Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

But if Krugman's wearing a pink shirt, that discredits his argument, no?

Krugman wrote:

"Even on its own terms, such reporting often gets it wrong, because journalists aren't especially good at judging character. ("He is, above all, a moralist," wrote George Will about Jack Ryan, the Illinois Senate candidate who dropped out after embarrassing sex-club questions.)..."

This is a very bad example. Given the data avilable when Will wrote his piece, there was no reason to come to any other conclusion. Jack Ryan had deferred a high paying job when he first got out of school to go join the Peace Corps. Then, after advancing to become head of the Goldman-Sachs operation in Chicago, he left his investment banking job, which paid him several million dollars a year, to teach at an inner city high school.

By every available indicator he was a man of sterling character. Now, perhaps Mr. Krugman believes that having a kinky sex drive is enough to negate those things (that is a question on which people might agree or disagree), but its hardly an indictment of George Will's ability to judge character that he didn't take into account facts he did not know, facts which were unknown to anyone but Jack Ryan, his ex-wife, their lawyers, and a family court judge, when making his assesment.

Perhaps one might argue that this just illustrates that its impossible to judge character because you never know everything about a person. But if you believe that, you presumably should refrain from suggesting that Tom Delay or Ken lay are bad men, because hey, maybe they dress up in Batman suits and fight crime at night and nobody knows.

I agree -- this annoys me too. On TV the other day, Howard Fineman and Chris Mathews rambled on about how Kerry hasn;t been able to get his health care message across. Well, why not talk about it, praise it, criticize it on TV instead of these Meta discussions.

Brad did not quote the PPS to Krugman's column, which noted Pakistan's reported capture of a high-level al-Qaida operative hours before Kerry spoke. An article in the New Republic a while ago reported the US government has pressured Pakistan to produce al-Qaida operatives, including Osama bin Laden, before the election and if possible during the DNC.

How cynical is it for the Pakistanis to go ahead with this plan even after it was leaked?

I'll leave aside the question about whether Will made a good judgment call (I'm generally sympathetic to the point that decisions should be analyzed with the context in which they are made).

I want to respond to sd's mischaracterization of Ryan's poor character: the real lack of character with Ryan has nothing to do with his "having a kinky sex drive" but rather from his lack of respect for his wife's sensibilities.

Also, to sd's greater point, that Krugman's critique of Will was unfair: the whole argument accepted at face value still leaves the conclusion that journalists are bad at judging character (not from their lack of skill, but rather from the difficulty of the problem). And yet they choose primarily to judge character, which still seems worthy of criticism, and leaves Krugman's greater point intact, no?

How can one man outdo the entire rest of the press corp?

It's so amusing to find those on the left suddenly shocked!, shocked! to discover that the press has its own agenda.

Who's been telling you this for years?

But never fear. Kerry's true policies will be revealed by his astute economic advisors and dutifully reported to all by the world's bloggers. For example...

~~~
...at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, where Clinton’s former national economic adviser Laura Tyson, who is a senior Kerry campaign consultant and a short-lister for possible Treasury Secretary...

[Hey, that will make Professor K happy!]

... said (according to Matthew Yglesias’ notes):

"When people say, 'well, listen to what the Kerry campaign has said about trade in some of the primaries; we are concerned that Sen. Kerry will move the U.S. away from trade integration.'

"To which I say, well, think about the issue of national campaigns in the U.S ... Recognize that what might be said in one primary ... is not an indicator of the future ... I want to assure you that a Kerry-Edwards administration will continue in the great American tradition of leading the way on global economic integration."

It’s always refreshing to hear a senior campaign adviser tell you that her boss is a pandering bullshitter.

http://reason.com/conventions/
~~~

Of course, if he was a Repub Kerry wouldn't be doing a little necessary pandering in the cause of virtue, he'd be a "liar". But it does raise the question: if he should win, what will be the reaction of his Democratic base when he turns to them and says "Hey, remember all that I said to you during the primaries about trade? Ha, ha, fooled you!" ?

'Of course, if he was a Repub Kerry wouldn't be doing a little necessary pandering in the cause of virtue, he'd be a "liar". '

I don't know about other Repubs, but we certainly know that GWBush lies and panders all the time and rarely gets called out on either.

sd wrote, "Now, perhaps Mr. Krugman believes that having a kinky sex drive is enough to negate those things (that is a question on which people might agree or disagree),..."

