By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Nov 1, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
OK, RP Nation: Here is your opportunity to win 2 FREE lower-arena tickets to the defending national champion University of Kentucky Wildcat men’s basketball team’s official home opener at Lexington’s Rupp Arena, versus Lafayette University, on Friday, November 16 at 7:00 PM.
(Note to the uninitiated: This prize is a big deal. If you do not understand how big a deal this is, read Why Kentucky Basketball Matters.)
The award will be presented to the winner of our Electoral College contest — the individual who most accurately predicts the final Electoral College vote, with tiebreakers and stipulations listed below.
To win this prize, you must abide by the following instructions — which will be interpreted literally by the contest judge, me:
The 2008 Electoral College Map
1. Go to The Recovering Politician‘s new RP Facebook Page, Facebook.com/RecoveringPol, If you haven’t already, “Like” the page. No likey — no win.
2. Make your predictions in the Comments section of the “Official Contest Post” at the new RP Facebook Page, which is labeled very clearly as such. Entries sent in by email or posted elsewhere will be disqualified.
3. Only one entry per person. If you have more than one entry, only the most recent one will qualify.
4. Comments must be entered by 6:00 AM EST on Tuesday, November 6. Entries made later will be disqualified.
5. Your entry into the comments section of the Official Contest Post shall include:
- Your prediction of the 2012 Electoral College tally. I.e., Obama 269, Romney 269
- First tiebreaker: Your prediction of the partisan composition of the Senate for the next session of Congress. I.e., 50 Democrats, 48 Republicans, 2 Independents.
- Second tiebreaker: Your prediction of the partisan composition of the House for the next session of Congress. I.e. 230 Republicans, 205 Democrats.
6. Because recounts are very likely, particularly in Congressional races, to calculate the winners, I will use the vote tallies that are listed in the print edition of Thursday morning, November 8 New York Times. While these tallies will undoubtedly be incomplete for many races, and winners will not be declared in several campaigns, whoever is leading as of the Thursday morning tally will be the winner for the purposes of determine our champion.
7. The winner will be awarded my two awesome lower arena tickets (Section 23, Row RR) for the University of Kentucky’s home opener against Lafayette University on Friday, November 16 at 7:00 PM. The winner will make arrangements with me to pick up the tickets or have them placed in will call. Transportation or any incidental costs associated with attending the UK game must be assumed by the winner of the contest. And I ain’t paying for your dinner.
8. I retain the right to make all eligibility decisions and winner calculations, as well as the right to withhold the prize from any obnoxious Duke Blue Devil fan.
By Jeff Smith, on Fri Sep 7, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  Q: I’m 28, a young JD/MBA, triple Ivy, considering a run for office in 5–7 years. Tell me exactly what I should be doing now. —K.S., New York City
First and foremost, please don’t ever use the term “triple Ivy” again. On behalf of everyone you will ever meet, thank you.
I’m torn on this one. On one hand, there are some tried-and-true things that will likely help you down the line. Join your local Democratic or Republican club. Attend fundraisers for local candidates—or even better, host them. Knock on doors and phone-bank for your party’s nominees. Those things aren’t foolproof, but if you do them cheerfully for a few cycles, you’re much more likely to earn the support of party insiders.
Though that can work, it wasn’t what I did, and I only advise it to certain types of people. Ultimately it can be just as effective to find a cause you care a lot about and immerse yourself in it. For me it was cofounding a charter school. For you it could be anything, as long as it’s something you’re passionate about. Learn all you can, meet the big guns in that policy space, and better your community in some tangible way. And then, should you decide to run, you’ll have a solid bloc of supporters around your signature issue. It won’t get you the party’s support, but it will brand you as a genuine citizen as committed to the community as to your own political advancement.
Ideally you can focus on the second approach, with just enough of the first to not be ostracized by your local party. But you’ll have to choose your mix. Given your three (!) degrees, my guess is that the first approach is more your style.
