Post-Election Thoughts

Everyone else has already shared their thoughts on the 2016 Presidential election, so I thought I would write my own blog post. First, I hate the fact that I was right way back in March. Being correct so often is both a blessing and a curse.

As for Donald Trump becoming America's 45th President, I've already gone through the five stages of grief fairly quickly. I'm not happy with the results, and I have some serious concerns about the direction of our country, but I've accepted that Trump was elected based on our political process (meaning via the electoral college and not the popular vote).

- Arguably the worst outcome from Tuesday night/Wednesday morning is that Kellyanne Conway, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani are not only not going away, but they will probably all have major roles in the Trump administration.

- I was extremely surprised that Donna Brazile went with the Nana from Candy Land look on Tuesday.

- Congratulations to the Republican Senators for "letting the American people pick" the next Supreme Court justice. The gamble of only having 8 justices over the past 9 months paid off as a conservative justice will now likely fill Antonin Scalia's seat. However, this sets a bad precedent. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, or any other justice retires in 2020 or even mid to late-2019, the Democrats in Senate (assuming they earn a majority during the 2018 mid-term elections) could and probably should wait to approve a justice on the same grounds the Republican Senators used in 2016.

- Trump has campaigned for abolishing Obamacare. Now that he's President, can he just let 20+ million go without health insurance?

- Similarly, can he really just get rid of the entire Department of Education?

- I guess the biggest point is that Trump is used to getting his way as a CEO. While he may try to take some executive actions, it will be interesting to see how/if he can govern. He's going to have to work with Congress (though it will likely be an extremely friendly Congress at the start). He doesn't strike most people as an "in the weeds" policy guy.

- I'm an ABC guy. We watched that station growing up (I think my parents liked the local WTAE newscast and just kept the station on for Peter Jennings and company), and it's helped that fellow Ithaca College grad David Muir is now the #1 nightly news anchor. However, there were too many commercials on Tuesday night, so I ended up watching a lot of CNN. I couldn't stop watching John King and his map.

- I predict multiple occasions over the next 4 years of Congress over-riding vetoes. I believe that this happened only once during the Obama administration and that was over the right to sue foreign governments. (I could be wrong on this though.)

- Random question: When was the last time two candidates represented the same state? Both Clinton and Trump are registered New York voters, and I honestly don't know the last time both major candidates were from the same state.

- It appears that Chris Christie is leading Donald Trump's transition team. Is he even pretending to be governor of New Jersey anymore?

That's really all that I want to write today. I guess we'll see if Trump really wants to be the people's President (meaning all people). I'm trying to be optimistic.

Do Any Presidential Candidates Play Fantasy Football?

Fantasy football is a $1 billion industry with nearly 27 million participants according to The Hollywood Reporter. (I’m sure that there are more detailed statistics available from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal or even ESPN out there, but this is where Google directed me.) While the growth of fantasy sports over the past decade has impacted people at most businesses, I wonder if it has reached the White House. Sure, President Obama completes NCAA tournament brackets for men’s and women’s college basketball, but I don’t think he worried about choosing between Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster or even Aaron Rodgers with the first pick of a fantasy football league draft earlier this fall (though he may have drafted Rodgers based on their meeting).



Personally, I’d find it fascinating seeing the President scan the waiver wire on Tuesday afternoon deciding whether to put in a claim to pick up Darrius Heyward-Bey or Jabar Gaffney. Would the President call Matthew Berry directly each Sunday morning asking if he/she should start Beanie Wells or C.J. Spiller? Would the President delay the start of a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to finalize a trade to acquire Mike Wallace? White House press conferences could end with correspondents asking the President’s thoughts on Jamaal Charles’ torn ACL. While I may be taking this question a little too far here (though I don’t think any of this would be completely unrealistic), I wonder who will be the first U.S. President to embrace fantasy sports.

While I don’t believe that any of the current Presidential candidates are active fantasy owners, I thought it would be fun to pretend that the candidates are in a league together. Please note that the candidates are in no particular order:

Mitt Romney – This is a high stakes league where Romney put up $10,000 on him winning.

Newt Gingrich – The former Speaker of the House also serves as the league’s historian.

Michele Bachmann – Selected Atlanta running back Michael Turner with her first pick so that she could name her team Bachmann Turner Overdrive. (Sorry if this sounds like a bad Chris Berman joke.)

Rick Perry – He focused his draft plan on three positions. Running back, quarterback, and the um, what’s the third one there? Oops!

Ron Paul – He could have early season success, but don’t look for Paul winning the fantasy league championship.

Jon Huntsman – Since his daughter went on a date with Kris Humphries, well before he was the former Mr. Kim Kardashian, Huntsman prefers fantasy basketball to fantasy football.

Rick Santorum – The draft must be on-line and not in person since Santorum doesn’t actually live where he claims his residency.

Herman Cain – Sure, Cain’s not a candidate anymore, but he was when the league formed in August. Cain drafted ninth and only selected players wearing the number 9. Sure, Drew Brees was a great pick, but starting #99 Brett Keisel at running back hasn’t worked very well.

Since you can’t have a league with just eight participants, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who many Republican leaders hoped would enter the Presidential race, will serve as the 9th member. I don’t have anything to write about Chris Christie, so the league also included Kris Kristofferson as the 10th member simply because it’s fun to say Chris Christie and Kris Kristofferson in the same sentence.


After I finished typing this post, I found a brief article about Obama drafting a fantasy football team in 2008 with Rick Reilly. I'm still not willing to credit Obama as the first fantasy football playing President.