Stuffed Shirts vs. 'Skins

摘要

For nearly two hundred years, journal-lists and other pundits have sought a rule of thumb (or two) that might accurately predict the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. Since 2000, this search must be informed by two important events: First, the possible breakdown of the venerable and high-ly accurate Washington Redskins standard. For fifteen straight elections, the Redskins accurately predicted the outcome of U.S. presidential elections: A win in their last home game of the regular season prior to the election indicated that the incumbent party would retain the White House. Alas, this failed to be the case in 2000; in their last home game, the Redskins crushed the hapless St. Louis Cardinals, and had the predictive power of the Redskins standard stood, Al Gore should have won the election. But, now of course we have a complication: There are many who still say that Al Gore actually did win this election, or at least did so in the normal sense of "win." Thus, even though it is George W. Bush who sits in the White House, perhaps the predictive power of the Redskins standard was never meant to handle election irregularities in the state of Florida and weird Supreme Court decisions whereby a loser emerges as the winner. So, maybe, the Redskins standard indeed is a perfect rule of thumb. On this, we might note that in the 2004 season, in their last home game before the election, the hapless Red- skins will be hosting the mighty Green Bay Packers. Is the fate of George Bush in the hands of returning Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs? And even so, does this likely defeat for the Washington football club foretell the election of John Kerry?