Attention Whores tend to launch their determined dashes into our consciousness from all different worlds—politics, entertainment, social media, sports … anyplace, really. But whether they arrive at center stage by shooting out of the wings, or rising through a trapdoor like Wilfrid Brambell in A Hard Day’s Night, or swooping in wildly on a harness—Mind the proscenium arch!—they never fail to locate that spotlight.
Yet every now and then (and this is one of those weeks), all the leading finishers seem to have been spawned in the same miserable corner of the toxic primordial ooze. Hence, we have a sweep of sorts: In first place, the distinguished foreign correspondent Tucker Carlson, with 44.5 percent of your vote. Second, following a solid week’s worth of chaos and dysfunction, the G.O.P., with 19.8 percent. And third, that party’s poster boy and a category unto himself, Donald Trump, at 15.4 percent. If only the Texas-border-obsessed Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent had polled higher, they could have added a caboose to that three-car train of political noxiousness! But, sadly, they managed only 2.2 percent and a tie for sixth place with Fani Willis.
