the SNOB
Friday, January 11, 2008
Nappy-Headed Candidates
Andrew Cuomo may or may not be regretting his oblique referrals to Obama's hopemongering as "shuck and jive"--he was kind of right, and heck, I'm mentioning him by name--but I really don't get what all the niggling is about. Ted Danson doing blackface is racially offensive. Jimmy the Greek talking about the physical prowess of the African race is racially offensive, though wouldn't you be disappointed if you tuned into a guy on the radio named "Jimmy the Greek" and found out he was a florist in the West Village? Imus, well, anyone who even looked at him could see he was all id and no ego. But Andrew Cuomo, the lion cub of one of the last great paleoliberals?
Look, our language is full of words and phrases built on the profane as well as the sacred. A recent new favorite of mine is a word used by doctors to refer to the process of removing damaged skin from a wound: debridement. Who said medical terminology was dull? Anyway, there comes a point when a word in practical terms ceases to make reference to the sexual orientation of the sitting archduke of Schleswig-Holstein, and becomes part of the more general argot, its arcane roots a source of amusement for us word-nerds. As an aside, if your name is Bob Smith, and the doctor tells you that you have Bob Smith's Disease, you know you're seriously fucked.
Here's the Real Beef Though
According to an unnamed Democrat operative on TNR's blog (we repeat--you decide!), Obama's candidacy is being received with less than hosannas in the highest by segments of the latino community.
This reflects a long-brewing and contemptibly under-reported aspect of race in America. Latino gangs like the MS-13 are displacing black gangs for control of the streets thoughout the country (don't read this LA Weekly article if you scare easily), while higher birthrates mean that Hispanics could in a generation or so replace blacks as the majority minority. There's also the added bonus that they are well on their way to achieving "good minority" status alongside Asians, due to significantly higher levels of family stability, education, and employment.
Obama's candidacy is fascinating in that threatens to expose many of the faultlines that are hidden by virtue of black and latino politics operating as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic party. Things will get really interesting as the immigration issue becomes more fully ingested into the debate, because while working-class whites are certainly impacted by the flood of Central American immigrants, the group most deeply impacted are probably lower-class black Americans, who would otherwise see significantly higher wages and job opportunities.
The sense of shared persecution that originally married these two groups is becoming obsolete. In that sense the ecumenical appeal of Barack Obama and Deval Patrick may represent the end of an evolutionary path. ¶ 12:48 PM 0 Comments
Andrew Cuomo may or may not be regretting his oblique referrals to Obama's hopemongering as "shuck and jive"--he was kind of right, and heck, I'm mentioning him by name--but I really don't get what all the niggling is about. Ted Danson doing blackface is racially offensive. Jimmy the Greek talking about the physical prowess of the African race is racially offensive, though wouldn't you be disappointed if you tuned into a guy on the radio named "Jimmy the Greek" and found out he was a florist in the West Village? Imus, well, anyone who even looked at him could see he was all id and no ego. But Andrew Cuomo, the lion cub of one of the last great paleoliberals?
Look, our language is full of words and phrases built on the profane as well as the sacred. A recent new favorite of mine is a word used by doctors to refer to the process of removing damaged skin from a wound: debridement. Who said medical terminology was dull? Anyway, there comes a point when a word in practical terms ceases to make reference to the sexual orientation of the sitting archduke of Schleswig-Holstein, and becomes part of the more general argot, its arcane roots a source of amusement for us word-nerds. As an aside, if your name is Bob Smith, and the doctor tells you that you have Bob Smith's Disease, you know you're seriously fucked.
Here's the Real Beef Though
According to an unnamed Democrat operative on TNR's blog (we repeat--you decide!), Obama's candidacy is being received with less than hosannas in the highest by segments of the latino community.
This reflects a long-brewing and contemptibly under-reported aspect of race in America. Latino gangs like the MS-13 are displacing black gangs for control of the streets thoughout the country (don't read this LA Weekly article if you scare easily), while higher birthrates mean that Hispanics could in a generation or so replace blacks as the majority minority. There's also the added bonus that they are well on their way to achieving "good minority" status alongside Asians, due to significantly higher levels of family stability, education, and employment.
