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Campaign Lies
Townhall.com ^ | April 13, 2016 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 04/13/2016 8:24:44 AM PDT by Kaslin

If you took all the lies out of political rhetoric, how much would be left? Apparently even less than usual this year.

The latest, and perhaps biggest, lie -- thus far -- is that Donald Trump was cheated out of delegates in Colorado because the voters did not select the delegates.

Two very different questions have gotten confused with each other. One question is whether this is the best way to choose delegates. Most of us would say "No," but most of us don't live in Colorado, and each state is allowed great leeway in how it chooses to pick its delegates.

The more fundamental question is whether this was some trick cooked up to deprive Donald Trump of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. That is of course how Donald Trump and his followers automatically depict anything that doesn't work out to his advantage.

But the Colorado rules were written and known to all before anybody cast a single vote in the primary elections, anywhere in the country.

If the people who ran the Trump campaign were not aware of what the rules in Colorado were, and Ted Cruz's people were, that is what happens when you hire people who are not up to the challenges of their job. The fact that one of those people has been fired and replaced has gotten much less media attention than Trump's loudly repeated charges that he was robbed.

With so many primary election rules that vary from one state to another, some of these rules are bound to work out to one candidate's advantage and another candidate's disadvantage.

When Trump, for example, wins less than a majority of a state's votes and yet gets 100 percent of its delegates, you don't hear other candidates yelling or whining that they have been robbed. But the cold fact is that Trump's percentage of the delegates is still higher than his percentage of the people who actually voted for him.

Apparently it all depends on whose ox is gored -- and who yells the loudest, with the most irresponsible charges. It also depends on how conscientious the media are and how gullible the voters are.

Other political campaign lies have been repeated so often, over so many years, that they have become part of a tradition that is almost never questioned. Demands for "equal pay" for women, for example, proceed without even a definition of what that means.

Some years ago, I was shocked when my research turned up the fact that young male physicians earned substantially more than young female physicians. But, when my research also turned up the fact that young male physicians work hundreds of hours more per year than young female physicians, it was not shocking any more.

Other researchers, many of them female, have found the same pattern in other fields where there are income differences between the sexes. Women work fewer hours annually than men, and do not work full-time and continuously over the years as often as men do.

Among college graduates, women receive more than three-quarters of the degrees in education, while men receive more than three-quarters of the degrees in engineering. When engineers are paid more than teachers -- partly because engineers work year round, while teachers work 9 months -- do not be surprised by sex differences in earnings among college graduates.

None of this is news for people who have checked out the facts. Researchers -- including female researchers -- have repeatedly turned up such facts for decades. But the politicians, and much of the media, prefer a moral melodrama, starring themselves on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.

That wins votes, helps TV ratings and lets lots of people feel good about themselves. But this also requires a gullible public.

A very similar game can be played with racial statistics. What if I said that basketball officials call fouls on black players out of all proportion to the share of blacks in the general population? You might well say, "Wait a minute! The proportion of black players is far higher in the NBA than in the population."

Yet that simple difference between the proportion of blacks in the general population and blacks involved in whatever activity is being measured statistically is repeatedly ignored, both by politicians and the media.

The success of campaign lies depends ultimately on how willing the public is to be stampeded without bothering to stop and think.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 04/13/2016 8:24:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Yes...rules and a bureaucratic and cryptic (to the layman citizen voter) are a surefire substitute for something like a pesky citizen vote. Rules and rules after all.

Go back to eating your tapioca Sowell.


2 posted on 04/13/2016 8:29:05 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin

It’s becoming apparent that “our only hope Alpha male” Trump is something of a snowflake himself


3 posted on 04/13/2016 8:35:13 AM PDT by LMAO (I know Hillary and I think she'd make a great president or Vice President. Don Trump 2008)
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To: Kaslin
The Truth About The Colorado Delegate Controversy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDiZ5HW2wqU

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4 posted on 04/13/2016 8:36:24 AM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: dragonblustar

That is as nice a presentation on the dispute as I’ve seen.


5 posted on 04/13/2016 8:38:17 AM PDT by gogeo (Donald Trump. Because it's finally come to that.)
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To: Gaffer

Go back to eating your tapioca Sowell.

Mr. Sowell is sharp as a tack and right. I guess he has been added to the list getting death threats from Trump supporters.


