If the Spangles M&M mudslide commercial is not removed from my television soon, I may do strange and terrible things.

I can’t do anything in my house without that stupid jingle playing in the background, and I can’t watch anything without seeing that Great American Family fake smile their way toward obesity.

A far cry from February’s Super Bowl ads, indeed.

Everything else is intact right now, though. Only one sport can make the Olympics an afterthought and challenge college/pro/fantasy football for sporting supremacy in the coming months: We are in the heart of Election Season. Campaign 2008 is as harsh and brutal as sports get.

Gladiators may pound one another’s faces into hamburger inside the Octagon every few weeks, but every day as we enter the homestretch of this election, personal attacks and fierce debates will flare up... enough damage for everyone to find themselves all torn up and bloody at the steps of their nearest Capitol building.

The Star Wars-Cirque Du Soleil orgies that were the opening and closing Olympic Ceremonies met their match just weeks later as Barack Obama formally accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency in front of 85,000 screaming supporters at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium — home of the Denver Broncos. More Americans watched Obama’s address ­— 38.4 million, according to the Nielsen ratings — than those ceremonies.

Flashbulbs lit up the sky before the fireworks did in a spectacle that put many past Super Bowls to shame. No longer are politics limited to one section of the newspaper only. Hell, this is the world’s original game.

I’m actually filling out a fantasy politics sheet right now. For a class, I am to select which states will be won by Obama or presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, and just how many electoral votes each will win.

I am beginning to think I spent too much time this summer studying for fantasy football.

Tonight, McCain is expected to speak and accept his party’s nomination at the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis-St. Paul — the same venue that Brock Lesnar of the Ultimate Fighting Championship nearly eviscerated his opponent on Pay-Per-View.

McCain’s speech tonight wraps up another week of fierce debate over war, abortion, the economy and all other policy that requires a steady diet of Dunkin’ Donuts and coffee laced with motor oil to wrap one’s mind around.

The news Tuesday that Lesnar (6-3, 265 lbs) inked a deal to challenge UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture on Nov. 15 caused a fit of anticipation to strike me in a way that mirrored this election.

The parallels between that fight and the one that will conclude 11 days before it continue. With the 45-year-old Couture we have a proven veteran who has shown he can clearly get it done. Lesnar, on the other hand, is an absolute terror. A freak of nature and a rising star.

With more muscle and speed than allowed to most other humans, Lesnar tears at opponents with controlled chaos.

Yet his inexperience is a concern. In Lesnar, the UFC has a potential superstar, or a potential bust.

If you can’t see the parallels between this and the McCain-Obama clash, maybe neither the sports page nor the front page are your thing.

On the other hand, mixed martial arts might not be the best comparison for politics — in the same manner that basketball may not be the best mirror for lacrosse.

But politics has a basic concept that places it in the realm of sports. In order to win, candidates must perform better on the campaign trail and collect more votes than their opponent — just as Todd Reesing and Sherron Collins are expected to put up more points than the opposition.

Much is at stake in Campaign 2008, and more money than ever has been injected into this spectacle that is not limited to one stadium, but takes place everywhere in this country and round the clock.

It is incredible that we consistently have two quadrennial events to seize the global spotlight.

The Olympics make us watch sports most of us won’t think or care about until four years later. The election will make us wear shirts or lapels with Dumbos and jackasses on them.

The debate over whether Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever was certainly spirited but nobody was tear-gassed or tasered over it.

Riot police have been stationed at each convention the last two weeks and are a telling symbol.

Finally the United States has a sport with a fan base that rivals that of European soccer fan psychosis.

— — Edited by Kelsey Hayes