Q: I saw the documentary about you, and now I want to run for office. But I don’t like asking for money. What’s your advice? —Name withheld, via Twitter
Do one of the following: 1) Start a business and get rich so you can self-fund; 2) Marry a rich girl/guy (more options if you’re here in New York than in most states); 3) Befriend a billionaire who will instinctively know to fund an independent expenditure on your behalf without your asking; 4) Run for town council or another office with an electorate under 10,000 people; or 5) Ditch your political dreams.
Q: Do yard signs matter? —S.S., San Diego
In the movie Singles (1992), Bridget Fonda’s character asks her boyfriend (played by Matt Dillon), whose taste tends toward voluptuous women, if her breasts are too small. “Sometimes,” he replies.
And so it is with yard signs. In a presidential election they don’t matter. About 95 percent of the country has already made up its mind, and those who haven’t have ready access to nearly unlimited information about the two candidates.
In low-information down-ballot elections, especially primaries, signs matter, especially for little-known underdog candidates who are desperately trying to raise their visibility and to show the support of people who are well respected in their neighborhoods. Signs can also help candidates keep their supporters psychologically invested in the campaign.
Q: I have a friend in politics who’s headed to prison, and he wants to hire a prison consultant. The one he contacted wanted $7,500 up front. Is it worth it? —C.M., New York City
I’d do it for half that. Oh, and tell him not to eat the Snickers. That one’s free.
Read the rest of…
Jeff Smith’s Political Advice Column: Do As I Say
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Aug 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Parenting can feel like a basketball game.
My 18 year old son leaves home this Tuesday for Centre College. I am as proud as can be…but also very sad.
The first 13 years of parenting come naturally and the rules and roles are easily understood. It’s easy for us to feel good about the job we are doing. The next 5 years, however, are a “different kettle of fish,” as they say–a muddled and awkward affair. And we are running out of parenting energy as the relationship changes from parent -child to adult–adult.
I can’t help feeling like I have been in a basketball game that was tied at half-time –where I held my own as a parent—but by the end of the third quarter became a blowout for the opposing team. And for the fourth quarter our job is just to finish the game without the other team running up the score.
And yet, in some bizarre twist of logic, I am wanting this game to go into overtime even though I know my son is dribbling out the final seconds of the clock and I am not trying to steal or foul since it won’t matter.
And when the clock runs out he won’t throw the ball triumphantly into the stands but rather, like a gentleman, let the ball dribble itself for a few seconds before rolling away as he walks off the court.
And I will stay standing on the court looking up at the scoreboard and trying not to cry.
By RP Staff, on Tue Jul 31, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET The Politics of Hoops
The Olympics have a way of bringing people together. That includes the unlikely bond that has been forming for years on USA Basketball between The Chosen One and the college coach he never had. [NY Times]
For many, Neil Reed’s legacy was defined in that singular moment when Knight’s fingers clasped around his throat. But in the wake of Reed’s untimely demise one author remembers him as not just a moment but a friend, an idol, and one hell of a basketball player. [Grantland]
Fresh off its 35th consecutive Olympic victory and a 90-38 rout of Angola, USA Women’s Basketball is flying high. [SF Chronicle]
His teammates called him ‘Young Buck’ and for good reason. A rising high school sophomore, Karl Towns Jr. is an amazing example of talented youth in the international arena. [ESPN]
Uh-oh, Lebron left his laptop up. This peek at James’s faux email inbox is sports comedy at its best. [Grantland]
By RP Staff, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET The Politics of Hoops
A ‘Linsane’ contract offer from the Rockets is challenging Jeremy Lin’s once-certain future in the New York. [Yahoo]
New NCAA recruiting rules are putting top prospects under a magnifying glass. But how far can it go before one of these kids gets burned? [ESPN]
Young gun Irving managed to corral the Black Mamba into a very expensive game of 1-on-1, but the two will be hard-pressed to make the match more entertaining than their conversation leading up to it. [Grantland]
The correct way to leave a city. [Boston.com]
By RP Staff, on Tue Jul 10, 2012 at 10:30 AM ET The Politics of Hoops
Despite a lack of true post players, the USA Olympic team looks primed for another gold medal run in London. [ESPN]
Picture Dirk in a jersey that doesn’t say Dallas. As painful as it is, you might want to prepare yourself. The big man claims he’s “too old” for a team that’s rebuilding. [CBS]
Krzyzewski has always been hesitant to pull the trigger on transfers – but when he does, they’re good. Is Rodney Hood the next Blue Devil success story? [Yahoo]
Whether you support it, think it’s too strict, or not strict enough, only one thing is for certain: nothing is for certain when it comes to the future of basketball’s “one-and-done” rule. [ESPN]
A College of Charleston senior will be lacing them up for the home team in this summer’s Olympic games. [CBS]
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Jun 15, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET This Father’s Day, I will be spending in bed rooting for Tiger Woods to win the US Open, and then for LeBron James to carry the Miami Heat to a 2-1 NBA Finals series lead. Not IN SPITE of their widespread unpopularity, but BECAUSE of it.
