Do we really need to see an Obama interview during the Super Bowl?

Oh, for the love of God.

Based on CBS equipment that just rolled down this driveway, President is doing interview during SBowl coverage.

You know, I might getting ahead of myself here.  The CBS equipment being loaded into the White House might be for something completely unrelated to the Super Bowl.  It seems absurd to think that Obama would want to bust into the Super Bowl and start explaining the Saints’ blitz schemes or Peyton Manning’s ability to read opposing defenses.  It feels even more ridiculous that Obama would do a media sit-down and have much of anything to say…whether it’s about policy or football…during one of America’s most sacred secular holidays.

The thing is, after a year of Zero inserting himself into almost every American conversation he possibly could, I’m inclined to think he’ll force himself into Super Bowl XLIV.  I know Obama thinks his vocal interest in sports makes him seem like a normal guy, which he believes will help make a connection between him and the average citizen.  That might’ve been the case a last February or March, when there was still a little dew on this presidency.  Nowadays Obambi’s approval ratings are underwater, so his presence on television is grating to more and more people.

The other problem with Obama being a part of CBS’ coverage of the Super Bowl is cultural.  Rush Limbaugh has said many times that the beauty of sports and being a sports fan is that it is almost entirely apolitical.  Being a follower of a certain team or a particular sport is based almost always on some non-partisan reason such as geography or the success of a franchise when a person is young and impressionable.  I like the New York Football Giants because I grew up watching the club on television and they won a Super Bowl when I was a kid.  I know a dude who is an avid Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls fan.  Why?  Because he loved the 1985 Bears defense and he thought Michael Jordan was rad.  In almost no way does politics enter into the equation whether or not a person likes a sports franchise or a particular game.  I may think New York City is a cesspool of bedwetting liberalism, but that has no impact on my love of the New York Giants.  I still cheered like crazy when they beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  I still agonized over their crappy defense and lack of a running game this year.  Partisanship or ideology means nothing when it comes to rooting for a team.

The fact that Obama is possibly going to be a part of the CBS broadcast of the Super Bowl is an irritant to the generally apolitical nature of the event.  It would be one thing if Obama hadn’t been so determined to be part of America’s everyday media life.  It wouldn’t be quite so annoying if the President was more circumspect about the sheer number of his public appearances.   Instead, Obama has been an omnipresent personality, jumping into the fray anywhere and anytime he feels like it.  The reason why President PantsCrease is everywhere is distinctly political.  It’s not only to say how much he is a fan of x and then be done with it.  No, he is instead hoping to sell the American people on some part of his political agenda.  He takes non-partisan events and turns them into campaign commercials showcasing himself and by extension his wonderful glorious policy proposals.

I know this sounds sorta nuts on a blog largely devoted to political junkie-dom, but America desperately needs areas of life that are non-political.  From private organizations to being a fan of a sports team, there needs to be times and places when a person can safely disconnect from the day to day partisan wrangling.  By making himself a part of the Super Bowl, Obama is short-circuiting a vital part of American life, specifically the part where people can tell the national political class to fuck off and leave them alone for a few hours.  

I snagged the Ed Henry link from the awesome Dan Riehl blog.  Thanks.