New York Times Sending Subliminal Pro-Obama Messages In Crosswords

The Politico's David Levinson Wilk has a post today at how the New York Times is in the tank for Obama, because of the abundance of clues that lead, unerringly to his last name. Wilk notes that "OBAMA" has "appeared regularly as an answer in New York Times crossword puzzles," frequently to clues such as "Senator who wrote 'Dreams From My Father,'" "Presidential candidate born in Hawaii," and "Presidential candidate that Elizabeth Bumiller wants to HUG and KISS every night before falling asleep in his arms." It is TOTALLY media bias, of course!

But what about MCCAIN? Shockingly, not once has MCCAIN been an answer in a crossword in the New York Times, The Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times. No MCCAIN, no JOHNMCCAIN, no SENATORMCCAIN, not even his most recent sobriquet, the presidential-sounding JOHNSMCCAINIII.

Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty told Wilk that there is an "obvious" explanation. "It is because 'Obama' is a five-letter name that alternates vowels and consonants. It's got three vowels out of five letters, starting and ending in vowels. So it is much more crossword-friendly than 'McCain,' which is a harder word to put in a crossword." But how is it that "John McCain" has never found it's way into a Times puzzle even once? "McCain" looks right at home inside tiny boxes! Fred Thompson tells me McCain spent five and a half years in a tiny box!

The answer, of course, is that the New York Times crossword puzzle is made by the Decemberists, who should be fired so that the paper can go back to being in the tank for the "Epee/Oleo" ticket.

Comments

[Shabba]

The NYTimes does not actually write the puzzles. They buy them from independent writers. Although the Times does have an editor that reviews each puzzle before publication.

[jeffp26]

I think you missed the point.

Ha ha ha

[iPolitics]

Did the Times do this when they endorsed everybody, but Obama in the primaries (McCain; Clinton)?

[dollardream]

Excuse me, Dorothy, but we are not in the primaries anymore. And, although the Times endorsed McC during the primaries as the repub. candidate; I think it's safe to say that they will be endorsing Obama for President. Official newspaper endorsements usually come right after the first or second presidential debate. Stay tuned.

[chriscantdance]

so, you're saying McCain doesn't have a clue?

[EvasDaddy]

"McCain doesn't have a clue"

I like it!

[itsamessi]

skills ahahah

[Skeptiqone]

It seems like lately, he only has cross words!

[standard]

Well played, Skeptiqone!

[jcrush]

think about it... crossword puzzles everywhere are subliminally in the tank for Obama. The combination of black and white, just like Obama. WOW, WHODA THUNK IT ??!!

[haveitoldyoulately]

Maybe the McCain camp should give Sarah some puzzles to do....she may learn something

[EvasDaddy]

Or how about some Palin clues?

Bridge to ________

Trooper____

I put it on____

Drill, ____ drill

Hockey mom, pit bull difference

[6bd]

The McCain campaign needn't worry about coverage via crossword puzzles, they have cornered the market on side news by having "ghostwriters" submit falsified editorials to promote right wing talking points. blatant lies, for pretend lives. There is no dignity in many (not all) of the Republican enthusiasts.

[Iheartniki]

And if you look even closer, there are coded messages from Russky spies....

The economy is going down the drain and we getting this for discussion. SHEESH.

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

DID U FIND THE WORD UNBREAKABLE?

[foam]

Toilet,burger and punishment for Presidential nominee ? (4, 6)

[PumaAnn]

This is actually funny as heck. As a crossword puzzle fan, I can assure everyone it's due to the vowels in his name, not any political motive.

But......cute!

[standard]

When I started doing Times crosswords, forty years ago, I was certain I knew which university the puzzle editor had attended. The answer to clues referring to a college or college students was almost always "ELIS" or "YALE". It still is.

In time, I learned that the sheer arithmetic of relative letter frequencies in English requires crossword puzzle constructors to use a lot of short words laden with vowels, especially those with four letters and two vowels. Anyone who knows how to solve simple cryptograms can (a) explain why that is, and (b) solve crosswords more easily than those who can't solve cryptograms.

An honest statistical study of the Times's puzzles will show that "DOLE" has appeared far more often than "CLINTON" and that either "TAFT" or "BUSH" (albeit each has three consonants) have appeared far more often than "DUKAKIS", "MCGOVERN", "STEVENSON", "KENNEDY", "JEFFERSON" and "JACKSON" combined.

The use of words of four letters even reflects the relative difficulty of Times crosswords. Those with many are easy (the Monday and Tuesday puzzles); those with few, hardest to solve (Saturday puzzles). With practice, you can tell at a glance whether a Times puzzle was run early or late in the week by checking its proportion of four letter answers.

Show me a conspiracy theorist and I'll show you a "FOOL".

[osudem0307]

he was a CLUE a couple weeks ago!! ...ok, along with Hillary, but still! how dare they use people in the spotlight as answers...

if the NYT wanted to do subliminal messages.... I think they would do it more successfully and shrewdly than using the crossword puzzle..

[dac253]

5 Down: GOP Presidential nominee that sold his soul for a shot at the White House

25 Across: Nominee that promised a respectful 2008 presidential campaign

35 Down: Senator claiming to solve the economic crisis instead of debating his opponent

...is that better?

[ProFromOre]

4. Down - Popular nickname of Senator who falsely claimed to suspend his campaign to order to divert the media from looking further into the fact the same Senator was a major player in causing the Great Depression of the 21st Century. (McBush)

22. Across - During the 08 primaries, former NYC Mayor Guliani was ridiculed for campaigning on "a word, a verb and 911". Sen McCain was similarly criticized for using what word instead of '911'

29. Across - During the 2008 presidential campaign which Senator chose an unknown Alaska Governor without adequate vetting, who later was removed from office by the Alaska citizens for rampant abuse of power.

[bola47]

3 across a sitting united states senator who was reprimanded in the keating 5 scandal
16 down the father-in-law of a united states senator from arizona who had ties to organized crime and was involved in the death of don bolles, the investigative reporter doing a story on this
23 across the republican candidate for president who lost the 2008 election in a landslide for the democrats

[tel8034]

The NY Times knows that McCain wouldn't be able to solve the puzzle anyway ............... even if the clue for which McCain was the correct answer, was actually "McCAIN".

[sociocanuck]

At this rate I'm sure by November pretty much every news outlet apart from Fox will have been described as "in the tank" for Obama. Including obscure local ones of whom nobody outside one or two towns would have heard.