The 180s Of The 2008 Campaign

Besides continuing to depict Obama as a press-seeking celebrity, McCain and his people have also been referring to their opponent as a flip-flopper—the epithet that deflated Kerry’s campaign. Of course, the Obama camp has reciprocated the rancor by highlighting some of McCain’s switcheroos.

With all this he-said, he-said finger-pointing (and finger-wagging), Politico and PolitiFact analyze five issues in which one candidate accused the other of a political 180-degree turnaround.

While contemplating how the public deciphers two-sided polispeak, we came across a highly informative piece about subtitling—that uncelebrated art of simplification and similitude. The subtitler, who’s worked on everything from Shakespeare to porn, describes translating text for the screen as such:

“I am some sort of firefighter trying to salvage as much as I can from an immense burning mansion. You take out the expensive furniture and artwork and all the people and you leave behind the wallpaper, the rugs, the goldfish tank and the occasional poodle. Sorry, folks, no time.”

In some small way the politician and subtitler are in a similar predicament: each remains tethered to their working originals (platforms and productions, respectively) even as day-to-day developments force them to pick and choose what to filter and what to emphasize.