ennoia (en-NOY-a), the figure of faint praise. From the Greek, meaning “hidden intention.”
Oh, that saucy Sarah Palin! With a smile like a dog’s before it bites you, she delivers her lines with an energy we haven’t seen politicians exhibit in some time. We’re happy to see Governor Palin’s comfort with one of the finer figures. The ennoia damns the victim through faint praise, allowing you to seem agreeable even when you’re on the attack. But Palin’s use of an it to imply the age of her hoary counterpart strikes us as a tad, well, schoolyardish.
THE Sydney Morning Herald illustrates its coverage of John McCain’s claim that his Vice Presidential running mate Sarah Palin’s family had taken a $US20,000 dollar hit in falling stock prices made her an “ordinary Joe” in fact a “six pack” Babe…
I’m sure that we are all shocked and surprised by the news that John McCain has decided that, after all, the financial crisis gripping the USA should take second place to his Presidential campaign, and that he should instead devote his time to the televised debate with Obama.
Ok, the more cynical people on the planet might feel that it was only too predictable that once McCain had failed to pressure the Democrats into forcing the bailout through Congress, thus allowing him to claim that the Republicans would never have been nice to those nasty bankers, he had nothing more to gain from screwing up the process still further.
Indeed, a decent human being might have been embarrassed at the sight of a Republican Secretary to the Treasury going down on his knees to beg Ms Pelosi to use the Democrat majority to save the country from another Great Depression; McCain clearly didn’t care.
A week ago Hank Paulson was demanding powers beyond Stalin’s wildest dreams; yesterday he was Otis Redding telling his country that he loved it too much to stop now.
And the share and bond holders of WaMu just got caught in the crossfire of McCain and Palin’s desire for power…
Though the headline omits to mention that the assets were what Hank ‘Call me Uncle Joe’ Paulson likes to describe as ‘Troubled Assets’.
And everybody is writing about it, which is fair enough since this is the biggest bank failure in US history; Washington Mutual had $307 billion in assets, so it’s probably the biggest bank failure in the history of the Solar system.
But nobody, so far, has asked whether John McCain’s plan to assist his own Troubled Asset, his Presidential campaign, by disrupting the bipartisan agreement that was reported to have been reached on the ‘Buddy Can You Spare a Trillion’ plan was the dagger in the back of WaMu’s share and bond holders.
As the reports started coming out of the talks ‘imploding’ whatever last hopes WaMu had of surviving disappeared, and it went under without the new CEO even knowing about it; don’t worry, he gets to keep the signing on fee.
It looks like McCain has been running an ‘off the record plan’, the political equivalent of Off Balance Sheet financing, and he appears to be perfectly willing to let anything or anyone go down if it will put him in the White House.
Which is also fair enough; that’s what politicians do. And maybe the rest of the media will notice it sometime soon…
“HI, I’m John McCain, and I look after the Palins … which ain’t easy as when they met it was MURDER!
Mr. Palin, Todd, is a self-made man who excels at everything, skiing, driving, deep sea diving, polar bear riding, toboggan racing … gee, I could go on and on…but let me say that he has the extremely good sense … and great taste to choose as his wife, the gorgeous Mrs. P, Sarah, a lady who can really take care of herself.
Well, actually, that’s just as well, because their hobby seems to be MURDER!.
SARAH Palin has been meeting with foreign leaders in New York. What does he have to say? Hey, what does it matter?
The new president, Theo Paphides look-alike President Asif Ali Zardari, is ready for a Hart to Hart. He’s a Palin supporter. I’m John McCain, and by the way, her name’s Sarah, and she’s gorgeous:
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan Information Minister. “And how does one keep looking that good when one is that busy?”
Palin: “Oh, thank you.”
Presdient Asif Ali Zardari, entered the room seconds later. Palin rises to shake his hand, saying she was “honored” to meet him. Zardari calls her “gorgeous”.
Zadari: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.”
ALONGSIDE news that Gordon Brown used his address to Labour Party conference to talk about himself and say that we was not a celebrity, and talk about “the real me” some more, is a picture of Jade Goody.
One cannot help but feel that had Brown employed Jayyde as his warm-up act rather than his functional wife Sarah, he might have received a fillip in the polls.
Might Jade Goody do for beige Brown what Sarah Palin has done for grey John McCain in the US: distract voters from looking at him?
THIS grapahic of John McCain and Barack Obama has been doing the rounds.
It takes triteness to whole new levels.
Newsweek has taken aim at the McCain fleet of cars – and it’s not just the number that is causing a stir.
Newsweek found 13 registered to John and Cindy McCain … The problem for McCain is that earlier this year he told a Detroit TV station: “I’ve bought American literally all my life, and I’m proud” …
But now it turns out that he and his wife own three foreign vehicles: a Lexus, a 2005 VW convertible and a 2001 Honda sedan.
“Eventually, [Anne] Davies allows as to why this story isn’t the candidate-crusher she hopes it might be”:
Only a 2004 Cadillac is registered in the candidate’s name.
The chart above is wrong because it assumes that the Republicans are saying that elitism is synonymous with wealth. But that’s not what they’re implying at all. They branded Obama as an elitist not because of how many up arrows he has but how many books he owns. Remember, we elect presidents not for leadership quality or intellectual ability but for who we want to hang out and have a beer with.
SARAH Palin is a clear and present danger to Chile, and Chilean wine producers.
“It was our best selling wine before (the V.P. announcement),” said Chris Tavelli, owner of Yield Wine Bar, which has offered Palin Syrah, a certified organic wine from Chile, by the glass since July. But after Sen. John McCain tagged Sarah Palin as his running mate, sales of the wine with the conservative’s inverted name plummeted—not surprising in famously liberal San Francisco.
