The Phony Campaign

2011-11-06 Update

[phony baloney]

Big bump for Herman Cain this week, vaulting him into the phony lead. Unfortunately, Intrade views him as an even longer shot at the nomination, going from an (approximately) 8% probability to around 5% in the past few days.

Going out on a limb here, I would guess that these two symptoms have the same underlying cause.

Query String Hit Count Change Since
2011-10-31
"Herman Cain" phony 27,900,000 +18,160,000
"Rick Perry" phony 22,100,000 -800,000
"Barack Obama" phony 16,700,000 -600,000
"Mitt Romney" phony 16,600,000 +12,520,000
"Newt Gingrich" phony 7,710,000 -210,000

  • The phoniest thing about the recent controversy around Herman Cain has been the coverage, as Jim Nolte notes that Politico (all by its lonesome) published 90 stories about Cain in a mere six days; this number is out of proportion to other scandals. Nolte says:
    I don't know if Cain is guilty of what he's accused of. Hell, I don't even know what he's been accused of other than making a few women uncomfortable and what Politico themselves described as gestures of "a non-sexual nature." What I do know are the facts I see above, and they all point to a coordinated attempt to take out another one of our candidates with an unprecedented media assault.
    I am vigorously nodding my head in agreement. I was not much of a Cain fan before, and I think his campaign handled this dredged-up "scandal" poorly, but Politico is a big joke. Or, as Mark Levin claims: "a phony website that might as well be run by MoveOn.org or the Daily Kos. It's not news, it's leftism."

  • Rick Perry was in New Hampshire this week, and got suckered into repeating a quote from "Jeremy, 38", an "Occupy" protester:
    It's weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it's time to go, they're still there. I guess that's why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That's the power of greed.
    Only trouble is, the quote was one of a bunch of equally ridiculous quotes made up by Mark Schatzker, humorist for the Toronto Globe and Mail. In Perry's defense: nobody expects Canadians to even try to be funny, let alone generate dead-on satire.

    If Perry wants to substitute an true ludicrous story from the Occupists, I suggest Joe the Puppeteer; even armed with a MFA from UConn in—I am not making this up—puppetry, Joe is unable to find high-paying work in his chosen field. He's an Occupy Wall Street regular.

  • How authentic is President Obama's outrage against fat cats getting big bonuses while their companies circle the drain? You tell me, after reading this news story. Summary of the main points:

    • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received $141 billion in bailouts from Your Federal Government.
    • They just asked for another $6 billion, after reporting a $4.4 billion loss in three months.
    • Fannie and Freddie executives recently got themselves $13 million in bonuses.

    And President Obama came out to the Rose Garden to lambaste these guys enriching themselves on the taxpayer dime, right? Well, no:
    "The White House was not involved, and nor should it be," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.
    Also see: Solyndra.

    I'll wager that those execs will be more than happy to chip in to Obama's campaign coffers, and some spokesperson will be found to remark on how grassroots it all is.


Last Modified 2014-12-01 2:43 PM EDT