Akkam’s Razor

see Sarah Palin pictures

It’s not even election day, and already the GOP is taking out the long knives. I’m unsure if McCain picked Palin as a stunt to woo the unicorns PUMAs, as a dog whistle to crazy-baselanders, or as a patsy for his increasingly probably defeat. In any case, the coalition of convenience formerly known as the GOP three legged stool of social conservatives, policy and pundit conservatives, and fiscal conservatives is rapidly coming off the rails. We can only hope that the GOP is too busy dealing with their own insurgents to pay attention to any of the real work getting done in picking up the pieces of eight-years of GOP-rule.

At the conclusion of the last night’s debate, I contemplated the blog post I would write.  Do I get all high and mighty on Biden’s firm grasp on facts, issues, and policy, and thoroughly skewer Palin.  I ended up writing nothing - choosing to wait until the morning polls.

The conclusion of the McCain-Obama debate was truly one where there was no clear victor.  That was most definitely not the case last night.  Although Palin survived, merely exceeeding the soft bigotry of low expectations, Biden trounced her, clearly demonstrating that he is worthy of office.

This morning’s CNN poll provided as much validation as the non-scientific CNN-attention meter or hand-counting at the end of the debate.  Biden won by a significant margin.  But there were two polling points that absolutely rubbed me the wrong way.

My first area of concern is that 54% of respondents though Palin was more likable.  I suppose my outrage is that this question is even asked.  The country should be valuing competence, not with whom they’d most like to have a drink.

Secondly, CNN found that 84% of Americans thought Palin exceeded expectations.  The expectation was simply somewhere within the range of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin with Katie Couric.  Andrew Halco says the following of the master debater:

I’ve debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she’s a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.”

What have we become?

This surely cannot be the America of history, of literature, and great American Rhetoric.   We are to be special, blessed by God and destined to save the world from evil.  Instead of aspiring to the pinnacle of our ability, we are satisfied with someone who looks like us and sounds like us.  We will continue this backslide into irrelevancy so long as we play to the lowest common denominator.  It’s not enough to like or identify with the candidate.  I want someone of better character, supreme intellect, and razor sharp analytical skills.  Not someone who looks like me, sounds like me, and mangles the English language like me.

• Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss - You probably already get social media, and see its value, and think it’s really nifty cool. But if you can’t articulate the benefits and the return on the effort, and several other little details to the folks upstairs, it’s going to be hard to get your ideas moved from “wouldn’t this be great?” to “let’s assign a project manager and get started.” First and foremost, you have to jump over the fence from where you’re thinking, and get into their mindset.

As stated, it appears Hillary is the winner (as declared by FOX - unsure whether that is the national network or local channel).

Sadly, all that talk of Pennsylvania’s primary finally meaning something really means that Indiana’s primary will finally mean something. It appears that Hillary’s win will likely result in a net-gain of a dozen or so delegates, still putting her behind Obama in total delegates.

The electoral math essentially remains unchanged. As Eli at Firedoglake mentions, Hillary is still 144 delegates behind (requiring 63% of the 566 remaining delegates to seize the nomination), and that her financial situation is precarious.

Some learnings from the chicken entrails exit polls:

I’ve seen the rhetoric for the D-word heating up, and I don’t mean downturn. This very well may be the week that the curtain is pulled back on the batshit insanity that is the US economy.

The stock market has lost @ 10% of it’s value since 1/2/08. In 1929, the one day drop was 13% (There were actually several tightly spaced drop; In 1987, the one day drop was 23%, eventually totalling 60%.

As Barry Ritholtz states at the Big Picture:

World markets are plunging in response to fears and expectations that the United States will be (or already is) in a recession that will be both long and deep.

• Iranian boats ”provoke” U.S. Navy ships in Hormuz: CNN
  reuters.com — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route off the Iranian coast, over the weekend, CNN reported on Monday. Citing unidenti
  (tags: iran again gulfoftonkin wagthedog)
• GOP Doubts, Fears ‘Post-Partisan’ Obama
  washingtonpost.com — Exploiting a deep well of voter revulsion over partisan gridlock in Washington, Sen. Barack Obama is promising to do something that has not been done in modern U.S. politics: unite a coalition of Democrats, Republicans and independe
  (tags: activism election toread)

This post was prompted by Tom Ferrick’s whining and Mark Bowden’s attempt at outrageousness.  I’m not going to bother parsing their statements (Ferrick’s on Casinos aren’t bad for Philadelphia’s waterfront followed by the usual journalists’ waaaaahumbulance cries that he gets hatemail, and Bowden’s Waterboarding isn’t torture and it’s A-OK with him if it works) in current and recent columns.

Brian Tierney, in a Philly Mag interview called Press Lords 2.0 laid out his vision for Philly.com, one where it became a MySpace with User Generated Content (UCG) including those wacky Mentos-and-Coke videos, along with online content created by those in his employ in the analog properties (ie. the papers). 

Apparently there are some Evangelicals who believe US Interstate 35 [wiki] is a Holy Highway [CNN via Atrios]. They’ve come to that conclusion with the help of Pastor Cindy Jacobs of “Light the Way”.

The Biblical link for I-35 comes from Isaiah 35:8, which is as follows:

A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.