Living in Washington, D.C., I'm subjected to an endless torrent of election speculation, armchair politicking and unceasing punditry on a daily basis, all of which I let pass by unheeded so I can bring you, the reader, mediocre commentary on college athletics. This article from the New Yorker, however, caught my eye for its ACC connection.

In short, one of Obama's paths to the presidency is to win typically solidly Republican Virginia, and to do that he must make inroads in the southwest of the state, where the don't generally like Democrats, midwesterners, or really anybody. But they do like Obama supporter and former Democratic governor Mark Warner, and why? 

In office, Warner repaid the region by persuading two high-tech companies to move to Lebanon, and fought to get Virginia Tech—Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in the Blue Ridge town of Blacksburg—into the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Mark Warner has become part of the culture,” [Democratic strategist Mudcat] Saunders says. “We accept him as part of who we are, if for no other reason—God damn, he got V.P.I. into the A.C.C.! I mean, it’s a big damned deal.”

The next leader of the free world may very well be decided because the Coastal Division includes a Hokie and not an Orangeman. The SEC and the Big 12 may decide the national championship, but the ACC decides the presidency.