I really am hooked. The presidential campaign is heating up, and it is time to look at the critical issues that face Americans in 2024 and beyond. As Michael Douglas said in his title role in the 1995 movie, The American President, “We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them.”
We can often look to our past to help direct our future, and this week we were provided another opportunity to reflect. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House from 1995-1999, offered his take on this year’s campaign, and he may have just found the single issue that could sway the electorate — FISH!! I’m hooked.
In a Fox News interview this week, Gingrich explained, “Look, you have to understand that the weird elements of the Democratic Party are now dominant. And they live in a fantasy world. And the only way they can survive is convincing the rest of us that their fantasy is okay.”
I am not quite sure what that means, but he went on, “We were struck on Good Friday, we went by McDonald’s and picked up filet-o-fish, which is now about half the size of the filet-o-fish before Biden. Every time you turn around, you are reminded that these policies of the Biden Democrats do not work.”
McDonald’s has issued a statement confirming that the size of the sandwich has not changed in decades. And note to Newt: they do offer a double.
OK, do we really care? Greg Gutfeld, Fox News crack investigative reporter, stated, prior to Gingrich’s revelation, that there is no such thing as shrinkflation. Yes, I try to view multiple “news” sources to try to get a full complement of broadcast slants, and there are many slants.
Gutfeld cited the fact that a half-gallon container always contains a half-gallon, but he failed to take the extra investigative step to see that some ice cream gallons are now three-quart containers, or that many pints have been repackaged to fourteen ounces. Who would have thought he’d miss that?
But I digress. Whether McDonald’s is truthful about the consistent size of the filet-o-fish sandwich or whether Gutfeld ever verifies any fact before pandering to what his audience wants to hear, are we really going to campaign on a fish sandwich?
As one Twitter responder pointed out, “it just never ends. Sure Newt, Biden is responsible for the (expletive) filet-o-fish. One guy is a rapist who tried to overthrow a lawful election and is indicted on 91 felonies, the other guy is suspected of having something to do with the size of a sandwich.”
That’s not fair either; three of those felony indictments have been thrown out, so let’s correct that number to 88.
And to continue the investigative accuracy, these shrinking product sizes are not new to the Biden administration. In 2008, an ice cream producer issued the following press release:
“Breyers has always taken great pride in offering the highest quality products at reasonable and fair prices. Recently, the price of all of our ingredients, most of all the fresh cream we use in our products, has gone up dramatically. Manufacturing and transportation costs also have increased significantly with the surge in fuel oil prices. Because of these economic conditions and in order to remain competitive, Breyers made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our basic pack to 48 ounces.”
Gee, that was three presidents ago. We should get at least some of the facts straight. Could George Bush have prevented this travesty? The objective in today’s politics is not to be accurate, or to provide solutions to America’s problems; it is to be aggrieved then outraged, and then blame someone else. Maybe our parties should adopt platforms again and stand for something beyond rage with the other side.
Tomorrow’s headline: “President slashes fish sandwich, pockets trillions.”
“We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them.”
Thanks, Newt.
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI, and publishes opinion columns regularly.
Tweets @curtmacrae — comments to rantsbymac@gmail.com
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