‘Fake Outrage in the Kentucky Senate Race’

Mark Leibovich, writing for the New York Times:

All is fair in the fog of fake outrage. McConnell and Grimes may be the main combatants, but the front lines of affront in this Bluegrass State battle are occupied by the competing spokeswomen, Norton and Cooper. They brim with enthusiasm for their jobs, their candidates and their country. But perhaps more important, they are fluent in the lingua franca of chagrin, and eager to share with us — via clinically composed news release, email, tweet or whatever — how deeply troubled and appalled they are by something their opponent did, didn’t do or might possibly be associated with (they’ll leave it to the people of Kentucky to decide). Recently Cooper was beside herself that Grimes would accept a campaign donation from Woody Allen. Norton was horrified that McConnell, the Senate minority leader, would “laugh in the faces of more than 18,000 unemployed Kentuckians.”

I’ll be honest: I can’t stand the fake outrage. I stopped reading any of the political garbage in my inbox when it became email after email if “you won’t believe what XXX said today” — to me, it’s the equivalent of those “1 weird trick” and “doctors hate her” ads that reek of scams.

I guess this approach works on some people. But to me it just seems so desperate.