The Phony Campaign

2011-09-04 Update

[phony baloney]

We lose another candidate from our phony poll this week, as Michele Bachmann has dipped below our arbitrary inclusion requirement of 4% at Intrade. (Just by a bit: 3.9%. But rules are rules.)

Query String Hit Count Change Since
2011-08-29
"Rick Perry" phony 11,400,000 +4,760,000
"Barack Obama" phony 7,250,000 +4,550,000
"Sarah Palin" phony 4,960,000 +320,000
"Mitt Romney" phony 2,640,000 -10,000
"Jon Huntsman" phony 1,370,000 +290,000

  • Yet another dark secret was revealed about Rick Perry this week: back in 1993, when he was Texas Agricultural Commissioner, he wrote a letter to (then) First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, deeming her nascent efforts for a government healthcare takeover to be "commendable" and a "worthy effort."

    So surely we can find… ah, yes, here's Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic:

    Yes, this was almost two decades ago, and I don't think it reveals much, if anything, about the way Perry would behave on health care if elected now. But it is another demonstration that he's a phony -- that is to say, his rhetoric on federalism and narrow view of what the Constitution permits are exactly what the tea party wants to hear, but his record and penchant for contradicting himself when doing so is politically convenient cast doubt on the depth of his conviction.

    Disclaimer: Friedersdorf is kind of a weasel.

  • Sarah Palin spoke in rainy Indianola, Iowa yesterday, and used the p-word herself:

    "America's economic revival starts with America's energy revival," she declared. "Drill now, let the pipelines and the refineries be built. No phony green jobs."

    I think she's a long shot (at best) for the presidency, but I wish more of the GOP candidates sounded like her.

  • Jonathan Last blogged amusingly and perceptively about Mitt Romney's unimpressive political career. Like Last, I'm willing to bet that Romney's a very decent guy, but he's not that great a campaigner. Relevant to our theme, however, is:

    It's funny that Romney's line of attack on Perry seems to be that Perry is a "career politician" because he's been in elective office since 1984. Well, Mitt Romney would have been a career politician too, if only voters would have let him. He's been running since 1994. His real gripe about Perry is actually, "Hey, that guy wins all the time! No fair!"

  • Jonah Goldberg reminded us about the phoniness of the "anti-science" charge against Republicans (in response to a column by Rich Lowry):

    During the Gulf oil spill, the Obama administration dishonestly claimed that its independent experts supported a drilling moratorium. They emphatically did not. The president who campaigned on basing his policies on "sound science" ignored his own hand picked experts. According to the GAO, he did something very similar when he shut down Yucca Mountain. His support for wind and solar energy, as you suggest, isn't based on science but on faith. And that faith has failed him dramatically.

    Gosh, it's almost as if the Democrats' claim to be guided by the impartial hand of Science is… phony.

  • Phony-wise, President Obama is the gift that keeps on giving. Why it seems like only a few weeks ago

    Moving forward, my basic attitude is we know what to do. I'll be putting forward, when [Congresscritters] come back in September, a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs, and to control our deficit. And my attitude is, get it done. (Applause.) And if they don't get it done, then we'll be running against a Congress that's not doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and will be very clear.

    Oh, that's right. It was only a few weeks ago. But now:

    In what could be a way of lowering expectations for next Thursday's big economic speech, aides to President Obama are privately spreading word that he will not present his entire jobs plan in his address to a Joint Session of Congress.

    Pun Salad has obtained this leaked White House document revealing President Obama's two-point plan for the economy:

    1. Say and do anything to get re-elected.
    2. There is no point two.


Last Modified 2014-12-01 2:45 PM EDT