Have Your Cake and Eat It To - Olbermann

Olbermann asked the question to John McCormich (Chicago Tribune) is it possible Kerry is playing the political game. Don't get the reputation of being a sore loser, but still investigate what's going on.

"To increase the public's confidence in our election laws" according to the Kerry campaign.

What do YOU think?

is the correct expression.

at least as I learned it. :)

<snip>

Whoever expected English idioms to be logical? The usual way in which one sees this one is as the negative you can’t have your cake and eat it, expressing the idea that you have to make an either/or choice, that you can’t reconcile two mutually incompatible situations. It would be a little clearer if it were written as you can’t both have your cake and eat it. It would be more obviously the same as the other form if you also rewrote that as you can’t eat your cake and still have it.

<snip>

Those who first used it certainly agreed with your sense of logic. Though presumably rather older, it is first written down in John Heywood’s A Dialogue Conteynyng Prouerbes and Epigrammes of 1562: “Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?”. John Keats quoted it as eat your cake and have it at the beginning of his poem On Fame in 1816; Franklin D Roosevelt borrowed it in that form for his State of the Union Address in 1940; a search of nineteenth-century literature shows it to be about twice as common as the other. But a quick Google search shows the have your cake and eat it form is now about ten times as frequent, and all my dictionaries of idioms and proverbs cite it that way.
<snip

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I bow to no "wolde ye bothe" burblebunk.... I go with the populist preference: "But a quick Google search shows the have your cake and eat it form is now about ten times as frequent."

Besides, I always felt that by eating the cake, one really "had" it in a much more meaningful sense... like those guys who absorb the essence of their enemies by eating them.

the conclusion is still the same

You can't have your cake if you eat it

You can't eat your cake and still have it

You must be highly in demand for Trivial Pursuit games.

Thanks.

My dad, trying to make a point no doubt relevant to the discussion (which I don't remember... but I DO remember what he said!).

"You can't bake your cake and eat it too..."

Well, then, I thought, no baking for me!

one smart cookie.

I just wish he'd followed his instincts during the campaign, instead of listening to people like Bob Schrum. And Mary Beth Cahill may be a crackerjack Chief of Staff for Teddy, but she has no business running a campaign.

have my (pan)cake and eat it, too. Ha! Gotcha!

Softly softly catchee monkey.

Thanks! I NEEDED that!

:evilgrin:

It was a Veterans Day letter, about honoring the vets, and so forth.

It arrived at the email address from which I made donations.

I never got such a message from Al Gore four years ago, and he's a veteran.

I found it strange, and then I thought: He's staying visible. It's a message, and not about veterans at all. He's just doing a reassuring drop-in a week later.

Of course, I might be wrong about this, but I've maintained since November 3 that the election's not legally over until December 13, and I do not believe that John Kerry would ever walk away. That concession speech - which has no legal validity - was simply to lull the other side into comfort, thinking they'd won.

I got this feeling, I'm telling you.

this guy knows combat. :thumbsup:

I did get a letter from Elizabeth Edwards saying that she has changed her email.

Better to acquire evidence without giving Dumb-Dumb and Co. a target....because there is no bulls-eye this way.

so I would be very surprised if he is not doing just that although I would not call it 'the political game', I would call it a strategic maneuver.

comment was hilarious: Escher was the artist who drew the hand drawing the hand...

In other words, the blog has drawn the hand of the media who are drawing the hand of the bloggers.

And it is, "Have your cake and Eat it, too." :P ;)

.. I would advise him to do.

There is a very angry NBC related thread around here that suggested he has backed off. So has he or hasn't he?

Hey, guys-- I've been reading this blog for a couple of days, and have already become hooked to it! You guys are amazing. I just joined. So -- hello. :)

You might want to read David Shuster's Hardblogger (MSNBC).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/

He decided to get in on all this and do some checking and has verified that Green Party and Libertarian Party have definite plans to call for Ohio recount. He also promises more interesting info on Hardball Friday night.

If this has already been brought up in another thread, then I apologize for the duplication, but thought you-all would be interested.

:hi:

edit: I'm a Texan too!

:hi:

He said it was within their right to ask for a recount as long as they paid for it. They are trying to raise money now for it. There is still hope.

Iv been emailing him all week telling him how much I appreciate his coverage of this story!

when is the show on? Do we have vid? All the others have been posted by this time? I need my nightly fix!