Saturday, September 13, 2008

Realpolitik or Playground Populism?

Do you suppose all of the lying and dishonorable accusations flooding out of the McCain campaign are a tactic?

One hardly knew that Grandpa Jones and Daisy Duke were running until all the coverage of their insulting, playground populism started up.

Is McCain counting on Americans not to bother seeking out the Truth of his charges even though doing so would be easy-peasy?

Is everyone yelling at Obama to "fight back hard" adding pressure in the wrong direction? Won't uninformed Americans tune this out as, "I am rubber you are glue..."?

Maybe Obama just needs to be a little less wonky and call McCain out on his Rovian campaign. Better yet, let Joe Biden do it, since Joe Biden stood up for McCain when George Bush insinuated he fathered a black child in South Carolina and called his patriotism into question.

Here is what George Lakoff thinks Obama should do:

Make your own frames

Obama has to find a way to be in the news, without simply repeating McCain's charges because that will make them stick. Policy positions aren't going to do it, since people won't interrupt their dinners for that.

This is what on playgrounds might be known as the new experience, for instance making loud flatulent noises using only one's left hand and right underarm. Suddenly the kid pickin' at his nose and chewin' it, chewin' it, is old hat.

Well, that's what he needs to do metaphorically anyway.

Keep it simple Mr. Obama. Ask Bill Clinton to come up with something, since nobody can out-flank the master. Try to enjoy it too. It might be dumb, it might be ugly, it might detract from important conversations that you want to have, but you can talk all you want when you're president.

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Foot Quotes

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

Charles Darwin