Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins!
Um, sorry about that. But if you suffered through the Hoyas’ collapse last year, you understand why a basketball victory over Duke might seem, to even the most distant alumnus, something to cheer. And, man, did the Georgetown school the Blue Devils.
Besides, the game, even in a snowstorm, was the hottest ticket in that fickle political town of Washington. Mostly, of course, because Obama and Biden were present. James Fallows has a nice note on the way politics is never far from anyone’s mind in D.C.:
The place was packed and going nuts from beginning to end. The crowd was at least 90/10 Georgetown, with most people wearing the gray Georgetown T-shirts left at each seat, to create a “gray-out” effect. If you look at the people behind Obama and Biden in this picture (including a mid-scream Rahm Emanuel) you get a fair sample of the prevailing mood.The one person who did not visibly react in any way to any play by either side was one of the main hoops fans in the building—Barack Obama. His was the studied impassivity of (nearly all!) members of the Supreme Court during a State of the Union address. Cheer for a Hoyas steal/dunk? North Carolina is an important state. Cheer when the Blue Devils rally? Become an oddball/pariah in a hostile crowd. So, Buddha-like he sat, as perfectly illustrated above. Joe Biden moved around a little more but also didn’t cheer.
Rahm Emanuel, mid-scream. Barack Obama, impassive. Why didn’t they just stay at the White House?
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