Day: June 15, 2012
The Centrality of the Gaffe
Why does the presidential race appear, at least on the basis of campaign coverage, to be nothing but a succession of gaffes? A week or two will go by without news, and then either President Obama or Mitt Romney will say something damaging, and that comment will define the contours of the debate until the next verbal own goal. … The centrality of the gaffe is an outgrowth of horse race coverage. Political reporters have little interest in informing the public about the policies advocated by the two candidates. Their job is to tell us every day who is winning. And since very little changes in the horse race from day to day, the main device they have to drive the narrative is the gaffe. The gaffe is a candidate saying something unplanned and unwelcome. As campaign reporters define their job, the gaffe is the primary form of ‘news.’
— Jonathan Chait, writing in New York magazine.
Anti-Gay Hate Group Leader Who Gives Marching Orders to Romney Objects to New Yorker Article That Reveals His Obsession with Rigid Masculinity
According to Right-Wing Watch, Fischer is very unhappy with the New Yorker piece at least in part because it exposes his obsession with, um, rigid masculinity. This obsession may have started when he learned that his father had been a conscientious objector during World War II. Fischer’s lifelong shame about his father’s weakness appears to have been compounded when his mother left his father for a bus driver — when Bryan was at the tender age of 20. (Even so, when Fischer, who turned 18 in 1969, had the opportunity to go war himself, he opted not to volunteer and did not serve in Vietnam.)
As a student at Stanford, Fischer joined an evangelical church in Palo Alto. He told a friend that he was attracted to the church because of its “manliness.” “It was the first time I’d been around a real muscular Christianity,” Fischer said to a friend then. “It had a kind of strength and virility to it that would appeal to men.”
New Study: Don’t Expect to Run Into Joe Biden at Subway
Ever since we looked around and noticed that America is pretty much like your Thanksgiving Day table when it comes to discussing politics, researchers have been fascinated with figuring out what makes liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, tea partiers and occupyers different.
A market research firm filled out the picture a little more this week, publishing a handful of brand preferences linked to relative blueness or redness.
The results, are, in some cases, counter-intuitive. For starters, Jeep was chosen the “most desired car” among Democrats, while BMW was the favorite of Republicans. As a Democrat, I want it noted I would have voted the other way. Twice, if they let me.
As for insurance companies, progressives picked um, Progressive, while conservatives went for Allstate. One can’t help but wonder if the names of these brands had something to do with the choices.
Romney’s Appearance on ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday Will Be His First Non-Fox News Interview This Year
Mitt Romney rushes to do interviews with Fox News any time they’ll give him air time, but this Sunday, when he appears on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” it will be the first interview he’s given a legitimate news outlet this year.
Here are five question we wish “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer would ask Romney:
News Flash: God Still Does Not Exist
In case you need 10 really good arguments against the existence of god, here they are.
It is not up to atheists to prove that God does not exist. It is up to believers to prove that he does. And in the absence of any good, solid evidence or arguments in favor of God’s existence — and in the presence of a whole lot of solid arguments against it — I will continue to be an atheist. God almost certainly does not exist, and it’s completely reasonable to act as if he doesn’t.
