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I was watching Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, and they had their usual suspects in a panel discussion talking about all the silly little distractions like Obama's dog eating and Romney's dog transporting. All were of one mind that Romney should forever stay on the high road and appear "presidential".
Isn't that how we got Obama in the first place?
I don't remember anyone ever winning a presidential election by acting above it all and magnanimous.
The hard reality is that ridicule is the single most effective weapon against one's opponent. The problem is that not everyone is good at wielding it. George HW Bush was terrible at it. Reagan did it without effort. Remember the joke about the difference between a recession and depression? That was a brutal take down of Jimmy Carter even though it appeared to be an old man telling a corny joke. Reagan could do that. George HW Bush couldn't. When he won in 1988, it was because he was riding Reagan's wave and Michael Dukakis was even worse at ridicule than Bush. George W. Bush was average at using ridicule, but he was great at absorbing it while Gore was almost as bad as Dukakis. McCain refused to do it.
Obama doesn't need to directly ridicule his opponents given that he has the entire mainstream media save Fox News and talk radio. Saturday Night Live is nothing more than a highly paid, professional ridicule team for the current president. And it's very good at ridicule. It's the best thing they do. Whatever you may think of SNL, they are experts at zoning in on an opponent's weaknesses and then exploiting them to the maximum effect. Too bad for them and the president that they aren't funny in any other capacity and no one watches them anymore. Perhaps that's why Obama does engage directly in ridicule of his opponents. I don't know if you've noticed, but he revels in taking on every criticism and heap derision on its source. I don't think he's disciplined enough to refrain from it if his advisers asked him to.
The big question is not whether or not Romney will come down to Obama's level; I think he showed he would during the primaries. The moment he beat Gingrich was in the second Florida debate when Gingrich giddily dropped the Fannie Mae bomb on Romney and Romney batted it right back at him with ferocity. He'll throw down if he has to. No, the question is whether or not he'll be as good at it as Obama.
It may be that he doesn't have to match Obama's skill at ridicule given the way the news cycle works. Victor Davis Hanson sees a new and encouraging pattern emerging:
I think it would be a mistake to ignore the so-called distractions in hopes that the same American electorate that watches something involving the Kardasians will pay attention only to the economy and Iran's nuclear weapons program. The economy will be the key issue in the election, so we know that Team Obama will do everything in its power to distract from it. Team Romney can either ignore all the little things or it can shoot each of them down.
I think the latter is the best way to go. It fits Romney's instincts and it gives the rest of the team some great memes that might actually make this election cycle fun for once.
My Mind is Clean
Isn't that how we got Obama in the first place?
I don't remember anyone ever winning a presidential election by acting above it all and magnanimous.
The hard reality is that ridicule is the single most effective weapon against one's opponent. The problem is that not everyone is good at wielding it. George HW Bush was terrible at it. Reagan did it without effort. Remember the joke about the difference between a recession and depression? That was a brutal take down of Jimmy Carter even though it appeared to be an old man telling a corny joke. Reagan could do that. George HW Bush couldn't. When he won in 1988, it was because he was riding Reagan's wave and Michael Dukakis was even worse at ridicule than Bush. George W. Bush was average at using ridicule, but he was great at absorbing it while Gore was almost as bad as Dukakis. McCain refused to do it.
Obama doesn't need to directly ridicule his opponents given that he has the entire mainstream media save Fox News and talk radio. Saturday Night Live is nothing more than a highly paid, professional ridicule team for the current president. And it's very good at ridicule. It's the best thing they do. Whatever you may think of SNL, they are experts at zoning in on an opponent's weaknesses and then exploiting them to the maximum effect. Too bad for them and the president that they aren't funny in any other capacity and no one watches them anymore. Perhaps that's why Obama does engage directly in ridicule of his opponents. I don't know if you've noticed, but he revels in taking on every criticism and heap derision on its source. I don't think he's disciplined enough to refrain from it if his advisers asked him to.
The big question is not whether or not Romney will come down to Obama's level; I think he showed he would during the primaries. The moment he beat Gingrich was in the second Florida debate when Gingrich giddily dropped the Fannie Mae bomb on Romney and Romney batted it right back at him with ferocity. He'll throw down if he has to. No, the question is whether or not he'll be as good at it as Obama.
It may be that he doesn't have to match Obama's skill at ridicule given the way the news cycle works. Victor Davis Hanson sees a new and encouraging pattern emerging:
Quote
The result is that when we hear that Rush Limbaugh should be taken off the air for his profane misogyny, almost immediately now there are accounts of Bill Maher’s $1 million gift to Obama and his far greater and unapologetic slurs against women. When we hear all those creepy “concerns” about Romney’s great-grandfather as a polygamist in Mexico, suddenly we are reminded that Obama’s father in Kenya was, too. Putting a dog on the car roof is now not quite the same as eating a dog and then matter-of-fact reading one’s account of it on an audiotape. Trivial? Yes. Distractions from the current economic mess, and beneath us all? Perhaps. All Romney’s doing? Of course not.
