And in the spirit of bi-partisanship, I’ll mention Nancy Pelosi does this to. During one of the State of the Union addresses the Daily Show put counters below Pelosi and Cheney (who were both sitting behind the Prez) to keep track of how many times each blinked. The ratio was like 40 to one.
And a Letterman Blink-off video. Pelosi blinks 32 times in 24 seconds there. That’s 1.33 blinks per second and pretty good. It doesn’t come close to McCain in this instance (about 1.8 bps) but it was on a bigger stage and she wasn’t talking.
Not seen it in a politician but I saw a TV show where a doctor was talking about the pros and cons of piercing and I’m not exagerating when I say he was blinking CONSTANTLY. He didn’t stop blinking the whole time he spoke and was doing it several times a second, and I’ve no idea how you can keep that up as when I tried that it gave me a headache within 15 seconds.
CNN correspondent Dana Bash (the one that looks like a giraffe in a suit) is Queen Blinky. I can’t even really follow what she’s saying, it’s so singularly distracting.
I used to wonder how she secured or kept an on-camera job with CNN, but I think I know the score: Someone there really took Edward Lorenz to heart, and they’re counting on an increase in juicy hurricane coverage.
McCain has pulled this stunt several times in his run at the White House, dating back to 2000. He rides off to find the Grail, saves the day (not), doesn’t know if he can make it back in time, but manages to arrive in the nick of time to carry on the Crusade. It’s political hackery at its worst. His blinking is probably nervousness that the press just might finally be on to his little game, or his brain frantically trying to figure out if he can sell the bullshit again before the election.
I tend to blink a lot if I’m really sleepy and need to be awake. For instance if I find myself driving late at night and I’m really drowsy. Perhaps he just needs a nap?