Obama's candidacy is fascinating in that threatens to expose many of the faultlines that are hidden by virtue of black and latino politics operating as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic party. Things will get really interesting as the immigration issue becomes more fully ingested into the debate, because while working-class whites are certainly impacted by the flood of Central American immigrants, the group most deeply impacted are probably lower-class black Americans, who would otherwise see significantly higher wages and job opportunities.
The sense of shared persecution that originally married these two groups is becoming obsolete. In that sense the ecumenical appeal of Barack Obama and Deval Patrick may represent the end of an evolutionary path. ¶ 12:48 PM 0 Comments
Thursday, January 10, 2008
A Complete and Utter Lack of Taste and Decorum
The 12oz Crate and Barrel martini glass.
The only thing that should be served in a 12-ounce glass is Coca-Cola. American beer (whose charms should not be underestimated) is, like Chef Boyardee, best consumed cold direct from the can, while any decent serious beer should be 16 ounces, or better still, a proper imperial pint, unless it's one of those Belgian whifferdills steeped with boysenberries or a whole Christmas tree (ornaments included) in which case the brewer provides the correct utensils. The only marginally reasonable thing to serve in a 12-ounce cocktail-shaped glass is a banana split.
Now, there is some case for a 6-8 ounce cocktail glass, such as in a raucous bar where spillage might be a problem. Professional drinkers might object that this is precisely why honest American swill comes in cheap longneck bottles, but I have no problem with women or gay men who want a cosmo even when a Budweiser is really more appropriate. Any port in a storm, I say, though I prefer a Warre's myself.
Notwithstanding, if you can't keep from spilling most of a 3-ounce martini in a glass of the proper size, perhaps you should be sitting down, and if you can't hold your alcohol sitting down, then even I might say it's time to say "when," or at least "beer." ¶ 1:48 PM 0 Comments
The 12oz Crate and Barrel martini glass.
The only thing that should be served in a 12-ounce glass is Coca-Cola. American beer (whose charms should not be underestimated) is, like Chef Boyardee, best consumed cold direct from the can, while any decent serious beer should be 16 ounces, or better still, a proper imperial pint, unless it's one of those Belgian whifferdills steeped with boysenberries or a whole Christmas tree (ornaments included) in which case the brewer provides the correct utensils. The only marginally reasonable thing to serve in a 12-ounce cocktail-shaped glass is a banana split.
Now, there is some case for a 6-8 ounce cocktail glass, such as in a raucous bar where spillage might be a problem. Professional drinkers might object that this is precisely why honest American swill comes in cheap longneck bottles, but I have no problem with women or gay men who want a cosmo even when a Budweiser is really more appropriate. Any port in a storm, I say, though I prefer a Warre's myself.
Notwithstanding, if you can't keep from spilling most of a 3-ounce martini in a glass of the proper size, perhaps you should be sitting down, and if you can't hold your alcohol sitting down, then even I might say it's time to say "when," or at least "beer." ¶ 1:48 PM 0 Comments
Time to Pay for Donuts?
Unidentified, unsubstantiated, and unverified rumor. That's what blogs are for! ¶ 10:41 AM 0 Comments
Unidentified, unsubstantiated, and unverified rumor. That's what blogs are for! ¶ 10:41 AM 0 Comments
Workers of the World, Untie!
I read the Boston Magazine blog to save me the trouble of reading the Globe, and prevent me from missing stories like this:
Zinn's view of things have always struck me as something like an alternate-history novel in which the Nazis convince Britain to sign a peace treaty shortly before Pearl Harbor. Zinn seems to think that the various radical movements that flared in and out of existence from the late 19th century up through the early FDR years represented the authentic desire of the American people, and would have gained strength had the bankers and captains of industry not managed to simultaneously suppress and marginalize them. In his view, the AFL-CIO (which would in the 1980s under Lane Kirkland join hands with Reagan to support Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement) was really an Uncle Tom union created as a sort of compact between skilled native white male workers (i.e. the top quartile or so of "labor") and their bosses.
