Adventures Through the Looking Glass

The political landscape continues to get curioser and curioser. Living and working at Texas A&M during the first year of Obama's presidency provides plenty of opportunity to see and hear white folks find new ways to dissemble, believing all the time that the fact that we have a black president is a cosmic mistake that will soon be righted. Most days I get to leave that strange world outside my door.

I just sat through a phone call, however, which might have been a telemarketing campaign for Dick Morris' new book. The call, which was represented by the woman who placed the call as a one-question survey, consisted of a monologue by a breathy Dick Morris congratulating me on being one of the biggest conservative supporters in my area (!) and describing his book not only as the
most important work
he's ever done but also as a battle plan for a Republican recapture of congress in 2010.  

After listening to Morris rehash canards such as "death panels" a male operator got back on the line, inquired whether or not I had been able to hear the recorded message and then posed the survey question: "Do you support Obama's expansion of health care, withdrawal of troops from the middle east, and biggest expansion of government in history?"

I responded "No, but mostly because I think he's not gone far enough on healthcare, drawn down the troops fast enough, and that President Bush's presidency saw the biggest expansion of federal government in history. " The flustered pollster sputtered a thank you and hung up. My questions are 1) what misguided intern put my name on a list that was obviously intended for an uncritical sample and, 2) this seriously can't be anything else but a marketing ploy for Morris' book, right, or is this characteristic of the work he does? I wonder if I'll actually get the free signed copy promised in the recorded message?