When I notice an AP headline:
Edwards questions Clinton's sincerity… it means it's time to check out the phony numbers, as long as I can keep my eyes from rolling out of their sockets.
Query String | Hit Count | Change Since 2007-10-10 |
---|---|---|
"Hillary Clinton" phony | 723,000 | -72,000 |
"John Edwards" phony | 543,000 | +8,000 |
"Ron Paul" phony | 492,000 | +19,000 |
"Fred Thompson" phony | 475,000 | -47,000 |
"Rudy Giuliani" phony | 456,000 | +84,000 |
"John McCain" phony | 448,000 | -18,000 |
"Barack Obama" phony | 433,000 | -71,000 |
"Mitt Romney" phony | 421,000 | -21,000 |
"Dennis Kucinich" phony | 165,000 | -14,000 |
"Dave Burge" phony | 82 | +13 |
You find all kinds of interesting stuff by chasing down the links provided by the Google.
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For example, one of the Ron Paul links went to—I am not making
this up—an article by Lance Selfa in the Socialist Worker
Online cautioning "progressives" not to be sucked into the Paulian
orbit. I believe a fair summary would be: "Don't vote for him just
because he's a wacko; he's not our kind of wacko."
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What's with Rudy's big increase? Here's one:
this
blogger refers to "Giuliani's phony fans"; it turns out his campaign
released a list of NH supporters, not all of whom had officially
committed their fealty. Tsk! (Maybe I should check to see if I
made the list.)
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Here is an article claiming that Barack Obama
has taken up a "Sister Souljah" strategy by telling all kinds of
interest groups things they don't want to hear. The writer recalls where
that term comes from, back when candidate Bill Clinton
"criticized the hip-hop singer before a black audience in 1992."
(Ms. Souljah had said in an interview: "I mean, if black people kill
black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?")
What makes it turn up in our Googling is the following:
In his 2004 autobiography, ``My Life,'' Clinton wrote: ``After challenging white voters all across America to abandon racism, if I kept silent on Sister Souljah I might look weak or phony.''
Leave it to Bill to have a calculated strategy about exactly what he needs to say in order not to look phony. He took Jean Giraudoux's advice to heart: "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made."