Wednesday, February 19, 2020

hear me now and understand


-------------------- And so much for all that.  [excerpt, Fear And Loathing:  On The Campaign Trail '72, by Hunter S. Thompson] --------------- The point I meant to make here -- before we wandered off on that tangent about jack-rabbits -- is that everything was written under savage deadline pressure in the traveling vortex of a campaign so confusing and unpredictable that not even the participants claimed to know what was happening.

     I had never covered a presidential campaign before I got into this one, but I quickly got so hooked on it that I began betting on the outcome of each primary -- and, by combining aggressive ignorance with a natural instinct to mock the conventional wisdom, I managed to win all but two of the 50 or 60 bets I made between February and November.  

My first loss came in New Hampshire, where I felt guilty for taking advantage of one of McGovern's staffers who wanted to bet that George would get more than 35% of the vote; and I lost when he wound up with 37.5%.  But from that point on, I won steadily -- until November 7th, when I made the invariably fatal mistake of betting my emotions instead of my instinct.


     The final result was embarrassing, but what the hell?  I blew that one, along with a lot of other people who should have known better....

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On You Tube, type in

Mockingbird, Carly Simon and James Taylor

-- I think the top video that will come up will be the one we want -- a live performance -- in the picture you see James Taylor on the left wearing short-sleeved T-shirt, Carly Simon on right wearing purple stripes -- video has 3 million views.

Play.

-30-

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