A reader writes:
Don't know if you all have been keeping up, but Obama's NCAA tourney bracket is in the top 0.3% of all 5 million ESPN bracket pickers. It's a revealing bracket.
While going with the favorites in most cases, he picked a few underdogs in the first (now called "second") round - notably Gonzaga, Richmond and Florida State - who pulled upsets. I thought it encapsulated his overall personality well - clear-headed and realistic about the tendency of events to play out based on historical precedent (e.g. according to the seedings), but willing to buck conventional wisdom when his own judgement argues against it. At the risk of extending the metaphor too far, you get the sense that someone like John McCain's bracket would be filled with all upsets, and that Mitch McConnell would choose all the higher seeds. Most people aren't really able to switch back and forth between different mindsets as facilely as Obama. Either the underdog is always going to pull an upset, or the favorite is always going to come out on top.
I'll take all this on faith. I have zero ability to judge this.