Needless to say, this is precisely the sort of thing I'd expect a bunch of pipefitters and ironworkers to refer to as 'commie faggot bullshit.'
Don't get me wrong, I think committed contrarians like Zinn can raise a lot of interesting points, even if they're wrong on the broader picture, because consensus always acts to stifle information which contradicts it. In a sense, it's sort of like the fact that Robert Mapplethorpe's photography was technically ravishing, whether the subject was an orchid or a bullwhip shoved up a dude's butt. There's a place for this sort of thing, but it's not in the mainstream, and for some of those who identify deeply with it, that fact will always be infinitely infuriating, especially when
Also, if you're drinking anything, swallow before reading this howler from the same story:
Indeed, because we all know that Hollywood's social and professional life is dominated by West Texas Republicans. Eight years of Bush, Ashkkkroft, and warrantless wiretaps have to my knowledge resulted in precisely zero film offers being pulled from Scarlett Johannson because she supported John Kerry, let alone anyone being actually prosecuted. Leaving aside the now-indisputable fact that more than a few Hollywood leftists were on Moscow's payroll back in the day (and knew it well), the days of the genuine blackball are so far behind us that every time the Hollywood establishment wants to preen about it on an awards show, they need to raid the local nursing homes to find someone who actually experienced it firsthand. ¶ 7:56 AM 2 Comments
I read the Boston Magazine blog to save me the trouble of reading the Globe, and prevent me from missing stories like this:
There's a name for these folks: Reagan Democrats. Despite our reputation as the capitol of east-coast liberalism, there's a huge difference between Cambridge and Berkeley once you get past the fact that both voted for Kerry in '04. Spend 5 minutes in Southie, Somerville, Quincy, Dot, heck, even parts of Cambridge, and you'll find plenty of pickup trucks with American flags and those delightful "Terrorist Hunting Permit" stickers in the back window, and if you're lucky, you might even see one with the peace sign and "footprint of the American Chicken" below.Not everyone, it seems, is excited that a bunch of A-list actors are in Boston taping a miniseries based on BU professor Howard Zinn's book "A People's History of the United States." Producer Chris Moore revealed yesterday that while out for a drink the other night, the crew nearly got into a scuffle with some not-so-enlightened lager louts.
"They were out at a local bar and it was, like, 'You bunch of commie [expletive],' " Moore said, sounding more amused than upset. "It was like they were going to get into a fight."
Zinn's view of things have always struck me as something like an alternate-history novel in which the Nazis convince Britain to sign a peace treaty shortly before Pearl Harbor. Zinn seems to think that the various radical movements that flared in and out of existence from the late 19th century up through the early FDR years represented the authentic desire of the American people, and would have gained strength had the bankers and captains of industry not managed to simultaneously suppress and marginalize them. In his view, the AFL-CIO (which would in the 1980s under Lane Kirkland join hands with Reagan to support Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement) was really an Uncle Tom union created as a sort of compact between skilled native white male workers (i.e. the top quartile or so of "labor") and their bosses.
Needless to say, this is precisely the sort of thing I'd expect a bunch of pipefitters and ironworkers to refer to as 'commie faggot bullshit.'
Don't get me wrong, I think committed contrarians like Zinn can raise a lot of interesting points, even if they're wrong on the broader picture, because consensus always acts to stifle information which contradicts it. In a sense, it's sort of like the fact that Robert Mapplethorpe's photography was technically ravishing, whether the subject was an orchid or a bullwhip shoved up a dude's butt. There's a place for this sort of thing, but it's not in the mainstream, and for some of those who identify deeply with it, that fact will always be infinitely infuriating, especially when
Also, if you're drinking anything, swallow before reading this howler from the same story:
David Strathairn said it's a treat to work on something so overtly political,
and he doesn't worry for a minute about being blackballed because of it. "We're
all on the list," Strathairn said, laughing.
