The NCAA tournament known as “March Madness” excites millions of fans. Every year the competition is fierce and produces at least a few stunning upsets. The University of North Carolina had one of its worst records in memory. Yet they beat the number one seed in their region and advanced to the Final Four. It just goes to show that you don’t know for sure how a contest will end until you play the game. That’s why they do play the game instead of asking a bunch of self-proclaimed experts to pick the winner in advance.
There’s a lesson here for our political system. People have been arguing about whether the independent or third party candidates should be allowed in the presidential debates. The supposedly non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which incidentally is chaired by former Republican and Democratic Party chairmen, says that only candidates who poll 15 percent support will be invited to participate.
Hold on. Most Americans don’t even think about the candidates until the debates. So it doesn’t make sense to first arbitrarily decide who’s going to win and then disqualify those players that the pundits say can’t win. Of course they can’t win if they don’t even get a shot at the title! In 1992, Ross Perot had less than 10 percent support before the debates. But on Election Day he captured 19 percent.
The Demo-publican power brokers want to kill off political competition. Let’s hope they never get interested in basketball.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.