Imagine If Sports Teams Held Elections to Fill Positions.

Sports are such an integral part of our culture. We love our teams passionately. In some cases we scream for ways of leveling the playing field, yet secretly hope that our teams scramble and jockey for an advantage because winning is so important. Unfortunately, winning has become so important that we often fail to see the beauty of the game itself.

And so it is with politics. Rather then focus on problem solvers, we prop up people we believe can win. And more often than not, those that win are hardly someone capable to solve the city, the state or the nation's problems. It is so unfortunate that we waste our vote on those individuals that are likable rather then those that are able to solve problems.

In a small unscientific poll it was asked why individuals voted for Obama. Nine out of 10 people polled answered that they liked him. Successful companies and successful sports franchises don't hire or sign people that they like. They hire and sign people that are capable of solving a company’s problems or have the ability to lead the company to a place of financial success. In the case of sports teams, they sign players capable of playing a position better then anyone else available.

The hard truth is that we expect more from our favorite teams than we do from our elected leaders. And yet, teams have no bearing on our lives while politicians affect our lives in every sense of the word.

The recent presidential election is a textbook case of hiring someone that was liked rather then electing someone with a resume of solving problems that we face as a nation. We've listened to four years of blame. Real leaders seldom blame. Real leaders find answers to problems. Playing the blame game doesn't serve anyone well. And sadly, the blame game continues with our current president and all those that are part of his administration.

The real sad part of this issue of leadership and problem solving is that we handed the importance of representing our state to someone like Joe Kennedy, who had as empty a resume of the current oval office tenant, and Liz Warren, who misrepresented her heritage to gain an unfair advantage to further her career.

Our sports teams care more about who they hire then the people care about who they elect. Can you imagine if the Red Sox left it up to an election as to who pitched an important game rather than who could do the job?