Indeed, because we all know that Hollywood's social and professional life is dominated by West Texas Republicans. Eight years of Bush, Ashkkkroft, and warrantless wiretaps have to my knowledge resulted in precisely zero film offers being pulled from Scarlett Johannson because she supported John Kerry, let alone anyone being actually prosecuted. Leaving aside the now-indisputable fact that more than a few Hollywood leftists were on Moscow's payroll back in the day (and knew it well), the days of the genuine blackball are so far behind us that every time the Hollywood establishment wants to preen about it on an awards show, they need to raid the local nursing homes to find someone who actually experienced it firsthand. ¶ 7:56 AM 2 Comments
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Good News for Rudy
This too, expect I did not: Romney to pull ads in South Carolina and Florida.
There are more delegates up for grabs in Florida than in all the early states combined. Florida is followed shortly by Super Tuesday. Romney's Michigan ties should carry him through there, though like NH, Michigan allows independent votes which help McCain. If Romney doesn't think he can beat Huckabee in South Carolina, then it's unlikely McCain can, though nothing so far has gone according to anyone's plan. Either way, the odds are looking better by the day for Rudy to end up as the tallest midget in Miami come the end of the month.
The great lie we are being told right now is how "it can all change in a second." Just because the hand on the clock ticks one second at a time, does not mean that the world is a series of stills flashing by like a movie. Polls and narrative hooks about "momentum" are fictional meringues whipped up to get past the fact that peoples' minds are in flux right up until the moment they vote. The framing of "if the election were held today" treats elections as if they were a solar eclipse in the time of Chaucer. If the election were being held today, the past six months would have been entirely different.
As for Hillary's astonishing, unprecedented, Shackleton-like--screw that--Lazarus-like comeback against unthinkable odds, it consisted of what, 5-10% of Democratic primary voters switching from Obama to her? Or maybe the 100 people who had always planned to vote for her but said "Obama" to a pollster on Sunday night on a whim changed their minds yet again? On that note, her NH victory sets her up to walk the bases in Michigan, and let Edwards take South Carolina largely uncontested, and thence to Florida where she could well decisively regain the upper hand. And that, friends, would be the best news the GOP could possibly pay for. ¶ 3:23 PM 0 Comments
This too, expect I did not: Romney to pull ads in South Carolina and Florida.
There are more delegates up for grabs in Florida than in all the early states combined. Florida is followed shortly by Super Tuesday. Romney's Michigan ties should carry him through there, though like NH, Michigan allows independent votes which help McCain. If Romney doesn't think he can beat Huckabee in South Carolina, then it's unlikely McCain can, though nothing so far has gone according to anyone's plan. Either way, the odds are looking better by the day for Rudy to end up as the tallest midget in Miami come the end of the month.
The great lie we are being told right now is how "it can all change in a second." Just because the hand on the clock ticks one second at a time, does not mean that the world is a series of stills flashing by like a movie. Polls and narrative hooks about "momentum" are fictional meringues whipped up to get past the fact that peoples' minds are in flux right up until the moment they vote. The framing of "if the election were held today" treats elections as if they were a solar eclipse in the time of Chaucer. If the election were being held today, the past six months would have been entirely different.
As for Hillary's astonishing, unprecedented, Shackleton-like--screw that--Lazarus-like comeback against unthinkable odds, it consisted of what, 5-10% of Democratic primary voters switching from Obama to her? Or maybe the 100 people who had always planned to vote for her but said "Obama" to a pollster on Sunday night on a whim changed their minds yet again? On that note, her NH victory sets her up to walk the bases in Michigan, and let Edwards take South Carolina largely uncontested, and thence to Florida where she could well decisively regain the upper hand. And that, friends, would be the best news the GOP could possibly pay for. ¶ 3:23 PM 0 Comments
Smoking PollSir John James Cowperthwaite, longtime finance secretary of Hong Kong, famously forbid the collection of statistics about the economy, lest he be compelled to do something about them.
In principle, public opinion polls provide a check on the possibility of vote-rigging, and prevent editors and campaign managers from anointing candidates no one actually supports. These benefits assume that the polls bear more resemblance to reality than an airbrushed picture of Madonna on the cover of Vogue.
