Pun Salad

Oscar Levant famously said, "Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath." Oscar did not weigh in on politics, but if he had, one suspects he'd still be searching in vain for the real tinsel.

• A huge hit bump for Barry this week, but this thing happens to the Google on occasion; I suspect he'll be back in normal range soon.

• We should mention the recent poll performed by the Pew Research Center, which just went out and asked (among other things): "Do you think of X as phony or not?" The "yes" results:

  Clinton	50%
  Obama	32%
  McCain	26%

  At one of the NYT blogs, Andrew Kohut breaks down the phony-perceptions between Obama and McCain by age among registered voters. I detect a trend, and I bet you can too:

  	All Voters	18-29	30-49	50-64	65+
  Obama	32%	22%	32%	35%	31%
  McCain	26%	31%	32%	21%	17%

  Kohut sees an incoming demographic wave of young Democrats. Depressing news for Republicans.

• An article in the St. Petersburg Times details the woes of Democratic Blue Dog Superdelegates, who don't much like either Obama or Clinton. Congressman (and Superdelegate) Tim Mahoney is interviewed:
  "You don't want to do anything that's just not natural, whether it's taking a shot or going bowling," Mahoney said. "There's one group of people you can't kid, and that's rural America. People out in Okeechobee and Highland counties, they see phony a mile away. You either play there or you don't."

  Mahoney probably should have thought through his remarks a little better; there are almost certainly non-rural voters in his district who might resent the implication that they can't see phony a mile away.

  Also, as the article points out, Mahoney is currently occupying the seat once held by noted GOP pervert Mark Foley for over 10 years. An honest politician would have pointed out that voters in his district aren't demonstrably good at phony-spotting at all.

• David Paul Kuhn at Politico sees an upcoming "train wreck" for Democrats on May 20; Obama looks to go over the 2025-delegate mark, which according to current rules would clinch the nomination for him. But:
  “We don’t accept 2,025. It is not the real number because that does not include Florida and Michigan,” said Howard Wolfson, one of Clinton’s two chief strategists. “It’s a phony number.”

  OK. If Hillary's not going to put her lot in with economists on economic issues, why should her strategists put their lot in with party rules and arithmetic?