A reader writes:
Is it wrong for me to think Michelle Malkin in a cheerleader outfit is incredibly hot? As one of the leaders of the morality bunch, does she not realize what damage she is doing?
Without temptation, there is no virtue.
Your Chance To Give An Award To Michelle Malkin!
Will Michelle Malkin win the Dish’s Yglesias Award for 2007? Or would that open up a tear in the time-space continuum? Your favorite foaming at the mouth wingnut and Sully-lover, Ace, is among the finalists as well. As are Huffpuffers Tish Durkin and Paul Jenkins from the left. It’s a veritable reasonableness-fest. But only you decide who wins.
Malkin Award Finalists – including Glenn Reynolds and Rush Limbaugh – here.
Moore Awards – featuring Eric Alterman and Keith Olbermann (in the lead right now) – here.
Poseurs of the Year – it’s a toss-up between Michael Ledeen and Bernard Henri Levy (with Lewis Lapham in the running) – here.
The criteria are here. What are you waiting for?
“Mitticisms”
That’s the mot juste a reader just proposed – for all those Romney statements that are just a little too good to be, you know, true. Remember Gore and the Internet. That kind of thing.
Mitticism: a noun. A slight exaggeration that embellishes the truth in order to impress voters. Pass it along.
(Actually, Chris Kelly may be the one to credit with this neologism).
Again this is not a big deal. Take the MLK issue. There’s no question that George Romney was on the right side of the civil rights movement of his day (just as his son, sadly, is now on the wrong side of the civil rights movement of his day – after having been on the right side). Romney has every reason to be proud, and I have no doubt that he remembers his father’s legacy vividly. It’s also true, it now appears, that George Romney may have once actually marched alongside MLK, although that is still disputed and Romney himself is no longer insisting on its veracity. But Mitt didn’t see it, as he now says. And the context of his prepared – not off-the-cuff – remarks clearly say that he did – not figuratively, but actually:
I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements.
The sentiment is clear and admirable, but slightly off. A Mitticism is not a lie as such, and I was too harsh in describing it as such originally. It’s that extra-special edge to a salesman’s pitch that is as unnecessary as it is counter-productive.
The Little Fibs Of Mitt Romney
Put together, it’s not a pretty picture. I didn’t realize he’s been full of it about his record on tackling crystal meth as well. Most of this is not a big deal. But so many little lies and little exaggerations tell you something as well. He seems to be a man who sees the truth as instrumental to the sell. And he’s all about the sell.
The Left vs Obama
Face Of The Day
A customer at St. George Spirits tastes the new St. George Absinthe Verte December 21, 2007 in Alameda, California. St. George Spirits became the first distillery to sell Absinthe in the United States since its ban in 1912 after they sold a token bottle on December 3rd. They released their first production run of 3600 bottles today with a price tag of $75 per bottle. By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
Hippies like absinthe?
Bye, Tom
This Jesse Walker farewell is priceless:
Tom Tancredo has dropped out of the presidential race. He will be replaced by Montezuma Aztlán Calderón, an undocumented worker from Oaxaca who will denounce the Brown Peril for just $3 an hour plus room and board.
Did he kill off Thompson’s campaign? We’ll all miss one-liners like this:
"I took accordion lessons. It was horrible. I never practiced. I hated it. It’s child abuse."
But not torture.
The Electability Issue In Iowa
Iowans, who have had much more time to examine and judge the candidates, lean toward Obama against the leading Republican candidates. He beats all of them by much wider margins than Clinton. One obvious example: in a Clinton-Romney match-up, Clinton wins by 48 to 45. Obama beats Romney 51 to 39. Obama is over 50 in every match-up; Clinton below 50 in all of them.
Hewitt vs Hewitt
In 2004, he was hyping a beyond-trivial story about Kerry’s tan. Now he’s dismissing the flap over Romney’s MLK Clintonism as "silly." I don’t think either is that big a deal – but both illustrated a serious concern with each candidate: phoniness and say-anythingness. I guess no one mistakes Hewitt for anything but a partisan propgandist, but still …
Rudy’s Shag-Gate
Less there than once met the eye. Not nothing – but much less than advertized.
