Now that Iowa and New Hampshire have come and gone, our South Carolina is now the center of the political universe. If you don’t like politics or negative ads, I strongly suggest you unplug every communicative device in your world.
While the negative ads will get as nasty as creative minds (and the law) will allow, the candidates will try to stay positive in person and when on a microphone. While the TV commercials do the dirty work, the positive stump and interviews will consist of two basic topics that they think you want to hear: “Reagan, Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Conservative, Conservative, Conservative… Ronald Reagan, Conservative, I’m like Reagan, I’m Conservative… Conservative… Reagan. Reagan. Reagan.” You get the idea.
Reagan. 🙂
Three thoughts come to mind, and I’ll type as if I was talking to the candidates: 1) Stop trying to be someone you’re not. When you mention Reagan, again and again, and again and again, you’re diluting yourself. How good can you be, when ALL you aspire to be is someone else? 2) You all wanna be the same man! Compounded further, you want to be the same man over and over and over and over and over and over. 3) Since you say the same thing, you’re wasting microphone time… and then it’s gone. Congratulations, you just said the same thing as the fella beside you.
What I’m getting at is, the use of President Reagan’s name has become white noise. The same could be argued about the term “conservative.” OK already… we get it! It’s going to be interesting one day when a Tea-Partier asks a question on national TV something to the effect of, “President Reagan raised the debt ceiling, raised taxes, and maybe traded a little boom-boom under the table (Ollie North). How do you parallel?”
I kinda think this is why Herman Cain was doing so well. With his 9-9-9 thing, he actually was saying sooooomething, while everyone else just said the same ole’, same ole’ “I’m conservative like Reagan” thing. I mean seriously, Rick Santorum’s sweater vest even got traction because no one is saying anything new.
This all said, I’m well aware I’m not a political consultant. I also understand that when candidates say “Reagan” or “conservative,” the dials get a bump in the focus groups. On this one, however, I’m not sure I care. Since they all say the same thing (with the exception of maybe Romney, sometimes), I contend the candidates are wasting microphone time.
It would be awesome if a candidate would shout something like, “I propose we tweak daylight saving’s time,” or “$5,000,000 commission to the first person that can efficiently find a way to convert oil shale into oil, or salt water into fresh, or make a fail-safe long-lasting battery and change the auto world forever.” I dunno, just something.
I’m not sure why I started typing about this. Perhaps it’s because I know we’re about to get pounded with presidential politics, and hoping we’ll have some good days of something more than the same old stuff we’ve heard for 20+ years.
Like Sen. Lloyd Bentsen calmly told Sen. Dan Quayle in a debate some years ago: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Well, candidates, you’re no Ronald Reagan. Be yourself!!! You might surprise it, and then perhaps you’ll be like Reagan.
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