Friday, May 30, 2008
Please, please, please ....!
... do not pick Hillary as your running mate!
The idea that Obama should pick Clinton as his running mate to "heal the party" or, more precisely, to increase the ticket's appeal to "white, blue collar males" is ludicrous.
One of the facts of our political life is that Republicans win the white house more often than Democrats, even though more voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans. The reason for this is that many registered Democrats vote for the Republican presidential candidate in November.
It stands to reason that many of those Republican-voting registered Democrats will vote in Democratic primaries, particularly this year when the primaries continue to have an impact on the nomination. I seriously doubt that, in November, Hillary would win many votes of white males who can't stomach the idea of a black man as president. Chances are they're not too keen about a white woman either. They'll vote for McCain.
There are apparently white women who feel the same way. As for white women Democrats who would normally vote Democratic in November, but will take their ball and go home if Hillary doesn't get the nomination? How many of those are there, compared to independents among the majority of Americans who find her to be untrustworthy? The pollsters don't tell us that.
Anyway, having Hillary on the ticket doesn't pick up a single white male vote. Well, maybe one: Bill Clinton.
The idea that Obama should pick Clinton as his running mate to "heal the party" or, more precisely, to increase the ticket's appeal to "white, blue collar males" is ludicrous.
One of the facts of our political life is that Republicans win the white house more often than Democrats, even though more voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans. The reason for this is that many registered Democrats vote for the Republican presidential candidate in November.
It stands to reason that many of those Republican-voting registered Democrats will vote in Democratic primaries, particularly this year when the primaries continue to have an impact on the nomination. I seriously doubt that, in November, Hillary would win many votes of white males who can't stomach the idea of a black man as president. Chances are they're not too keen about a white woman either. They'll vote for McCain.
There are apparently white women who feel the same way. As for white women Democrats who would normally vote Democratic in November, but will take their ball and go home if Hillary doesn't get the nomination? How many of those are there, compared to independents among the majority of Americans who find her to be untrustworthy? The pollsters don't tell us that.
Anyway, having Hillary on the ticket doesn't pick up a single white male vote. Well, maybe one: Bill Clinton.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Clinton Unveils "Lou Gehrig Strategy"
".... and we all remember that it was early June, 1925, when Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp went down with an injury," Senator Clinton continued. "If Lou Gehrig hadn't been right there, ready to take over, if he had simply given up because Wally Pipp was the front-runner for the first baseman job, why, history would be very, very different. Gehrig was of course the greatest first baseman of all time. And that was, I believe, June 2, which is still some days off."Apparently, the legend that Pipp sat out due to an injury (a headache, in fact), is false. But the point is about the distinction between a "gaffe" and a "slip of the tongue." The latter is something that a person didn't intend to say. A "gaffe" is a broader category that also includes poorly chosen words.
Watch the video of Hillary making the "Bobby Kennedy" comment. She was clearly in pre-fabricated "talking point" mode. It's just more of her bad campaigning.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Your baby is not your rock band
So why do you think it's okay to give your baby a name designed to express your identity?
I'm not saying that parents are naming their kids "Sonic Grease Monkey" or anything. My point is that I get the feeling that a lot of baby naming is about the personal expression of the parents-to-be. Here they are, bringing this new autonomous human being into the world, and they mark it with vicarious intentions even before it's even born.
"I want(ed) to be totally unique, so I'll give my kid a totally unique name!"
The category that comes to most readily to mind are girl names drawn from the 19th century American Lit survey course: for girls, "Emerson," "Whitman," "Melville" and "Fenimore."
I was thinking if I had a baby girl, it would be kind of cool to name her "Pint o' Guinness Madison."
But you have to think ahead, to such situations as when she signs up for cable TV service by phone:
Alexia -- a neurologic disorder marked by loss of the ability to understand written or printed language, usually resulting from a brain lesion or a congenital defect.
I'm not saying that parents are naming their kids "Sonic Grease Monkey" or anything. My point is that I get the feeling that a lot of baby naming is about the personal expression of the parents-to-be. Here they are, bringing this new autonomous human being into the world, and they mark it with vicarious intentions even before it's even born.
"I want(ed) to be totally unique, so I'll give my kid a totally unique name!"
The category that comes to most readily to mind are girl names drawn from the 19th century American Lit survey course: for girls, "Emerson," "Whitman," "Melville" and "Fenimore."
I was thinking if I had a baby girl, it would be kind of cool to name her "Pint o' Guinness Madison."
But you have to think ahead, to such situations as when she signs up for cable TV service by phone:
No, it's P-I-N-T space, small O, apostrophe. .... No, apostrophe, the punctuation mark. Like between the I and the M in "I'm".... no, that's just an example! ... actually, it's pronounced "pine-toe," not "pinto." No, the space is between the T and the O!!!A related issue: naming your kid after a cognitive impairment (hat tip to Voxwoman for this one):
Alexia -- a neurologic disorder marked by loss of the ability to understand written or printed language, usually resulting from a brain lesion or a congenital defect.
Even Newer Comments Policy
In an effort to eliminate one of the factors that has discouraged me from blogging, I will from now on be deleting comments that annoy me. If you find your comment having mysteriously disappeared, it will most likely be because it annoyed me. To the extent that I continue blogging, it's because I enjoy doing so, and not to read and sometimes respond to annoying comments.
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