Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
1. Early in the week, Senator John McCain told us he couldn’t let the Democratic “sense-of-the-Senate” resolution opposing escalation come up even for discussion much less a vote, because he thought that it represented a statement of no-confidence in the troops. Most people would consider such a vote one of no-confidence in the President, but John must have had something in mind. Wonder what he would mean by that? That by adopting such a resolution the Senate felt that the troops there were not doing their job? That the new 21,500-48,000 troops (depending upon who is doing the counting) couldn’t be counted on? That to have real confidence, the President’s service-age twin daughters should be sent? Just what does that mean, John?
2. The Rev. Ted Haggard, we are now told by a panel of fellow far-right wing Christian Fundamentalist ministers, is, after three weeks of confabbing with them and who knows who else, “completely heterosexual.” Is “completely heterosexual” something like “completely pregnant,” whereas “partially homosexual” would be something like “a little bit pregnant?” Further, does “completely heterosexual” mean that he is also “completely monogamous” or is it only a “little bit monogamous?” Finally, does “completely heterosexual” mean that he is going to completely get his job back, or get something else like it? Or only a “little bit” of a job, with them or somewhere else?
3. On Air America Radio the other day, Terry McAuliffe, DNC Chair for most of the W. Clinton presidency, was plumping for his new book What a Party. He was famous for his close attention to polls and focus groups to develop the President’s message (probably the reason why W. Clinton never counterattacked on anything, from the debate on the Clinton Health Plan to the Paula Jones Perjury Trap he was lured into). McAuliffe is now chair of the H. Clinton campaign to be the next President Clinton. He was telling us the fatal flaw of the Kerry campaign was its reliance on polling and focus groups to fine-tune his message, which by failing to attack Bush at every (or any) turn ended up fatally off-key. He then went on to say that H. Clinton’s campaign would be nothing like that. It would be run entirely on principle and rightness, regardless of the polls and focus groups. Yeah. Just as it has been run up to now, huh? No “fine-tuning,” eh (as the Canadians would say)? Terry: are you kidding me, or are you just trying to sell books?
Originally published on BuzzFlash on Thu, 02/08/2007 – 10:08am. http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/jonas/046
Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY), a weekly contributing author for The Political Junkies, and contributing editor for The Moving Planet Blog.
