"AIN'T THAT AMERICA?!"

"ONE OF US! ONE OF US!"


Words.

"...Will American politics ever get away from this crazy contest in which the players strive to out-ordinary one another, distancing themselves from any whiff of privilege and trying to project a woodsy, folksy, flannel essence?

...candidates labor mightily to come down on the fried and unfussy end of things, lest they seem out of touch and be deemed unable to relate.

...While such atmospherics are almost compulsory, they’re also sad.

...Having a modest background, a knowledge of hardship or a kinship with the so-called common man doesn’t correlate with competence. Or with compassion. Rick Perry could certainly use more of that, and he started life in a house without indoor plumbing.

Over the next 14 months, we shouldn’t be impressed by someone who can imitate ordinary. We should figure out who promises to be extraordinary. And that determination should be guided less by what candidates eat or drive than by what they’ve done with the reins of power, whether holding them with chapped or manicured fingers."

 THE NEW YORK TIMES: Deer Hunts and Dirt Bikes