Candidates' Vices: Craps and Poker

Time ^ | July 2, 2008 | MICHAEL SCHERER AND MICHAEL WEISSKOPF

[JennysCool]

The casino craps player is a social animal, a thrill seeker who wants not just to win but to win with a crowd. Unlike cards or a roulette wheel, well-thrown dice reward most everyone on the rail, yielding a collective yawp that drowns out the slots. It is a game for showmen, Hollywood stars and basketball legends with girls on their arms. It is also a favorite pastime of the presumptive Republican nominee for President, John McCain.

The backroom poker player, on the other hand, is more cautious and self-absorbed. Card games may be social, but they are played in solitude. No need for drama. The quiet card counter is king, and only a novice banks on luck. In this game, a good bluff trumps blind faith, and the studied observer beats the showman. So it is fitting that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, raked in so many pots in his late-night games with political friends.

[JennysCool]

McCain's passion for gambling and taking other risks has never been a secret. He was a Navy flyer, trained in the art of controlled crash landings on aircraft carriers. He spent his youth sneaking booze behind the backs of his schoolmasters and reveling in his stack of demerits. He came of age on shore leave in the casinos of Monte Carlo, in a Navy culture that had long embraced dice in the officers' clubs.

I like him better already!

[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps I'm too eager to see bias, but as I read this piece, it makes it seem like McCain almost has a gambling problem: he's a risk taker, he's crazy, he's almost immoral in his high-falutin' pleasure seeking. Yee Haa!

Now, Obama on the other hand, is a thinker. He's careful. He wins. He wins a lot. He's smarter than other politicians. He uses poker as a bonding exercise. It makes him a more effective politician.

Oh, and Obama also walks on water.

[JennysCool]

Well, it is Time magazine!

[from occupied ga]

I'm too eager to see bias

Time Magazine and you think pro democrat bias? The question isn't if there is bias, it's how much bias.

[weegee]

I want to know how Barack Obama and John McCain prefer their pork chops:

breaded, grilled, stuffed, or...

[weegee]

“In this game, a good bluff trumps blind faith,”

Obama uses both strategies. Bluffing the masses who accept him on blind faith.

[C19fan]

Obama needs to update his poker game. The article claims he only played 5 card stud. I wonder how he would do at No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.

[K-oneTexas]

We know the ‘Candidates’ Vices’, “MONEY”’, so a better article would have been the ‘Candidates’ Wives Vices’. Time Magazine missed the boat on this one.

[jpl]

Count me as one that sure as heck isn't falling for his new political bluff.

His wife, friends, and associates are the equivalent of his cards lying face up on the table, and if you ask me, his poker face isn't all that great.

[ClearCase_guy]

The coverage just seems so over-the-top. Story after story.

I'm expecting an article on how the candidates apply ketchup to their french fries. Short summation: Obama applies ketchup in a god-like manner, while John McCain massacres his french fries in an angry orgy of corrupt, influence-peddling, blood-soaked storm of condiments.

[KarlInOhio]

Also, McCain's political aides have to stop his gambling habit which he "never quite kicked", but St. Barack played low ante poker with political pals.

[Kowdawg]

Not to quibble, but the card counter is king in blackjack, not poker. However, poker is a game of deception...

[wac3rd]

Yes, Barack good and skilled...McCain, addicted.

The MSM has no shame in promoting Marxism.

[weegee]

Poker face is a game that Clinton used to play with one of his college interns.

[Dahoser]

The casino craps player is a social animal, a thrill seeker who wants not just to win but to win with a crowd.

Total bilge! Roulette has a crowd, too. You play craps because you believe the odds are the best and you like the action of the game not because you want to get down with your fellow gambling homeys. Where do they find these putzes?

[american_ranger]

Poker face is a game that Clinton used to play with one of his college interns.

That is today's winner!

[txroadkill]

LMAO

[HIDEK6]

The article claims he only played 5 card stud. I wonder how he would do at No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.

Stud's a much better game.

[True Republican Patriot]

“Oh, and Obama walks on water!”
Its gotten so bad with the MSM?DBM that now we know:

Oh, and Obama walks on p*ke!

[SampleMan]

So it is fitting that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, raked in so many pots in his late-night games with political friends.

Really? Let's see if he reported that income.

Good craps players are the smartest because they have the best odds. Why? Because they aren't just up against the house, but also against not so bright craps players.