As IF Times

link Op-Ed Columnist – Palin’s Cunning Sleight of Hand – NYTimes.com.

If you’re just observing the political action in the U.S. and have no stake either way, as is my case, the level of commentary and debate is both fascinating and amusing.  Unlike the Canadian experience where the overwhelming political zeitgeist is liberal and socialist in inclination, the American environment is one of strongly held convictions from both the political left and right.

American politics is fascinating because of the deep roots and traditions of political parties there.  There are those whose entire lives are lived in the political arena and their very names are synonymous with politics.  Think of the Clintons and of course, the Kennedys whose only role in life is the pursuit and maintenance of political office.  

Cynicism aside, it’s hard to imagine that most anything said or done by such political animals is for any other reason than  the pursuit of some partisan end goal.  People whose lives are governed by polls and popularity will tailor their messages to assuage the most voters.  Professional handlers and spinmeisters constantly control the message.  Consequently, unless you happen to  blindly agree with all party policy issues, you would be rightly skeptical of anything that comes out of mouths of career politicians.  Politics is indeed a very sophisticated and evolved contact sport there.

The amusing side is the level of debate and discussion which stands in such stark contrast to the process just described.  Rather than issues based debate, much of what passes as repartee is essentially name calling by grownups who should behave better.   After all, most participants are highly educated legal types from Ivy League schools.  Throw partisan media into the mix and the whole process resembles high school for middle-agers. 

At the moment, the present administration is beset by failures on all policy fronts, on domestic economics, on domestic seccurity and most importantly failure to maintain the confidence of the electorate.  It becomes clearer as time passes that the people charged by the admistration to run programs have not been up to the task and this perception of incompetence is creeping up the ladder.  Appropriately, the oppostion’s job is to point out the failures of policy and bring up instances of incompetence where applicable.

In response, the administration prefers not to defend their policies, but to attack and demonize those that oppose them.  The favorite target of attacks is of course, Sarah Palin, an individual who doesn’t even hold public office.  As the condescending linked article notes, there are continued snide references to Palin’s intelligence and referral to her as a “sub-literate clown”.  Ironically, the Democrats actually do have a member of congress who was formerly(?)a professional clown.  The mainstream media have been particularly keen to jump on the “slag Palin program” as everyone from political commentators, to comedians have thrown cheap shots her way.  To watch from afar, it’s hard not to see this as a real life “Mean Girls” movie, since the venom is irrational, it is personal and it is tribal.  I seldom read any intelligent critique of her policies, the attacks are always directed at her perceived lack of intelligence and at her values.  Next time, pay attention to who exactly is calling for a “civilized debate” on the issues.  Hint: they’re in office.

Interestingly, as the author acknowledges, these attacks only serve to make Palin more popular among “the regular folk”, or those not in the high school “in crowd”. She is mobbed everywhere she goes despite not being a public politician.  Obviously, what she says and what she stands for is agreeable to many depite being disparged by the media.  There is a lesson here for politicians.  While the shrillness of the left has favor with the media and most entertainers, there is a large silent majority of “plain folk” for whom the snide exhortations of the Chris Matthews’ , of the Rosie O’ Donnells and Jon Stewarts and Katie Courics don’t resonate.  Just completed were a series of state elections widely accepted as referenda for the administration’s policy initiatives.  In resoundingly clear terms, the policies were rebuked by the electorate and surprisingly in erstwhile friendly states to the incumbents.  So far, it’s appeared to fall on deaf ears.  Global Warming.  Cap and Trade.  As if.  So who’s the dummy?

People can figure  out over tiime  the genuine article from manufactured personnas.  What the left leaning media may never figure out is that when they attack Palin, they attack a large contingent of Americans as well.  Palin’s message has been consistent and it appears unscripted.  She doesn’t appear to be governed by polls or popularity efforts.  It appears that her central message, that people should be more self reliant and not depend on government’s ever expanding role in their lives is one that’s embraced by many ordinary people.  Doesn’t sound stupid to me.

link P&G Razor Launches in Recession’s Shadow – WSJ.com.

This is truly what makes America tick.  Never mind the weighty issues of the day, annoying things such as unemployment, depleted pension funds, collapsing currency, nuclear nations, far away wars, none of that stuff.  What men prize most above all is a close shave.

According to the website, about.com, the patent for the ‘safety’ razor was issued in 1904 to King C. Gillette, ushering in whole new way for men to make themselves presentable.  Until this point in history, men had to endure the fickleness of shearing off facial hair with various kinds of sharpened knives and until Gillette’s invention, a straight razor.  I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of sitting in a barber’s chair all lathered up while he goes at your face and throat with one of those sharpened blades makes me tense up like a fat guy at a cannibal convention.

Before the invention of the safety razor, it’s amazing that men bothered to shave at all.  Even with a safety razor, it was not unusual for men’s faces to appear as if they had been using their faces to fight cats, with red slashes and nicks aplenty.  The interesting part of the Gillette story is the idea planted in his head by William Painter, the inventor of the crown cork bottle cap.  Painter told Gillette that the real money was to be made by selling your product over and over again to the same satisfied customer.  Sheer genius really.  Thus was born the now famous “razor blade” business model, though as we see, it should  really be called the bottle cap model.

Gillette spent money and research to develop the type of steel needed to satisfy his business model, consequently factories were built, people were employed and with a military contract in hand, the rest as they say, was history.  From an idea to a business dynasty.  Fast forward a little more than 100 years.  Even with the invention of electric razors of all kinds, the razor blade business is still pretty vigorous.   According to the linked article, sales of Fusion, Proctor and Gambles’s top selling razor, contributes over $1 billion dollars of sales a year to Gillette’s parent company.  The product itself has evolved substantially from the 1904 model.  Over the years, there have been multiple blades added to the device which now stands at 4 or 5 on some of the recent iterations.   I can’t remember exactly how many, suffice to say, you are essentially shaving with venetian blinds.

The real challenge though will be how they propose to sell this.  The article states that the blades will sell for almost $17 for a 4 blade package.  Not exactly shave and a haircut, 2 bits as per the old ditty.  Seems like a lot of scratch to scratch your face.  I suspect women will be as likely to purchase at this price point as men, since at $17 bucks, a case of beer may be the stronger pull.  However you can never count out a company that has been successful for well over a hundred years on ingenuity of marketing alone.  Now about those nose hairs…..