A good essay and some porcine piecemeals

The eponymous Chelsea gallery owner Edward Winkelman has a calm and measured essay on why he will vote in the November 08 elections for the Obama/Biden ticket rather than for the Bridge to Nowhere duo. One of the better essays I have seen in some time.

It would be nice if we could honestly discuss whether a J.D. vs. a bachelors in journalism reflected a stronger ability to learn, but alas, in a campaign where race and gender are finally, finally much less relevant, the pseudo-folksy anti-intellectual pose adopted by both cynical political operatives and lazy-ass underachievers who relish in the license that lends them to feel superior without having to work for it still...remarkably...inconceivably...remains a hot-potato issue in this country. Let me say, for the record, that being incurious is not a virtue. It only helps the people eager to take advantage of you convince you that it is.

Today, the NYT reported the following statement that Obama made last night:

“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama told his supporters here. “That’s just calling the same thing something different.”
With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

Yes, and now we are being asked to believe that Obama referred to Ms. Sarah Palin in porcine ways. Yes, and I suspect this will be the focus of the media spotlight for the next couple of days. Half the nation will debate without access to the facts, context or relevance what Obama said without thinking that he just resorted to an old metaphor to highlight McPalin's 'change' plank. People will not dig deeper to understand the reference or the meaning in today's 'live for this moment' environment. Edward Winkelman's last sentence above rings more clearly now... "being incurious is not a virtue. It only helps the people eager to take advantage of you convince you that it is."