Fit To Print

I’m John McCain and I Distort This Message

It’s probably fair to call Barack Obama a celebrity, and his speeches certainly draw huge crowds. It is also true that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are celebrities, and at one time, large audiences would pay to see Britney Spears in concert. But the 200,000 folks in Germany came to see an inspirational speaker they hoped would make the world a better place. When admiration turns to idolatry, that is a bad thing, but there is a substantive reason that Obama generates standing room only events.

If Britney Spears announced she was going to give a speech on America’s global role in the 21st century, fully clothed, I don’t think 200,000 people would show up to chant her name and hear what she had to say. So I’m not sure how convincing the “Obama is a celebrity and celebrities are bad” argument is. Sadly, the use of syllogisms by the McCain camp, even fallacious ones, is a more sophisticated line of attack than a lot of the stuff they’ve been doing recently. They’re still being dishonest, but it’s a more subtle dishonesty than saying “al-Maliki’s 16 month withdrawal timetable is nothing like Obama’s 16 month timetable, and who cares what ol Mal says, anyway.”

Incidentally, watching campaigns go nuclear on youtube turns out to be more fun than apartment hunting on craigslist.

2 comments July 31st, 2008

And They Say He Ran Away

The press has universally covered Manny’s recent comments that the Sox don’t deserve him and that they treat their stars — like Pedro and Nomah — poorly as more evidence that he’s a Prima Donna and a pain-in-the-ass. Well, he may be a pain, but I’m pretty sure the Sox have turned the fans against a lot of their stars in the past. And maybe the new management doesn’t do that, I don’t really know.

I do know that the Red Sox aren’t going to find a left fielder who’s half as entertaining, half as honest, or half as good. No one else is going to high-five a fan after a catch and then double off a runner from first. To boot, Ramirez has a lot more character than the sports world is really capable of understanding.

Relations between Manny and the front office are probably irreparable at this point, and I’m sure he’s a headache to have on your team, so it seems inevitable he will be traded now (possibly to the Marlins) or at the end of the season. And fans and radio talk show hosts will cite his antics and various outbursts of candor as proof the Sox did the right thing. Thus, Manny will become the latest Sox star to be booed out of Boston. What do you do when you’re branded, and you know you’re a man?

P.S. Did you know he had a charity wine called Manny Being Merlot? The city won’t be the same.

4 comments July 31st, 2008