magnetic cows and McCain 2000

Listening to the economist, observation made of McCain: He sounds increasingly like Bush 3, we preferred McCain 1. I think that sums it up.

Something unaccounted for is that with this sort of political maneuvering (and picking a 'right-wing' VP), he's energized that base of people, a group not as large as the moderate/independent voter but far more likely voters who previously weren't all that excited about his campaign. In other words, he became the rock star (I suppose this could be called the Christian rock star) candidate at least last week. It would be interesting to see how that fares over the last two months. Because if Palin becomes polarizing rather than defined as the reformist outsider that they seem to want to portray, there will be a backlash to this. I have some doubts already about the viability of that message, much will depend on her. Still, there was an unprecedented number of people (~37 million) watching a Vice Presidential candidate's speech two nights ago. It's not clear what they all thought, but there's an old saying: "There is no such thing as bad press". McCain probably knows this better than most, having been available in the press more than most and being generally known for his sarcastic quips and not his speech making abilities. It will be interesting to see whether it's more important to energize his base at the cost of possibly alienating moderates or to appeal to more moderate positions; still the challenge of Obama's camp as well, given the rather liberal voting records, vs rhetoric, of Obama-Biden. I'm realizing I'm becoming a detached observer in yet another arena: politics, because I have no horse to bet on with a shot of winning. In a campaign that's usually about appealing to moderates (President), there are disappointingly few moderate positions.


Also, cows apparently like having a north-south orientation along the magnetic poles. And that study was carried out with the help of Google Earth's photos to examine cattle ranches. I'm not sure whether to be delighted or concerned.