But what if you hold Will to *his own professed standards* of morality? I find it difficult to believe that Will would find such behavior "moral".

"...but its hardly an indictment of George Will's ability to judge character that he didn't take into account facts he did not know, facts which were unknown to anyone but Jack Ryan, his ex-wife, their lawyers, and a family court judge, when making his assesment."

Will's a total zero when it comes to making predictions and so forth; his record is awful. He was a big holdout on the issue of whether changes in the Soviet Union were real.

REPORT FROM THE FRONT DAY TWO – the Vietnam Veterans against Kerry demonstration at the DNC.

Double WOW! Around 500 folks gathered at Bowdoin Square. These guys were really ready to change history. While most of them were fifty something white guys like me, there were a few men of color and a significant showing from the Vietnamese American community including beautiful women and children and, of course, my enthusiastic wife Cindy and daughter Barbara Jeannette.

Just before kickoff, the organizers from VietnamVeteransAgainstJohnKerry.com kindly allowed me to address the crowd about my experiences earlier in the day. Two forty something friends of mine had seen me on TV the night before and asked me what we had against John Kerry. Each of them thought all Vietnam veterans loved Kerry. I explained that:

“To the best of my understanding, at least TWO THIRDS OF ALL VIETNAM VETERANS HATE JOHN KERRY and consider him a traitor who came home early and betrayed us.” I went on:

“They thought John Kerry was my hero.” And the crowd got angry.

I then said “They think John Kerry is your hero.” And the crowd exploded.

Then “IS JOHN KERY YOUR HERO?” And the crowd went wild.

A couple guys came over and hugged me and patted me on the back. My daughter came over and hugged and kissed me and announced proudly to the world “He’s my Daddy.”

Little Barbara then told me sincerely “Daddy, this is the beginning of my political career!”...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/report_from_the_1.html

" The campaign isn't claiming that Mr. Kerry's policies favor the rich - they manifestly don't, while Mr. Bush's manifestly do."

Sheesh, try reading your own paper, Paul:

"Falling incomes, rather than tax cuts, appear to count for the greatest share of the decline in income taxes paid. That is because the higher one stood on the income ladder the greater the impact was likely to be from the stock market crunch. At the same time many of those whose incomes fell the most - those reporting $200,000 to $10 million in income - paid at the highest rates, which meant that the drain on revenues was even greater when their incomes shrank. More than 352,000 taxpayers, one of every eight who had worked their way above $200,000 of income in 2000, fell below that figure in 2002. At the very top the ranks thinned by more than half. The number of taxpayers reporting adjusted gross income of $10 million or more fell to 5,280 from 11,215. The combined income of this rich and thin slice of Americans plummeted 63 percent ..."

"There appears to be something like a Gresham's law of cultural evolution according to which the oversimplified ideas will always displace the sophisticated, and the vulgar and hateful will always displace the beautiful. And yet the beautiful persists." Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature, chapter 1.

A lively book on this enduring complaint (if you don't yet feel Roman enough for Juvenal) is "Trivializing America" by Norman Corwin (Lyle Stuart, 1983), written just as Reaganism ascended the leveling-apparatus.

"...we certainly know that GWBush lies and panders all the time and rarely gets called out on either."

That's even more amusing.

A quick google of "Bush liar" found 168 different posts on this blog alone, plus 246,000 more hits on the web, starting with a "Bush Liar" T-Shirt -- your choice, either 100% cotton or 45% hemp -- at http://shop.store.yahoo.com/hemp-organic/bushliar.htm

"rarely gets called out on either" ;-)

Krugman's column has highlighted a significant and growing problem with the media - a tendency to try to entertain rather than inform. The distinction between the entertainment and news divisions of the cable and network organizations has blurred considerably in the past 15 and it continues to grow weaker. The trivial has crowded out the important in news broadcasts these days.

The reasons for this development are debatable of course. The cable and network operators would probably say that today's viewers have such short attention spans they cannot focus long enough to absorb detailed information. That may be so but also it is likely to be true that they've been conditioned that way.

I might also point out that the print media are not really much better either, including such esteemed publications as the Washington Post and Krugman's own newspaper, the New York Times. One only needs to read Bob Somerby's Daily Howler on a regular basis to understand how even the print media are lowering the level of political discourse in this country.

