{"id":523114,"date":"2010-04-11T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2010\/04\/11\/2668453\/in-sports-or-politics-it-may-take.html#mi_rss=Opinion"},"modified":"2010-04-11T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-11T07:00:00","slug":"david-and-goliath-in-sports-or-politics-it-may-take-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/523114","title":{"rendered":"David and Goliath: In sports or politics, it may take a miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tButler’s Gordon Hayward leaves the court last week in Indianapolis after his last-second shot clanged off the rim, giving Duke the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Behind Hayward, Duke players form a jubilant pile on the floor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If last week’s David vs. Goliath contests are any indication, Steve Poizner should hold off buying the celebratory confetti for June 8. <\/p>\n

First, there was Butler, the small school turned national darling, playing in its hometown for the NCAA men’s basketball title against mighty Duke. The tense, hard-fought game came down to one fateful bounce. Hoop fans the world over held their breath as Gordon Hayward’s half-court heave arced toward the basket, seemingly destined to create a real-life “Hoosiers” miracle. But the last-second shot glanced off the rim. <\/p>\n

The next night, Stanford tried to stop Connecticut, the juggernaut of women’s college basketball with a 77-game winning streak. After leading by 8 points at the half, Stanford and its injured senior star Jayne Appel limped to the final buzzer. The Cardinal gave UConn its two toughest games this season, but came up short.<\/p>\n

While monumental upsets sometimes happen in sports, thanks to guts and sheer luck, they occur less often in politics, largely because money rules. <\/p>\n

So Poizner might face an even tougher fight in the Republican gubernatorial primary against mega-millionaire Meg Whitman. Despite flinging any rocks he can find against the former eBay CEO, Poizner trails in several polls by 50 percentage points. <\/p>\n

If he has the proverbial slingshot, she seems to have an impenetrable shield and armor, the kind covered with gold. <\/p>\n

Whitman disclosed last week that she has thrown another $20 million of her own fortune into the campaign – a staggering total of $59 million with two months yet to go before the primary. Poizner has invested about $19 million of his own money, but his outside fundraising has all but dried up. <\/p>\n

If anything, Poizner may be even more of a Cinderella in his match-up than Butler and Stanford were in theirs. And like them, it would be a shocker if there is a fairy-tale ending.<\/p>\n

– Foon Rhee<\/p>\n

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\n\tStanford’s Jayne Appel drives against Connecticut’s Tina Charles on Tuesday in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game. UConn won.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n\tMeg Whitman and Steve Poizner are both millionaires, but Whitman has outspent Poizner in their race for the state’s Republican gubernatorial nomination. Poizner now finds himself 50 points behind in polls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Butler’s Gordon Hayward leaves the court last week in Indianapolis after his last-second shot clanged off the rim, giving Duke the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Behind Hayward, Duke players form a jubilant pile on the floor. If last week’s David vs. Goliath contests are any indication, Steve Poizner should hold off buying the celebratory confetti […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}