Amazing! ESPN, a major establishment media company co-owned by Disney, put former President Donald Trump on the air and let him push voters to a website that the Republican National Committee loves so much, they fund it! Can you believe it?
What’s that? You can’t?
Well, good for you. Because it never happened, of course. What did happen was basically the opposite of that — which, sadly, makes it much more believable.
What actually happened is that, during “Monday Night Football” yesterday, former President Barack Obama put in an appearance that was half get-out-the-vote effort, half promo for “Manningcast,” an ESPN2 show hosted by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning that sometimes runs concurrently with the game.
I don’t know about you, but for myself, there’s nothing I like more with my football than healthy dose of political hackery.
“Mr. President,” Peyton said in introducing the segment, “we know the midterms are coming up here on Nov. 8. We know you’ve been busy out on the trails. We know how important it is to vote and to have your voice heard. What can people do to register and find out more about the process?”
You know how they say lawyers in court should never ask a question to which they don’t already know the answer? If Peyton’s football career hadn’t worked out, he would’ve made a pretty decent lawyer, I guess.
“Listen,” Obama replied, perhaps because he feared that viewers would spent the greater part of their attention on the live coverage of the New England Patriots versus the Chicago Bears playing out just to the right of his face. (I know I was.)
“Every election is important in a democracy,” he said. “And regardless of where you stand on the issues, you taking 15, 20 minutes out to let your voice be heard makes a big difference.”
Do you plan to vote in November?
So far, I have no problem with anything said in this segment. But that ended about 42 seconds into the video below: “And, you know, you’ve got all kinds of issues, from jobs, the economy, climate change — you know, you name it,” Obama said.
OK; I’ll name it. My issue is ESPN giving a free ad to one of the most important figures in the Democratic Party and allowing him to plug a website run by the Democratic National Committee during a national broadcast.
In fact, not only did they let him push the site, they helped. As Obama spoke, a graphic — obviously pre-planned — appeared on the screen, pushing IWILLVOTE.COM, a site that clearly states it has been “Paid for by the Democratic National Committee.”
Apparently, Peyton, Eli and ESPN have all been paid for by the DNC as well.
“You can go to iwillvote.com — iwillvote.com — and it’ll give you all the information you need to find out,” Obama urged, repeating the name of the website as if he thought the graphic insufficient or the URL too complicated for his viewers to grasp on their own.
You can watch the segment here, as Obama conveniently posted it to his Twitter feed.
Thanks to Peyton and @EliManning for having me on the Manningcast. It’s always good watching the game with a couple other retired guys.
Don’t forget to register to vote at https://t.co/NKXRGNgJPv. pic.twitter.com/bqwHM5dzeE
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 25, 2022
“It’s always good watching the game with a couple other retired guys,” Obama tweeted, which at first I thought was clever enough to win a half-smile from me. Then I realized that, like so much else Barack Obama has said, it’s a lie — the fact that he made this appearance proves that he’s anything but retired.
The video ends with a comment Obama might live to regret.
“The key thing is … don’t pass up the opportunity to participate. Because, you know, if you’re unhappy with how things are, the good news is, the way our system’s set up, you can actually bring about some change.”
That, in fact, is probably what’s going to happen on Nov. 8, although maybe not in the way Obama has been hoping for.
Last night, my team lost handily. I’m fairly sure that’s not going to happen on Election Day.