In any case, whether today's consumers of news are shallowly informed through choice or through conditioning, it spells trouble for this nation long-term. A nation of information illiterates cannot be expected to make wise decisions regarding their interests or discern when their elected representatives are making wise choices on their behalf.

Adrian's quote of somebody:

“To the best of my understanding, at least TWO THIRDS OF ALL VIETNAM VETERANS HATE JOHN KERRY and consider him a traitor who came home early and betrayed us.”

Gee, I thought that it was 90%. What gives?

'A quick google of "Bush liar" found 168 different posts on this blog alone, plus 246,000 more hits on the web, starting with a "Bush Liar" T-Shirt -- your choice, either 100% cotton or 45% hemp -- at http://shop.store.yahoo.com/hemp-organic/bushliar.htm

"rarely gets called out on either" ;-)'

We're talking about the main media. Nice try changing the subject though to blogs, or web sites including this one, with no real "old media" backing (TV, major newspapers).

Incidentally, the WSJ's editorial page (certainly a major paper) tried to link Clinton to drug smuggling in Arkanass. They launched such a vicious barrage on Dexter Howell that it drove him to suicide, then had the nerve to spin conspiracy theories about it. They had so many anti-Clinton Whitewater editorials that they published books out of it.

Adrian has only a marginal grasp on reality, at best.

I was watching CNN (for the fun of it) during the Kerry speech last night and when the speech ended all they could talk about was the fact that the balloons weren't coming down and how the "director" of the event had used an expletive in asking for the balloons to fall.

You couldn't have written a parody of CNN any better: The presidential contender had just finished his speech and all they could talk about were the bloody balloons.

Vietnam Vets against John Kerry is an organization founded and run by Ted Sampley. Sampley previously made a career out of stalking John McCain. Here's what McCain says about him

"I strongly caution reporters who may be contacted by or are interested in Mr. Ted Sampley and the various organizations he claims to represent, and his opinions on the subject of Senator Kerry, or any subject for that matter, to investigate thoroughly Mr. Sampley's background and history of spreading outrageous slander and other disreputable behavior before inadvertently lending him or his allegations any credibility.

"I am well familiar with Mr. Sampley, and I know him to be one of the most despicable people I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I consider him a fraud who preys on the hopes of family members of missing servicemen for his own profit. He is dishonorable, an enemy of the truth, and despite his claims, he does not speak for or represent the views of all but a few veterans. The many veterans I know would think it a disgrace to be considered a comrade or supporter of Ted Sampley."

There are and have always been Veterans who dislike Kerry, either for his political views, for his anti-war views in 1971, and other reasons. His statement about the Winter Soldier proceedings too excites anger. But I wuld heed McCain's comments above about this organization

I thought Paul's commentary was right on. The question he poses and investigates is an obvious one. How do people learn about candidates' policy positions? This is an empirical matter, readily detectable by the standard methods of polling. The next step is to examine the content in the media they take their information from. This kind of research isn't rocket science. It's obvious that people are't born with opinions on dynamic budgeting, how best to manage the health care system, and foreign affairs. They learn from outside sources. The surprising thing is that nobody in schools of journalism, media, not to mention political science where the issue is central, haven't bothered to do it. Why does it take an economist?

"Why does it take an economist?"

Because the concept of "research" seems to no longer be understood in any of those fields.

Let's face it, the U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War not our finest hour. Many aspects of that involvement are not reflective of the best our country has to offer.

But, Senator Kerry volunteered for duty in Vietnam, and subsequently did his duty. After returning, he again did his duty as a citizen.

Like all of us, Senator Kerry does not meet everyones expectations. But, his military service is in the best tradition of America's citizen soliders.

Let's face it, the U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War not our finest hour. Many aspects of that involvement are not reflective of the best our country has to offer.

But, Senator Kerry volunteered for duty in Vietnam, and subsequently did his duty. After returning, he again did his duty as a citizen.

Like all of us, Senator Kerry does not meet everyones expectations. But, his military service is in the best tradition of America's citizen soliders.

Let's face it, the U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War not our finest hour. Many aspects of that involvement are not reflective of the best our country has to offer.

