In retrospect, I think that Scott Walker made a bit of a mistake in throwing Liz Mair over the side like that because she hates ethanol subsidies as much as I do. It complicated Gov. Walker’s narrative, at exactly the wrong moment in time. And it turned out to not even matter, which legitimately has to eat at the guy.
Ach, well. Grist for the mill, folks. Grist for the mill.
The Fishbowl is what I call an artifact of what Neal Stephenson called the Age of Scrutiny: basically, it’s the world that we live in now. Which is a world where you have to simply assume that somebody is now, or will be, watching everything that you’re doing. It’s a perilous world, to be sure: but at least you’re never alone, right? Anyway, here’s Liz explaining how life sucks for politicians now:
It was, to put it mildly, not helpful in the 2004 election for a candidate (Kerry) to have taken multiple different positions on matters concerning the Iraq War. It was not okay in the 2008 cycle to suddenly play the civil libertarian after contrary votes, to position as somehow anti-Iraq War when you voted for it and wouldn’t apologize (see Clinton, Hillary). It was not tenable to claim to be a hardcore social conservative after prior pro-gay positioning and pro-choice status, nor to claim anti-comprehensive immigration reform credentials that did not previously exist (see Romney, Willard Mitt). It certainly isn’t going to be credible or plausible for any candidates this cycle to attempt equivalent contortionism while simultaneously pretending to be oh-so-sincere this time around. Yet we already see them doing it, and doing it badly.
Continue reading @LizMair invokes the power of the Fishbowl.