Horserace-style reporting is bad enough, but with polling less accurate than a drunk insurgent with an AK-47 made in Uzbekistan, the result is actually an active distortion. Every election year, the bowtie-and-beanie crowd shows off a shiny new and improved Acme Polling Machine, and like a certain canine, the 16-ton weight always lands on their head instead of the Road Runner's. As a recovering economist, I respect the difficulty of the task before them, much as the pilot in me is amazed by just how reliable our air travel system is, given the million and one variables that have to be effectively accounted for in order to ensure that flying across the North Atlantic in winter is done hundreds of times a day without incident or note.
That being said, if half the flights had to land in Gander and turn back because of the weather, we'd all still be ballroom-dancing our way across the pond on Cunard liners. This isn't high school; you don't get partial credit for showing your work. Every advancement in communication technology appears to have further muddied the waters, and that stuff is going to go places not even Steve Jobs has thought of in the next 5-10 years. At least if a story begins, "Bob Miller, an unemployed meat cutter I found slumped against the bar at Moog's Farm and Tap Room in Nashua shortly before noon, believes Ron Paul is the only candidate telling the truth about the gold standard," the reader is in on the joke.
¶ 9:33 AM 0 Comments
Dewey Defeats Boston NowBuilding on the success of their groundbreaking primary coverage (what was your deadline, dinnertime?), Boston NOW will shortly be launching several exciting new features:
- A roundup of yesterday's weather from around the region
- Updates on celebrities who have done nothing interesting lately
- Stocks you would have bought or sold yesterday if you knew anything about investing
- Tomorrow's Mass Millions numbers, as reported by their correspondent on the other side of the International Date line
Mind you, this serves as an excellent reminder that Boston Now's business is not to report on news, it's to hire sketchy minimum-wage dropouts to force-feed subway riders 12 pages of mobile phone and tire ads lightly battered with "content," a term which is used in much the same way as that old gal with the hairnet in the cafeteria handles a gallon can of butterscotch pudding.
¶ 8:47 AM 0 Comments
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Wunderbar!This expect I did not. It is, nonetheless, a wonderful thing to see, an example of why politics is sports for nerds.
Biggest Winners: Iowa and New Hampshire, whose proper role is not to pick winners, but to lance egos. Whoever wins, no one can say Iowa and NH didn't do their best to make them work for it.
Biggest Loser: The press, who are only just now learning that Barack Hope Obama is not going to be raptured straight into the Oval Office.
Didn't win big, but you'll be told they did: NH puckers up for McCain one more time, but his victory there is like winning an all-expenses paid four-day, three-night trip--to Hartford. There isn't a single core Republican issue on which McCain has not pissed on the base, and the next batch of primaries don't allow open independent voting. His best hope may be to tell primary voters in South Carolina and Michigan that his support among NH independents proves he's the man to beat Hillary or Obama.
Didn't lose big, but you'll be told they did: Romney's campaign needs rebooting, but neither McCain nor Huckabee have a clear strategy to win. Immigration came within a hair of costing someone named Tsongas an election in Lowell a few months ago, which is like a Kennedy getting beaten in Hyannis. Immigration is the Democrats' greatest weakness, and Romney's strongest compared to McCain, Giuliani, and Huck, all of whom are squishes at best. This will be a much bigger issue south of Manch Vegas.
Lost, and everyone knows it: Thompson, whose dismal showing forces him to explain why he's not a vanity candidate. Edwards, less so, but still, because there's precisely zero chance of him squeezing past Obama's charisma and Hillary's ego.
Won, but you won't hear it elsewhere: Giuliani, who benefits greatly from a presumed matchup against Hillary, and needs a weak and divided GOP field in order to prevent a fatal collapse of support in Florida, on which all his hopes now rest.
