Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Some More Thoughts On Ms. Parker’s Lament

Michael Dukakis on tank

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I posted on Kathleen Parker’s distress on seeing Bobby Jindal’s pitiful performance on the occasion of his rebuttal to President Obama’s address to Congress. I woke up with one more thought on the sad state of the GOP.

As I admitted in the previous post, Democratic politicians have humiliated themselves, too. Not President Obama. He doesn’t play that. That’s only one reason he’s president now, but it didn’t hurt any to be the same person on a consistent basis.

Nonetheless, we’ve had our share of bad moments, going back to the iconic image of Michael Dukakis in the tank. That wasn’t good. And there was Al Gore doing a presidential debate in full Ronald Reagan make-up. Not his best moment. Even the most ardent supporter had to wince a little seeing John Kerry’s photo op as a hunter – in camo. Hell, he might hunt on occasion. I don’t know. But it looked forced and unnatural and ultimately silly. Hillary hanging out in bars and knocking back shots with the guys didn’t come off that well either, even if it’s something she does all the time, and I’m not saying it is. Every one of those are people with sharp intellects whose political aspirations were damaged in part by playing that game.

Here’s the really big important difference, though: When our guys allow themselves to molded to fit someone’s misguided idea of populist appeal it’s unfortunate, but the idea is to appeal to your voters. To the famous Reagan Republicans in particular. When Republicans do it, it’s also to appeal to your voters, not to peel off any Democrats. If Republican politicians have to phony it up to appeal to their own party, then isn’t it time for a serious reality check?

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4 comments:

  1. AnnetteMarch 3, 2009 at 7:43 AM

    Here is what he is saying this morning:

    "Widely panned for his national TV address, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal offered his first defense of the speech Monday, saying he sticks by the message, while acknowledging shortcomings in his delivery.

    "Look, I get that people thought I could have spoken better. I get that. That's fine ... What's important to me is the content. I'm a policy guy. You guys know that. I've always been a policy guy, always will be a policy guy. The ideas are important. The substance is important," Jindal told reporters in the state Capitol, a day after returning from a family vacation."

    Like I said in the post from yesterday...He is standing by his entire message..even the lies...lol How funny.. And claims to even have written the speech himself and said he refuses to use anyone else.

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  2. PatriciaMarch 3, 2009 at 8:34 AM

    Well, he pleased Rush, so I guess he wants to take credit. Rush is the last word in the GOP these days, apparently.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 3, 2009 at 1:49 PM

    OMFG. I know he learned that from Karl Rove. Rove thinks he's a policy wonk.

    Confer: http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/gqeditors/2008/04/karl-rove-likes.html

    Ron Suskind had an article several years back that quoted actual, experienced policymakers being distraught at how inept their approach to policy the Bush Administration was. They had "no policy apparatus."

    http://www.ronsuskind.com/newsite/articles/archives/000032.html

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  4. AnonymousMarch 3, 2009 at 1:51 PM

    (train of thought derailed...the Bush Adminstration's approach to policy)

    At any rate...sounds like Rove has Jindal's ear.

    ReplyDelete

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