdrew an earlier challenge to Barack Obama to play him in a game of one-on-one basketball on the court of his choice.

"Though it is true that Barack Obama accepted Senator McCain's challenge of last Thursday," said McCain Communications Director Jill Hazelbeck, "he took approximately 15 minutes to do so, during which Senator McCain's calendar filled up with really, really important stuff.  So, it's off.  You snooze, you lose."

OK, short and sweet folks. This appears to be the first AP video report on Obama's trip to Kuwait.

I don't know if something like this is already being planned, but I think it would be great PR if Obama planned a surprise trip to China during the olympics for a USA basketball game.  If he could be shown shooting around with the team and interacting with the players either during a practice or on the court before a game, it would show him doing a sport whwere he would feel comfortable (unlike bowling).

By the time the summer comes, the media (and public) will have campaign fatigue, but as we see with this upcoming trip to Europe and the Middle East, the media will be excited about an obama trip abroad and so he'll get coverage.

Also, story of USA basketball would be a wonderful metaphor for Barack's campaign as this year's team has been about hard work and team work, not just throwing a bunch of stars together and being arrogant thinking that they could win just by showing up.  A recurring theme with the team is also about reclaiming America's standing in the (basketball) world.

It would also be a great way to associate Barack with Patriotism/Pride in America (as dumb as that critique is, it still is out there).

well what do you think?  Is this a good idea?

Over at MSNBC, there's a neat article up about an upcoming trip to the US - Salt Lake City, no less - by the 2007 FIBA Asia Champion, Iran.  I'm sure that wingnuts and other paranoid ninnies will view this as the opening phase of the long awaited 'Islamo-fascist' invasion of the 'Homeland', but I think this is great news and I hope that someone (Hello, NBA?) either broadcasts the games or films them and posts them somewhere.

We need more of this citizen diplomacy, not less.  As a two time exchange student to Japan & the Philippines (thank you Rotary!), I can attest to the effectiveness of citizen diplomacy at improving relations between people, even if their respective governments suck.

What I found even more heartening were the comments posted in response to the story (go over and check them out!)   There are probably 40 comments at the time I'm writing this and they are overwhelmingly positive.  I counted 1 negative (some dumbass compared it to playing against the Nazis before WWII), 1 incoherent response, 1 cautious response and 1 asshole.  Among the positive comments, there were even some comments from Iranians, one of whom pointed out there are at least 12 Americans who play professionally in Iran.

Andrew Sullivan has a video clip on his site of a Fox reporter interviewing Obama.
It's really bizarre.

Here's the link

The journalist had 1minute and 52 seconds with the senator and she did 3 things:

1. She asked him to play a word association game.

2. She asked him who Chicago's first round draft pick will be.

3. She made him commit to playing basket ball with her.

ABC's highly objective blog on Obama's Social Security plan

It is halftime and the Celtics are leading 58-35.  But in three of the previous 4 games, one team has broken to a big lead only to see the other team come back to make a game of it; in game 4 the Celtics ended up coming back from 24 to win.

So this time: the Celtic defense is smothering; Garnett has 17 points and Pierce has 10 points and 9 assists.

Kobe Bryant started out hot with 11 early points and has 14 right now.