Fortean Times in Cow Hampshire
Republicans
Mitt wins solidly and recovers footing until Super Tuesday, when a late Giuliani surge remains an outside possibility. Clock strikes 14:30 for Huckabee, who stays in for one more victory lap in South Carolina. Giuliani, who until a month or two ago looked like he could at least place, chills with his gay roommates on South Beach waiting to spring his Florida Trap, now claims that due to a misunderstanding of Scottish case law, that under the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842, all of New Hampshire should actually be considered part of the independent Republic of Indian Stream and thus not an actual US election. McCain, reeling from the loss of independents to Obama (thereby revealing how weak he is among Republicans), gives up the good fight, and in a surprise twist endorses Rudy, who is actually the closest policy-wise and the only one with an actual chance of beating Mitt.
Democrats
Obama breaks 50%, Hillary does what her husband couldn't and exits gracefully at the right time, leaving John Edwards with the choice of running for VP again or trying to consolidate the roughly 60% of Iowa Democrats who voted for someone other than Obama. Counter-intuitive truth: an early win is bad news for Obama, whose substance-free campaign style could prove surprisingly weak in the face of a master of management like Romney. Another month or two of Hillary and Edwards firing for effect would do a lot to reveal and patch weaknesses before the real fight.
Extra Credit: Want to know how to make all manner of otherwise skeptical 'merkans comfortable with the idea of a president who wears "temple undergarments?" Running a black liberal whose middle name is Hussein is a pretty good way. Just saying!
Extra Credit II: Immigration will emerge as the sleeper issue in the general election. Discuss! ¶ 6:15 AM 0 Comments
Republicans
Mitt wins solidly and recovers footing until Super Tuesday, when a late Giuliani surge remains an outside possibility. Clock strikes 14:30 for Huckabee, who stays in for one more victory lap in South Carolina. Giuliani, who until a month or two ago looked like he could at least place, chills with his gay roommates on South Beach waiting to spring his Florida Trap, now claims that due to a misunderstanding of Scottish case law, that under the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842, all of New Hampshire should actually be considered part of the independent Republic of Indian Stream and thus not an actual US election. McCain, reeling from the loss of independents to Obama (thereby revealing how weak he is among Republicans), gives up the good fight, and in a surprise twist endorses Rudy, who is actually the closest policy-wise and the only one with an actual chance of beating Mitt.
Democrats
Obama breaks 50%, Hillary does what her husband couldn't and exits gracefully at the right time, leaving John Edwards with the choice of running for VP again or trying to consolidate the roughly 60% of Iowa Democrats who voted for someone other than Obama. Counter-intuitive truth: an early win is bad news for Obama, whose substance-free campaign style could prove surprisingly weak in the face of a master of management like Romney. Another month or two of Hillary and Edwards firing for effect would do a lot to reveal and patch weaknesses before the real fight.
Extra Credit: Want to know how to make all manner of otherwise skeptical 'merkans comfortable with the idea of a president who wears "temple undergarments?" Running a black liberal whose middle name is Hussein is a pretty good way. Just saying!
Extra Credit II: Immigration will emerge as the sleeper issue in the general election. Discuss! ¶ 6:15 AM 0 Comments
Monday, January 07, 2008
Wishing Doesn't Make It So
Come on Holly, get real. So it's been all downhill since Deval's Roman triumph of an inauguration on the Common a year ago. Who would have guessed that electing a liberal Democrat with no deep crony network in the legislature would have resulted in absolutely nothing happening?
You would see the Wampanoags build a thirteen-story pachinko parlor topped by a giant windmill shaped like the Golden Arches in downtown Nantucket before Deval gets Grayed out. Aside from needing a constitutional amendment or something to make it possible, there's the issue that we don't have anyone to play Governator. Aside from Jim Ogonowski--maybe!, there isn't a Republican left in Massachusetts who could win an election outside of his own gerrymandered district, let alone pull off a major attack on an incumbent. There is a word the Etruscans used to describe what the Romans did to them which perfectly characterizes the position of the Republican party in this state, but I can't tell you what it is, since the Romans obliterated the Etruscans so completely that the only evidence of the word's existence is as a punchline to an inside joke in one of Catullus's poems.
