Has Politics Replaced Baseball as the National Pass-time?

This is a brief post to pose a question. Has Politics replaced baseball as the national pass-time? In every article you read, in every news broadcast you hear, every statment is prefaced by "Republican Senator....." or "Liberal leader...." or Conservative strategist..." It all seems absurd.

I am as much a political observer as the next person, but since when is every issue a political one? I thought 9-11 would never become political, but in the span of a mere four years, the 9-11 has become a political football like abortion, tax reform and other issues.

It is sad really, when you see a country like Iraq, on the verge of becoming a US-like democracy (or more accurately a representative republic) and this is the example we set.

My former brethren in the news industry just can not avoid turning everything into a controversy or every incident into the biggest event of the year. Let's be real. Our time on earth is a fleeting one. When today's headlines are history, they will be re-written in the words of the prevailing scholars of the age. Look at how history is perceived now. America is being painted by its own academics as the villan of the world.

One last question. In what dictionary do you see the word "imperialist" and then equate it to a regime or country who does not annex or conqure additonal lands or nations. That is what I mean.