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Ubiquitous
Jul 21, 2012, 10:24:55 AM7/21/12
to
A tweet from CBS News's Mark Knoller called our attention to this passage
from a campaign speech President Obama gave last night in West Palm
Beach, Fla.:
And so, over the next four months, the other side is going
to spend more money than we've ever seen. (Laughter.) And
they'll have a bunch of ads with scary voices. (Laughter.)
And most of what you hear, you can pretty much just go
mute--(laughter)--just press the mute button. That's the
good thing about the remote. Or you can use the DVR and fast
forward. (Laughter.)
It's funny because it's true. The advice Obama is half-jokingly giving
his supporters--close your mind to opposing arguments--is, we noted last
Wednesday, essentially the advice George Lakoff offers to Democrats in
his new book. It's advice more suited to a cult leader, whose goal is to
maintain his hold on his followers, than to a leader in a democracy, who
needs to broaden his appeal.
A confident leader in a democracy would want his supporters to pay
attention to the opposition's ads. It would fire them up and prepare them
to make the case for their guy. If Obama is afraid people who attend his
fund-raisers will abandon him if they see Romney ads, imagine the effect
on independent voters.
The Obama campaign truly seems to be out of touch with reality. Yesterday
it issued an ad that can only be describe as bizarre. Titled "Mitt
Romney: Saying Anything to Get Elected," it begins with words on the
screen: "Mitt Romney is launching a false attack." Then it shows a clip
of Romney quoting Obama: "If you've got a business, you didn't build
that. Somebody else made that happen."
"The only problem?" reads the onscreen caption "That's not what he said."
The ad then shows a lengthy clip of Obama in which he says _exactly the
words Romney attributed to him_! Making the point more dramatically,
someone with the YouTube account NotBarackObama.com did a shortened
version of the Obama ad, cutting out a bunch of other Obama quotes. In
the context of this ad, "That's not what he said" is either a brazen lie
or an act of dissociation, a psychological term meaning a severe
detachment from reality.
Perhaps the Taranto Principle is finally catching up to Obama. Liberal
journalists have twisted themselves into pretzels justifying the "You
didn't build that" comment. At The New Yorker, for instance, Alex
Koppelman says Obama was right because Steve Jobs went to a government
school, and Adam Gopnik claims Obama was really just expounding the views
of Adam Smith, the 18th-century philosopher of capitalism.
Brian Ross's colleagues at ABC News "reported" yesterday that "Mitt
Romney went to a Massachusetts truck repair shop today to refute
President Obama's point that businesses are built only with the help of
roads and other government services," making Romney out, quite
preposterously, as an enemy of roads.
As Charles Murray notes in a blog post:
There's a standard way for Americans to celebrate accomplishment.
First, we call an individual onto the stage and say what great
things that person has done. Then that person gives a thank-you
speech that begins "I couldn't have done this without�" and a
list of people who helped along the way. That's the way we've
always done it. Everyone knows we all get help in life (and
sometimes just get lucky). But we have always started with the
individual and then worked out. It is not part of the American
mindset to begin with the collective and admonish individuals
for thinking too highly of their contribution.
In his September 2008 post-mortem on Hillary Clinton's campaign, Joshua
Green of The Atlantic quoted from a memo from Clinton adviser Mark Penn:
All of these articles about [Obama's] boyhood in Indonesia and
his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is
diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.
Save it for 2050.
It also exposes a very strong weakness for him--his roots to
basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot
imagine America electing a president during a time of war who
is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking
and in his values. He told the people of NH yesterday he has
a Kansas accent because his mother was from there. His mother
lived in many states as far as we can tell--but this is an
example of the nonsense he uses to cover this up.
How we could give some life to this contrast without turning
negative:
Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle
of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century.
And talk about the basic bargain as about the deeply American
values you grew up with, learned as a child and that drive you
today. Values of fairness, compassion, responsibility, giving
back.
Let's explicitly own "American" in our programs, the speeches
and the values. He doesn't. Make this a new American Century,
the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let's use our logo to make
some flags we can give out. Let's add flag symbols to the
backgrounds.
Green wrote that Mrs. Clinton "wisely chose not to go this route." It's
not clear if he meant "wisely" in a moral or a strategic sense. One
assumes that Green found the Penn advice distasteful, but it's also
possible that it would have been ineffective in a Democratic electorate.
Then again, not following the advice wasn't a winning strategy either.
Obama's hostility to American individualism suggests, however, that Penn
had pegged him correctly. His allies in the media are now egging him on
as he expresses these unattractive attitudes. We have yet to see a
prominent lefty so much as admit that "You didn't build that" was a
serious rhetorical blunder. Anytime one speaks this obvious truth, the
Obama campaign hits the mute button. The president will probably show up
to the fall debates wearing earplugs.
--
"If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
21st century."
from a campaign speech President Obama gave last night in West Palm
Beach, Fla.:
And so, over the next four months, the other side is going
to spend more money than we've ever seen. (Laughter.) And
they'll have a bunch of ads with scary voices. (Laughter.)
