The Phony Campaign

2016-01-03 Update

[phony baloney]

The PredictWise bettors give us the same names as last week. The Donald and Hillary continue as our solid phony leaders; Bernie moves into third, switching places with Ted Cruz; Jeb and Rubio swap fifth and sixth place:

Query String Hit Count Change Since
2015-12-27
"Donald Trump" phony 94,100 +5,500
"Hillary Clinton" phony 78,500 -9,300
"Bernie Sanders" phony 41,900 +2,400
"Ted Cruz" phony 36,300 -7,600
"Jeb Bush" phony 29,800 -300
"Marco Rubio" phony 27,300 -3,800
"Chris Christie" phony 16,000 -4,100

Did any candidate resolve to be less phony in the new year? To quote noted pundit Zhou Enlai, when asked about the impact of the French Revolution: "Too early to say". (Well, not really.)

  • Among the amusing 2015 media fails compiled by Raw Story, number one is "The Huffington Post’s phony ‘No Trump’ policy".

    With more than a hint of sanctimony, HuffPost in July laid down what it must have thought was a policy that would set it apart from the rest of the gullible press pack: It would be filing all news about Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to the Entertainment section rather than hard news. “Our reason is simple: Trump's campaign is a sideshow,” wrote D.C. Editor Ryan Grim and Editorial Director Danny Shea. “We won't take the bait.”

    They refused to "take the bait" for nearly five months; early in December, Arianna Huffington herself said, in effect, "never mind."

  • Down the road, at South Church in Portsmouth, Hillary took a question from a young man (maybe 13 years old or so?) who read aloud from a card:

    “When you become president, what is your plan to connect mental health problems and guns to make sure that me, my brothers, and my friends are safe from violence at school?”

    Speculation was rife that the questioner was a plant, reading something that his mommy wrote for him. A possible clue: the sloppy, vague phrasing. What could it possibly mean to "connect mental health problems and guns"?

    To the bias-free ear, it sounds as if he's requesting some kind of bizarro consumer guide: "Have a mental health problem? We'll find just the right gun for you! Schizophrenics, we have a special this week on the SIG Sauer P229!"

    Don't be fooled: the careless wording indicates the question probably was written by an earnestly progressive adult; years of thought-free allegiance to lefty causes can atrophy the ability to ask sharp, precise questions.

    Also note the explicit assumption in the query: all we need is a President with a plan; then we'll all be "safe from violence". A glaring example of magical thinking, which is another clue that it came from an adult. Kids are usually too skeptical to buy into that bullshit.

  • Carly Fiorina vanished from our leader board months back, but we need to bring her back onstage this week, as she approached Peak Phony with a pre-Rose Bowl tweet:

    Carly's alma mater is Stanford, who (for people not paying attention to such things) was playing Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

    This pandering to Iowa caucus-goers (caucasians?) earned her nothing besides much-deserved derision . About an hour into the game, with Iowa behind by multiple touchdowns:

    Personal note: my sister went out for the festivities, reporting a "good trip", aside from the game.

  • A bonus non-political phony:

    Missouri Shark Attack

    Slightly more amusing: the Snopes debunking page. Yes, we need to call in a big Snopes artillery strike to be sure this didn't actually happen.

    And I may write in Bill Tennison for President in November.


Last Modified 2019-01-08 12:56 PM EDT