Politics and Photoshop, spins and spiders

The season has arrived for aspirants to the highest office in the land to toss their hats into the ring. 

I note at the same time stories about speculation that publicity photos of female performers have been Phtoshopped. This process -- which as far as I know is simply the digital version of tampering with the evidence which has long been the practice in the world of entertainment and news reporting -- is considered somewhat scandalous, or at least is reported in breathless tones of shock.

In the political sphere, we take this for granted and just call it spin. As painful as I find the endless pre-electoral process to be, all the faux debates and cockeyed caucuses and so on, at least many of the candidates who have been spun into a delectable fantasy fall under the prolonged scrutiny and disappear from the landscape. Well, hardly disappear. Many of them get gigs as news analysts (cough, cough) at cable news networks where they get to do the spinning, usually attempting to spin everyone else off the playing board.

At any rate, one suspects that the process we must endure for the next year and a half means some worthy men and women forgo it all for the sake of having a life.

I could probably come up with some strained parallel here between the pride of Arachne -- who thought her weaving better than that of Athena and was turned into a spider for her arrogance -- but I will let you work that out on your own. (Attend to the version in which Arachne weaves stories that show the gods at their worst. History's first spin doctor?)

Okay, so maybe I did come up with a strained parallel.