Will Shortz and the Liberal Media Conspiracy

Somebody alert Steve Schmidt! Politico has detected empirical evidence of BIAS!!! in The New York Times: In the past three years, Barack Obama's last name has "regularly" featured as the answer to a crossword-puzzle clue; McCain's name has never been used.

A Times spokeswoman explains:

The answer is obvious for anyone who does crosswords. 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. If McCain's name was Obama, then his name would have been used many more times in crosswords.

Sure, but think about how confusing that would be for voters.

• The Blues on Broadway
• The Culturati: What to Do in October
• The Unforgiven: Campaign Debts That Live On
• Wall Fall Down: Who Will Survive the Panic?

---