Winning in the Middle-How Trump calls the Race

WHEN TO CALL THE RACE

Election Day is always Melbourne Cup Day in my homeland, Australia. And the thrill in the old days was listening to the radio and the race call. We love race horses- like Americans love Presidents. My favorite was Tulloch and Rain Lover and Phar Lap.

If President Trump was calling the Melbourne Cup like he is calling this election, it would sound something like this:

“And we are at the one mile mark of the two mile race, and Tulloch is ahead- by 8 lengths. In fact, Tulloch has in my book won the Melbourne Cup- all he has to do now is run the last mile and finish the job. What? Look? All these other horses are still there,  what are they doing? They are trying to steal the race from Tulloch! That is totally unfair. This will destroy the reputation of the race. I hereby declare the race for Tulloch. Anyone else who wins in that second mile is a fraud. Stop the race. Stop it now. This is not right.”

Or if President Trump was calling the World Series, he might sound like this:

“So the Red Sox are leading at the bottom of the 6th by 8 runs to 3, and they are dominating the game as expected. In fact, it’s so clear  to me at this point that I hereby declare the Red Soxs the winner of the World Series, and if the Dodgers win later games or score some runs in the next 5 innings, they are deliberately stealing the game from the RedSox. This is not baseball. This makes the world series a farce. They are winning- and then its been stolen. Stop the pitching now. This is shameful. Stop it now.”

Or if the President were calling the Rugby World Cup, it would be something like this:

“So, Australia are leading New Zealand by 15 points to 12 at half time,  and I think the result is already clear- that Australia is the best team- and if in the second half, any team comes out and tries to score, they are stealing the title from Australia. It is not fair. It is totally unprecedented. When you try so hard to win at half time, it’s just not acceptable that your win is slowly and secretly whittled away. Stop the game now. Stop it. This is unacceptable. Rugby will never recover.”

“It ain’t over till its over”- Said the great philosopher Yogi Berra.