CNN’s Political Crew Resorted To Comparing Presidential Candidates To NFL Quarterbacks Last Night

by Glenn Davis | 4:52 pm, January 4th, 2012

The Iowa caucuses happened last night, and ended with Mitt Romney pulling out a win by literally almost the slimmest of possible margins – eight votes, over Rick Santorum. CNN, along with other cable news outfits, was there all night while votes were tabulated. And tabulated. And tabulated, with some speeches from candidates thrown in for good measure.

This was the problem: hours of airtime to fill, but frankly, not much interesting happening. Sure, the fact that the vote was so close was of some interest, but there are only so many ways you can say, “This is close.” No, you have to go to every well imaginable. You have to talk about potential impact of this caucus down the road, what candidates’ performances might mean in the future. You’ll bring in personalities from all over your network. You bring in a bunch of screens with fancy graphics.

Ultimately, though, you’re still left with five-plus hours to fill, and the only thing that’s actually happening is that votes are being counted, and you have to find some creative ways to pass the time. So if you’re James Carville, you compare a presidential candidacy with an NFL quarterbacking career. Via Mediaite:

Pretty harsh on Perry, no? Worst candidate ever? (Way less flattering than a Tebow comparison.) And bringing JaMarcus Russell into this – that’s low, Roland S. Martin. Low, but understandable. They had to stay in the studio so long that this wound up happening. And not only that, that had to try to produce respectable television – faced with such a nigh-impossible task, is it any wonder they veered off into just talking about whatever they wanted?

The above wasn’t even the only football reference – we remember Carville bringing up the Saints at one point too. And we say: bring it on, even if you don’t think anyone will get it. The fact that no one was in a heap on the ground speaking in a series of grunts by the end of this spectacle was an achievement enough. Make a group of people stay on television for hours on end when nothing is going on, and the whole thing devolving into a football discussion is the risk you run. Besides, the way some people look at it, the NFL careers of Russell and Leaf might have about as much to do with the eventual nomination as the Iowa caucus anyway.