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• Saturday, August 18, 2007 02:46 PM

  You gotta have a gimmick, if you wanna get ahead!

  Anyone who watched the movie about Gypsy Rose Lee has to remember the the song preached to the neophyte Gypsy by her mother and the chorus, informing her that mere stripping would not be enough to woo audiences. Most presidential candidates heed this advice as well. Giulani is a viable candidate only because the media built him up as the savior of 9/11--and he latched onto that image and paraded himself before voters as the mayor-on-the-scene, working hand-in-hand with rescue workers as they excavated the remains of NYC residents.

  As is increasingly the case, we must fault Traditional Media as much as the Hero. In this competitive world of corporate journalism, reporters taking their cue from profitable tabloids, inflate a story as big as they can take it, hoping it'll never explode in their faces. You remember such stories as:

  Fearless Hero Jessica Lynch;

  NFL Football Hero Pat Tillman;

  9/11 Terrorist and Nuclear Bomb Builder Saddam Hussein;

  The Man from Hope, Bill Clinton;

  Fearless Leader and Protector of U.S. Citizens, Dubya Bush;

  Misjudged, Mistreated, & Misunderstood, Paris Hilton

  If you know how to work it, you can always shirk it, rule the world by simply waving your hand.

  "I'm electrifying

  And I ain't even trying.

  I never had to sweat to get paid

  'Cause if you got a gimmick

  Giuliani, you got it made!"(*)

  Footnotes(*)http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/gypsy/yougottahaveagimmick.htm

  —tanmack Read tanmack's other letters
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