The Phony Campaign

2015-09-27 Update

Our PredictWise punters noticed that Scott Walker's chance at the presidency have gone from "slim" to "none", and that has created room in our poll for the ample frame of Chris Christie. And, although Jeb and Carly lost a lot of their phoniness over the past week, Jeb dropped significantly more than Carly, which gives us a new phony front-runner:

Query String Hit Count Change Since
2015-09-20
"Carly Fiorina" phony 2,470,000 -2,030,000
"Jeb Bush" phony 1,100,000 -7,740,000
"Hillary Clinton" phony 482,000 +44,000
"Donald Trump" phony 367,000 -43,000
"Joe Biden" phony 153,000 -2,000
"Bernie Sanders" phony 146,000 -16,000
"Marco Rubio" phony 131,000 +19,000
"Chris Christie" phony 116,000 ---
"Ben Carson" phony 108,000 +4,000

  • Carly's phony hits continue to be generated by her debate claim about Planned Parenthood's baby organ harvesting for cash. Typical headline from the Daily Kos tribe: "Planned Parenthood: Carly Fiorina cooks up fake video to 'prove' her lies". Alternatively, Jonah Goldberg: "It’s Not Carly Fiorina Who’s Wrong in the Planned Parenthood Fight".

    I report, you decide. You can't help but notice, however, that one side is desperately trying to discredit Carly, instead of describing what Planned Parenthood does in non-euphemized language and trying to defend it.

  • Hrafnkell Haraldsson reports: "Donald Trump’s Phony Christian Routine Earns Boos at Values Voter Summit". Trump walked onstage carrying the Good Book:

    “Most importantly,” he said, “I brought my Bible,” and lifted it up for all to see.

    Given what followed, you can be sure he is not very familiar with its contents, as he spent the next 20 minutes on his usual spiel, showing a complete lack of humility and loads of hubris, and an utter disparagement of everyone who is not Donald Trump.

    No, I had not previously heard of Hrafnkell Haraldsson, but I miss a lot. The PoliticsUSA "About Us" page claims "he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors."

    So lock up your daughters if you hear Hrafnkell's coming to your town.

  • Roque Planas (yes, we are unaccountably drawn to unusual names this week) thinks he noted phoniness in the Jeb Bush's claim that he "repudiated multiculturalism". Why, Roque argues, "Jeb Bush Is So Multicultural, He Doesn’t Even Know It". His wife is Mexican! He studied Latin America in school! He speaks Spanish! He eats Mexican food at home! In 2009, he identified himself as Hispanic on his voter registration! He lives in one of the most conspicuously multicultural cities in the U.S.! (Miami!)

    OK, Roque. If what you think Jeb said is so easily refuted by obvious facts, could it be possible that you missed the thrust of what he actually said?

    Let's see… here.

    But Bush said later he viewed multiculturalism as not aspiring to an American ideal. "You have to have people assimilate into society. But that doesn't mean we have a monolithic, homogeneous population. To the contrary," he told The Associated Press before headlining a legislative fundraiser in Cedar Rapids. "The power of America is a set of shared values with a very diverse population embracing it."

    I dare say you can eat Mexican food at home and still believe something like that.

  • And then of course, there's Hillary. It has been another week of inconvenient facts coming to light, revealing her previous prevarications. In NRO, John Fund notes: "Democrats Wake Up to How Bad a Liar Hillary Is". He points to a quote from last Sunday's Meet the Press uttered by Bill Clinton biographer David Maraniss:

    She doesn’t have Bill Clinton’s charisma and amazing campaign abilities. You know, and theater. You know, you talk about authenticity. I always have called Bill Clinton sort of an authentic phony. He really is good at that. And Hillary, if you look at it, just as theater, is a phony phony. She’s not as good at it.

    Here's the problem: the American people aren't very good at their job either, which is to humiliate these people out of public life.