Things I Try not to Think About

Most sports stars are Republicans . . . From Daniel Drezner (who got it from ESPN) by way of Marginal Revolution . . .

John McCain drew a record audience for his acceptance speech, and based on the distribution of viewers, part of what put him over the top was holdover viewers from the New York Giants/Washington Redskins game.

Could it be that Matt Yglesias is in the minority and that football-watchers are more likely to lean Republican? I don’t know — but that’s the best segue I can think of to link to Paula Lavigne’s fascinating ESPN.com article on which sports figures are backing which presidential candidates. The article is very long well-researched, but here are the tidbits I found interesting:

• Professional athletes and executives have given $445,334 to the two nominees — 55.8 percent to McCain and 44.2 percent to Obama, according to ESPN analysis of figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.
• The difference this election is that pro sports donors are more divided. In the past two presidential elections, the Democratic nominee has struggled to muster at most 16 percent of pro sports donations.
• Professional sports figures have given twice as much money to all presidential candidates combined during this election than they have to candidates in each of the past two races. And almost two months of fundraising remain for the two nominees.
• McCain has lots of friends in the dugout, but his biggest fans are in football. Six of McCain’s top 10 pro sports donors are with NFL teams, led by the San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
• NBA staff topped Obama’s list of pro sports donors at $24,360.
• [Rudy Giuliani] cashed in a total of $210,900 from pro sports donors, including $86,300 from NASCAR employees and drivers and $17,000 from his hometown New York Yankees.
  

Read the whole thing. And props to the athletes — their reasons for their various endorsements were very cogent.