I could've saved myself a fair amount of typing today if I'd first read this brilliant Tom Friedman column.
Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.
(As for that last sentence, Vernam said the very same thing this evening to Mrs. Cipher. Columnists are most brilliant when they agree with us, don't you think?)
This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way. And maybe, "Do you watch Jay Leno or Dave Letterman?"
(OK, I made that last sentence up. But I'm sure Friedman would agree.)
"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."
That Sandel guy, he's brilliant, too. All brilliant, and all on the losing side.
Posted by Vernam at November 4, 2004 10:47 PMAll right, I'll lob one in for comment. This does not mean that Howard Keel was gay.
There was a very strong correlation between President Bush's share of the vote in 2000 and his share of the vote in 2004 across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The president consistently ran a few percentage points ahead of his showing in 2000, but he did not improve on his 2000 performance any more in states with gay marriage referenda than in other states. In 11 states with gay marriage referenda on the ballot, the president increased his share of the vote from an average of 55.4 percent in 2000 to an average of 58.0 percent in 2004--an improvement of 2.6 percentage points. However, in the rest of the country the president increased his share of the vote from an average of 48.1 percent in 2000 to an average of 51.0 percent in 2004--an improvement of 2.9 percentage points.
Posted by: TOF at November 10, 2004 09:22 AM>Howard Keel, whose role as Frank
>Butler in “Annie Get Your Gun” was
>reprised by Enob in Loohcs Hgih,
>died yesterday at the age of 85.
>VC might find it interesting that
>Keel’s “real” last name was Leek.
How dare you rub our noses in the Bush victory like this? I was hoping that your silence this past week signaled a kinder, gentler TOF. But that spirit of healing and bipartisanship has been sundered by your thinly veiled cheap shot about Howard Keel.
Yes, I'm having trouble figuring what to write about now.
Posted by: VC at November 8, 2004 10:24 PMHoward Keel, whose role as Frank Butler in “Annie Get Your Gun” was reprised by Enob in Loohcs Hgih, died yesterday at the age of 85. VC might find it interesting that Keel’s “real” last name was Leek.
Posted by: TOF at November 8, 2004 11:52 AM