ALICE WALKER is looking at Barack Obama and John McCain, and seeking Fidel Castro. No, not dear Che Guevara; he’s easy to find:
This is what I want for our country, more than anything. I want a leader who can love us.. But when the lights are out and I’m left with just the stars in a super-dark sky, and I feel the new intense chill that seems to be the underbreath of even the hottest day, when I know that global warming may send our planet into a deep freeze even before my remaining years run out, then I think about what it is that truly matters to me. Not just as a human, but as an American.
She wants Fidel to keep her cool at night. As Norm says:
It’s more bad news for Palin bashers. MIT actuary says look for a healthy McCain to live through his first term. Another says he’s good for two terms. Boston Herald:
An MIT statistical brainiac says John McCain would not only survive his term if elected president, but would likely do so in good health, turning the actuarial tables on critics who question the GOP nominee’s age and physical condition.
Boston-based actuary Stephen Kraysler gives McCain a 94.5 percent chance of surviving his first term, while his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama has a 99.5 percent chance.
“People are concerned about McCain’s age, but these numbers prove he’s not going to keel over anytime soon,” Kraysler said.
Actuarial science is used by insurance companies to assess risk based on statistical tables and models.
McCain’s health has gone under increased scrutiny since the 72-year-old chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his No. 2 last month.
“Strangely, it turns out the Palin bashers don’t know what they are talking about in this matter.”
Democratic opponents, including Boston native and Tinseltown action stud Matt Damon, have painted Palin as inexperienced and say she could be “just a heartbeat away” from taking over the Oval Office.
But Kraylser argued the Social Security actuarial tables used by Damon have a higher mortality rate because they are making estimations for about 100,000 people in the same age group and are less accurate.
Another actuarial company has already said McCain has a 92 percent chance of surviving through two terms, and said he has another 8.4 years left in good health.
“I’ve seen remarks that (McCain) has a 1 in 3 probability of dying. That’s greatly overstated,” said James Brooks, a senior actuary at the Atlanta-based Bragg’s, a company that specializes in predicting mortality and morbidity.
Obama has a 98.5 percent chance of surviving his first term, and is expected to have another 21.9 years of healthy living, according to Brooks.
Brooks said he based his projections on the histories of men with similar ages and medical backgrounds.
In McCain’s case, that means a 72-year-old man with a history of melanoma and degenerative arthritis, and for Obama, that’s a 44-year-old with a history of smoking.
“Which means McCain is, relatively speaking, healthier than Obama.”
“TAAAAAAYYYYKE me to your leeed-der!” sing the aliens, having been taught the language by Robbie Williams.
With neither Barack Obama nor John McCain yet declared leader of the world, and the Labour Party with no fewer than 17 leaders at any one time, the aliens’ demand may spark as much confusion as it does dread and wonder.
But before the invasion, rich and single Robbie Williams needs to meet the space hoppers, which Michael C. Luckman, director of the New York Centre for Extraterrestrial Research, says might happen.
BARACK Obama, or Team Obama, to give its Americanism, has a new advert out. Its features John McCain wearing pair of bins that used to go well with a dirty Macintosh in 70’s anti-paedo films.
You half expect a voice to come on and tell us: “Charlie says stay away from John McCain.”
Sat in his demob suit below a disco ball, his PA talking down a brick-sized phone, him trying to tune into Dallas on his outdated computer and get his withered hand around a Rubik’s Cube, McCain is old and useless.
HOLD fire! Sarah Palin cannot be killed by convention(al) weapons:
You must aim your fire at the top of the ticket, John McCain, and not at this beautiful girl, Sarah Palin, about whom you can do nothing.
You can never kill her now. Forget it. She can hurt herself, but in terms of Democratic attacks she is bulletproof. You made her that—she wasn’t that way when she walked in.
SARAH Palin’s children are not as elite as Barack Obama’s. Really:
It is with huge grief-filled disappointment that I discovered that the Obamas send their children to the University of Chicago Laboratory School (by 5th grade, tuition equals $20,286 a year). The school’s Web site quotes all that ridiculous … nonsense about developing character while, of course, isolating your children from the poor.
He wants poor blacks to vote for him, not befriend his kids. Of course, he’s not the only one:
Not only did John McCain’s four children attend elite private schools in Arizona, but collective donations to their children’s private schools between 2001 and 2006, totaled $500,000
Hmmm. And what about the Hockey Mom, Sarah Palin?
Sarah Palin’s children went to what looks like a humble little public school: Iditarod Elementary on Wasilla Fishhook Road. That’s a lot of street cred, for a gun-totin’, snow-mobilin’ creationist-lovin’ lady.
OBAMA is winning. McCain is winning. Palin bounces like a dead moose. So what;s what?
That change in McCain’s image–or, better, that filling in of McCain’s image–accounts above all for his rise in the polls.Some of the polls have reported massive defections among white women, which they attribute to Sarah Palin’s candidacy, but I don’t believe these are accurate.
I go with Gallup, which saw the greatest change among independents and conservative Democrats.The convention gave independents a reason to vote for McCain and deprived conservative Democrats (who are still anti-Republican) of a reason to vote against him.
What about Palin?I agree with my colleague Noam Scheiber who argues that Palin’s main effect is not to attract new voters to McCain (OK, Alaska is no longer in play), but to attract attention to McCain–beginning with the convention.I expect that by November, as her sheer novelty wears off and as voters focus more on her qualifications, she will have proven to be either of no effect or a liability to McCain.
KEN Dodd’s go-it-alone Diddy Man, P Diddy, has cracked the US but seems ignorant of its demographic make up. But he is sure about Sarah Palin and John McCain.
This is the job to be the leader of the world. World President. Get letter writing, Guardian readers.