He’s glamourous. Virginia Postrel, a glamour maven, explains:
Charisma is a personal quality that inspires followers to embrace the charismatic leader’s agenda (an agenda that, in the original sense of the word charisma, is seen as divinely inspired.) Glamour, by contrast, encourages the audience to project its own yearnings onto the glamorous figure. So, in this case, Sebastian Mallaby imagines that Obama will find “a way of crawling back from his embarrassing talk of reopening NAFTA.” Mallaby maintains his own views about what’s good for economic growth; he doesn’t defer to Obama’s own vision.
When voters motivated by charisma disagree with the leader they’ve backed, they support him anyway and possibly even change their minds about the right policy course. When voters motivated by glamour disagree, they become disillusioned and angry.
Let’s hope for a peak of that come around late October.
Sorry for the short notice, but I forgot to mention that I’ll be on Fast-Forward Radio tonight, in less than an hour. Fortunately (assuming you care) it will be available for download later.
First off, let me say that I was not previously aware of a web site called Weird Asia News. But given how many people live in Asia (and how generally weird the place is, at least to non-Asians), it’s an obvious and probably abundant source for such stuff.
Anyway, here’s a fun one–a Peeping Tom who fell ten stories while trying to video a woman in a shower with a cell phone. And survived.
You know, it’s almost like they don’t want us to increase the supply. If the Republicans were smart, they could make this a potent campaign issue in the fall. Of course, if the Republicans were smart, I’d probably be a Republican.
…not to vote for Obama. He seems to have no respect whatsoever for the Second Amendment. But that should be no surprise, given his positions on other subjects.
[Afternoon update]
Why are anti-gun activists so violent? I think that the commenter has it right. As is often the case with so-called liberals, it’s projection. They figure that we’re as violent as they are, so they don’t want us to have guns.
Iowahawk remains in the race. I have to say, there are certainly some aspects of his platform that are not without appeal.
Drilling and exploration are important, but this only addresses the “supply” side of the equation. We must also tackle our insatiable “demand” for energy. Thanks to my Piranha Doctrine foreign policy, America’s military will be freed up to go after America’s worst energy demand scofflaws — the celebrity asshole community. Under my administration the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be directed to treat as hostile all private jets flying into Los Angeles airspace, backed up with coordinated pinpoint bombing of mansions and Priuses within the Malibu triangle. Not only will this reduce prices at the pump, it will increase the supply of much needed scrap metal and lumber.
I like the Piranha Doctrine as well. Though Park Slope may not have enough open territory for the cougar reserve.
Iowahawk remains in the race. I have to say, there are certainly some aspects of his platform that are not without appeal.
Drilling and exploration are important, but this only addresses the “supply” side of the equation. We must also tackle our insatiable “demand” for energy. Thanks to my Piranha Doctrine foreign policy, America’s military will be freed up to go after America’s worst energy demand scofflaws — the celebrity asshole community. Under my administration the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be directed to treat as hostile all private jets flying into Los Angeles airspace, backed up with coordinated pinpoint bombing of mansions and Priuses within the Malibu triangle. Not only will this reduce prices at the pump, it will increase the supply of much needed scrap metal and lumber.
I like the Piranha Doctrine as well. Though Park Slope may not have enough open territory for the cougar reserve.