The Retractable Brain

[elfs]

Every once in a while, it's necessary to spank yourself for the mistakes you've made.

Let's go through them.

It looks as if the Mitt Romney video is actually several months old, back when they were both slugging it out for the nomination. Mitt has been mum on the subject of the McCain candidacy ever since the Republican National Convention.

While there have been a number of articles about "push-polling," it looks more like this is a test case for push-polling. The poll takes too long; they're earnestly collecting data, rather than just trying to misinform voters. But it looks like they're collecting data on which negative message about Obama is most effective with certain kinds of voters.

And we should be fair to Sarah Palin. We do not have any reason to believe that she has ever read Westbrook Pagler, the anti-Jewish writer who once wished both Roosevelt and Kennedy dead. Indeed, we should have every reason to suspect any claim that she's ever read any book whatsoever. That line was written by a McCain scriptwriter, who probably borrowed it from Pat Buchanan who, for all his faults, does have the intellectual curiosity to have read Westbrook Pagler.