Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Girl Index
A few months ago, I encountered something on YouTube called "Breck Girl", showing this young woman giving John Edwards a haircut, and making him look nice and spiffy. This gives the impression that John Edwards is a media hype person who needs to look like a sexy Hollywood actor. That is definitely not the case. Edwards is a serious candidate, and in fact, one of the best that is running for President in 2008. It's just that he has this "Breck Girl" around to give him this spiffy image. So is John Edwards the only one with this property?
No. All the candidates have girls, even Hillary. So we might as well define a Girl Index, which I suppose will represent a mix of rock-star charisma and media hype involved with the candidate. The Girl Index is defined as the number of hits that occur when one Googles on “’X’ girl”, where X is a Presidential candidate. So here we go:
Edwards 5410
Clinton
“Clinton Girl” 6310
“Hillary Girl” 4580
“Hott4hill” 16,100
Obama 9,670,000,000 (!!!,!!!)
Richardson 454
Gravel 1760
Kucinich 2070
Biden 96
Dodd 167
Giuliani 50,000
McCain 347
Romney 1,290
Huckabee 190
Ron PaulPaul 69,900
Tancredo 8 (no longer a candidate)
Keyes 141 (most of these stick a comma between “Keyes” and “girl”)
F. Thompson Thompson 11,800
Breck 51,100
Hey, Breck isn’t even a Presidential candidate. That 9 billion for “obama girl” is a Google error, I’m sure. The word "the" only gets about 10 billion hits. When I Google on “’obama girl’ the”, I get 550,000 hits. Surely that can't mean that there are 9 billion pages out there that have "obama girl" in them but not "the". The large number of hits for Obama is because Obama was the candidate that had the original girl, the “Obama Girl”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU
I found that a Ron Paul fan came up with an answer to that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFWoyJ-SGpk
And there is a Ron Paul girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6mBCC4dt0Y
And there is even a Hillary girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sudw4ghVe8
Looking at all these girl indices, which I take to be a measure of infatuous charisma and hype, the major Democratic candidate that has the least index is once again Bill Richardson! (since Biden and Dodd are not major candidates, or you’re a Republican – then it’s John McCain or Mike Huckabee). No matter which way you measure the candidates, idiot, flip-flop, or girl, Richardson’s name keeps coming up.
And among the top 3 Democrats, Edwards has the smallest index. A snazzy exterior may cover more than just hype, as Jim Kunstler says:
“Then there's John Edwards, who has essentially remained a candidate since his defeat for Vice-president in 04, babysitting the odious John Kerry. I like Edwards pretty well, too. His origins were humble. Despite his movie star exterior, he seems capable, decisive, and sympathetic. He has his finger on the pulse of the biggest not-yet-articulated campaign issue: the demolition of the middle class.”
No. All the candidates have girls, even Hillary. So we might as well define a Girl Index, which I suppose will represent a mix of rock-star charisma and media hype involved with the candidate. The Girl Index is defined as the number of hits that occur when one Googles on “’X’ girl”, where X is a Presidential candidate. So here we go:
Edwards 5410
Clinton
“Clinton Girl” 6310
“Hillary Girl” 4580
“Hott4hill” 16,100
Obama 9,670,000,000 (!!!,!!!)
Richardson 454
Gravel 1760
Kucinich 2070
Biden 96
Dodd 167
Giuliani 50,000
McCain 347
Romney 1,290
Huckabee 190
Ron PaulPaul 69,900
Tancredo 8 (no longer a candidate)
Keyes 141 (most of these stick a comma between “Keyes” and “girl”)
F. Thompson Thompson 11,800
Breck 51,100
Hey, Breck isn’t even a Presidential candidate. That 9 billion for “obama girl” is a Google error, I’m sure. The word "the" only gets about 10 billion hits. When I Google on “’obama girl’ the”, I get 550,000 hits. Surely that can't mean that there are 9 billion pages out there that have "obama girl" in them but not "the". The large number of hits for Obama is because Obama was the candidate that had the original girl, the “Obama Girl”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU
I found that a Ron Paul fan came up with an answer to that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFWoyJ-SGpk
And there is a Ron Paul girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6mBCC4dt0Y
And there is even a Hillary girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sudw4ghVe8
Looking at all these girl indices, which I take to be a measure of infatuous charisma and hype, the major Democratic candidate that has the least index is once again Bill Richardson! (since Biden and Dodd are not major candidates, or you’re a Republican – then it’s John McCain or Mike Huckabee). No matter which way you measure the candidates, idiot, flip-flop, or girl, Richardson’s name keeps coming up.
And among the top 3 Democrats, Edwards has the smallest index. A snazzy exterior may cover more than just hype, as Jim Kunstler says:
“Then there's John Edwards, who has essentially remained a candidate since his defeat for Vice-president in 04, babysitting the odious John Kerry. I like Edwards pretty well, too. His origins were humble. Despite his movie star exterior, he seems capable, decisive, and sympathetic. He has his finger on the pulse of the biggest not-yet-articulated campaign issue: the demolition of the middle class.”
