Don't go there

President Barack Obama hasn’t exactly made the most politically savvy decisions over the past….uh……how long has he been in office?

Anyhow, he’s now inserted himself into a situation which can potentially alienate the electorate in a key swing state.

Include President Obama as another Chicago Bulls fan rooting for LeBron James to move to Chicago.

"He doesn't want to tamper," senior adviser to the president -- and former Bulls season-ticket holder -- David Axelrod said. "But as a Chicago fan, the president thinks LeBron would look great in a Bulls uniform."

James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs Thursday by the Boston Celtics, becomes a free agent on July 1. Many believe he could be headed to the Bulls.

The president, a former U.S. senator from Illinois and state senator from Chicago, never has shied away from his sporting roots. He frequently wears his Chicago White Sox cap; has attended a Washington Wizards victory over the Bulls last season, and also hosted the Bulls on a tour of the White House.

You may recall that the state of Ohio literally decided the 2004 Presidential election when George W. Bush won said state 51% to 49%. The Buckeye state then swung Democrat in 2008, where Obama won it by 5 percentage points. So with LeBron being a native son of Ohio and having played for the hometown Cavs for his entire seven-year NBA career, it seems rather foolish for the President to advocate for the departure of Ohio’s prized possession. It seems to me that Ohio will likely be a hotly contested battleground state again in 2012.

OK, I guess I’m being a little tongue-in cheek here by suggesting this will have a major impact on a national election. But it's not a huge stretch either. Do you recall the backlash against Massachusetts Senatorial candidate Martha Coakley when she referred to legendary Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling as a “Yankees fan?” Don’t think it didn’t play at least a small part in a Republican (Scott Brown) winning a US Senate seat in Massachusetts for the first time in over thirty years.

Sure, some of you scoff at the notion that voters could be so shallow as to vote for a political candidate based on vapid and superficial reasons. But let's not forget that Obama received more than a fair share of votes on the basis of his looking good on television and being a great orator.

Just sayin’.

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