Here are a few items for consideration; feel free to add your own…
How ’bout them Lady Gamecocks? — I may be a bit late with the congratulations, now that the ride has ended, but what a ride, huh?
The horrific campus rape story that wasn’t — Rolling Stone admits to the most fundamental journalistic failures, although no one will be fired. How did it happen? Not because the magazine lied, but because Rolling Stone so wanted it to be true. Further investigation would have spoiled it. A lawsuit is in the works.
The end of baseball cards? — Yet another indicator in the long, slow slide of what to me is still the proper national pastime.
Rand Paul seems to stray from libertarian roots as he courts GOP base — Interesting piece in the WashPost today. So, Doug, does this make him a phony like all the rest?
Or, anything else y’all want to talk about.
Related Posts
I am binging on Mad Men recaps–maybe that’s an English major thing.
Anybody watch it?
Watched it. It was okay. There are too many characters for a “season” that it’s only 7 episodes long.
Some British shows have seasons less than half that….
Does changing ones views on an issue to garner votes make a phony? Of course. What would you call it?
If you change your position over time and lay out the reason for the change by providing details about your thought process, that’s different. My guess is that Rand Paul will fall into the same trap his father avoided and that John McCain dove headfirst into.
Our political system rewards liars and cheats.
Obama was going to deliver single payer health care. He lied.
No, he didn’t. Obama the CANDIDATE never promised single-payer, quite the contrary. I WANTED him, or some mainstream candidate, to advocate for it, but none would — only Dennis Kucinich. I wrote about this at the time…
Yes, Obama had once upon a time advocated for it — long before he was a candidate for president, when there was no political risk involved. But running for president, he promised us no such thing — even though I begged him to, right up until Election Day…
“when there was no political risk involved.”
Exactly. What did he believe and what did he say? If you say something different than what you believe due to the political risk of doing so, that’s being a phony.
“Honest” Abe Lincoln would probably disagree — at least when it comes to a divisive issue (like slavery). And there are plenty of divisive issues out there.
It’s not that Abe took different positions so much as he took positions at the moment when they had a chance of becoming reality…
Isn’t there a quip about politics being the art of the possible?
Marshalling consensus – leadership – is a messy, shifting thing if one tries to parse it at one moment in time and compare that slice with another moment before or after. Diplomacy is this too. So is brokerage; which is a different commercial endeavor than sales. Not every human pursuit is a binary equation. Politics is the rawest revelling of these fields of play; and it is the easiest one to yelp “ah-ha!” at from the beachers.
Not to say most pols aren’t in politics to lead. But any Presidential contender, or pretender, had better be a leader.
Yes. That was Otto von Bismarck.
Or, if you prefer, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber…
“Does changing ones views on an issue to garner votes make a phony? Of course. What would you call it?”
In Rand Paul’s case, I’d call it “wising up.” 🙂
Or, “Seeing the errors of his ways…”
I’m reminded of the saying “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game”. In your case, you accept the phony statements made by the likes of McCain and Graham because you accept that politics is a game of lies during election cycles. Much like Vincent Sheheen’s transparent Hail Mary using his newly developed righteous indignation over the Confederate flag, you give too many politicians a pass for phoniness. The fact that Sheheen dropped that issue the day after the election speaks volumes about his true character.
If Paul turns out to be like all the rest, I won’t vote for him.
Ah, but when Vincent advocated for getting the flag down, he meant it. He’s not emphasizing it now because he missed his chance.
Beating Nikki in a general election — which proved beyond him — was much more achievable than getting the flag down.
In fact, the only way it is likely to get down — as I pointed out at the time — is if a governor makes it a priority. And a governor would only have the juice to get it done if he had run on the issue, which Vincent tried to do.
Let’s refine that statement — which Vincent BRIEFLY tried to do . He should have kept hammering it, day after day. He had nothing to lose, and it was a conversation we needed to have.
The fact that he didn’t persist is one of many beefs I have with that campaign…
“Where’s the beef?” was the phrase for that bumbling campaign…
“Ah, but when Vincent advocated for getting the flag down, he meant it. He’s not emphasizing it now because he missed his chance.”
He has no chance to speak about it regularly? to submit bills? to gather support? He would only be capable of doing that from the Governor’s office? Really? Your “not emphasizing it” is in reality “ignoring it now that it can’t help him win”.
It would certainly have a far greater impact on the state in the short and long term than his epic 4K babysitting bill that has produced, well, not a whole lot of anything according to analysis of the results.
He is not, never was, and never will be a leader. He’s a wonk/lawyer. Nice guy. Not a leader.
Yes, he has every chance in the world to talk about it now. He has practically no chance of it having any effect.
And no, he’s not a leader type. He doesn’t have the temperament for it. He’s a good guy to advise a leader, because he’s smart and has good ideas about what needs to be done. But he’s demonstrated a lack of the ability to get people — South Carolinians, anyway — to follow him.
Which makes it even less likely that his talking about the flag would have an effect.
I wish he WOULD. I wish EVERYONE in the General Assembly would. But I can’t argue with the assessment he seems to have made about whether it would do any good.
Isn’t it obvious then that he would have been a terrible Governor, likely a one term-er? Like her or not, right or wrong, Nikki Haley isn’t afraid to lead. SC Democrats wasted two elections on him… if he was the best they had to offer, they’re screwed for at least the next two elections…
You can bet he’s a phony. He’s been incubating since the 70’s. I would send him to the dunk tank. Quickly — there is a ton of dinero behind this guy.
#3: I was a card collector (mostly football) back in the 90s. The industry killed itself. First, there were so many different companies, and each company would produce several different lines–usually with an implied difference in quality or scarcity. In the end, they were all just cardstock, and there were enough so that everybody who wanted a particular card could get one–supply far outpaced demand. So they started using chase cards–special inserts that truly were a little more scarce, but which held their value only until the next hot card came out. Then the collectors themselves started taking all the fun out of it. Everything had to be graded and sealed in acrylic. A card that cost a couple bucks ungraded was suddenly worth hundreds of dollars just because someone paid to have it graded. The grade was more important than the content. It all drove me and many other collectors out. It just wasn’t any fun any more.
There used to be a fantastic card shop in the Cedar Terrace Shopping Center across from the VA hospital on Garners Ferry Road. He carried mostly older, classic stuff. He closed when all the shiny, slick cards started coming out in the mid-90s. Real shame.
I collected baseball cards from about 1988 – 1992. I would ride my bike down to Rite-Aid in Trenholm Plaza to buy them.
And if you ended up with doubles of cards you already had, you could use them to turn your bike into a motorcyle for the right back…