Elizabeth Warren Says Bobby Valentine Deserves Another Season During Massachusetts Senate Debate

by NESN Staff on Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 12:36AM

You’d think by now politicians would know enough not to opine on sports.

Back during the Republican primaries in January, Newt Gingrich responded to a debate question inquiring what he would be doing with his weekend evening if he wasn’t on the campaign trail.

His answer was that he would be watching the NCAA Division I basketball championship game, which seemed like a reasonably run of the mill pandering attempt to relate to the average voter. The problem was that there was no basketball championship game that weekend — fellow debater Rick Santorum quickly corrected Gingrich that he meant the championship football game between Alabama and LSU.

Months later, President Barack Obama may has misspoke when he told a campaign rally held in Boston that he was thankful the team had just traded Kevin Youkilis to his hometown Chicago Cubs.

“I’m just saying, he had to change the color of his socks,” said Obama. That remark drew some boos, and though it didn’t have any wider repercussions on the campaign trail, it did represent how little politicians understand about how their sports-related remarks may go over with a particular crowd.

So as Senator Scott Brown debated challenger Elizabeth Warren on Monday night, was it a “gotcha question” to ask about the Red Sox’ managerial situation?

Moderator David Gregory asked the candidates whether or not they thought Boston manager Bobby Valentine should be fired, and their responses were very different — perhaps telling? Warren responded that she thought Valentine had suffered a disappointing season, but she would “give him another year,” to see things through.

Brown, meanwhile, took the political route, simply saying he’d “leave that up to the Red Sox’ management.”

Photo via Facebook/Elizabeth Warren

Photo of the Night

Seriously, how much does Jurickson Profar look like Flava Flav?

Quote of the Night

“I got a question earlier about whose team this is. I don’t want to get into the,
‘Well, we share …’ No, it’s my team.”
–Kobe Bryant, leaving no ambiguity as to the hierarchy in the Lakers’ locker room.