But, Senator Kerry volunteered for duty in Vietnam, and subsequently did his duty. After returning, he again did his duty as a citizen.

Like all of us, Senator Kerry does not meet everyones expectations. But, his military service is in the best tradition of America's citizen soliders.

Campaigns managed right from the P&G marketing and branding handbook. So why do we even expect policy details to be part of a modern political campaign? Do GE's marketing campaigns explain the intricacies of jet engines? My god, can you imagine that? Yawn. Same thing would result if campaigns became long on policy details.

Sorry for the duplicate post.

Thanks for the explanation of Krugman's intellectual decline. I'd been wondering. Head banging -- who'd have thought?

"Why does it take an economist?"

Because economists aspire to be scientists, with physics as their primary model. In physics, there is no role for post-modernism and the idea that there is no objective scientific truth. Obviously in physics, nobody claims that heliocentrism, for example, is an ideological matter (anymore at least) or just / only part of a narative. It just, to the best of our knowledge, is. Thanks to this aspiration, economists tend to offer a more objective assesment of policy, and as PK has demonstrated, can also fill the void of objective analysis of purely political or even social phenomena. I don't think economists enjoy subsituting them to sociologists or political scientists but there are so few of these who are providing their perspective on the social and political phenomena of interest to them, that they increasingly have to improvise themself in these professions.

Nice defense of economists Jean-Philippe, but it is not economists in general rather Paul Krugman who writes with such precision and insight and truth.

Patrick, nice nonsequiter.

Adrian, 2.7M americans served in vietnam, most of whom are still alive. I'd love to know how your alleged source has any clue what they all think one way or the other.

Jim, it's worth noting that while Kerry has indeed made some pandering remarks about trade, his actual proposals have been very forthright about changes in tax code and suchlike to keep jobs here, not anti-trade policies like tariffs that bush pursues. As for Laura Tyson, i'd say it's rather refreshing to see a policy adviser say something about her boss that differs from the "official" version without being immediately trashed. Compare to what happened when Paul O'Neill and John Diullio said something about their boss that differed from the "official" version.

In general, how is it possible to argue with Krugman's essential point: the trivilization of our news coverage does the body politic no good, and it's been going on for quite some time. This is a different argument that the moronic "liberal bias" chant, and one with a real empirical foundation....

Good point, Anne. I believe that besides being a genius in more than one way, which unfortunately all economists cannot be, what destinguishes PK is his willingness to expose himself in this way as well as spend the amount time necessary to write such risky pieces at the cost of output in forms that the profession values more. I think it is an unfortunate bias of our professions that contributions to anything else than refereered publications gets basically no reward whatsoever. I think that this weighting is excessive and ultimately hurts the economics profession and explains partially why the greater public knows so little about what we do and what we know. I am under the impression that physics and the life sciences do a much better job in this respect that may help explain why, for example, they get so much more funding than we do.

Adrian has only a marginal grasp on reality, at best.

Posted by Chuck Nolan

THAT'S AN INTERESTING REMARK FROM A PERSON WHO CAN'T TELL A HAMBURGER FROM A PICTURE OF A HAMBURGER.

IT WOULD BE FUN TO HAVE A CHALLENGE TO SEE WHICH OF US ACTUALLY DOES HAVE THE BETTER KNOWLEDGE AND GRASP OF REALITY.

PERHAPS ONE OF YOU IVORY TOWER GENIUSES COULD MAKE UP A CHECK LIST SO WE COULD ANSWER THIS PROFOUND QUESTION.

ADRIAN

Come on Jim, you can do better than that. You mean you just realized that what presidential candidates say during a primary is not always what they do once in power? How is what Kerry did any different than what every single candidate before him did? No difference at all.

Vietnam Vets against John Kerry is an organization founded and run by Ted Sampley. Sampley previously made a career out of stalking John McCain. Here's what McCain says about him...

Posted by Jon

IT'S AMUSING TO SEE HOW LEFTIES SO READILY DISCARD PEOPLE SMARTER AND BETTER THAN THEM. SEE BELOW:

ADRIAM

Ted Sampley is publisher/writer of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch and has been since 1986. Over those years, millions of copies of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch and other POW/MIA related materials have been given away free to the public, most of which have been critical of the U.S. government's handling of the POW/MIA issue.

