Can a typeface truly represent a presidential candidate?

What does Optima say about John McCain? And should this, or any, candidate be judged by a typeface?

Consider typography to be the window into the soul of the candidate’s campaign. The depth, the breadth, the good, the bad and the ugly is all there for us to witness and assess in one clear and telegraphic manner. And in this campaign, what you see is definitely what you will get.

...

It is a rather bland face being used in a rather bland way.

It seems a bit elitist and upscale for John McCain.

It sort of reeks of old thrift-shop, Danish furniture, and not in a good way.

It’s a typeface used to trick people into thinking they are involving themselves in something more important and more desirable than it actually is.

It is a typeface I associate with the 1970s: moving past the hygienic purity of, say, a humanist sans-serif and migrating ever so slightly toward fern bars and big hair.

Have you seen Helvetica?

McCain's Optimum Look

finethen wrote:

What is going on with teenage boys in this country? Church fires (in "Bombingham")as a alcohol fuled prank? Homeless men beat to death as a "joke"? How can people so young be so violent and destructive?

Violent video games. Duh.

RE: Chron.com | Drinking May Have Fueled Ala. Church Fires

The most recent Hajj occurred during the first half of January 2006.

There were a number of stampedes, called "tragedies" in the press, during the Hajj which killed several hundred pilgrims.

These were not unavoidable accidents, they were the results of poor planning by the Saudi government.

And while the deaths of these pilgrims was a mere blip on the traditional western media's radar, it was a huge story in the Muslim world. Even the most objective news stories were suddenly casting Saudi Arabia in a very bad light and they decided to do something about it.

The 350 pilgrims were killed on January 12 and soon after, Saudi newspapers (which are all controlled by the state) began running up to 4 articles per day condemning the Danish cartoons.

There rarely is a clearer case of "Death to the West" being used to divert attention away from local problems.

Daily Kos: Muslim Cartoon Controversy: What the Media Isn't Telling You

President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for any failures in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and acknowledged the storm exposed serious deficiencies at all levels of government four years after the September 11 attacks.

The Daily Show response to this last night was great. I think they said something along the lines of "And the most important part of Katrina was found on Tuesday morning..." and went to the clip. And then John Stewart just stared. Played it again. Stared. Totally unexpected behavior by Mr. President.

Not that it means anything. It is such a meaningless statement that it is surprising he doesn't do more of it. He's a lame duck. His supporters and detractors will continue to believe whatever they believe about him and his culpability. Until we have something like "When I did (concrete thing), I did the wrong thing. It was a mistake and I take responsibility", it is still just empty. "If a mistake was made..." -- fine. Duh. The buck stops with you, at least on paper. You're not running for reelection, so as long as it isn't an impeachable offense, why NOT take the blame? History will remember you for consequences regardless of what you acknowledged as yours.

Bush - I am responsible.

noteworthy wrote:

] I know Dave is trying to be funny, but those characterizations
] are just dead wrong.

That's a great link, thank you. Debating on a point of a snide Dave Barry comment is to miss point, true.

I find the history of Chinese food in this country to be fascinating. Actually, Chinese food internationally is a new measurement I have been using with various countries and their cultures. Specific examples were the Chinese/Mexican bistro scene in Mexico City, which has a very different feel but is equally well established culturally.
In fact, the first real meal I had in Panama City recently was cheap chinese. The elements of the food informed the rest of my gastronimical experience (no fear of Meat and Fried Meat, rice and beans).

RE: Menus document history of Chinese eateries in US

] I thought that, in today's column, I would heal the
] nation.
]
] The nation suffered a wound during the recent
] presidential election as a result of the rift between the
] red states -- defined as 'states where 'foreign cuisine'
] pretty much means Pizza Hut'' -- and the blue states,
] defined as ''states that believe they are smarter than
] the red states, despite the fact that it takes the
] average blue-state resident 15 minutes to order a single
] cup of coffee.''

Herald.com | 12/12/2004 | Can't we all just get along?

] When tracking this year's election, pollsters contact
] people on traditional phones. About 5 percent of all
] households receive telephone service only by cellular
] phone, according to a face-to-face survey done earlier
] this year by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor
] Statistics. Among young adults up to age 24, the number
] is close to three times as high.

This is a good point. Most of the people I know are definate voters and, if they even have a landline, won't answer it. This bias -- like the flexibility in what percent of Republicans you query (lower percent vote) means that we are unlikely to be seeing accurate numbers in the polls...

But we knew that.

Salon.com Politics

] You don't support Democrats.
]
] Why should your ketchup?

Ketchup is nothing more than flavored tomato paste. Something that looks and tastes a lot like Heinz Ketchup can be made in your kitchen sink without so much as bending a copyright rule. It is effectively all freely-redistributable objects: tomatoes, vinegar, salt, and spices. So why don't we, as consumers, make ketchup in our kitchen sink, and how does Heinz have 80% of the ketchup market?

We don't make ketchup because it is cheaper and much more convenient to buy ketchup from Heinz, Hunts, or Del Monte than it is to make it. But convenience is only part of the story. Convenience alone would suggest that Heinz, Hunts, and Del Monte share the market equally because they offer roughly equivalent convenience. In fact, Heinz owns 80% of the market.

Heinz owns 80% of the market not because Heinz tastes better. If you go to the Third World and find 100 people who have never tasted ketchup before, you find out two things: one is that people don't actually like tomato ketchup, the other is that they dislike all ketchups equally.

Heinz has 80% of the ketchup market because they have been able to define the taste of ketchup in the mind of ketchup consumers. Now the Heinz Ketchup brand is so effective that as consumers we think that ketchup that will not come out of the bottle is somehow better than ketchup that pours easily!
(http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/young.html)

W Ketchup

] According to the report, Brown-Dancler pointed a 9 mm
] handgun at the Pizza Hut employee as he was entering his
] van.
]
] Brown-Dancler's gun carried a loaded 14-round clip but
] had no bullet in the chamber, Crawford told the Star.
] When confronted, Honeycutt pulled his own 9 mm from the
] back of his pants and fired until it was empty. He says
] he fired 15 times in about eight seconds. An autopsy
] revealed Brown-Dancler was hit at least 10 times.

Does kind of set an example. "I just wanted pizza" is not an excuse for pulling a gun.

WorldNetDaily: Pizza man saved by gun, but fired for packin' heat

] "Power lines were for electricity. Power lines can be
] used for broadband technology. So the technical standards
] need to be changed to encourage that," Bush said

Which... yeah, you go Mr. Politician. Because if you say it should be done, clearly the technology has stood still poised for your request.

Thankfully, he still can't handle those odd numbered offset counting bits...
] The U.S. ranked 10th in the world for high-speed,
] broadband Internet access, "10 spots too low, as far as
] I'm concerned," Bush said, "that's not good enough for
] America."
We'll be number 0! Yay!

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