The World's President

When I was in Italy recently, I was struck by the degree to which people were following the Presidential race here in the US. Everyone seemed to know the details of the Democratic nominating process. And everyone -- I mean, everyone -- was for Obama.

Which apparently reflects a broader trend, as shown by this poll asking Europe & the Russians who they would vote for. NB the Russians always liking the tough-talker.

JEK
European sensibilitized.

Context

Headline from Politico.com this morning:

McCain hits Obama on Petraeus meeting
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 5/28/08 5:02 PM
Says Obama hasn’t sat down with leader of Iraq troops; Obama camp response invokes McClellan.

I've been following the McClellan Story with relish, of course. It's refreshing to see the Inner Circle trying to circle the wagons around...what, exactly? Though I will admit that I buy the White House line that McClellan is saying things just to sell books, too...I have trouble believing that anyone who's been a flack for this administration would turn on it out of the goodness of their "heart."

But what really struck me about this headline is that when I read it I immediately thought that they were invoking not Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary, but George McClellan, the much adored, frequently invoked general in charge of the Union Army in the Civil War, and the man whose credulous belief in enemy propaganda and repeated failure to act allowed the Confederacy to grow from a grossly overwhelmed force of scrappy fighters into an army that almost took Washington more than once.

That might be the better invocation.

JEK
Chairman, Shelby Foote Deification Society

The Good Old Days

One of most unfortunate things about being a surgeon is that one is often forced to read things written by surgeons. Surgeons' writing is pretty universally terrible. These are people, remember, who have learned almost everything they know from one another, and the vast majority of them last wrote non-science in high school. There are exceptions, of course...Atul Gawande, whom I don't agree with on a lot of things, at least writes about those things with real skill.

Nowhere is surgical writing more likely to make me want to strangle myself than in the editorial section of the many cheap journals sent to me each week as vehicles for pharmaceutical and device advertising. One of the worst is "Surgical Rounds," whose editor, Bernie Jaffe, is sort of an archetype of the disaffected modern older surgeon. Almost every one of his editorials makes spurious arguments for a return to the Good Old Days of surgery...days that have not, in fact, ever existed. But that doesn't stop him from pining for a time when residents properly lived in their hospitals, he was paid millions of dollars a year and couldn't walk down a street without people bursting into applause at his passing, and insurance companies didn't give him any guff. Almost every one is enough to set me drafting resignation letters.

But this most recent one really goes beyond the pale. Bernie's given up on wishing for the happy days of the 1960s. Now, he's advocating a return to the real pinnacle of surgery, medicine, and society in general: Italy in the 1660s!

Yes, those were banner days. Fie on the so-called "progress" of the past 400 years!


JEK
Can't believe this isn't a joke, but is certain this isn't a joke.

Trying to put gas in perspective

A friend recently showed me this button. I hear it's also a bumper sticker. Wow, I hadn't realized it had gone up that much.

The same friend also showed me this article, and I guess compared to prices in other countries, I should be happy about $4 a gallon.

Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking of happiness and economics as a zero sum game in which other people's suffering somehow means more "good" leftover for me. As someone who only has to fill up the tank every other month, at first glance I seem to be only minimally affected by gas prices. Similarly, I rent my apartment and can watch the housing market with detached amusment and think to myself, "good job not buying an over priced, poorly built condo in 2001."

So, as I ride public transit to and from my rented apartment, I get pretty self-righteous. I look out the window and think about how the money must just be rolling into my bank account. But unfortunately, economics is not a zero sum game. Since our economy relies so much on oil, such as needing trucks to deliver everything, the rising gas prices are raising all other prices along with it. And there is in fact no money rolling into my bank account.

POHS
likewise, the suffering in Myanmar is somehow failing to bring me happiness.

A Pause in "Objectivity"

One of the central tenets of Nation Indivisible is that no journalism is truly objective. The pretense of being unbiased is one of the most frustrating tenets of American media. So it's tremendously refreshing to see the MSM (and not Fox News), saying something real and opinionated:





Good man.

JEK
Biased. Subjective. Proud.

Phrase This

Let's make a compilation of campaign season phrases that we don't like.

First, to recap previous pecadillos:

- "At the (gas) pump"
- "on Day One"
- Democrat as an adjective (vs. Democratic)
- "on the ground"

Now, some more (please add yours to the comment section):

- Anything-gate
- Obamamania
- Race card
- moral hazard

JEK
Revisionist lexicographer

MoveOn.org Ad

MoveOn.org announced the winners of their "obama in 30 seconds" ad contest. All four winning videos are worth watching and you must do so now. I hope they all make it on the air.

www.obamain30seconds.org

POHS
which one's your favorite? Mine is playground politics.

