Calvinball—Keep Changing The Rules Until You Win
02/24/2008
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Six-year-old Calvin's favorite sport in the great comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is Calvinball. Its key feature is that Calvin gets to make up the rules as he goes along to favor whatever he does.

It's fun to play Calvinball in politics, too. For example, after the 1968 election, Sen. George McGovern got himself put in charge of changing the rules for how delegates would be selected for the 1972 Democratic convention. He instituted racial and gender quotas, plus more subtle changes, and — whaddaya know? — the delegates selected via George Ball rules nominated George McGovern in 1972. Similarly, in 2008 the Republicans played under John Ball rules (the McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws that give the media more power) and — whaddaya know? — the winner was the media's favorite candidate, John McCain.

Ann Coulter has the economics of why we can't get Ronald Reagan-type candidates under the current campaign finance laws.
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