Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Supporting ethanol: a profile in courage? Call the Police!

I am reasonably competent at manipulating language and other symbols, and in recognizing the techniques of rhetoricians and homilists.*
Sometimes though, politicians baffle me.

From Foreign Policy's Passport blog:

Let me get this straight. Barack Obama's team is now claiming that supporting ethanol is evidence of political courage? So it seems. Responding to a Clinton jibe on missing controversial votes in the Senate, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the following.

The truth is, Barack Obama doesn't need lectures in political courage from someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq, gave him the benefit of the doubt on Iran, supported NAFTA and opposed ethanol until she decided to run for president."

It takes a brave soul to pander to Iowa farmers from day one.

*Sting nailed it in "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da"

Poets, Priests and Politicians
Have words to thank for their position
Words that scream for your submission
And no-one's jamming their transmission
'Cos when their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you

-The Police

Here's the vid.