Friends, the first Republican debate/rugby scrum is next week. This is a perfect opportunity to test the Ideal Gas-Bag Law in action. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the equation:
PV = NRT.
P stands for pressure, to increase puny poll numbers or get attention.
V stands for venue.
N stands for number of cameras and microphones at the venue.
R stands for the need to raise money.
T stands for timing.
Since V, N, and T will be the same for the participants in the big debate (and for those attending the also-ran wrestling match), the Ideal Gas-Bag Law can be boiled down to a simple equation, P = R. Is this beautiful or what?
Under normal conditions, the higher P or R is, the more wacky a candidate’s statements become. Every region in the country has its group of perennial also-rans who run just for the sake of airing their issue in the voters’ guide. They have a snowball’s chance in Hades of getting elected, but that’s irrelevant. This year could be different. I’m predicting a J-shaped curve between P and R, and the wildness of the candidates’ statements in the debates. So grab a pen and a piece of graph paper for next week. Rate each candidate on P = R on the horizontal axis, and put the wildness of his/her statements on the vertical axis. This means you’ll have to give up the buzzword bingo drinking game to be sober enough to draw a graph, but the shape of the eventual line should be interesting. Enjoy!
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