Politics and Basketball: If Ya' Smell What Barack. Is. Cooking.

So last night was not a good one for me in terms of rooting for my teams / political candidates of choice. First, the Suns blew a first-half lead to lose their second consecutive game to the Spurs. Second, Barack Obama lost the Pennsylvania primary to Hillary Clinton - an outcome that pretty much everyone predicted, but was still frustrating in that a surprise win for Obama would have cut off all of Clinton's momentum in one fell swoop.

- First, the Suns. I just think that the Suns are now basically DOA unless they really pull off a miracle at this point. The Spurs are too good and too consistent to lose 4 out of 5 games, and the Suns right now are just not 100% gelling as a team. You can see the conflict in the way they play. Most of the team is prone to playing a fast-paced, run n' gun game. Shaq however, has long thrived in a slower, half-court game. Sure, back in the day he could really run the court well for a big man, but you can just see him stuggle to fit in alongside Amare Stoudamire, who zooms across the court and plays above the rim. If Shaq isn't getting you offense, then he is not all that useful, and so it was no big surprise that the Suns came close to tying the game in the fourth quarter, after a long draught, once Shaq was out of the game. I think that Nash needs to do a better job of adjusting to the teammates he has on the floor. When Shaq is out there, run some post-ups and line the perimeter with three point shooters. When he's out, that's when you go old-school Suns and play small-ball. Nash needs to dictate the pace a bit more and stay in control of the ball -- even when he's played well, he's often looked out of sync with his teammates since the arrival of Shaq. As for the Spurs, you can't say enough about them as a team. When you have a former all-star like Michael Finlay coming in as a fourth or fifth option, you know you're stacked. Ginobli is playing ridiculously well right now, as is Parker. And Duncan is just a beast - easily one of the all-time greats at his position, what he sometimes lacks in killer instinct he more than makes up for in sheer skill and consistency. The scary thing about the Spurs is that, even though their first two games with the Suns have at time been close, it hasn't even really felt like the Spurs have been pushed to the limit yet. We've yet to even really see playoff perennials like Robert Horry utilized (you know he probably has at least one more big-time three left in him before all is said and done). The fact is that the Spurs are looking great - like a team that could easily, once again, go all the way.

It's interesting - all of the NBA playoff series thus far that have gone two games have ended up with one team having a 2-0 lead. I suspect that will change tonight with the Detroit-Philly game, but it still points to some formerly intriguing matchups that have so far failed to produce much competition. A lot of people, me included, thought Dallas would have one at least one of the two games agains New Orleans at this point. I thought Houston might have come out with something to prove against Utah. And I thought that a reinvigorated Wizards, with Arenas back in the lineup, might be able to upset LeBron and the Cavs. No such luck so far. The Suns, Mavs, Rockets, and Wizards are all now looking more and more like potential first round victims. And meanwhile, as the Celtics likely steamroll over Atlanta, it will be interesting to see when and if Boston finds a real challenge in the post-season.

- Now, as for last night's political events ... I think that it was yet another primary that kind of went according to schedule, even as many of us hoped it would go otherwise so we could finally have some closure. But while the Hillary camp was ecstatic about the win, the reality is that a.) it wasn't that big of a victory - the margin was low and Obama did much better than earlier polls had predicted, and b.) the Clinton victory in PA was one that even Obama's own campaign had long-ago predicted. If you listened to Tim Russert review the Obama campaign's leaked, internal primary-prediction guide, it relaly is amazing just how on the mark that document has been thus far. The good news for Obama supporters is that the document ultimately predicts an Obama win despite some late setbacks in states like PA. But with the next set of primaries still a few weeks away, I cringe at the thought of Hillary's continued tactics of Republican-style Obama bashing. It really does feel at this point that Clinton is literally scratching and clawing her way through the tail-end of the primary race, pouncing on Obama at every turn and adding her own criticisms to every piece of tabloid-fodder, sensationalist piece that comes around the bend. It's amazing to me how, in her victory speech last night, Clinton somehow painted herself as this scrappy underdog, fighting Obama's big money campaign. Are you kidding me? Obama RAISED those campaign contributions - most of which were from small donors. How can Clinton accuse Obama of having these sinister-seeming financial resources, when most of that pool comes from ordinary Americans? Meanwhile, Clinton dug deep into her family's own vast wealth to bolster her campaign's spending. Hypocritical much?

The whole thing just makes me wonder what Obama's counter-tactics should be. In his speech last night, Barack only briefly addressed Clinton, then moved on to his usual grand themes, emphasizing the differences between himself and John McCain. Part of me admires Obama for avoiding getting into much back and forth with Hillary, but part of me wants to see him take a little time and really rip into her - if he did, I don't think many would be able to argue that she didn't have it coming. The bottom line is, Hillary's negative tactics will only hurt the democratic party come general election time. All she can accomplish is to make those who dislike her feel even more strongly about their misgivings, and make those who support her have unnecessarily negative views towards Obama, who policy wise is not far removed from her, but is in danger of becoming a polarizing figure a la Hillary, mostly due to her own efforts to make him that way.

In any case, I hope that Obama can soon close this thing out, but even more I hope he can do so in a way that keeps the party united and strong. There's a great editorial in this week's Newsweek bashing John McCain and his ever-shifting policies. It's written by Anna Quindlen, who I'm not usually a fan of hers, but here she really hammers home her point that McCain has a long track record, by HIS OWN ADMISSION, of saying things and taking policy positions for the sole purpose of making himself more electable. It's something that will come back to bite him soon enough, but it's all the more reason NOT to divide the Democratic party, because there is then ample opportunity to divide the Republicans over McCain's totally inconsistent positions over the last several years and beyond. Check out the Newsweek editorial for more: http://www.newsweek.com/id/132860

- At least the presidential campaign got a dose of comic relief on Monday, when all three candidates presented taped messages that were aired on WWE's Monday Night RAW. Hearing all three use wrestling terminology was pretty hilarious and yes, pretty cringe-worthy, but it was all worth it just to finally here Obama say "if you smell what Barack is cooking!" That one's been a long time coming, dude.