Holy Guacamole! Election Day is finally here! I can't believe it myself. I've been anxious all morning - constantly turning on the news and clicking on Huff Post or CNN for the latest updates. So to calm down I decided to post about the candidate playing sports. While we all await nervously to hear our choice for the next President of the United States, take a moment to peruse the candidates' sport of choice. Barry's better a basketball than bowling:

Sarah "The Barracuda" Palin dee'd it up on the court back in the day too:

Photo courtesy of www.hoopsfantasy.com

Joe Biden played baseball back in the day. Watch Biden talk baseball in Philly:

John McCain was a lightweight Navy boxer back in the day. (Sorry, I couldn't find video of McCain boxing, but I did find this pic of him putting up his dukes!):

Photo courtesy of www.neveryetmelted.com

I had to post on this, I just had to.

Okay, so vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin shows up at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. Palin, decked out in a white coat, is greeted with boos, and I think I heard some hisses too. I kinda felt sorry for her because her kids were there, and you know she so desperately want to be THE hockey mom of america (oh, yeah can’t forget about that Veep thing she's banking on).

All this got me thinking (as usual). It never fails; politics and sports are breeding grounds for intense emotion. When you think about it, politics and sports have lots of common characteristics:

1. Competition
2. Social clout/power
3. Platforms
4. Scandals
5. Leadership
6. And I like to think both politicians and athletes have the ability to influence positive change (but we both know this can get a bit tricky, especially considering #2)

Now that we're at the height of the political season in the United States it just makes for an even more intense scene when a political figure shows up at a sporting event.

I've put together a small compilation of YouTube vids that highlight some of our US political leaders showing up at sporting events. Sit back, relax, and press play.

AWWWWWWKWARD! President Bush at a Volleyball game in Beijing (2008):

Senator, Barack Obama bowls and shoots hoops (better at the latter than the former):

President GW Bush gets boo'd (or cheered - depends on the perspective) at baseball game:

Whatever happened to just drinking good old-fashioned Gatorade?  It is still around, right?

[Photo courtesy of www.alibaba.com]

When I was growing up playing sports, Gatorade was the fancy sports drink – I'd be just as fine drinking water to get hydrated after a game or track meet.

[Photo courtesy of www.blognetnews.com]

(Gosh, that water looks entirely too refreshing right now. I'm blogging in my LA apartment and it's blaaazing hot right now!).

It wasn't until I was near the end of my highschool career that I was formally introduced to  Powerade (the "Power" before "ade" purposely implies a certain superiority over Gatorade, wouldn't you say?).

But apparently, Powerade was just the beginning.  Remember back in the early twenty-first century, say around '01/'02 we started seeing those commercials of fuzzy sketched cartoon-like characters who would all-of-a-sudden ascend into an atmosphere of stick figure clouds while stating, that now famous line, "Redbull gives you wiiiiiings!"

Yeah, all you Redbull and Vodka club hoppers know exactly what I'm talking about.

So Powerade imposed it's mighty ego on Gatorade, Redbull made people think we can fly, and then a plethora of other sports drinks from Monster to Rock Star hit the multi-million dollar stage of the energy drink industry.

After all of the power trips, flying high, and upstaging, to no surprise researchers are now saying that folks, athletes in particular, are suffering health-wise because of these "energy drinks."

Some athletes have opted for a Redbull instead of Gatorade, or a glass of water, to stay hydrated.  The result? Debilitating muscle cramps.  Ya don't say?

Whoda thunk it that an energy drink laced with sugar and caffeine could actually cause your muscles to cramp up.  Why that would mean that these energy drinks de-hydrate the body rather than hydrate.  Fascinating.

I admit, I've succumbed to Redbull's energy seduction many times over.  When I'm knee high in work and to-do lists, a cup of coffee just ain't gonna cut it.  But it's important to note that these drinks are only quick pick-me-ups and should not be used during any type of athletic activity or competition.  And yes, they really aren't that good for folks, like me, who depend on "pick-me-ups" to get work done.

