Mitt Romney Takes Pass On NCAA Tournament Predictions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mitt Romney clearly is not running to be the nation's top sports fan.

The GOP presidential candidate says he won't be filling out a college basketball tournament bracket, an annual tradition for millions of Americans including President Barack Obama.

"I'm not plugged in well enough this year to do that," Romney said Tuesday during a brief exchange with reporters traveling with him in Missouri.

Basketball player and fan Obama is making his NCAA tournament predictions public for a third straight year. ESPN on Tuesday revealed Obama's Final Four: Kentucky, Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina. ESPN said it would unveil the president's entire bracket on Wednesday.

Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron are planning to attend a "First Four" matchup in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky.

In 2011, Obama's men's bracket ranked 746,086 overall, placing him in the 87.4 percentile, ESPN said. The president failed to predict any of the Final Four teams in the previous two years, but he correctly picked North Carolina to win the national championship in 2009.

Obama said in an interview last month with journalist Bill Simmons that the "mythology of sports" is deeply embedded in the U.S., allowing viewers to discern who is winning and who is losing – a principle that could easily be transferred to politics.

Picking basketball winners and losers can cut both ways in politics, however. It lets a president or candidate share in a pastime that has become hugely popular with Americans.

And in choosing Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina for the Final Four, Obama picked three teams from states that could be crucial in the fall elections.

But there was little advantage in picking powerhouse Kentucky, from a reliably GOP state.

And what about those he didn't select? No Florida or Florida State, Mr. President?

Comments

[hoy156]

12:11 PM on 03/15/2012

"...not plugged in well enough this year..."?? Ask how his bracket went last year, (or the last time he WAS "plugged in"), please. Romney could not be any less superficial or a bigger pantload when it comes to the majority of folks he purports to represent; "Middle class", my tuchas...This guy does not know the meaning of the term. Cannot wait for next his series of "insincerities" regarding his soon to occur "St. Patrick's Day avoidances". Remember the "Seamus' Voyage" - Tiocfaidh ár lá

[cabaretchatnoir]

12:13 AM on 03/15/2012

If you are not plugged-in enough have someone do it for you and then release it. It shows you care about the "trivialities" of a majority of Americans and will connect you to voters, which is not something you do very well.

[Pierre99]

02:49 PM on 03/14/2012

ATTENTION LIBERALS: You have inadvertently landed on the wrong article. This is a meaningless article about a GOP candidate. Nobody cares what liberals think about GOP candidates. That's okay. Anybody can make a mistake. Exit immediately and go to a meaningless story about the Community Organizer....."Obama's State Dinner Lineup Includes John Legend, Mumford & Sons". It's more your speed. Always happy to help liberals.

[Pierre99]

02:33 PM on 03/14/2012

THIS is news?

[tuhloola]

02:12 PM on 03/14/2012

He's "not plugged in well enough" ?? Truer words were never spoken, by this bufoon. He's not plugged in AT ALL !!!!

[DRouss3977]

01:19 PM on 03/14/2012

Mittens could care less about sports, unless he owns the team when he can fire anyone he pleases. Willard is so out of touch with the average American.

[kitsmom1990]

01:13 PM on 03/14/2012

I'm glad to see Romney is leaving the important decisions to Obama. At least we know Obama is qualified to make the "Final 4" choices. After all, he's done it in the past and he seems to have a keen interest in picking the outcomes of most sporting events. I'm comfortable letting Romney make the decisions on the economy and Middle East policy while Obama plays.

[yougogirl1948]

01:54 PM on 03/14/2012

@kitsmom1990:

"I'm comfortable letting Romney......." Why are you "comfortable letting" a person who has NO experience in diplomacy with foreign nations in his resume ANYWHERE handle the sensitive, seemingly intractable, ancient problems in the Middle East? Romney's advisors are the same people who advised President Bush II, and look where that led us.

Also, Romney is not the the effective ecomomic wizard you seem to think he is. The only thing he is good at financially is buying vulnerable companies, firing "surplus employees", raiding their pension funds, shipping the jobs to foreign countries, and forcing some of them into bankruptcy because of the debt forced on them by the VULTURE capitalist who were supposed to RESCUE them. He managed to rack up a fortune of an estimated $250,000,000. With "experts" like this who needs enemies?

