Washington Post

President Obama fills out his NCAA bracket with ESPN’s Andy Katz during their interview in the Map Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
There’s so much you can tell about a man from his bracket.

President Obama made his NCAA Tournament predictions for ESPN, which promptly put the document online. He seems not to have taken the task lightly — his sheet is a mess of question marks and scratch-outs. Obama confidently penned in a Final Four of Louisville, Pitt, UNC and Memphis, but seemingly agonized over how it would play out from there, writing both Louisville and Pitt into the champion box before scribbling them out in favor of Carolina. We asked the experts to probe further:

Kenny White, chief operating officer for top oddsmaker Las Vegas Sports Consultants: “These are very safe picks — 89 percent of his picks resemble our bracket. In 56 selections, he’s on the favorite. But he picked some very small underdogs. … He’s got Temple over Arizona State, with a question mark. And his biggest upset is Virginia Commonwealth over UCLA. … Only 11 percent of brackets will have those two teams.”

Charlie Cook, political analyst, editor and publisher, the Cook Political Report: “If the president wanted to shamelessly suck up to swing-state schools, he would have made very different choices. Instead, he went with solid, though certainly conventional, choices. A panderer would have picked Ohio State over Louisville in the second round of the Midwest, and Missouri over Memphis in the third round of the West. Of course, he would have looked ridiculous to make those picks, but that never stopped some politicians.”

Kathi McKnight, graphologist, TheHandwritingExpert.com: “He prints all of his answers, no straight cursive writing — he’s independent, with good instincts, but private. Some of the words are a mix of cursive and printing, which reveals the writer is in touch with his intuitive sixth sense about things. Take the word ‘Louisville’: He has an easy feel for Louisville … why? That, we don’t know. Some of the words slant upwards — Utes and Wake Forest. He is more optimistic about these picks than others, deep down inside.” (see more here)

By The Reliable Source | March 19, 2009; 1:03 AM ET
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Why is Charlie Cook an “expert” on basketball? I don’t think the guy has seen the top of his feet since he was a child, how could he understand basketball. I normally don’t have anything against blimp-shaped people, but Cook is the epitome of a Washington self-important jerk, getting ridiculous speaker fees for regurgitating the same old tripe. Wonder how much he charges for his basketball insight.

Posted by: mike8 | March 19, 2009 11:04 AM

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