Re: NYT Op-Ed by Paul Krugman

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:44:38 -0800, Bill Turlock <"Bill Turlock
"@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Jerry Bauer wrote:
>> 
>> On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:31:38 -0800, Opus the Penguin wrote
>> (in article <Xns9A42560D638DEopusthepenguinnettax@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
>> 
>> > Well, it describes Krugman's view of that thing. He thinks the animus
>> > against Hillary is irrational and that we all ought to be able to
>> > sup****t her if she's the candidate. Many people think he doesn't get
>> > it.
>> 
>> Of course the animus is irrational.  Within American "Beauty Pageant"
>> politics, "irrational" is all there is.  Individuals only get the
>> barest minimum of information about any candidate.  We form our
>> opinions out of gossamer, if that.
>> 
>> Hilary, if she becomes president, will have to deal with much the
>> same irrational animus that Bill Clinton had to deal with.  While I
>> wish that he could have kept his libido in check, I think that he was
>> a good president.  And I think he could have done a better job as
>> president if he had not had to deal with that irrational animus.
>> 
>> Any of the leading candidates will do an adequate job.  On the
>> Democratic side, Clinton and Obama are both intelligent and
>> competent, and the relative minor differences between their platforms
>> will be subsumed by the real issues either will face, if elected.
>> While I disagree with his positions (what I believe I know of them),
>> I think that McCain is likewise intelligent and competent.  (It is a
>> cheap shot, what you're thinking, that the bar is currently set too
>> low.)
>> 
>> This is not to say that it does not matter, but it matters much less
>> than the noise and clamor would suggest.  And, to me, the ignorance
>> of the American constituency is so vast that anything that really
>> does matter is drowned in a sea of irrelevancies.  It appears to me
>> that many people vote not with reason, but in a fantasy that this
>> candidate or that will make things better.  Others hold their noses
>> and make the same choice, guided by repulsion rather than attraction.
>> 
>> The rabid rancor that often accompanies disagreement within political
>> discussions is so obviously based upon the frustration of limited
>> availability of information that it is a wonder to me that others
>> don't see it.
>> 
>> I try to learn as much as I can about my choices, before I choose.
>> However, I tend to reject information from sources that advocate more
>> strongly than either the evidence or the decision warrant.  Those
>> people have an agenda; they want something from me, and they don't
>> care whether I benefit from their goals or not.
>> 
>
>> Jerry Randal Bauer
>
>Eloquently put. As usual.

You'd be my hero too, Bill, but you're just a little bit too odd.
Sorry.

-- 
M C Hamster  "Big Wheel Keep on Turning" -- Creedence Clearwater Revival