Leon H. Wolf unloads on Meghan McCain's Dirty, Sexy Politics.
Is this the most negative book review ever? Must be close.
(via…Tom Smith)
Incidentally, I heard Ms. McCain play “not my job” on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me — and she sounded, well, dumb. It just underlined how much the guys from ZZ Top, a week or two earlier, seemed grounded and cool.
Although, to be fair, the reviewer’s grasp of English is only marginally better. Love this:
“To be more accurate, it appears to be the first draft of an essay written for a high school English class; the one turned in before the teacher makes all the pretty red marks in the margin that helpfully keep students from turning in final papers riddled with comma abuse, sentence fragments, and incorrect punctuation.”
Physician, heal thyself!
The reviewer blogs at redstate. That explains his bias. He calls Iowa a swing state. I grew up in Iowa, and I was there two months ago to visit family and friends. It is not a swing state, not in the least. It is conservative, and always has been. Throw wolf’s review in the trash, where it belongs.
Iowa voted R in the 1972-84 Presidential elections. Then it voted D in 1988-2000. Then R in 2004. Then D in 2008. But “it is not a swing state, not in the least.” Okaaaaay.
Michael, with all due respect, I lived in Iowa and in Omaha half my life (1952 to 1980). If you review the numbers from those elections, you will see that the years that Iowa voted D were very close in numbers. Chuck Grassley easily gets re-elected in all those years, and he is as conservative as they come. When you look at the voting numbers, you have to look at the turnout as well as the percentage. When the republicans turn out in Iowa, they can always beat the democrats, even if all of the democrats vote.
OK, I’m lost. If actually swinging in elections doesn’t qualify you to be a swing state (even if that’s because some voters stay home sometimes), what does?
A swing state is a state that could go either way AND has enough electoral power to affect the entire election. Florida is a good example, with lots of electoral votes and a tendancy to dance around the line from election to election. generally, no party holds a lock on the elections most of the time, so candidates tend to go big there and spend lots of money on ads, etc. Hence they take on extra importance.
Iowa has only 7 electoral votes, so it will only swing anything if it’s a very close election. If Florida goes one way, it takes 4 Iowas to counter it.
Vic’s definition of swing state is as good as any that I’ve seen. Thank you.
It’s a fine clear, bright-line, definition, but it’s the first time I ever heard it described that way. After all, a swing voter isn’t a voter who swings the election, it’s one who doesn’t vote the same way every time, i.e. one that is in play, is persuadable. I have always understood a swing state to be similar: one that swings from side to side, that changes sides, not a pivotal state — one on which the outcome of the race turns.