Dakota Beacon

What do a “flock of furrow-browed politicos” and a “well-dressed couple who conned their way into a White House shindig” have in common? When it comes to the art of the con—as the author of this op-ed observes—to the untrained eye, both groups can paint a persuasive portrait. Dr. Marvin Folkertsma—maintains that the recent “romp of Mr. and Mrs. Coiffed-to-Perfection is the most amusing story to pop out of the ideological fever swamp of D.C.” in quite some time. To assess the merit of this headline, Dr. Folkertsma turns to a couple of con game connoisseurs: Herman Melville and Mark Twain. Both “were America’s most insightful writers, in that they could smell a con game a continent away.