Ecosystem stuff
I rarely go past the TTLB Ecosystem site anymore. I find it honestly a bit annoying that a site that has been closed since mid-March still gets three times my traffic. Today, though, one of my Chaos Powers inspired me to wander about and I found a few really interesting things.
1- Drudge (and or any existing support staff) is a clumsy plagiarist.
2- In the course of finding out about said clumsiness, Bob Harris discusses a concern about Kerry's strategy:
Only one grim, depressing, absolutely wrong-headed and loser-making note coming out of tonight's Democratic speeches: Teresa Heinz Kerry referring to her husband as "a fighter".
Oh, crap.
I know, Vietnam, medals, all that, yes. But remember, every word of these speeches is carefully vetted, to introduce and amplify themes intended to resonate with the American people. "A fighter for the people" suddenly looks like it might be one of them.
Thing is, Kerry's head speechwriter, Bob Shrum, has jackhammered the "candidate X is a fighter for the people" theme into a startling number of campaigns over the years -- almost all of whom subsequently lost:
A look back at Shrum's clients quickly becomes a pugilistic blur: Jon Corzine ("fighting for us"), Michael Coles ("a fighter for Georgia"), Geraldine Ferraro ("a fighter who's taken on the big insurance companies"), Ron Klink ("strong enough to fight for us"), Bob Casey ("a proven fighter" who "had the courage to take on the most powerful forces"), Kathleen Kennedy Townsend ("fighting for Maryland's families"), Mark Dayton ("fighting for what's right, fighting for you").
In the presidential campaigns where he has worked, Shrum is (drum roll)... 0-for-6.
Bob Shrum's fingerprints have been found at the scene of an uninterrupted string of Democratic presidential catastrophes over the past 30 years. Ed Muskie and George McGovern in 1972. Kennedy in 1980. Richard Gephardt and Michael Dukakis in 1988. Bob Kerrey in 1992. The only successful Democratic candidacies of the era -- Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992 -- were Shrum-free affairs. (Shrum worked for 10 days for Carter, but quit in a huff.)
Why, you ask?
All else being equal, America's best-loved leaders are always optimistic alpha males with will-do attitudes who project comfort with their own power and a touch of self-deprecation -- in other words, embodiments of the projected self-image of the country. Over and over and over.
The "fighter" image differs in the candidate's implied status in every single respect. That's why it always loses.
This isn't remotely difficult to discern. Or shouldn't be.
This is why Teresa Heinz Kerry scared the holy crap out of me tonight.
Please, Bob Shrum. Don't do this to us. We don't deserve it.
If Kerry himself promises on Thursday to be a "fighter for the people"...
Oh, crap. Crappity crap crap crap. Hope I'm wrong hope I'm wrong hope I'm wrong...
3- I didn't actually go to Tom Tomorrow's joint. I was directed there by Stephen VanDyke of The Hammer of Truth, which I visited because I liked his subtitle: "powered by tar and feathers." Seems to be a libertarian, but with a light hand. The best post on Hammer of Truth today is about Jon Stewart once again proving himself a better journalist than the best of them:
Stewart: “I saw [Teresa Heinz Kerry] kill a hobo with her bare hands"; Brokaw: “Yes”
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart ripped into the mainstream media on their own show, with this humorous discourse on the media’s focus on Teresa Heinz Kerry’s tiff with a reporter. Here’s the relevant snippet from the conversation/interview with Tom Brokaw:
…BROKAW: Well, we had a chance to talk with Teresa Heinz Kerry earlier tonight. And she said that reporter mischaracterized what she had said. He came back to her and said, what were you talking about un-American activities?
STEWART: Right.
BROKAW: And she said certain un-American traits, which is civil discourse in American politics.
STEWART: Absolutely.
But it is—I think we should focus a lot of time on the wife race, because, as you remember, we nearly lost World War II when Eleanor Roosevelt told the reporter from “The Hartford Times Courant” to sit on it. So, these are issues that we really should be talking about. And Teresa Heinz Kerry, for what it‘s worth, yesterday I saw kill a hobo with her bare hands.
BROKAW: Now, when you‘re down here on the fort, a lot of people come up and ask your opinion.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: You‘re going to let me go with that? You‘re just going to let me say Teresa Heinz Kerry killed a hobo with her bare hands?
BROKAW: Yes. Yes. Right. Yes.
It totally flew over Brokaw’s head, sad. I mean, how hard does the guy have to try before the networks realize that Jon Stewart blames the current political climate on the media as much as the politicians.
