the pc olympics

this has to be a puppet show!

media is representing hillary as "the woman" and obama as "the African American." any other major candidate is just "the white male heterosexual." this very simplistic perception misses... the economy to begin with.

columns are not doing any better: "mrs. liberal programs" and "mr. charisma" are just two faceless puppets that don´t explain the whole situation; these are simply ways for the columnists to get away with avoiding the discussion of touchy issues, such as the politics of pc, or very complicated ones, such as the economy.
columnists demand content, yet their columns lack depth.

let´s be realistic, these shallow and oversimplified perceptions are not going to change by election day, and the implied-but-never-discussed issue of political correctness is going to play a major role in these elections, so we'd better start creating some scenarios just in order to anticipate the consequences of this situation...

NOTICE: ladies and gentlemen of the jury, THE PC-OLYMPICS committee kindly advises you to keep in mind that political correctness (pc) is just one of the fields of battle of our contestants. the official standing of the committee is that pc will play a major role in these elections, but not the determining one--so the winner of the olympics does not forcefully get the elections. as a matter of fact, the PC OLYMPICS commitee would like you to consider this formula as a more precise guide to the relative electability of each ´08 candidate:

electability = (a minimum of decent sex-appeal) + (charisma) + (pc-appeal) + (top-tier funding) + (support from key characters) + (the right spin doctors)*

* it´s difficult to generalize on electability when candidates as different as lincoln and george w bush get to be elected. but one thing is true: a semblance of virtue and honesty has been replaced by competent spin doctors and some pc-appeal.

in any case, these are the highlights of the first pc olympics. please give our contestants a big applause!

1. neither hillary nor obama have to fear any other candidate: any attack by any "white male candidate" is going to be interperted by the electorate as evidence of his misogyny or racism.
point for hillary and obama

2. yet hillary happened to be white. so any attack on obama will be interperted as evidence of her racism.
point for obama

3. but obama happened to be male. so any attack on hillary will be interpreted as evidence of his misogyny.
point for hillary

4. although hillary happened to be perceived as a wonk, and wonkishness is not protected by pc--sorry nerds, you're just not cool enough for pc. so hillary's wonkishness is going to be a pc-approved turn-off for voters.
point against hillary

score: obama 2-hillary 1

obama gets the gold, hillary the silver.

yet the feminist committee contests the results
and the Reverend Jesse Jackson contests that contestation...
so the white male heterosexual judge, bemused, passes the mike to the hispanic jury.

and in the end, media is going to depict hispanics as "the bad guys" who took away the dream from "the woman" or "the African American." hispanics will end up being called "sexists" if hillary loses
or "racists" if obama loses. either way, illegal immigrants of hispanic origins, who don´t even vote, may end up waking up with the unconditional support of some new friends.

NOTICE: the committee would like to thank david brooks for pointing to this whole issue but avoiding especulating on the consequences; ladies and gentlement of the jury, the PC OLYMPICS committee kindly recommends identity politics.