Clinton v. Obama - As told through mini-golf

I spent this week on the Gulf Coast of FL with my boyfriend, visiting my dad and stepmom. (They are snowbirds, but not those whose votes are currently in jeopardy.  Boo.)  I get my competitive streak from my dad, who loves sports and games, and taught me the fine arts of boasting, heckling and posturing.  :)  This is the beau’s and my second trip together to their home in FL, and this week’s activities included a mini-golf rematch after my victory over the three of them last year.

I grew up playing mini-golf with my dad, and I’ve been a beginner regular golfer for the last five years now.  Though I hadn’t played miniature golf in years, last year I easily beat the three of them, with a score of 39 to my dad’s and my man’s 46, and my stepmom’s 53.  Needless to say, everyone this year was fired up to challenge my championship status.  I was the favorite; it was my race to lose.  ;) 

I’ll get the punchline out of the way first, because it’s the least enjoyable part of the story: I lost.  My boyfriend, who shocked us all with an amazing performance of 3 holes-in-one (I had one and my stepmom had two) and some truly impressive second putts, beat me by one point. The final scores were 37, 38, 39 (my dad), and 40-something (my stepmom).  It was an extremely tight race the entire way through, and I probably lost early on when I got a score of 3 on one of the early holes.  After that, it was difficult for me to recover and pass my man.

Now, obviously, in this silly little story, I’m Clinton, and my man is Obama.  Hear me out.  I’m not projecting Clinton loses, and I certainly hope she doesn’t.  What made me think of the analogy was that my boyfriend kept repeating how he had to rely on a crazily unique and unexpected performance of multiple holes-in-one to beat me, because I was just consistently strong from one hole to the next.  (Aside from the scores of 3 and 1 on two holes, I think I shot twos on the other 16.)  He seemed genuinely surprised that he won, and impressed with how strong a competitor I was.  The other thing that reminded me of Clinton - AND WHY SHE SHOULD NOT DROP OUT - is that in their efforts to best me, all three of my competitors’ play improved dramatically from last year.   All three of them shaved significant points off their final score.  It was a dignified loss for me, because it was so close, and because I could (loudly) gloat that I made them all improve in their efforts to beat me.

As the game progressed, it became harder, but never impossible until the very end, for me to beat my guy.  This is where Clinton stands now, and she may well pull it off.  She remains a strong, competitive candidate who is truly hard to beat.  Just like me in mini-golf…not to mention Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.