If I were a fish I could breathe under water. (Obama edition)
From Jeff Zeleny’s NY Times piece on Obama’s challenges:
…had he not won in Iowa’s largest three counties, in addition to a strong showing along the Mississippi River in the east, the outcome would almost certainly have been different…
…And if I were a trout, I’d ignore this bait.
B depends on A. If A changes, B changes. Surprise? Not so much.I’ll admit, Zeleny’s sins of sloppy prose don’t really raise questions of science in the public square. This is just a simple case of a slipshod thinking, a sign of copy produced against too near a deadline.
I don’t want to jump too hard on this one piece for just that reason; I’ve written stuff too fast I’ve cringed to see in print myself. But…… this is how received wisdom accumulates.
Zeleny does go on to say how impressive Obama’s Iowa results actually were. But the hint of some hidden flaw in his candidacy, the unseen crack that will make the whole golden bowl shatter if struck just so, is there — and it is a starting point that, depending on how the media winds blow, could be nurtured into a full blown media narrative.
Watch that space, as they say.
Image: Jakob Gillig: “Freshwater Fish,” 1684. Source: Wikipedia Commons.