Because the U.S. Veteran Dispatch does not sell advertising, the free newspaper and other POW/MIA related materials are paid for with money earned from the sale of military and veteran related pins, patches, t-shirts, POW/MIA bracelets, etc.

Sampley joined the Army in 1963 when he was seventeen years old. He went through Basic Training, Advanced Infantry Training and Airborne School.

In June 1964, he was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade on the island of Okinawa.

On May 5,1965, Sampley was deployed to Vietnam with the 173rd, where he served in a combat unit until April 1966. He participated in combat operations in the Iron Triangle, War Zone D, Ben Cat, the Ho Bo Woods and other areas of South Vietnam.

In 1969, after being trained as a Green Beret, Sampley was reassigned to 5th Special Forces Group, Vietnam.

In Vietnam, Staff Sergeant Sampley served in the B-36 Mike Force, as a company commander of a CIDG company, operating mostly along the Cambodian border.

During that year of combat service, Sampley was awarded four Bronze Stars, the Army Commendation Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

In 1970, Sampley was reassigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg where he continued his military training.

Sampley's training in the Army included Operations and Intelligence, methods of prisoner of war interrogation, escape and evasion training, guerrilla warfare training, understanding, the Viet Cong infrastructure, High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachuting and he had a working knowledge of two languages, Arabic and Japanese.

In Special Forces, (1968) Sampley was one of a handful of American soldiers chosen to attend the British Jungle Warfare School in Malaysia.. Sampley was trained for eight weeks by British, Australian and New Zealand instructors in the "art of jungle warfare," including methods of visually tracking humans in the jungle.

While in Malaysia Sampley was required to wear British uniform because the British did not want to publicize that they were training U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam.

From 1971 to 1973,. Sampley worked during his off-duty time as a volunteer for Americans Who Care, a POW/MIA group in Fayetteville, N.C., that was lobbing for the safe return of all U.S. POWs held by the communists in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

After 10 years of service, Sampley left the Army with a Honorable Discharge in 1973.

In 1983, after he became aware that Hanoi had not released all living American POWs in 1973, Sampley became re-involved as a POW/MIA activist demanding for the U.S. government to put more pressure on Hanoi to either release the men or explain what happened to them.

He has led many demonstrations in Washington, D.C demanding that both the U.S. and Vietnamese governments account for the U.S. servicemen known to have been alive in captivity but never released.

Sampley was honored for "Exemplary Service To Veterans" by the Washington, D.C. based National Vietnam Veterans Coalition on May 6, 1985, in New York at the Coalition's Leadership Breakfast.

On April 17, 1988, the mayor of Kinston, North Carolina, gave special recognition to Sampley for an "excellent job and continued interest in and service to the handicapped."

In October of 1988, Sampley led a group of activists into communist Laos, where they handed out leaflets offering a reward for missing U.S. servicemen. Two of the group were captured by the communists and held for 41 days. Sampley was detained by Thai authorities for crossing back into Thailand from Laos.

Sampley is publisher/editor/writer of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch. He was appointed chairman of the non-profit Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project in 1988. That group created one of the largest collections of privately held POW/MIA files. The chairmanship of the Last Firebase is a non-paid position.

From 1986 to 2003, the Last Firebase kept a non-stop, manned 24-hour vigil for POW's and MIAs in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Sampley testified in 1991 before the Senate Select Committee of POW/MIA Affairs.

The Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce gave Sampley special recognition in December, 1991 for his help in the restoration of Kinston's historic downtown.

North Carolina's Raleigh News and Observer honored Sampley on September 28, 1992 as their "Tar Heel of the Week and member of a very special group of North Carolinians who have contributed their time, skills and talents toward making North Carolina a truly great state and a wonderful place to live."

After conducting many hours of research, Sampley found compelling evidence proving that the remains buried in the tomb of the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery belonged to Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie. It was evidence that Sampley said the Pentagon had deliberately overlooked.

Sampley first made the Unknown Soldier's identity public in the July 1994 issue of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

Five years later (1999), the U.S. government under pressure from CBS television finally used a DNA sample and confirmed that the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier was indeed Lt. Blassie.

A military honor guard returned Lt. Blassie's remains to his family in St. Louis, Missouri where he was buried again with full military honors in a national cemetery.

