Not a Hail Mary, a Fumblerooski

People are calling Sarah Palin's candidacy a Hail Mary pass by the Republicans. It is a high-risk, high-reward play made by an over-matched team, true. But the football analogy is not a Hail Mary play, it is a Fumblerooski.

Most people are familiar with the Hail Mary play, immortalized by Doug Flute and Gerard Phelan (Boston College vs. Miami, 1984). The quarterback heaves the ball as far as possible, and then hopes for a miracle catch by one of his receivers. There is no deception with a Hail Mary pass. Both teams know it's coming.

This is not the play the Republicans are running. This is not a last-second desperation play. There's a lot of time left in the game. This is deception by design: It's the Fumblerooski.

The Fumblerooski, is not so well known, but is just as much part of the football lexicon as the Hail Mary pass. (It has been ruled illegal in college and the pros but is still sometimes used at the high school level.) The Fumblerooski is not typically used as a come-from-behind play like the Hail Mary is; it is more often run by teams whose coaches know they are over-matched, and have to resort to deception and gimmickry to give themselves even a small chance of winning.

Without going into the mechanics of it, the play is designed to get the defense looking WHERE THE BALL ISN'T while an offensive lineman runs the other way WITH THE BALL.

This is the play the Republicans are running.

With two months left before the election, the McCain team brought the unknown 'Sarah Barracuda' off the bench to create distractions with a couple of seasons worth of Northern Exposure storylines: Babygate and Troopergate, polar bears, the Wasilla city budget, shooting wolves from helicopters, the snowmobie-racing husband, creationism, a special needs child, the Bridge to Nowhere and various other Alaskan scandals -- anything to distract voters from what's really at stake. And who really has the ball.

The media, heavily invested in keeping the game close, will naturally be complicit in the play, and will use all sorts of tele-strators, animated electoral vote maps, re-plays, slo-mo, color analysis, up-close-and-personal sidebar stories and incredible camera angles to add to the distraction.

It will take discipline and coordination by the Obama team to keep voters from being persuaded that this election has anything to do with Palin or her politics. She does not have the ball and if the play goes as designed, she never will.

George W. Bush still has the ball, the same one he's been fumbling for the past eight years. The only way the Democrats can lose this election is if they fall for trick plays designed to let Bush hand the ball to Pappy McCain (U.S. Naval Academy, 1958) who will try to leg it to the end zone while the voters' focus is elsewhere.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Mike Bonifer is the author of GameChangers - Improvisation for Business in the Networked World. His website is www.gamechangers.com.

Comments

[Liberoservative]

I am watching the CSPAN coverage of the RNC and I am looking really hard.... I MEAN REALLY HARD for a non white face in this convention...

I haven't found one yet....
Can you guys do a tally?

Like... I found one!!!!!!!
He was a black dude..

I found one!!!!
He was an hispanic dude...

and now they are saying that Sarah Pawlenti is gonna be the next vice president???
That has to be a mis speak

[M1]

McCain new about all Palin's weaknesses, and, yes, her daughter's pregnancy too. Palin is a Carl Rove Trojan Horse. Her nomination is designed to incite women who fought for equality to attack her, others democrats to attack her llack of experience and others to attack her life style...hunting, guns, anti gay, anti abortion and very religious. She is a trap set perfectly and the Republican talking heads are laying in wait for any attacks on her.

WHY?

Because it changes the National debate away from the results and suffering caused by the last 8 yrs of the failed Bush Policies and over to smash mouth politics about comparing Obama's experience to Palins, touting Democrats as liberal elitist who think they are better than "Rednecks" or lunch bucket democrats....Reagan Democrats....you know the one's Hillarly attracked by drinking shots, beer and touting a famiy history of guns and hunting. It is back to the same ole politiics of division or cultural warfare but only if Democrats take the bait which seems to endlessly be flowing from Palin....and its no mistake. This pick is a win win for McCain if we attack. If we don't his judgment and character will be questioned and the National debate if not changed will end the Republican bid for the White House.


Barack Obama said, "BACK OFF." that was code to all of us Democrats to back of the Palin attack trap.

[Scurvybro]

I don't know whether "most people" are familiar with the Hail Mary play through its connection with Doug Flutie in 1984. I do know that the first time I recall the "Hail Mary" designation being used was in reference to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach's touchdown pass to Drew Pearson against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL playoffs in 1975.

[Charles1Goodwin]

Great analogy. I love it.

[ndolomar]

This post is so, damn on-the-ball, that I must apologize for the unintended pun!

Palin's choice has a lot more subversive elements from which we're all being distracted because of the unwed-pregnant-daughter-moose-burger-eating-hockey-mom-barracuda talk in the media: ANWAR, British Petroleum, easily controlled by the Rove machine. This isn't just a ploy to lure Clinton supporters to the conservative ticket; it's an attempt to get the public thinking about anything but the awful policies that will be continued under a McCain presidency.

[FirstShirt]

A couple of historical notes:

1. Newspaper headlines "Dewey Wins"

2. the New England Patriots will have an undefeated season.

Careful about becoming too overconfident.

[KnockoutEd]

so basically its Wasila high + Navy football teams against the '85 Bears. guess who's walter payton.

[JCJoe]

I completely agree with this, with one major correction. Dick Cheney has the ball, he just tells Georgie boy that he's borrowing it for a bit
.
Cheney was last seen with the ball running to Georgia where he is trying to start WW IV, or is it V? hard to keep up these days.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-heilbrunn/dick-cheney-travels-to-ge_b_121236.html

[snellock]

wow, what an opportunity for some terrible analogies. Like: the center just hiked the ball to Bonifer but Bonifer was standing behind the tackle and never saw what was coming. Or: the water boy is trying to carry Bonifer's arguments to the middle of the field but his bucket is leaking and he doesn't make it past the sidelines with that one, no wait... the water boy is using a butterfly net to try to catch one Bonifer's points but they all seem to be escaping...Or how about :sorry, cuz, that dog just don't track. No...wait how about: steeeriike threee. you are outta here.

[JiminNC]

This is the truth. And they are running another one inside the Palin gambit. The info about her daughter and the pregnancy catches on with the least common denominators while the real stories about Palin, the ones that should scare the hell out of any casual observer are going to be ignored by the MSM.

[Elderlady]

Brilliant analysis!

[ILibertine]

Fumblerooski or not, there is nothing trivial about debating the appropriateness of a VP candidate in light of the potential that the candidate might become President at a critical time for the nation. I see it as a major issue - both as relates to the VP candidate and as it relates to an insight into a McCain administration.

[MarkSeattle]

"You rarely see it run by better college teams"

That could be because it was ruled illegal in college play in the late 1980s.

[Bonifer]

Noted. Thanks for the correction.

m.

[scandinavian]

i like the analogy.
counteract: quit responding to news, instead go get 10 voters for obama for each scoop -and then some. there is only 2 months left to make a difference! and obama needs a landslide to overcome the "errors" in counting the votes.
against cynical friends of mine i've still bet on that this time the majority of americans will get it right. that this time you've had enough along with the rest of the world. best wishes from finland.

[MissDaphne]

I agree with you. These guys will do anything, ANYTHING to keep things going just the way they are. And they've got Karl Rove at the helm.
I truly hope that we, and the Obama campaign, can make real the promise of "NOT THIS TIME."