6 posted on 04/13/2016 8:38:55 AM PDT by libbylu (Cruz: The truth with a smile.)
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To: dragonblustar
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7 posted on 04/13/2016 8:42:00 AM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: Kaslin

Yet it plays, and you know why it plays? Because people expect this crap from the GOPe. They expect this from pols, and increasingly they expect it from St. Ted. So there is an element of truth there that people are responding to.


8 posted on 04/13/2016 8:42:48 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
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To: Kaslin

Deceptive Donald- whining when his incompetence in running a campaign is exposed. Hypocritical Donald who hires Manafort to wrangle him some delegates.


9 posted on 04/13/2016 8:47:19 AM PDT by austingirl (Cruz 2016)
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To: LMAO

It sure looks that way, doesn’t it?


10 posted on 04/13/2016 8:47:59 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: libbylu

No he is not. He has been speaking the second most evil hold your nose crap for near a couple years now. 18 months ago he was arguing for Jeb or the like and Cruz was the last thing on his addled mind


11 posted on 04/13/2016 8:51:03 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Gaffer

We peons are obliged to turn over important stuff like ‘voting for delegates’ to those within the GOP establishment who have been initiated into the mystery cult.


12 posted on 04/13/2016 8:51:48 AM PDT by Pelham (Trump/Tsoukalos 2016 - vote the great hair ticket)
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Texas Toast

13 posted on 04/13/2016 9:01:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Funny Cruz been tanking in the Polls sense Colorado and Kasich is passing him for Second place by the polls
14 posted on 04/13/2016 9:22:52 AM PDT by scooby321
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To: austingirl

Absolutely. Perhaps if he knew as much about the primary process from state as he does about bankruptcy laws, he’d be better off right now. Ya see, this is what scares me the most about a guy like trump...like BHO, “RULES” are so constrictive, like that pesky irritant of a constitution! It gets in my way, it challenges me...so I will bypass it; all while the impotent legislature does NOTHING! I would vote for him over Hillary...but is scares the shit out of me.


15 posted on 04/13/2016 9:29:06 AM PDT by TheGunny
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To: Kaslin
each state is allowed great leeway in how it chooses to pick its delegates

For the most important thing in the United States is the Presidency. Why do anyone think that each State should make silly rules with this important thing. Colorado decided that just a few should have the right to decide who might be President. So then I can assume that the President of the US can be Micky Mouse or how about Donald Duck. This is serious and it should be that the voters should be the foremost to chose the candidate. Not some bunch of elite jackasses.

16 posted on 04/13/2016 9:29:28 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: TheGunny
Trump is an authoritarian and I think he would use executive orders much like Zero.

You won't have and don't want to vote for Hillary. Trump will go third party and the conservative candidate, Cruz, will win.

17 posted on 04/13/2016 9:32:24 AM PDT by austingirl (Cruz 2016)
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To: Kaslin
The more fundamental question is whether this was some trick cooked up to deprive Donald Trump of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination.

No it wasn't but that is how it was used Tom. You are probably even smarter than super Genius Cruz, so why do you state that question?

18 posted on 04/13/2016 9:36:11 AM PDT by itsahoot (Trump is a fumble mouthed blowhard that can't finish a sentence, but he will finish a term.)
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To: scooby321
It can be understood from the perspective of a political campaign -- Cruz has put in a good ground game in precisely the places where it would do the most good, and one of the criteria is, separated by some time. After Iowa, I'd estimate that at least 50 percent of the Cruz topics on FR were about how he'd won Iowa, have you heard? Cruz won Iowa. Same thing happened with Wisconsin. OTOH, there was barely any talk about Texas -- he should have done better in his home state, though he did win -- or any other losses. Barring some spectacular upset in a large state (NY and CA are the largest ones left), he's finished and he knows he's finished. If Trump or Kasich (or some maverick write in candidate) win just 117 more delegates, Cruz can't reach 1237. Trump is expected to win ALL of NY state's delegates, meaning the number is down to the low 20s, and Trump is expected to do triple that, at least, in California. He has leads in PA, MD, CT...

19 posted on 04/13/2016 9:36:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: austingirl
Hypocritical Donald who hires Manafort to wrangle him some delegates.

Cruz didn't have to hire anyone he has the entire Oligarchy(both parties) trying to help him knock off Trump.

20 posted on 04/13/2016 9:39:34 AM PDT by itsahoot (Trump is a fumble mouthed blowhard that can't finish a sentence, but he will finish a term.)
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