Audio By Carbonatix
Colorado Representative Jared Polis is a politician unafraid to do the unconventional — like, for instance, beer bonging with Stephen Colbert. So it’s no surprise he eagerly signed up to compete against IBM supercomputer and Ken Jennings-vanquisher Watson in a special Congressional Jeopardy exhibition. No, it wasn’t televised, doubtless to prevent the competing reps from being embarrassed. Which at least one of them was not.
Of course, that official — Rush Holt of New Jersey — was something of a ringer, being a past Jeopardy champ. And he reportedly hasn’t lost his chops, beating Watson in a match that also included Polis and fellow representatives Jim Himes from Connecticut and New York’s Nan Hayworth.
How’d Polis do? He lost by a mere 15,700 points — but he felt pretty good about it, telling the Wall Street Journal, “”I avoided humiliation and came behind a supercomputer and a nuclear physicist.”
Here’s how Polis announced the results to his Twitter followers:
We’re thankful for you. Are you thankful for us?
We feel thankful for our staff and for the privilege of fulfilling our mission to be an unparalleled source of information and insight in Denver. We’re aiming to raise $50,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to this community.
Help us continue giving back to Denver.
I played @IBMWatson but it beat me RT @ibmwatson: DC match @jahimes now w/ $7,600; @jaredpolis w/ $6,800; #ibmwatson w/ $22,500less than a minute ago via webJared Polisjaredpolis
jaredpolis
@rushholt actually defeated @IBMWatson Rush Holt of NJ is a former Jeapardy champion. Congrats Rush!less than a minute ago via webJared Polisjaredpolis
As for Holt, he won bragging rights for humanity, staving off our total enslavement by machines for at least one more day. Here’s a video of him talking about the contest.
More from our Follow That Story archive: “Sorry, Jared Polis: You’re fired (from your CNN series).”