[evenbogee]

01:02 PM on 03/14/2012

Liberals so out of touch, once again Obama's priorities are misguided by his voters, basketball?
GOP 2012 Anyone but Obama - - -this billboard sign is so appropiate

[Weeweed Up]

12:42 PM on 03/14/2012

"I'm not plugged in well enough this year to do that," Romney said Tuesday during a brief exchange with reporters traveling with him in Missouri.

There you have it. Mit Romney admits he has to be plugged in nightly.

[littlepuffycloud]

11:47 AM on 03/14/2012

He likes sport and I bet he has several friends who owns basketball teams..But if MarchMAdness were polo teams, Mittie would be all up in that.

[Clifton Miller]

01:28 PM on 03/14/2012

march madness is a poor man sport to him,and who cares about the poor!

[jjtm562]

09:48 AM on 03/14/2012

A question for Mitt's handlers: What's with the jeans? He's trying to sell himself as a businessman while dressed as a farmer. He looks about as natural as he would if you put him in a dress.

[littlepuffycloud]

11:45 AM on 03/14/2012

He thinks his plaid regular-fella shirt and mom jeans are going to fool the dummies that he's just one of them..

[yougogirl1948]

12:39 PM on 03/14/2012

@jjtm562:

I agree with you about the jeans. He looks ridiculous in those jeans. Also, most older people DON'T look too good in jeans (There are the rare exceptions.). That is why I at the age of 64 DO NOT wear them. I wear nice, well-fitting slacks/pants. I suggest Gov. Romney do the same.

I have learned as I have blessedly gotten older that your body CHANGES no matter how much you exercise AND eat the proper foods. GRAVITY is a POWERFUL force.

[Walrus 1949]

08:57 AM on 03/14/2012

Obama filled one out but Romney didnt? Oh the shame!

[Weeweed Up]

12:40 PM on 03/14/2012

It just shows how our president can multi-task.

[Batjak]

08:56 AM on 03/14/2012

Obama spends a lot time predicting basketball and other sports. time to spend more time on getting out of Afganistan, 10 billion a month,could be spent on educating our youth and protecting our shores.
Bush left office with the average price of $1.61 a gallon for gas. gas has increased every month that Obama has been in office.
Obama could get every tax increase he wants and still not get enough revenue to pay the debt. sorry, he needs to concentrate on curtailing the debt. not finding ways to spend more money.

[Dodsworth Fandango]

12:35 PM on 03/14/2012

ZZzzzzz

[Weeweed Up]

12:41 PM on 03/14/2012

Bush left us trillions in debt borrowing from China to keep HIS wars going. Enough said.

[watchdogg2007]

08:52 AM on 03/14/2012

Mitt is passing on this, because he doesn't know anybody that owns a college basketball team.

[pomchop]

08:46 AM on 03/14/2012

Mitt sucks up to nascar because most all of the fans are white and he hangs out with the filthy rich owners. Watching a bunch of people drive around in circles and hoping for a wreck is the essence of nascar. Basketball can actually be played by poor people whereas Nascar requires a few million bucks to buy a car. Therefore basketball doesn't fit into Mitt little rich white world...plus he is scared to death to actually have to pick teams for fear that he might offend some voters and once he made the picks he couldn't flip flop out of his choices.

[yougogirl1948]

12:52 PM on 03/14/2012

@pomchop:

Fanned and faved. I don't like to be negative about anyone's sports preferences, but I have NEVER, and probably NEVER will, understand the fascination with NASCAR for the all of the reasons you just named.

You are also correct about basketball. ANYONE can play basketball. All you need is a basketball and a hoop while with NASCAR you need a hopped-up car worth thousands of dollars which the average person cannot begin to afford.

[tuhloola]

02:23 PM on 03/14/2012

Having lived with a NASCAR fan for a time, I've deduced that the fascination is that there is no thinking required. Just midlessly watch the cars go round, and round, and round, and hope for a big wreck to break the monotony. Downright baffling !!!