Enough with the Olympics already! Michael Phelps is speechless (just ask him), China can't count to 16, and Kobe is more popular than Mao. BORING! This Monday, let the real games begin.
This is America.
Yet for two weeks, every four years, a small group of network executives sitting in a glass tower in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza, believes that we as a nation will choose to lose sleep over tape-delayed coverage of doubles table tennis on the Oxygen Network.
What America really wants for two weeks, every four years, is what we as a nation all embrace as The Real Games of summer. Live, in prime-time, and lacking any sign of gymnasts with baby teeth smiling for a panel of judges so their own government won't take their family's house away.
After the latest Reuters/Zogby poll, Barack Obama and John McCain are (plus or minus 3 percentage points) in a virtual dead heat.
At last, let The Real Games begin!
According to Zogby, McCain, who as recently as last month seemed as out of the race as the U.S. men's 4 x 100 relay did before Jason Lezak hit the water, now holds a 5 percentage point lead over Obama.
Of course as everyone knows, this being a game, leads are subject to change. And with Obama's highly anticipated "e-nouncement" of his Vice Presidential running-mate only days away, any perceived lead change in McCain's favor could be short-lived.
And with the NBC family of networks freed-up from the tyranny of covering women's freestyle trampoline, men's BMX, and mixed tens, team ultimate paint ball (yeah, and baseball got dropped from the program for 2012 - go figure), it looks like The Real Games will pull the real ratings a Jack Donaghy could only dream of.
And should Ralph Nader require equal time at any time during the two weeks of The Real Games, the NBC owned Sci Fi Channel has cleared space in it's schedule for televised rebuttals.
So for the remainder of this week, as you're watching Telemundo's coverage of the men's 30 kilometer walk, a vignette of Mary Carillo eating grilled scorpions on-a-stick while lying on an Accupunturist's table, or the phenomenally beautiful CGI enhanced closing ceremonies, remember...
The Real Games of Summer are almost here.
Copyright © 2008 Bill Friday
