You've probably never heard of Jeffery Berman, but if you've been enjoying the 2008 Dem Presidential primary which, like the Rolling Stones reunion tour, never ends, you have him to thank. Early on Hillary Clinton had a big state strategy that centered around winning a few of the largest states and calling it a day. It was a good strategy except for one small problem: Jeffery Berman. This guy no one ever heard of figured out the delegate math and helped the Obama campaign realize that, for instance, they could match the gain Hillary Clinton made in New Jersey in the significantly smaller state of Idaho by merely trying for the state's delegates with a small ground effort. He also helped them realize that they could win Nevada while losing the popular vote in that state by winning the only district in the state with an odd number of delegates (the even-numbered districts split evenly).
Only recently did we found out who he was, thanks to this article in Politico. He's proof that what seems right at first doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Take, for instance, an exchange in the Holden HSV Tourer post. Goatrope opened with this observation:
Hey GM - this is pretty cool. But you should know a little Jalopnik secret - we wouldn't buy it if you brought it over (as you will soon find out with the El Camino or whatever you call it.) Sure, we'll all beg and plead and promise; but the truth is, we are just fuckin' with ya. We're not going to but it - just like we haven't bought the Magnum SRT8. We just like the idea of different, exciting, powerful cars. We aren't going to drop our hard-earned money on these things. We just hope somebody else will.
There's a decent amount of truth to that given, beyond the fantasy garage, few of us own more than three or four cars. But Ash78 hit back with something we at least want to believe is true:
We don't necessarily have to buy it...I view people on here as among the "opinion makers" for the auto community. As long as we think it's a cool car, perhaps that "validation" will drive others to buy it.
I know plenty of otherwise-rational people who care strongly about what other people think of their cars.
That's right, we are tastemakers and we taste the HSV wagon, therefore it must be so.
[Photo: RuralNVDemCaucus.Blogspot.com]