Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food
Barack Obama owes his victory to the Pittsburgh Steelers
Here’s why:
“If the Redskins win their last home game before the election, the party that occupies the White House continues to hold it; if the Redskins lose that last home game, the challenging party’s candidate unseats the incumbent president.” ...
In fact, in a string of 17 consecutive “predictions” going back to the days of the Boston Redskins in 1936, a Redskins victory in the last home game before the election has presaged a victory by the incumbent party.
So I knew it was over when Jason Campbell through that last interception.
PS: I understand that correlation does not imply causation. My tongue is firmly in cheek.
Greatest team ever.
Except for the Offensive Coordinator, who with 2nd and 1 call a QB sneak with a QB who has been banged up all year. Dow dumb can one guy be.
Obama was never in doubt, so predictive value is questionable.
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- UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge's personal journal. Mostly commentary on politics, religion, and culture.
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As a believer in the prediction markets’ estimates for Obama winning (about 90%+ on the day of Monday’s Steelers game), I see the causation running the other way. I was very confident Obama was going to win, so to me this implied a Steelers victory. After all, if the Universe knows that a future event is going to happen, it will arrange all events leading up to that event to be consistent with it. (This is like the you-can’t-kill-your-grandfather-in-a-time-machine story.)
So, contra to Professor B, I knew the Steelers were going to win even after the failed onside kick to start the game and the Big Ben interception on the ensuing series for the Steelers. It was Obama’s destiny that was driving everything.
(As a matter of full disclosure, the election results and the game results were a draw for me. You win some, you lose some.)