Ready, steady, go! Race for the White House enters home stretch

POLITICAL reporters covering presidential elections like to use sports metaphors as they try to provide a sense of drama and excite readers with the latest news about the race for the White House, speculating on who is winning and who's trailing.

Hence, it has become a cliché of sorts to compare the last round of a presidential elections (that start with the national conventions that both the Democrats and the Republicans hold in August and that end with Election Day on Nov 3) to the Super Bowl champion games of the National Football League (NFL) that take place in early February and which is the culmination of the regular season of games that begins in the late summer of the previous year.

To deconstruct the metaphor: Most Americans do not follow the pre-conventions of the presidential race and are not familiar with the names of the numerous presidential candidates who had run in the primaries and sought to win their parties' nomination until the two major candidates finally emerge.