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Politics

Turkeys Gobbler, Cobbler Only Recipients of Presidential Pardons This Year

The power to pardon is not just a novelty

Ed Krayewski | 11.22.2012 1:55 PM

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jive turkey?
White House

President Obama pardoned two turkeys yesterday, as per White House tradition. The turkeys were apparently chosen on the White House Facebook page, with the president making a joke about Nate Silver "nailing it," one of several references to his recent re-election according to the AP write-up of the event. Exit polls on election day saw Obama losing on issues like the economy but winning huge leads on "empathy" and "caring," which makes it a pity that the president's chosen to wield his constitutional power to pardon this year exclusively on the turkeys. The U.S. prison population remains the largest in the world, irrespective of who looks like they care. Happy Thanksgiving!

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NEXT: Ronald Bailey on Blue Science and Red Science

Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

PoliticsCivil LibertiesBarack ObamaClemencyPrisons
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