Letters to the Editor
Gwool
Published Letters: 366 Editor's Choice: 40
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Too SuBtle Glenn
[Read the article: The Ron Paul phenomenon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn, Glenn, Glenn,
You articulate theory before an audience of rabid partisans? Of course they will miss the point. It's the same way Goldwater went from being a poster child for the right when he opposed the Civil Rights act on the same federalization grounds as Paul espouses and then was villified years later when that principal had him opposing abortion laws AND laws against gay activities. Where once he was a standard bearer, he was now a senile old man, yet his guiding principle never wavered.
Partisans worry about outcome, not process.
Good article with an unsuprising outcome.
TownHall might have gotten it, but not this joint.
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Things Must Have Changed Since 1980
[Read the article: On the fake campaign trail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was a press advance man for George Bush, Sr in 1980, hooking on after the New Hampshire Primary and staying on the campaign until he pulled up in May of that year in New Jersey. I worked events in over ten states, as I dimly recall. I am well aware of what Mr. Scherer calls "bird dogging" as we had the NRA following us around in New Hampshire asking him why he voted for the Gun Control Act of 1968. (It was for the interstate shipment of firearm parts from which Saturday Night Specials are made and didn't have a damn thing to do with hunting, but that didn't stop the same question being asked event after event.) The bird dogging finally stopped when Bush turned on the plant and simply said that when he could recite what the Gun Control Act of 1968 was all about he'd answer it. That ended it, to a rousing ovation.
The best bird dogging story I recall came out of a Theodore White book about a Democratic Advance Man who followed Nixon around in 1972. He liked to try to bribe the local HS bands to play Mack the Knife instead of Hail to the Chief by telling them it was Nixon's favorite song. I can't listen to the lyrics of that song without giggling, thinking about Dick starting to get all paranoid and sweaty waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I was never asked, nor did I ever look around the crowd to try to find someone to plant a question. We typically planned our events to be short on prepared text and long on question and answer as it was the belief at the time that Bush Sr was far better when talking off the cuff.
Maybe "everybody does it" in this day and age, but it was NOT common practice from my personal experience. If I recall, it was Bill Clinton who introduced the Town Hall format to the campaign process in 1992. There were always "coffee" events that were smaller venues typically utilized as an early part of grass roots efforts where the candidate was likely preaching to the choir, but they were not necessarily staged for the electronic media. They were a way to get started, energize local organizations, and sign up key town volunteers.
Political advance work was a hell of a lot of fun, and I miss it terribly. It's a function best suited to the unattached and I have a wife and four kids. But, if the standard process is to plant questions and present a false sense of spontaneity at these events, then I guess I am happy I am not involved with it.
The Clintons are very deft campaigners. Her using intermediaries to play the gender card to create the aura of all the boys ganging up on the girl is masterful while being disingenuous as hell. She's the front runner, for crying out loud, of course the also rans are going to focus on her in hopes of pulling support away from her and making it through the first cut after the NH primary. But, hey, attacking the accuser is another trait she seems to have adopted as her own from her husband's political organization?
Sadly, nothing Mrs. Clinton does surprises me. I am victim of Bush/Clinton fatigue and long for the whole saga to fade into history, but I suspect we'll have at least four more years of it. (I still respect Senior, but have not been pleased with 1992 onward, for the record.) I keep trying to remain open minded about Mrs. Clinton. She is likely to be the president, and I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. I want to believe she's learned something since the Healthcare debacle. I want to believe she's moderated her positions and gained valuable managerial experience and policy insights in the senate. But then her organization goes on visceral attack mode against Obama for some Hollywood fundraiser saying the Clintons turned lying into an artform, blames VALID criticism on her as the old boys network keeping a good woman down, and on and on and on.
If I had money, though, I would love to bird dog Mrs. Clinton. Where Nixon was trailed by Mack the Knife, I'd love to rent louderspeaker adorned trucks to follow Mrs. Clinton around blaring Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" while handing out cookies and transcripts of the SECOND question Matt Lauer asked Mrs. Clinton during the infamous Vast Right Wing Conspiracy whine when he asked, "But what if it is true?" and to which she replied something on the order of "Well, then it would be very serious, indeed."
Not serious enough apparently.