Thursday, August 26, 2004
THE RACE IS NOT ALWAYS TO THE SWIFT, OR EVEN TO THE WINNER
Although it's probably a sign of my advancing age that I think of George Will at all, I must admit that I've spent valuable time over the years trying to determine, to my own satisfaction, whether he was more pissant than nimrod, or vice versa.
Anyway, he's still out there. Anyone foolish enough to slog their way through alternate editions of Newsweek gets their just reward, The Last Word. (8/30/2004, p60)
This week, Will has his pea brain all excised because Colorado is considering changing their electoral vote distribution to a proportional, rather the current winner-take-all, distribution.
Will points out that if this Colorado change had been in effect in 2000, Al Gore would have been elected president.
You can see why he's upset.
The column is devoted to a combination history lesson and polemic (that's a new approach for Will, eh) explaining why the current system is wonderful and should not be tinkered with.
The twists and turns Will takes to justify this nonsense pile up like an overcooked bowl of cheap pasta. Clumpy and knotted, tasteless and indigestible. There's no pleasure in unraveling the mess.
In the last paragraph Will convolutes a scenario where Colorado's change would lead to John Kerry losing the election. He terms this poetic justice.
Yes, I can see that. In every election the Democratic candidate can get the most votes and the Republican would win the election. In Will's world that would be perfect, poetic.
Now I remember what he is. It wasn't a pissant or a nimrod. I'd say exactly what, but this is, afterall, a family blog.
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Although it's probably a sign of my advancing age that I think of George Will at all, I must admit that I've spent valuable time over the years trying to determine, to my own satisfaction, whether he was more pissant than nimrod, or vice versa.
Anyway, he's still out there. Anyone foolish enough to slog their way through alternate editions of Newsweek gets their just reward, The Last Word. (8/30/2004, p60)
This week, Will has his pea brain all excised because Colorado is considering changing their electoral vote distribution to a proportional, rather the current winner-take-all, distribution.
Will points out that if this Colorado change had been in effect in 2000, Al Gore would have been elected president.
You can see why he's upset.
The column is devoted to a combination history lesson and polemic (that's a new approach for Will, eh) explaining why the current system is wonderful and should not be tinkered with.
The twists and turns Will takes to justify this nonsense pile up like an overcooked bowl of cheap pasta. Clumpy and knotted, tasteless and indigestible. There's no pleasure in unraveling the mess.
In the last paragraph Will convolutes a scenario where Colorado's change would lead to John Kerry losing the election. He terms this poetic justice.
Yes, I can see that. In every election the Democratic candidate can get the most votes and the Republican would win the election. In Will's world that would be perfect, poetic.
Now I remember what he is. It wasn't a pissant or a nimrod. I'd say exactly what, but this is, afterall, a family blog.
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