Dear Media:
I have noticed a recent trend in calling Obama's incoming Cabinet by an old phrase - "The Best and The Brightest." You should note that this phrase refers to a good book, but the book uses the phrase ironically.
The point of Halberstam's book is to show that the brightest people in DC made idiotic decisions that made us more and more involved in Vietnam. In other words, the "Best and the Brightest" made a bad situation worse.
If it is your intention to say that Obama's choices are smart, but are going to screw up the government worse than it is, than using this phrase is correct. If it is your intention to say that Obama is choosing bright people, and Washington might not be as screwed up, you should find another phrase. Your continued use is mostly making you (the Media) look like idiots.
That is all.
Posted by baltar at December 12, 2008 12:47 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Books | General Stupidity | Media | PoliticsOh come now. Surely the book using the phrase ironically in its title didn't necessitate that all future unironic uses of same be foresworn. The phrase could only have been used ironically, really, had it had some pre-existing currency in unironic usage. I, for one, bristle at all the (r) and (tm) and (c) marks I encounter in the universe on relatively pedestrian (in legal parlance, generic) usages, and I'll be damned if I'll let some book deny me the prerogative to use a phrase that has its uses.
Posted by: moon at December 12, 2008 02:54 PM | PERMALINK