I explain why in my latest column for The Huffington Post:
For most of his career, I’d been largely indifferent to NBA superstar Lebron James. My passion is college basketball, and since Lebron leaped straight from high school to the pros, I never had the opportunity to root for him in Kentucky blue, or curse him if he had, God forbid, put on a Duke uniform.
My opinion of golf phenom Tiger Woods was always a bit more jaundiced. I developed an early man crush on Phil Mickelson, and was continually frustrated with (while being constantly awestruck by) Tiger’s mind-meld hold on Lefty — and on the rest of the PGA tour, for that matter — during his extraordinary and unparalleled domination of the sport for nearly a decade.
But as Lebron leads his Miami Heat through a brutal playoff finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and as Tiger tries to recapture his magic formula for winning Major tournaments in this week’s U.S. Open, I will be enthusaistically cheering both of them on.
Why my change of heart?
Each of these men, after all, made a series of stupid mistakes.
 Lebron James branded himself with a scarlet A for arrogance by announcing his departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers in what many thought was a callous, disloyal manner; and then by carelessly bragging that by taking “his talents to South Beach,” he’d produce a string of NBA championships for the Heat. In the most communitarian of sports — a game that rewards teamwork over selfish hotdogging — Lebron emerged as the poster child for Gen Y narcisism, the prototypical me-first face of the Facebook generation.
Tiger Woods’ scarlet A was, of course, a bit more true to the original Hawthorne. From his initial domestic-induced car crash, to the perverse scenes of Kardashian-wannabes hiring Gloria Allred to grub their fifteen minutes of sex scandal infamy, Tiger enriched the monologues of the late-night host and comedic stand-up industry for weeks on end.
Both Lebron and Tiger have been mercilessly villified; their public unfavorability ratings possibly unmatched by any American not named John Edwards.
And that’s precisely why I am rooting for them.
Click here to read the entire piece at The Huffington Post.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET David Maraniss has some more incredible insight on the President in this weekend’s Washington Post:
To say that President Obama loves basketball understates the role of the sport in his life. He has been devoted to the game for 40 years now, ever since the father he did not know and never saw again gave him his first ball during a brief Christmastime visit. Basketball is central to his self identity. It is global yet American-born, much like him. It is where he found a place of comfort, a family, a mode of expression, a connection from his past to his future. With foundation roots in the Kansas of his white forebears, basketball was also the city game, helping him find his way toward blackness, his introduction to an African American culture that was distant to him when he was young yet his by birthright .
As a teenager growing up in Hawaii,he dreamed the big hoops dream. He had posters of the soaring Dr. J on his bedroom wall. A lefty, he practiced the spin moves of Tiny Archibald. And in the yearbook of an older high school classmate who wanted to be a lawyer, he wrote: “Anyway, been great knowing you and I hope we keep in touch. Good luck in everything you do, and get that law degree. Some day when I am an all-pro basketballer, and I want to sue my team for more money, I’ll call on you. Barry.”
