'The Big Game' is finally here!

Well, it’s finally time to write about “The Big Game”!

The contestants are all in top shape and raring to go, their fans are enthusiastic to the point of euphoria, the oddsmakers are predicting the outcome, and the TV talking heads can’t get enough of the blunders, bloopers and scandals. It promises to be a battle for the ages!

Too bad we have to wait for today’s Super Bowl to be over before we can get anyone to focus on the real “Big Game” — Election 2016.

OK, I know it’s not entirely fair to compare football with presidential politics — after all, Patriots coach Bill Belichick may be bellicose, but he never got us into an actual war. And Chris Christie may like to throw his weight around, but I still don’t want him playing on the front line of the Seattle Seahawks when they go up against Belichick’s Patriots this evening.

Politics may not be beanbag, but it’s not football either.

Still, after the Seahawks have wrapped up their second straight Super Bowl championship tonight, there won’t be much to talk about for quite a few months except the presidential sweepstakes. 

The Republican Party got an unexpected boost on Friday, when Mitt Romney announced that his on-again, off-again decade-long flirtation with the presidency was off-again. Since Romney, who had only unofficially entered the race three weeks ago, was the front-runner in the minds of the media moguls who control access to the public, this paves the way for a real Republican to win the nomination for the first time in 30 years.

At this point, the Republican field looks a bit more like the Kentucky Derby than the Super Bowl. With as many as 20 potential candidates skittishly lining up at the starting gate, no one really knows whether a dark horse or a 3-1 favorite will cross the finish line first. Jeb Bush looks like the presumptive winner after Romney’s departure, but Hillary Clinton looked like the presumptive winner in the Democratic horse race eight years ago, and what did that get her? A job as secretary of state!

If Bush falters, there are plenty of contenders coming up on the outside. Junior senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are both young and attractive candidates. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has the track record of success in carrying a conservative agenda to fruition in a moderate to liberal state. Gov. Bobby Jindahl of Louisiana may give him a run for the money, but may not have quite the track record of walker yet. Sen. Ted Cruz and former VP candidate Sarah Palin can fight it out for the role of firebrand rock star, and also-rans Rick Perry and Rick Santorum can make another lap for old-time’s sake.

My favorite? Well, quite a few of them actually, but until he proves himself to be unqualified through some gaffe or misstep, it’s Ben Carson by a mile. The retired neurosurgeon came to prominence a few years ago when he challenged President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast and he’s amassed a significant war chest and has put together a good ground game in Iowa, site of the first caucus in February 2016. 

Carson is a solid conservative, but so are most of the candidates other than Bush and Christie. Much more important than that to me is that he is not a politician. Any candidate who comes from the outside and will stick it to the establishment D.C. politicos has my attention, if not automatically my vote.

As for the Democratic race to see who will compete in the last round of the “Big Game” in November 2016, the smart money is voting on Hillary Clinton. She’s about 50 points ahead of her nearest competitor — Vice President Joe Biden or freshman senator Elizabeth Warren — but she could go lame long before the race even starts, in which case the field will suddenly triple in size.

In any case, I’m willing to predict that unlike the Super Bowl, the presidential election of 2016 will be a real horse race. The winner will very likely be the Democrat by a Pinocchio nose. But tonight, I don’t have to worry about that. Call it Seahawks 35, Patriots 20.