And most of what you hear, you can pretty much just go
mute--(laughter)--just press the mute button. That's the
good thing about the remote. Or you can use the DVR and fast
forward. (Laughter.)
It's funny because it's true. The advice Obama is half-jokingly giving
his supporters--close your mind to opposing arguments--is, we noted last
Wednesday, essentially the advice George Lakoff offers to Democrats in
his new book. It's advice more suited to a cult leader, whose goal is to
maintain his hold on his followers, than to a leader in a democracy, who
needs to broaden his appeal.
A confident leader in a democracy would want his supporters to pay
attention to the opposition's ads. It would fire them up and prepare them
to make the case for their guy. If Obama is afraid people who attend his
fund-raisers will abandon him if they see Romney ads, imagine the effect
on independent voters.
The Obama campaign truly seems to be out of touch with reality. Yesterday
it issued an ad that can only be describe as bizarre. Titled "Mitt
Romney: Saying Anything to Get Elected," it begins with words on the
screen: "Mitt Romney is launching a false attack." Then it shows a clip
of Romney quoting Obama: "If you've got a business, you didn't build
that. Somebody else made that happen."
"The only problem?" reads the onscreen caption "That's not what he said."
The ad then shows a lengthy clip of Obama in which he says _exactly the
words Romney attributed to him_! Making the point more dramatically,
someone with the YouTube account NotBarackObama.com did a shortened
version of the Obama ad, cutting out a bunch of other Obama quotes. In
the context of this ad, "That's not what he said" is either a brazen lie
or an act of dissociation, a psychological term meaning a severe
detachment from reality.
Perhaps the Taranto Principle is finally catching up to Obama. Liberal
journalists have twisted themselves into pretzels justifying the "You
didn't build that" comment. At The New Yorker, for instance, Alex
Koppelman says Obama was right because Steve Jobs went to a government
school, and Adam Gopnik claims Obama was really just expounding the views
of Adam Smith, the 18th-century philosopher of capitalism.
Brian Ross's colleagues at ABC News "reported" yesterday that "Mitt
Romney went to a Massachusetts truck repair shop today to refute
President Obama's point that businesses are built only with the help of
roads and other government services," making Romney out, quite
preposterously, as an enemy of roads.
As Charles Murray notes in a blog post:
There's a standard way for Americans to celebrate accomplishment.
First, we call an individual onto the stage and say what great
things that person has done. Then that person gives a thank-you
speech that begins "I couldn't have done this without�" and a
list of people who helped along the way. That's the way we've
always done it. Everyone knows we all get help in life (and
sometimes just get lucky). But we have always started with the
individual and then worked out. It is not part of the American
mindset to begin with the collective and admonish individuals
for thinking too highly of their contribution.
In his September 2008 post-mortem on Hillary Clinton's campaign, Joshua
Green of The Atlantic quoted from a memo from Clinton adviser Mark Penn:
All of these articles about [Obama's] boyhood in Indonesia and
his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is
diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.
Save it for 2050.
It also exposes a very strong weakness for him--his roots to
basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot
imagine America electing a president during a time of war who
is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking
and in his values. He told the people of NH yesterday he has
a Kansas accent because his mother was from there. His mother
lived in many states as far as we can tell--but this is an
example of the nonsense he uses to cover this up.
How we could give some life to this contrast without turning
negative:
Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle
of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century.
And talk about the basic bargain as about the deeply American
values you grew up with, learned as a child and that drive you
today. Values of fairness, compassion, responsibility, giving
back.
Let's explicitly own "American" in our programs, the speeches
and the values. He doesn't. Make this a new American Century,
the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let's use our logo to make
some flags we can give out. Let's add flag symbols to the
backgrounds.
Green wrote that Mrs. Clinton "wisely chose not to go this route." It's
not clear if he meant "wisely" in a moral or a strategic sense. One
assumes that Green found the Penn advice distasteful, but it's also
possible that it would have been ineffective in a Democratic electorate.
Then again, not following the advice wasn't a winning strategy either.
Obama's hostility to American individualism suggests, however, that Penn
had pegged him correctly. His allies in the media are now egging him on
as he expresses these unattractive attitudes. We have yet to see a
prominent lefty so much as admit that "You didn't build that" was a
serious rhetorical blunder. Anytime one speaks this obvious truth, the
Obama campaign hits the mute button. The president will probably show up
to the fall debates wearing earplugs.
--
"If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
21st century."
Obveeus
Jul 21, 2012, 11:09:02 AM7/21/12
to
"Ubiquitous" <web...@polaris.net> wrote:
>A tweet from CBS News's Mark Knoller called our attention to this passage
> from a campaign speech President Obama gave last night in West Palm
> Beach, Fla.:
>
> And so, over the next four months, the other side is going
> to spend more money than we've ever seen. (Laughter.) And
> they'll have a bunch of ads with scary voices. (Laughter.)
