Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Two for the Price of One

Two posts in one. Tell your friends!

Post 1

I have a working theory that GOPVP candidate Sarah Palin is a brilliant stroke by the McCain folks. No, really! Wait! Hear me out. The heart of my thesis is this: the instant coverage of her daughter's pregnancy, etc., paints her as the victim of a heartless media onslaught. She can play the righteous indignation card, on that'll play well with the GOP base.

Picking Lieberman as VP was a no-go, picking Romney was a yawner. Picking Palin, get the sense that the evil liberal-biased media is picking on a 17-year-old girl and her mom, and you win back the conservatives who were not exactly jumping on the McCain bandwagon.

Okay, it's only a theory. But watch her speech tonight, watch the father of her kid's baby standing behind her. Watch and hear as the righteous indignation card is played to a roaring and receptive crowd, energized

Post 2

Interesting column in Tuesday's NYTimes called Fish or Foul? It has to do with how certain people are more easily fooled, that "the ideal victim is not an ignoramus but an expert." In other words, the more you know or think you know, the more likely you are to jump to conclusions based on a few hints.

"Expectations are everything," writes Edward Dolnick, using as a terrific example an experiment where people were handed strawberry yogurt, the lights turned off for a "fair taste test" and instead they were given chocolate yogurt. Nineteen of 32 praised the chocolate flavor, including one who said strawberry was her favorite (expert?). The fish or foul title refers to an earlier NYT story on sushi and food expecations.

2 comments:

John Arkwright said...

Dr. H.,

I am dazzled every time I consider the Palin pick. Maybe she will eventually blow up in his face, but every time I hear someone take a shot at her, they hit Barrack Obama.

The (R) VP has a thin resume!

Everybody who knows what a community organizer does, raise your hand.

Her husband had a DWI 20 years ago, meanwhile she was smoking marijuana!

Oh, that was about the time that Barack was doing cocaine!

She may have some (innocent?) involvement with the same fund raising scandal that Ted Stevens has been indicted in connection with!

Man, that Tony Rezco deal looks fishy!

Her husband was a member of a group that advocated Alaskan secession.

Did he think America is a mean country and was he proud of America for the first time on February 18?

The only thing I can't understand, yet, is how Barack's daughter is going to turn up pregnant next week, because I think that would be a new world record.

Someone in the McCain campaign is a genius. Somehow they are repackaging the old geezer that yells, "You kids get off my lawn!" into a decent candidate. Catherine Coulter's booze bill just got cut in half--she won't have to be nearly so drunk to vote for McCain.

Hollander said...

Funny. Or maybe the daughter's fetus could get pregnant before birth, making Palin a grandmother at the same time she's a mother. And the fetus decides to keep the fetus. A compelling storyline!