It never happened, of course. But the adolescent known as Barry kept on playing, even after he took back his given name of Barack and went off to college at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard and went into community organizing, then politics in Illinois. He played whenever he could on playgrounds, in fancy sport clubs, at home, on the road. During his first trip back to Honolulu after being elected president, he rounded up a bunch of his old high school pals, got the key to the gym at Punahou School, and went at it. When the pickup game was over, Darryl Gabriel, who had been the star of their championship-winning team, found himself muttering to another former teammate, “Man, Barack is a lot better than Barry ever was!”
In his presidency, basketball has become a recurring theme, one of the visible ways that he has escaped the confines of the White House and the pressures of his job. He’s sat courtside at a Washington Wizards game, cheering on his team, the Chicago Bulls. He’s talked trash on the court behind the White House, taken in a game between North Carolina and Michigan State on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, and invited ESPN into the Oval Office to watch him fill out his bracket for March Madness.
This is the story of the roots of his obsession, back in his days as a teenager, when Barry Obama played on one of the best high school teams in the country.
Click here to read the full story, “President Obama’s basketball love affair has roots in Hawaii high school team”
By Jason Grill, on Wed May 30, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET  Politics and sports are two things that incite strong emotions in nearly every individual in this country, but they should very rarely converge. Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee announced there would be an upcoming hearing about bounties in professional football and other major sports as a result of recent allegations that the New Orleans Saints employed a system in which players would receive extra cash for hits that hurt high-profile opponents.
Are they serious? Well, yes they are. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) wants to examine whether a federal law should make bounty systems a crime. This week reports have surfaced that the IRS is now poking around and monitoring the situation about the payments that were made to players. The dominos are beginning to fall and political grandstanding has already begun. I am not a pollster, but if I had to guess I would assume more Americans are concerned with their pocket books and the economy right now than on professional sports bounty programs. Shockingly, I know I am going out on a limb here. Seriously though, Congress should only involve itself in sports-related matters on very rare occasions. One of those is sports gambling.
 The Final Four [took place] in New Orleans with four historically good programs. More than six million people filled out NCAA tournament brackets on ESPN.com alone. Last month the Super Bowl game garnered the prize as the highest-rated television show in United States history with an estimated 111 million people watching.
Reports have shown that nearly half of all American adults make some sort of wager on the Super Bowl. The time has come for Congress to open its eyes when it comes to sports gambling.
Read the rest of…
Jason Grill: Come on, Congress — Sports Gambling, Not Bounties
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue May 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Great moments in family conversations.
My wife, my son (a high school senior) and I went out for dinner last night.
As is often is the case, my son and wife were having a conversation and I felt like a 6th man on the bench who may get playing time if either began to tire.
My son was excitedly—yet matter-of-factly—explaining that he was learning in school about anthropology and that polygamy was superior to monogamy as a societal partnering arrangement.
My wife, Rebecca, excitedly—yet matter-of-factly (and a little defensively)—was willing to argue for monogamy. I sat entranced though pretending to be more interested in picking through my salad.
When my son couldn’t think of the word for women having multiple husbands, I chimed in from the bench, “polyandry.”
Although neither side was tiring, I was about to get some playing time. “So, John, what do you think?” my beloved wife, Rebecca, queried with that tone that simultaneously reminded me both of the first time I heard the term “united front” and the first time I slept on the couch.
I glanced at my son who I’ve played enough basketball with to develop head signals. Although we never had a head signal for an alley-oop dunk (since neither of us can dunk), the look he gave me would have been it.
He was saying to me, “C’mon dad, I got your back. Let’s have some fun with mom.” It was a touching father-son moment but it was time for me to choose a side.
Of course, I believe in monogamy. Always have and always will. But that wasn’t the decision I was faced with.
The decision was, At what point do you make peace with the fact—even if it’s just for fun—that you will never, ever make an alley-oop dunk in life?
Yesterday was that day for me.
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