But at least 2012 won’t be a default campaign. In other words, to quote Obama, Romney will get in “their faces” and “bring a gun to a knife fight.” McCain more graciously and nobly lost by putting all sorts of concerns off the table. I would expect that should Obama keep harping about Romney’s tax returns, Romney will demand Obama’s transcripts and medical records at last to be released. If Obama’s surrogates keep writing about Mormonism, we will learn of new disclosures about Trinity Church. For every Mormon bishop who said something illiberal in 1976, we will hear of a Father Pfleger or Rev. Meeks trumping that in 2007. And so on.
But at least 2012 won’t be a default campaign. In other words, to quote Obama, Romney will get in “their faces” and “bring a gun to a knife fight.” McCain more graciously and nobly lost by putting all sorts of concerns off the table. I would expect that should Obama keep harping about Romney’s tax returns, Romney will demand Obama’s transcripts and medical records at last to be released. If Obama’s surrogates keep writing about Mormonism, we will learn of new disclosures about Trinity Church. For every Mormon bishop who said something illiberal in 1976, we will hear of a Father Pfleger or Rev. Meeks trumping that in 2007. And so on.
I think it would be a mistake to ignore the so-called distractions in hopes that the same American electorate that watches something involving the Kardasians will pay attention only to the economy and Iran's nuclear weapons program. The economy will be the key issue in the election, so we know that Team Obama will do everything in its power to distract from it. Team Romney can either ignore all the little things or it can shoot each of them down.
I think the latter is the best way to go. It fits Romney's instincts and it gives the rest of the team some great memes that might actually make this election cycle fun for once.
My Mind is Clean
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Lincoln Crack for historians.
Bully I'm sorry, but I've never seen a more clueless bunch of parents and--especially--educators.
Fat Head If you want to regain some intelligence after watching Supersize Me, watch this.
The Hobbit Not a movie. An achievement.
Red Dawn Uh, those North Koreans look pretty well fed. Almost as well fed as the Chinese. Good explosions.
Expendables 2 Someone had the genius idea to film the Random Facts About Chuck Norris. And kudos to Chuck because the film had almost no cursing.
Lincoln Brilliant. Funny. Sad. Daniel Day Lewis should get an Oscar by Constitutional amendment.
2016: Obama's America Great for high and low info voters. Not much new for the high info voter, but some good theoretical discussion. Dinesh is still a punk for agreeing to an interview, then ducking my harder questions.
The Dark Knight Rises: Best treatment of the hero theme ever. Great re-imagining of the Russian Revolution, also.
The Amazing Spiderman: Better than the original. Here's why: Emma Stone way better than Kirsten Dunce. The kid who plays Spidey is way better than Toby McGuire. Closer to the comic from what I understand. No silly Power Rangers mask on villain. I like how they keep him in high school. Martin Sheen gets shot.
Three Stooges: Turning Moe loose on the cast of Jersey Shore? Masterful.
The Avengers: The only word for how awesome this movie is: Dude.
Winter's Bone: Jennifer Lawrence deserves an Oscar for just reading this script. Let's just say don't stray too far out of Branson if you're ever up in the Ozarks.
The Hunger Games: The Running Man for pre-teen girls. But with more stabbing.
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon: A jackhammer of an action movie. Wildly xceeded my low expectations.
Super 8: Thank you Misters Spielberg and Abrams. The former may be a pinko commie lib, but he knows what he's doing. The latter may be a jerk around artist when he's got years to tell a story. But give him just a couple of hours, and he's dead on. Great, great old school 80s era Spielberg flick.
True Grit: I didn't want to like it out of respect for The Duke, but dang it if those Cohen brothers aren't masterful.
X-Men First Class: Yet another home run from Marvel. It's funny, the first time I saw Magneto's helmet, I thought "That would look great on Kevin Bacon."
The Hangover 2: Um. Yeah. Sick. My sainted wife picked this one. I'm sure the prospect of seeing Bradley Cooper's Magnum PI caliber chest had nothing to do with it.Thor: On par with Iron Man, which means top-notch. Jeremy Shockey is great as Thor. What? That's not Jeremy Shockey? Well, he should sue then.
Battle: LASo, that's what happened on the ground on Independence Day. Seriously, very good movie.
Tangled: A Burkean mix of aesthetics and respect for tradition. In other words, it was pretty cool.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Spectacular. Some visuals that are so beautiful they almost hurt to look at.
Tron: Legacy: I don't know why they had to mess with perfection.
The A-Team: I wasn't a believer until stuff blew up. Then I was, like, "yeah!"Waiting for Superman: I haven't been this disappointed since I found out that To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a documentary.
The Book of Eli: Had the potential for one of the greatest endings in movie history but pissed it away with one scene.
She's Out of My League: Is there a RomCom factory somewhere and can we blow it up in the A-Team sequal?
Waking Sleeping Beauty: I liked the Pixar Story much better. It's basically the same movie about movies.
Clash of the Titans: Yelling "Release the Kraken!" when you go into the men's room is still funny. But it has been funny since the 80's, so...
Date Night: Not your average RomCom. I think this is the movie Alfred Hitchcock was trying to make when he slapped North by Northwest together.
Iron Man 2: Keep them coming. Please.
cobalt-blue, on 23 April 2012 - 01:54 PM, said:
That's right. One of the things we liked about Gingrich was his killer instinct. In fact, it was that contrast that made many of us question Romney's vaunted electability. I think he's shown that instinct, and that gives me hope.
moocow, on 23 April 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:
Not really. It's just a matter of degrees.