corrente

Somewhere in the world there must be a contest for World's Stupidest Smart Person, because William Saletan is clearly competing for the crown. Following up on his First Round essay, "George Bush Does Not Lie", Saletan outdoes himself today with "[Kerry] Can't Talk Either!" Here's his idea of a Kerryism on a par with any random Bushism. And this is going to be a regular Slate feature? Bring it on. Apparently it's news to Saletan that extemporaneous speech is not as terse as edited prose.

It's apparently news to Christopher Hitchens, too, speaking of windy. Compare any paragraph of Hitchens tedious piece with Saletan's Kerryism, and tell me which one gets to the point about Abu Ghraib faster. Trick question: only Kerry's statement has an intelligible point.

I'd say that Hitchens is giving Saletan serious competition for the title, but chronic abuse of performance-enhancing drugs should, I think we all agree, be grounds for automatic disqualification.