Yes, he has played a significant role in past elections all the way back to Reagan, and you haven't noticed.
He's an intellectual pundit that was on Fox News until 2017. He writes political commentary for the Washington Post; his column currently appears in 415 newspapers.
He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
He continues to appear on MSNBC to this day.
He's also considered to be a baseball expert who has written extensively on the subject including his own book. Their "baseball fan" comment was intended to be cute, I think.
Google makes money on ads. They make $300-$400 annually per user by displaying ads.
They are motivated to tarpit you in order to show you more ads.
Giving you your results quickly and efficiently costs them revenue.
Use kagi, or another search engine.