Presidential Playoffs

With two of the four remaining playoff teams being in colder weather cities (Boston and Philadelphia) it would only take one rainout to move a world series game into November.  So, it's possible that I'll actually have something more exciting to watch than the paint-drying like experience of this presidential political race.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how the hometown newspaper of each of the four remaining playoff teams treats the upcoming presidential election online.  Just like baseball, the bigger the city the higher the payroll.  In newspapers like baseball the bigger cities have the advantage in money, but not necessarily in creativity or talent. 

On the baseball side of things it is a seemingly dream matchup between the Dodgers and the Red Sox.  Manny and Joe Torre vs. the Red Sox seems natural.  It's a cold weather team vs. a warm weather team.  Baked beans vs. brie.

On the newspaper side of things the Los Angeles Times has a great electoral predictor, but the Boston Globe folks have created a very cool slider grid thingy for predicting the outcome in the presidential race.

The interest in the Rays in rest of the country seems to far outweigh the interest in Tampa, but the Philly fans would make this a really fun series.

Tampa Bay Tribune has almost entirely AP and purchased content, but that doesn't mean it matches up poorly against the bigger markets.  In fact, they've found a way for non-politicos like me to have fun with this whole "every four years" thing.  They found an interactive tool for creating "Campaign-O-Lanterns" out of each of the campaigns' personalities and logos.

Philadelphia actually has the most boring political site of the four newspapers and about the most interesting feature comes from the St. Petersburg, Florida newspaper (PolitiFact.com).