In February 1996, Sampley was nominated for the Kinston Free Press "Citizen of the Year" award. The Free Press cited Sampley for the "good work" he was doing in the community.

Sampley was named Veteran of the Year by VietNow, a national veteran's organization, and Citizen of the Year by the Wheat Swamp Ruitan Club of Lenoir County. He is a founding member of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families and is one of their annual guest speakers.

Sampley is currently heading up two community service programs in Kinston: The building of a 158 foot replica of Kinston's Civil War ironclad CSS Neuse and the National Walk of Honor for Veterans. He is president of Sampley Enterprises, a for profit corporation in North Carolina and co-owns Kinston's Broken Eagle Eatery .

Sampley can be reached at: 252-527-0442
Kinston, North Carolina
usveterandispatch@earthlink.net

'IT'S AMUSING TO SEE HOW LEFTIES SO READILY DISCARD PEOPLE SMARTER AND BETTER THAN THEM'

Thats why I included a statement from John McCain, well known LEFTIE on Sampley. Its easy to see how RIGHTIES discard evidence that they disagree with. Sampley's obviously a brave man, but a kook nonetheless.

Speaking of which -- are you the same guy who used to be on the Motley Fool 4 years back claiming that Celera was going to be the biggest stock in the Universe if evil government didn't hold it back ?

And since campaign coverage as celebrity profiling has no rules

Check out Peggy Noonan's WSJ op-ed.

Hillary Clinton was in comparison cold, robotic and too heavily botoxed. At a certain point Botox can become a problem for those in public life. Mrs. Clinton now has to pop her eyes out to show excitement. Worry lines are honorable, and in Mr. Clinton's wife they are understandable. She should keep them. She has obviously been practicing public speaking--her voice was lower, more modulated and less screechy than usual. Her speech was full of assertion--"I know a thing or two about health care"--but lacking in wit or grace. As always she seemed full of certitude and lacking in sincerity.

More (I'm afraid).

So will, one senses, Ben Affleck. "You have to enervate the base," he told Chris Matthews, who introduced him on "Hardball" as "a great writer." (He must have been thinking of Jayson Blair.) What Mr. Affleck has going for him in terms of politics, besides moviestardom, is, the above notwithstanding, a quick intelligence. Going against him will be this: When he's watching himself on the monitor and doesn't know he's on camera his bright boyish eyes become clever, sensual and vain. He has Clinton eyes.

One really cool thing about modern life is porn on DVD. I had to keep hitting the rewind button on the old VHS cassette. It's a little like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. On no wait, this should be on the PRODUCTIVITY thread...

Patrick wrote:

"Sheesh, try reading your own paper, Paul:"

For his next trick, Patrick will show that running over someone at 70 mph cannot injure them, as we are all orbiting the sun at 64,000 mph.

Noonan....
I'm surprised that Noonan isn't writing her softcore soldier column anymore (hoo ha). What's up? She decided to change her fetish to possibly botoxed Senators and movie stars with "sensual" eyes. Sounds like someone has a little crush on Affleck.

Lance Knobel ( http://www.davosnewbies.com ) quotes Jay Rosen drawing a distinction between 'technique' and 'politics' ( http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/07/23/wknd_bos.html ) here:

(start quote)
"Washington Week...was broadcast from the Institute of Politics at Harvard....[Press Bigwigs] taking turns at answering the question: what does Kerry have to do at this convention to come out with a win?
...[answers involved] naming some areas where polls showed soft support, and then turning that into something Kerry "has to do" at the convention. "He's has to show that..." "He's got to appeal to..."
...I was embarrassed for Harvard that it would host such a discussion, bring students to it, and call it "talking politics." It isn't politics. It is just technique."
(end quote)

so, to ask a fairly stupid question, what _is_ politics? or rather, is there another, more specific, as-yet-unpolluted term that encompasses discussions (and implementations) of how to structure a country's government to achive optimal ends? ...since if we don't have a concise way to describe what we want from the press, we aren't likely to get it.

Some of us had questions about Jack Ryan's character when he hired a paid stalker to harass Barack Obama with a videocamera everywhere he went in public.

I'm with s9 on this one. I don't much care about politician's sex lives either way. But having a staffer follow Obama everywhere, including into the bathroom, with a camera?

That said a lot more about the character of Jack Ryan than anything he might have asked his wife to do in a sex club.