Oh, and before you tell me about Jill Stein or Carla Howell, please check the refill on your meds. As much as I love a good pot-stirrer, they are basically the yin and yang of the same crazy aunt with a Volvo and a town of Lexington sticker in the back window. If you think either one of them stands a serious chance of winning anything bigger than the annual tofurkey raffle at the Unitarian church, then you know the answer to the question, "have I lived in Cambridge so long that I have lost all persapective on how the rest of the world thinks?" ¶ 9:32 AM 0 Comments
Come on Holly, get real. So it's been all downhill since Deval's Roman triumph of an inauguration on the Common a year ago. Who would have guessed that electing a liberal Democrat with no deep crony network in the legislature would have resulted in absolutely nothing happening?
You would see the Wampanoags build a thirteen-story pachinko parlor topped by a giant windmill shaped like the Golden Arches in downtown Nantucket before Deval gets Grayed out. Aside from needing a constitutional amendment or something to make it possible, there's the issue that we don't have anyone to play Governator. Aside from Jim Ogonowski--maybe!, there isn't a Republican left in Massachusetts who could win an election outside of his own gerrymandered district, let alone pull off a major attack on an incumbent. There is a word the Etruscans used to describe what the Romans did to them which perfectly characterizes the position of the Republican party in this state, but I can't tell you what it is, since the Romans obliterated the Etruscans so completely that the only evidence of the word's existence is as a punchline to an inside joke in one of Catullus's poems.
Oh, and before you tell me about Jill Stein or Carla Howell, please check the refill on your meds. As much as I love a good pot-stirrer, they are basically the yin and yang of the same crazy aunt with a Volvo and a town of Lexington sticker in the back window. If you think either one of them stands a serious chance of winning anything bigger than the annual tofurkey raffle at the Unitarian church, then you know the answer to the question, "have I lived in Cambridge so long that I have lost all persapective on how the rest of the world thinks?" ¶ 9:32 AM 0 Comments
Calm Down, Everyone...
I know George Will planted a big sloppy grandma kiss on Barack yesterday, which leaves Pat Buchanan as the only remaining pundit to the right of Chris Matthews to not get all goochie-goo about a liberal Democrat from Chicago. But let's not get carried away just yet. In 1960 JFK only just barely beat a famously sweaty, balding Richard Milhous Nixon, though no one had 42" HD televisions back then. Not to mention that poor old dead Hillary actually managed to get a pretty decent slice of the vote in Iowa, and is still polling at or above 30% in Cow Hampshire.
If charisma, or to be more precise, media coverage of charisma, equated directly to votes, John Edwards would already be running for vice president again and Hillary Clinton would have committed seppuku or at the very least had someone shank Norman Hsu. Upset victories like Obama's Iowa win are less of a victory of Obama over Hillary than they are of Obama over the media's narrative of the race, which is written largely from a rear-view mirror. When it comes to politics, most people take the approach I take with sports, which is to wait until the playoffs to pay attention. ¶ 8:29 AM 0 Comments
I know George Will planted a big sloppy grandma kiss on Barack yesterday, which leaves Pat Buchanan as the only remaining pundit to the right of Chris Matthews to not get all goochie-goo about a liberal Democrat from Chicago. But let's not get carried away just yet. In 1960 JFK only just barely beat a famously sweaty, balding Richard Milhous Nixon, though no one had 42" HD televisions back then. Not to mention that poor old dead Hillary actually managed to get a pretty decent slice of the vote in Iowa, and is still polling at or above 30% in Cow Hampshire.
If charisma, or to be more precise, media coverage of charisma, equated directly to votes, John Edwards would already be running for vice president again and Hillary Clinton would have committed seppuku or at the very least had someone shank Norman Hsu. Upset victories like Obama's Iowa win are less of a victory of Obama over Hillary than they are of Obama over the media's narrative of the race, which is written largely from a rear-view mirror. When it comes to politics, most people take the approach I take with sports, which is to wait until the playoffs to pay attention. ¶ 8:29 AM 0 Comments
