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"Nerd Super Bowl" (Again)

July 13, 2009

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It’s all pundits on deck for the The Sotomayor Show today on cable news! To Jeffrey Toobin, one of many around CNN’s table today (and a confirmed sports enthusiast), these confirmation hearings are “The Nerd Super Bowl,” a phrase he has used excitedly three times in the past twenty-four hours with various CNN anchors (“It’s the nerd Super Bowl tomorrow, [Don Lemon]. I can’t wait;” “This is The Nerd Super Bowl. We are really excited about this, Heidi [Collins];” and, “John [King], it’s The Nerd Super Bowl. I can’t wait. I love this.”)

And while the actual (jock) Super Bowl happens once a year, “The Nerd Super Bowl” seems a slightly more frequent event. Back in May, when Justice Souter announced his retirement and the pundits assembled to guess about his replacement (Toobin: “This is like The Nerd Super Bowl. I am so excited about all this…”); Last fall, on the eve of a McCain-Obama debate (Toobin: “This stuff — Can I just say one thing? I am so excited. This is like The Super Bowl For Nerds, you know?”)

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Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.