Sarah Palin's Extreme Sports

Sarah Palin's Extreme Sports By Dave Zirin

Ever since Andrew Johnson welcomed the New York Mutuals to the White House in 1867, presidential politics has exploited professional sports. It's a foolproof way for politicians to show voters they enjoy competition, fair play and are salt-of-the-turf Americans.

I love sports. And, I love politics. Plus, I greatly enjoy the work of journalist, David Zirin.

If you don't count Jim Ryun, miler, former US Congressmen seeking to win back his seat in 2008. Or, if you don't count Bill Bradley, Paul Allen and Luke Ravenstahl's place-kicking in DIII schools.

Palin has the most extensive sports resumé for a politician since former Representative Steve Largent. But unlike Largent, an NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver, Palin's sporting bona fides are more style than substance.

His closing remarks, swings for the fences:

It's about the right-wing edge of the fundamentalist movement that uses sports to mask a political agenda of creationism, bigotry, environmental catastrophe and deregulation. And if that leads to the "end-times," then so it was written. If sports teaches us anything, it's that you can disguise a lousy competitor for one round, one quarter or one inning, but the truth has a way of making itself known. There is a reason Sarah Palin hasn't done a press conference. In every conceivable way, she belongs in the minors: strictly Bush league.