SNL

Why write a post on Mondays when I can just link to Saturday Night Live? Hey, Mondays just got easy...



POHS
and after this video is done, it shows you other SNL clips. You can watch the whole episode from nation indivisible.

End of Suburbia

This looks interesting... A film from 2004 called "The End of Suburbia." Maybe it'll be a summer sleeper...



POHS
have never lived in the suburbs, so maybe I just don't get it.

David Brooks is back in my favor.

Back in my favor is David Brooks. For now.

JEK
Communicationalist

Quiverful

Look out, stupid people are reproducing faster than smart people! How's this one going to play out? I often wonder about this. Well, for one thing we're going to have to do some re-districting.

So, just how DO you afford 13 children? That's a good question and one we can all relate to, am I right? (audience nods) Well, don't worry cause God thought of this one too. And that's why he built women to have babies ONE AT A TIME instead of all at once. (pause for applause) Sometimes He has a sense of humor and doubly blesses you with twins, but not that often. (wait for laughter) Also, he designed babies to have small mouths and stomachs so they'd be easy on the budget. (collective audience ooooh) But what about education? I've heard kids need one of those. (audience looks concerned) Legally, yes, the government requires all children be educated, but that's why we have homeschool. It's God's loophole. And there's wonderful new conservative schools where you only have to pay for the first three children, any over that go FREE! :) So, there's no need to sell your soul. (laughter) Throw a roof over their heads and some thrift store clothes on their back and you're on your way creating many well adjusted, god abiding, little folks.

I can only hope these children grow up to dissapoint their parents in ghastly ways.

POHS

Gas Tax

So, on the matter of the gas tax holiday. There have been a lot of arguments advanced against it. The Clinton camp has advanced a series of imaginative panderings for it. And I sorta got all caught up in it for a while. I think I have a pretty good handle on all the ways in which a gas tax holiday will not save anyone any money, but will lose lots of money for the government in favor of the oil companies. I think I have HRC's quote about how she doesn't put any stock in these new-fangled "economists" down pat.

What amazes me is that in the midst of all of this chatter, I allowed myself to be completely taken in. I never once, until this moment, realized the most important fact in all of this:

None of these people are going to be President this summer. This whole arguement is moot.

-JEK
Is pretty sure he hates the phrase "at the pump" even more than he hates the phrase "on Day One," which is a lot.

TWW!

A special Nation Indivisible welcome to TWW, the newest member of our tribe. It may be a little while before you hear from him -- we're going to have to get him up to speed on a few things first, like language, for instance, and finger movement. And, even at nine pounds, he'll probably want a dinner or two first. But we're completely ecstatic to have him along for the ride. Special thanks to DMW and SLBPW, who did the heavy lifting on this particular recruitment.

JEK
Much Pleased

In 100 years...

I'm really looking forward to only reading about neo-conservatives and religious fundamentalists in history books. How long do you think that'll take? I wonder about this often.

Hillary, No! Wait, I mean, Yes! Err, I'm confused. Let's just vote Obama.

I'll admit I was getting pretty angry at Hillary Clinton over her negative campaigning. And I still believe her campaign is unwinnable; the sooner she drops out the better. But watching this interview between her and Bill O'Reilly made me love her again!

She does a better job than anyone I've seen handling Bill O'Reilly's agressive style and making her points coherently. Suddenly, I'm glad we have Hillary around again. I still prefer Obama's message of hope and moving beyond partisan bickering, but maybe, just maybe, that's just because I thought democrats were bad at dirty political fights. Now here comes Hillary; she was naive and idealistic, but now she's tough. And I can only imagine if I were a woman how inspired I would be.

So much so, that it makes me wonder if O'Reilly isnt trying to help her prolong the democratic race. Oh, such insidiousness! (That would look great on a T-Shirt.) Moveon.org said the interview "does nothing more than legitimize a network that will then use that credibility to smear Democrats and progressive ideas in 2008." This is getting tricky. Damn, I can't even enjoy a good Hillary/O'Reilly interview without wondering about the politics. I'm tired of this junk.

I'm going to stick with plan A and support Obama. I like to believe it's possible to elevate the national discourse. If I'm wrong and Obama loses to the right wing attack machine, which is the only thing that really can defeat him, well, then next election cycle people will be even more eager, right?

Here's the video that inspired these thoughts, for better or worse.

POHS
Going to work everyday and home every night makes me feel like a goldfish circling a bowl.