The Phony Campaign

2011-07-17 Update

[phony baloney]

Nothing happening at Intrade to make us change our candidate list. And Michele Bachmann has opened up a big phony lead on President Obama over the past week:

Query String Hit Count Change Since
2011-07-10
"Michele Bachmann" phony 4,150,000 +490,000
"Barack Obama" phony 2,990,000 -110,000
"Mitt Romney" phony 2,460,000 -180,000
"Sarah Palin" phony 1,810,000 -60,000
"Rick Perry" phony 1,560,000 +120,000
"Tim Pawlenty" phony 1,230,000 +30,000
"Jon Huntsman" phony 1,100,000 -40,000

  • We try to keep it light and fluffy in these phony notes, but even your cynical blogger was taken aback by this:

    The White House on Wednesday declined to challenge an account in a new book that suggests that President Obama, in his campaign to overhaul American health care, mischaracterized a central anecdote about his mother's deathbed dispute with her insurance company.

    During his presidential campaign and subsequent battle over a health care law, Mr. Obama quieted crowds with the story of his mother's fight with her insurer over whether her cancer was a pre-existing condition that disqualified her from coverage.

    Phoniness and politics go together like chicken and waffles, which makes it easy for even a lazy blogger to accumulate a handful of cheap shots into a weekly post.

    But roll that story around in your brain for a bit, and let's not use the New York Times' "mischaracterized" euphemism: Obama lied about his mother's death as one of his tactics to get elected and pass legislation.

    Creepy. Despicable.

  • But OK, point made. Let's get back to the merely amusing, for example this observation made by one of James Taranto's correspondents about President Obama's press conference speech patterns (prompted by a cleaned-up transcript):

    The correct quote is: "The public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs of how a Treasury option goes. They shouldn't. They're worryin' about their family; they're worryin' about their jobs; they're worryin' about their neighborhood. They've got a lot of other things on their plate. We're paid to worry about it."

    It may seem insignificant, but it should be noted that every single time the president mentions the great unwashed masses "out there" he instantly drops his precise pronunciation of "-ing" endings, and launches into what he imagines all those "folks out there" talk like. We're jes' workin' and hopin' and waitin' for him to help us out, y'know? He does it midsentence. It is quite jarring when you listen for it. It is also very telling and very insulting.

    I almost never listen to politicians, but if you do, that's a little bit of rhetorical phoniness you might want to check for.

  • And Nick Gillespie of Reason provides three reasons why the debt-ceiling debate is full of malarkey. Which is to say, phony:


Last Modified 2014-12-01 2:28 PM EDT