Akkam’s Razor

• William Gibson: Undecided Voters - I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

  To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with broken glass in it?"

  To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.'

• Joe in the Spotlight - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com - Turns out that “Joe the Plumber,” as he became nationally known when Senator John McCain made him a theme at Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate, may run a plumbing business but he is not a licensed plumber. His full name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher. And he owes a bit in back taxes.

• The Real Great Depression - ChronicleReview.com - In fact, the current economic woes look a lot like what my 96-year-old grandmother still calls "the real Great Depression." She pinched pennies in the 1930s, but she says that times were not nearly so bad as the depression her grandparents went through. That crash came in 1873 and lasted more than four years. It looks much more like our current crisis.

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.

• Primal Health: Eye-to-Eye Contact -
• Elections ‘08 Map Gallery -
• Drag and Drop Game Development with Gendai (video) - Mashable - The ultimate goal is to establish a kind of “YouTube for Games” where members can upload and share their new creations much like YouTube members do with video. However, Gendai wants to help its developers make a little money in the process by allowing them to monetize their games online and on the Apple AppStore for the IPhone.
• Overthinking It - Overthinking It subjects the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve.

Hyper-partisan that I am, I can’t honestly say that last night’s debate was an Obama win.  But the emerging consensus certainly says otherwise.  Especially given that McCain went into this debate as the presumed winner, with an 11-point edge on foreign policy, anything resembling a draw is an Obama victory.

The pundits are saying that McCain came off as a cranky, lecturing, old man, and more telling, showed outright contempt (and therefore weakness) by refusing to look Obama in the eye, calling to mind a previous seminal televised debate.  The various online polls, all freeped [including this WSJ poll, presumably behind the paywall], are clearly in Obama’s favor by a 40-point margin or more.  Focus groups, snap polls, and betting indicators also reflect a solid Obama win.  Even 27% of Drudge’s hyper-partisan followers were unable to assign victory to McCain.

Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight reads the entrails so you don’t have to…

All via Wordle.net:

Bush’s Bailout Speech

McCain from the Debate

Obama from the Debate Transcripts