Rachel on macho-izing Tim Pawlenty

And in other news, while we're waiting for further Giffords updates (though I have to say, the obsession with macho by the Fearful Right, featured below, echoes the news in a horribly inadvertent way).

So here's Rachel Maddow on Tim Pawlenty recently. She makes some very smart comments, but it feels like there's a ton of subtext here, starting with the very first comments.



She's doing two things. First, she's making a great point about the entirely corrupt modern PR and advertising industry and how it "manufactures authenticity". (Let your mind marinate in that last phrase for a moment; like I said, entirely corrupt).

In this case, the industry is re-branding Tim Pawlenty as the kind of he-man that a Sarah Palin, say, won't have to tell to grow a pair. (See, he's already got a pair; he's standing next to a Ford F-150.)

But Rachel's also doing something else, something that surprises me. Either that, or my flashlight just went dim. Isn't she also re-branding him?

GP