> And most of what you hear, you can pretty much just go
> mute--(laughter)--just press the mute button. That's the
> good thing about the remote. Or you can use the DVR and fast
> forward. (Laughter.)
>
> It's funny because it's true. The advice Obama is half-jokingly giving
> his supporters--close your mind to opposing arguments--is, we noted last
> Wednesday, essentially the advice
the next 3+ months there will be hundreds of millions of dollars spent
trying to lie to the TV viewer about what the candidates represent and what
they offer. The goal is to buy your vote, not inform you. Hitting the mute
button or channel surfing during commercials is the right thing to do.
David Johnston
Jul 21, 2012, 1:44:53 PM7/21/12
to
On 7/21/2012 8:24 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> A tweet from CBS News's Mark Knoller called our attention to this passage
> from a campaign speech President Obama gave last night in West Palm
> Beach, Fla.:
>
> And so, over the next four months, the other side is going
> to spend more money than we've ever seen. (Laughter.) And
> they'll have a bunch of ads with scary voices. (Laughter.)
> And most of what you hear, you can pretty much just go
> mute--(laughter)--just press the mute button. That's the
> good thing about the remote. Or you can use the DVR and fast
> forward. (Laughter.)
>
> It's funny because it's true. The advice Obama is half-jokingly giving
> his supporters--close your mind to opposing arguments--
Television ads aren't generally arguments.
> A tweet from CBS News's Mark Knoller called our attention to this passage
> from a campaign speech President Obama gave last night in West Palm
> Beach, Fla.:
>
> And so, over the next four months, the other side is going
> to spend more money than we've ever seen. (Laughter.) And
> they'll have a bunch of ads with scary voices. (Laughter.)
> And most of what you hear, you can pretty much just go
> mute--(laughter)--just press the mute button. That's the
> good thing about the remote. Or you can use the DVR and fast
> forward. (Laughter.)
>
> It's funny because it's true. The advice Obama is half-jokingly giving
> his supporters--close your mind to opposing arguments--
Mason Barge
Jul 22, 2012, 9:43:17 AM7/22/12
to
candidate. Obama's first ad was very effective, IMO. Waiting to see if
Romney can skewer Prez. Bigears with equal accuracy.
Personally, I've decided to write in Warren Buffett.
Dano
Jul 22, 2012, 11:58:46 AM7/22/12
to
"Mason Barge" wrote in message
news:2o0o089av1297hfr8...@4ax.com...
========================================
Good luck with that. Go on. Waste that vote. Says a lot about you if you
do.
news:2o0o089av1297hfr8...@4ax.com...
Good luck with that. Go on. Waste that vote. Says a lot about you if you
do.
Professor Bubba
Jul 22, 2012, 1:23:50 PM7/22/12
to
> Prez. Bigears
That was what people called LBJ. I guess everything old is new again.
BTR1701
Jul 23, 2012, 11:14:28 AM7/23/12
to
Interesting.
Mason Barge
Jul 23, 2012, 5:35:10 PM7/23/12
to
disliking both candidates.
Dano
Jul 23, 2012, 6:55:46 PM7/23/12
to
"Mason Barge" wrote in message
news:1rgr08t464s0puael...@4ax.com...
Never said you're a "bad" person. Just a jerk.
BTR1701
Jul 24, 2012, 3:34:44 AM7/24/12
to
In article <julccb$v5r$1...@dont-email.me>, "Dano" <janea...@yahoo.com>
So anyone who doesn't vote the way you'd like is a jerk?
Interesting.
Interesting.
Remysun
Jul 24, 2012, 1:28:20 PM7/24/12
to
Remysun
Jul 24, 2012, 1:28:17 PM7/24/12
to
> I think the negative ads are great at showing what's wrong with the other
> candidate. Obama's first ad was very effective, IMO. Waiting to see if
> Romney can skewer Prez. Bigears with equal accuracy.
I think negative ads make people stop caring about the issues. They
> candidate. Obama's first ad was very effective, IMO. Waiting to see if
> Romney can skewer Prez. Bigears with equal accuracy.
don't vote for something anymore, which is the proactive way to go
about things. If they vote, it's to vote against something they've
been made to fear.
> Personally, I've decided to write in Warren Buffett.
should be paying more in taxes? Americans find it easier to make
sacrifices when they know their president goes a step further in self-
sacrifice.
Dano
Jul 24, 2012, 1:58:33 PM7/24/12
to
"Remysun" wrote in message
news:9facd597-9484-4a59...@w24g2000vby.googlegroups.com...
=============================================
He's also 81 years old...and has less chance of being elected than Sarah
Palin.
I like the guy too. But can we be serious?
news:9facd597-9484-4a59...@w24g2000vby.googlegroups.com...
He's also 81 years old...and has less chance of being elected than Sarah
Palin.
I like the guy too. But can we be serious?
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