Chuck Todd's Curious Football And Referee Analogies for Christie

January 11th, 2014 10:55 AM

Surely nothing grates on a Republican watching TV news than Chuck Todd's "Bridgegate" chiding of Gov. Chris Christie: "This is, you know, welcome to the NFL...welcome to the vetting process. Now that he's essentially shown interest in being a presidential candidate, this is what life is like. This is what happens when the bright lights start burning."

In this NFL analogy, does that mean Christie is a player and the media are referees? Or does it mean Christie is a player and the journalists are the opposing team, working to tackle him and take him out of the game? On Monday night, during the BCS college football championship, Todd chided the referees for "inserting themselves into the game." I couldn't resist comparing that to "referees" in our election process: