And as it happens, the occasion of today's rant is not the Wardrobe Warrior (which continues to accost perfectly lovely but average-looking people at the mall to ask them about their sunglasses or their sparkly flip-flops) but a severe case of what I have to assume is sheer obtuseness.
To wit:
1. Last month, the Express-News, which is owned by Hearst, endorsed John McCain for president. Shortly thereafter, Editor Bob Rivard penned an apologia of sorts in which he essentially said, look, R.G. Griffing's right, we are liberals (contextually) and we would have endorsed Barack Obama -- using our thoughtful, thorough, deeply ethical endorsement process -- but at the E-N the publisher gets to anoint the presidential endorsee -- using ... who knows? -- a spinner from a first-edition version of the game of Life? Honestly, I might have respected Rivard more if he'd just kept a stiff upper lip about the whole sordid thing.
2. Barack Obama won the presidency by a respectable margin in the popular vote and by a landslide in the electoral college.
3. The Express-News published a commemorative election issue featuring a poster-size image of Obama looking (natch) presidential but also sexy (I mean, did you think that front-page NYT pic a while back showing him in a Daniel Craig/James Bond-style leather jacket was an accident? But I digress). Atonment, Atonement-style.
4. 210sa, which is also owned by Hearst and printed on the same presses as the McCain-endorsing Express-News, comes out with an Obama cover this week, that includes their logo, and -- hear Abbie Hoffman tossing in his grave -- is available as a T-shirt. For $10. (They also printed a generic Associated Press article about how meaningful this election was for young first-time voters.) They promise that if you buy a shirt they "won't use the money for Starbucks!" but they also don't specify any charity the proceeds might go to -- which means that if you buy a 210sa Obama T-shirt, you'll be putting money into the pockets of the paper that endorsed John McCain.
Irony isn't dead. It's shacked up with someone who gets it.
