Posted on: Saturday, September 13, 2008
Daily dose of phony outrage
By David Shapiro
flASHback — I said in my blog that I couldn't find anything snarky to say about the Honolulu mayoral debate, but I dug deeper for our "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:
Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi blamed Mayor Mufi Hannemann for stealing her campaign signs. I thought she took them down to put up posters with the new haircut.
Rail opponent Panos Prevedouros stressed he's an engineer and not a politician like Hannemann and Kobayashi. What fun is an engineer who doesn't give train rides?
Prevedouros denied he's a one-issue candidate. To prove it, he said HOT lanes will solve our hurricane problems as well as our traffic woes.
Hannemann said Kobayashi insulted his parents when she accused him of bullying. I reviewed the replay in slo-mo and I'm pretty sure she was insulting him.
The Barack Obama campaign said Hannemann's TV ad featuring Obama wasn't an endorsement of his re-election, but the mayor's spokesman insisted the two are close. You could tell that from the way Obama mispronounced his name "Han-O-Man."
John McCain called Obama sexist for using an old saying about putting lipstick on a pig, a phrase McCain has used himself three times in the campaign. Does that make McCain seXXXist?
Obama said he's offended by McCain's "phony outrage" over his remark. That about sums up this campaign — daily doses of phony outrage about phony outrage.
Gov. Linda Lingle joined the "truth squad" defending the GOP ticket. Maybe first she should tell us the truth about her former chief-of-staff Bob Awana. His sex-and-blackmail scandal should have taught her plenty about a pig with lipstick on him.
Some 40 percent of Hawai'i primary election voters are expected to cast their ballots absentee. The 60 percent expected to be just plain absent must be misreading the brochure.
The United Church of Christ canceled a convention here with 3,000 people because of high airfares. Just our luck. We were hoping they'd pray for our economy, and instead they're helping sink it.
Billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto says he can't clean up his rundown Kahala properties because his "emotional feelings" are hurt by criticism. Sounds like the old Full Wallet/Empty Head Syndrome.
American Airlines flight attendants want to block pornography in in-flight Internet services. That'd sure make it tough for Hawai'i Tourism Authority chief Rex Johnson to kill time on long flights.
And the quote of the week ... from Ann Kobayashi: "I've never been an obstructionist." These debates would lose all entertainment value if the candidates couldn't fib.
Reach David Shapiro at dave@volcanicash.net.
