The Audacity of Hoop

A – 100% Rust Belt. (Go Dayton!)

B – 100% Conservative

C – 100% Bipartisan

D – 100% Symmetry

E – 100% American. Apple pie for desert?

E – 100% Pure Beef

F – 100% Fan. Already turned in my brackets.

G – Santorum’s sweater? (Just joking.)

Call it one more smooth layup in the Campaign ’12 optics battle.

Obama is exploiting a masterful number of political themes with his photo-ops, of late.  This scene is just so, well … American, the Prez traveling to Dayton, Ohio being a key 2012 battleground. Whereas FOX and the right lamely tries to resuscitate the idea of Obama as other (Muslim, foreign, etc.), Obama is settling in for March Madness, just an average Joe pulling up some couch for weeks of serious bball-watching complemented by the silly fun of the betting pool.  And then, we know how much Obama loves to cross-the-aisle. If he can’t get the Republicans to play ball, Cameron — As Sullivan points out –provides a great conservative symbol reinforcing the Presidential team’s emphasis on opening up the middle.

Romney, on the other hand?  He’d be up in the skybox with some pro-owner buddies and the Chamber of Commerce.

(photo 1: Larry Downing/Reuters caption: U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron talk at a first round “First Four” game of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky at the University of Dayton Arena in Ohio, March 13, 2012.photo 2: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty photo 3: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images.)