THE PLANK MAY 28, 2008
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I had sort of resolved to stop blogging about the election, but couldn't let this one slip. Liz Bumiller, a fine reporter, has been hoodwinked by John McCain's willful misreading of Barack Obama's dings at Hillary Clinton's past gun use. The relevant graf, from her Week in Review piece:
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain have both derided Mr. Obama as “elitist”
for his remarks about bitter rural voters who “cling” to guns and
religion, even as Mr. Obama, in a counterpunch, mocked her courtship of
gun owners, depicting her as a kind of ersatz Annie Oakley “packing a
six-shooter” in a duck blind. And Mr. McCain, throwing a haymaker of
his own, pointed out in a recent speech to members of the National Rifle Association that “someone should tell Senator Obama that ducks are usually hunted with shotguns.”
Noooo! The exteemed Jonathan Chait gets into why this is trifling and false in an earlier post. Man, politics--like guns!--seem all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
(And thanks, Brendan Nyhan, for also spotting the ruse.)
--Dayo Olopade
6 comments
"Liz Bumiller, a fine reporter,"
What are you basing this on?
- FWright
May 28, 2008 at 1:48pm
Plus, aside from the obvious lie that Obama put Hillary in the duck blind with a handgun, there's the fact that there's no reason a person couldn't hunt ducks with a handgun instead of a shotgun. It's much harder, and a lot more dangerous to anyone who might be downrange, but you absolutely could hunt ducks with a handgun. It's just very, very hard to hit a moving bird with a handgun bullet. The accuracy required would amount to about two inches at 50 yards, which is right at the edge of physical possibility. A shotgun, by contrast, allows you to hit the bird if your aim is accurate to within a couple of feet, rather than a couple of inches.
The irony here is that if anyone could have hunted ducks with a handgun, it would be Annie Oakley.
Anyway, file this furor away and remember it the next time the gun lobby objects to handgun restrictions on the grounds that many hunters prefer to hunt with handguns.
- rhubarbs
May 28, 2008 at 2:05pm
"Bumiller bites"...or sucks.
- ReganaD
May 28, 2008 at 2:10pm
*headdesk*
Did anyone here go through Elementary school? The best way to get people to keep calling you boogerman is to scream "that wasn't a booger, it was mayo from my sandwich!!"
Let it go. Seriously.
- ratnerstar
May 28, 2008 at 2:16pm
Is your adjectival description of Jonathan a portmanteau confection or simply a typing gremlin, Dayo?
- liberal reformer
May 28, 2008 at 3:47pm
LR, fifth post? you are slowing down...
- dbhuff
May 28, 2008 at 5:07pm