If McCain wins….

An article in today’s Washington Post quotes a distinguished American academic as saying that —

if … the voters pull a Truman [i.e. if McCain-Palin confound the polls and the pundits by winning], that is going to be the end of whatever shred of credibility they have left.

That’s right.  If McCain wins after all, we shall hear passionate denunciations of the US electorate. Bertolt Brecht wrote a famous poem after the East German uprisings of 1953:

The Solution

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Hat-tip:  David Tothill, eagle-eyed as ever.

Confession:  A good example of the power of the selective quotation.  What the article actually said was this:

“If the mainstream media are wrong about Obama and the voters pull a Truman, that is going to be the end of whatever shred of credibility they have left,” says Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University’s College of Communication.

In other words, it was the mainstream media, not the voters, who would lose what’s left of their credibility.  Pity!

Brian