Is This Any Way to Run (or Judge) A Horserace?

Two thoughts about politics this morning.
The Bush-Cheney apparatus carefully hand-picks its audiences for campaign appearances, to the degree of weeding out anyone who won’t sign a statement affirming their intention to vote for the Republicans in November. I have to wonder if this is an effective strategy. Of course it prevents the candidates from being publicly embarrassed by tough questions or hostile voters, but by definition the campaign isn’t reaching many undecided voters, much less Democrats who might be persuaded to defect. Do they believe they can win with just the party faithful? On its face the policy seems self-defeating, but the polls suggest otherwise.
One reason the news media uses to justify its close attention to the horserace aspects of the election (often at the expense of substantive policy analysis) is that the effectiveness of a campaign can give voters a sense of how effective the candidate will be as president. It seems logical enough, but again, the facts suggest otherwise. Bush-Cheney ran a more effective campaign than Gore-Lieberman, but even Republican lawmakers are now questioning the Bush administration’s competence on the war in Iraq, the war on terror, and the economy. It’s baffling to me that voters can look at Bush’s record over the last four years and want to return him to office, but it’s even more difficult to understand how the would-be professionals in the media can still think that competence on the campaign trail will translate into competence in the Oval Office.

Not Just Another Liberal Handwringer

Neal Pollack’s ATTACK! is a must-read:

The second night of the Republican National Convention, I turned on Fox News. I enjoy watching Fox about as much as I enjoy eating my own turds for brunch. But if you want to understand why this country is rotting from within, you need to stare into the oozing mouth of the monster.

Ich bin ein Klingon*

The BBC headline “German radio starts Klingon service” caught my eye this morning:

The German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is celebrating 10 years of its online service by adding a new language to the 30 it already publishes – Klingon.

I have to admit that my first reaction was: Uh-oh. How long before we start hearing about the Romulan Corridor, and the mistreated Klingon minority on Beta Eridani? How do you say Ein Folk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer! in Klingon? (Check with the Klingon Language Institute if it really matters to you.)
But as it so rarely happens, the better angles of my nature asserted themselves. The more I thought about it, the more I believe this is A Good Thing ( feel free to jump in here). A society that can “waste” technical resources and time on an intellectual conceit like the Klingon language service is a prosperous society. It speaks to a certain delight in intellectual matters for their own sake, rather than for the sake of the bottom line. Deutsche Welle’s Klingon language service is an indication of a healthy intellectual ecology in Germany and Europe, in naked contrast to the United States, where the word “intellectual” is often a slur.
To extend the ecological metaphor, intellectually speaking, our country is an environmental disaster area. The keystone species, physicists and engineers, are on the decline. PBS, a bellwether for the nation’s intellectual health, has dumbed down its lineup with the execrable History Detectives and various historical reality shows, such as Frontier House. The current president of the United States is the poster child for anti-intellectualism: his administration has suppressed or distorted the scientific analyses of federal agencies to bring these results in line with administration policy.
There will be the predictable blats of derision from media pundits over the Klingon Language Service. News anchors, some of whom should know better, will make the same tired, arch comments about Star Trek fans. Meanwhile, most Americans know more about Paris the parasitic socialite than Paris the City of Light, and care more about NASCAR than NASA. It’s enough to make me wish I, too, was a Berliner.