How Barack Obama Will Hit Alex Ovechkin

Starting next season (for the sake of convenience), Alex Ovechkin will pay $405,000 more per year in income taxes under President-elect Obama's proposed tax plan than he would have under the current tax code, and $450k more in the out-years of his contract (assuming that the proposed tax plan is enacted and still in effect). Over the 12 years remaining on his current contract, that's an additional $5 million-plus headed into Uncle Sam's coffers instead of AO's bank account.

We, as Americans, say thank you, Alex.

H/t to Forbes.com

You Know You Have A Huge Fundraising Advantage When...

By opting out of public financing for the general election, Barack Obama has been able to raise - and spend - positively ridiculous sums of money. In fact, he's going to end up "breaking the advertising spending record set by President Bush in the general election four years ago, having unleashed an advertising campaign of a scale and complexity unrivaled in the television era."

Senator Obama is out-spending Republican Presidential nominee John McCain by at least a four-to-one margin, and raised more money in September than Senator McCain has been permitted to in the entire general election (Senator McCain was constrained by the limits that accompany accepting public financing).

And while the two candidates buy up air time on your television and radio, Senator Obama is going somewhere that his opponent isn't: your video games. Per the AP (via FirstCuts):

For those too busy playing video games to watch presidential ads on television, Barack Obama has a solution. He's become the first presidential candidate to buy ad space inside a game....

The Democrat's ads are aimed primarily at game players who like sports, including NASCAR, the NBA, the NHL and skateboarding. That means EA Sports' motto, "It's in the game," now applies to presidential politics as well.

The NHL? Yep (maybe they saw an opening after the Republican Vice Presidential nominee nearly got booed out of the Wachovia Center and took the hint from the sign-holders in the background of this shot). Here's an example:

Photo via Flickr
So what do you think - keep your politics out of my video games or cool and clever?

Obama/Oshie '08?

Proving yet again that there's absolutely no demographic to which a politician won't pander, Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were in North Dakota last week and took the opportunity to suck up to UND Fighting Sioux hockey fans as their beloved team prepared to head off to this week's Frozen Four.

So who faked being a hockey fan better? First, the photos, courtesy of the Grand Forks Herald:


What the hell? Why does Obama look as if we should be impressed that he just clean and jerked a hockey stick? I've gotta give the edge to Hillary here, and the fact that she looks like she's ready to butt-end Kent Conrad gives her an extra edge - I bet she goes into the corners with elbows high.

And who talked the talk? Well, Hillary, oblivous to the controversy over the "Fighting" part of the UND team nickname, referenced the full name multiple times and even identified herself with the team:

"What if the Fighting Sioux had fought the Gophers to a tie and then given up? They didn’t... and that’s why they’re going to the Frozen Four."

Presumably Hillary thinks she's tied with Obama, which is darling but ridiculously and demonstrably untrue (par for the course, I suppose).

For his part, Obama played it down the middle, noting:

"I want to congratulate the University of North Dakota Men's Hockey Team for making it to the Frozen Four. I want to wish them luck in their game next week against Boston College.

"I am deeply honored and thankful to get that hockey stick. It will have a place of honor in my office but I promise you I will not wield it because my hockey game is worse than my bowling."

Lame.

Most disappointing of all, however, neither candidate seemed to take a position on the critical-to-North-Dakotans issue of mascot violence, but we'd guess that Hillary is "pro"... if it'll get her votes.