Thursday, October 16, 2008

"Fair And Balanced"

In an effort to be "fair and Balanced", I decided to post a little about McCain, or rather the McCain campaign, from the same article by Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker which I referenced in my post below.

The people around McCain put me in mind of one of those old war movies where a salty, can-do major struts into the mess hall and points: “You—soldier! I like the cut of your jib. How about coming along on a special operation? Not for the faint of heart.” And then he knows how to cadge some light artillery, a couple of jeeps, and some rations from the quartermaster (he’ll do the paperwork later). In the McCain campaign, the women (and not just Sarah Palin) tend to be a little saucy and the men look uncomfortable in suits, and it would be difficult to produce an organization chart that would explain the relationship of McCain’s travelling buddies from the Senate, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman, to the staff and the short roster of outside advisers.

To the author, I'd say that the phrase, "cut of your jib" might be better suited to addressing a sailor, rather than a soldier, but, of course, I could be wrong. Who am I to say that an author who publishes in The New Yorker made a mistake?

We learn that Sarah Palin is not the only "saucy" woman in the McCain campaign, although the others are only "a little saucy". One might say that Palin is beyond saucy, but I would never say that. The men may look uncomfortable in suits, however, I'd be obliged to draw the line and object if the author described either Lindsey Graham or Joe Lieberman as "saucy".

Both Graham and Lieberman are far down on my list of favorites. They'd be farther down on my list than McCain, except that he is running for president. There's something about Graham that I find truly off-putting the minute he opens his mouth. I don't know what it is, but I can't listen to him.

That's about as "fair and balanced" as I can be.

7 comments:

  1. That put me in mind of a comment I just heard on . . . FoxNews, I think . . . that during the debate, McCain reminded one commentator of Captain Queeg!

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  2. Not many jibsails in today's navy, anyway. So I could believe army.

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  3. Mark, You heard the Captain Queeg comparison on Fox? That is a miracle.

    Paul (A.), thanks for the correction. It's hardly plausible that I could more right than a writer from the The New Yorker, is it?

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  4. Nicholas Lemann grew up in New Orleans and went to school at Country Day (where my brother taught him history).

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  5. Ormonde, I knew Lemann was from New Orleans, but thanks for the info about the family connection.

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  6. What is off-putting about Lindsey Graham is his kindler, gentler, effeminate fascism. He's never met a multi-national corporation he wouldn't bend over for.

    If you're a citizen, on the other hand, you can go to hell as far as he's concerned.

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  7. Working Tommy, welcome. We're all working people here, except me. I'm retired.

    Regarding Lindsey Graham, that's one way to put it. He puts my teeth on edge.

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