If they'd decided the nomination with a game of one-on-one, the result probably would have been the same...

From the "I wish I'd thought to write this" file... Christopher Orr of The New Republic applies some of Hillary Clinton's Democratic Primary arguments to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

A particularly awesome passage:

Once you abandon the artificial four-games-to-two framework that the media has tried to impose on the series, a very different picture emerges, with the Celtics leading by a mere 549 points to 539. Yes that’s right, the margin between the two teams is less than one percent—a tie, for all intents and purposes. This is probably the closest Conference Finals in NBA history, though I will thank you not to check on that.

Nice work, Mr. Orr.

(Hat-tip to Henry Abbot at True Hoop for the link.)

While we're on the topic of basketball and politics, I'll throw in a plug for something I wrote over on About.com a little while back... analyzing the different candidates from a basketball perspective:

Senator Barack Obama's love of basketball has been well-chronicled throughout the presidential campaign, leaving many to wonder if an Obama White House would feature one-on-one and "H.O.R.S.E" instead JFK's famed touch football.

But what about the other candidates? Don't we have a right to know where they stand on basketball? Can Hillary Clinton sink a jumper? How is John McCain's vertical?

It's our civic duty to examine these questions.

Read the full article, The Basketball Candidate, on collegebasketball.about.com. And thank your lucky stars that we don't have to worry about Mike Huckabee any more.