"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Vote for Photo Ops

More from the Fox News exit poll:
























We simply do not know the merits or demerits of the federal government's response to Hurricane Sandy at this date.   The disaster relief story is still playing out, and there is a chance that Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Christie, and President Obama will all, in the fullness of time, be seen as having done a poor job.   All that Obama had done during the last week of the campaign was to participate in what amount to photo ops.   Yet many Americans apparently considered that an important factor in voting for Obama.  

Again, we are becoming a silly people, more interested in celebrity than in reality.

***

An aside on the notion of celebrity:   again, the Obama campaign appears in retrospect to have been both smart and cynical in concluding that the mass of the voters they want to reach don't care about facts or news or policy, but do care about a politician appearing on The Daily Show, or The View, or Letterman.  

Again, more's the pity.

No comments:

Post a Comment