[Holding my head low in utter shame].

I remember one time when I was recording in the studio over night I drank two Redbulls back-to-back.  I couldn't fall asleep.  I felt my heart beating against my chest while lying in my bed later that night.  Never again.  

These issues should be taken seriously, especially when things like this seem imminent nowadays.

Tonight, another round of Presidential Debates are going down on television. As with the previous two debates this election year, I'm excited to watch our candidates get behind podiums and do some civil athletics. I don't think it's much of a stretch to think of debates as a sort of brain-sport. I often imagine debates being a spectacle as old as democracy itself, involving two toga-clad Athenians in a giant coliseum full of voters, flexing their brains to the roar of an adoring crowd... but I couldn't really find any historical data on the internet to confirm or deny this fantasy of mine.

Debates have come to be a pretty serious field of competition for high school students in recent years. Salon.com writer Mark Oppenheimer observed an international high school debate competition and noted that, as an ex-debater himself, "These kids took their avocation more seriously than we had in my day; they had read up on their sport, dissected it, theorized about it", but worried that "many competitors were a bit too smooth -- well-rehearsed but passionless."

Debates, in theory, are an oppurtunity for people to show off their well-thought-out political stances and for the audience or judges to decide whose position is more sensible. But in practice, I don't think that's how it actually works. Debates are by their very design competitive, which means that debaters are trying to win some kind of contest rather than create sensible policies. Having ever changed your mind on an issue becomes a weak point in defenses, instead of evidence that you were enlightened by some new information. I'll still be sitting in front of the television and yelling at it with my friends like it was a Mets or Giants game, though. Weigh in on the YouthNoise forum and let us all know how you feel about the debates.

I never thought I'd see the day when scientific research actually shows that playing video games can be good for folks.

I admit, back in the day I was a Sonic The Hedge Hog and Super Mario Brothers – oh, and can't forget Sim City – fanatic!  I remember one day I came home from school eager to see how my metropolis was coming along after leaving the game on all night to accumulate citizen tax dollars.  To my disappointment, my mom turned off the game while I was in school.  So all of those long hard hours spent sitting in front of my television and working my thumbs overtime meant virtually nothing.

Ah, the good old days.

I think after my unfortunate experience with Sim City I became jaded by video games.  It was only later on that video games sparked my attention, though this time, it was because of the increasing violence and sexism depicted in some of the games.  Throughout my adult years I've heavily criticized some of these video games, particularly since my two young nephews are now just as tuned in as I was at their age.

But a new study (and here, too) just came out saying that, yeah, video games can actually be good for kids and teens – like a real sport can be good for kids.  Yeah, I implied it: video games are NOT real sports, people.  

IS GAMING GOOD FOR KIDS?

But whooda thunk it!

According to this study, video gaming is good for kids because, contrary to popular belief, it helps them socialize better.  (Really, now?)

Video gaming also encourages learning because it involves "problem-solving, achieving goals or obstacles."  (Hmmm, these "skills" can just as easily be aquired through normal daily activities, hell, even walking up straight is a skill for some people!).

However, they've got video games out now where you can actually be fit while Wii-ing. (Again, this all seems a bit, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Ah yes - asinine.)   

I mean, really, you could save a couple of hundred bucks by just putting on some old sneakers, hopping on a rusty old bike, and riding up and down the block a few times.  And if by chance you do get bored with the scenery, there are always lots of places in our communities we could discover.  Unlike playing the death out of a video game; running, walking, throwing, bouncing, breathing, and LIVING, never get old.  

I guess I'm old school in a way (or perhaps I'm still getting over that Sim City incident).  Either way, I'm still a bit skeptical over this "new found" discovery that supports video gaming in cognitive and physical development.  

My theory: It's all just a ploy to drive consumers into buying more stuff for kids (young and old) who's time could be much better spent soaking in natural air and sun while keeping physically fit.