Fighting Words: McCain's Battle Scars a Walk in the Park Compared to Cubbie Blues

The mitts are coming off.

After a conventional double header that showcased political narratives from both left and right fields, it is now time to decide on a national cleanup hitter. Lost in the Mile High Obamathon and ideological Iditarod, however, is the real debate we must address in the coming months. Who has persevered through more adversity, Hanoi Hilton alum John McCain or the legions of Cubs fans that have rooted in vein?

Mark Prior, the modern day poster child for diamond despondency on the North Side, did not need to be shot down by the Vietnamese to lose full strength in his arms and shoulders. We have all suffered as a result.

While ObamaCubs.com respects the Senior Senator from Arizona's patriotism and prolonged sacrifice at bat for our freedom, John McCain's biography should not be used to throw a curve ball around his Bush League voting record. If McCain's campaign wants to exploit his years as a POW to win an election, the least we can do here in the peanut gallery is debate where his suffering fits in the overall lineup of national sacrifice.

Cubs fans, collectively speaking, have a century-long reservoir of pain, suffering, and unyielding commitment to their cause. Just as we thought scars from the 1969, 1984, and 2003 campaigns were beginning to wear off, the Cubs offense this month has gone AWOL and 40 percent of its starting rotation has landed in a MASH unit. All we have is hope, and hope shall carry us to the Promised Land (until it doesn't).

Nobody else in America can really feel our pain. Yet our belief in a better tomorrow is unyielding, and not thrown out at home by a Karl Rove focus group. Can yesterday's hero say the same thing? McCain, in fact, owns a piece of the Arizona Diamondbacks and could not fathom spending a decade (much less a century) not seeing his team win it all.

If you haven't figured it out by now, ObamaCubs.com posts are largely (although not entirely!) satire.