Search called off for man reported missing in Cedar River
Obama will host grassroots event at Iowa State Fairgrounds Thursday
USS Iowa’s final departure delayed by weather
Why do kids kill? Experts say many are disturbed or have been abused
How much debt should a city risk?
State volleyball tournament staying in Cedar Rapids
Man freed after being stuck in cave near Maquoketa
 Todd DormanTodd Dorman is a columnist for The Gazette. His blog has been bringing smiles to readers' faces since November 2007. |
|
Searching for Gaffes
There are many varieties of political gaffes. I enjoy the ones that are simply moments when a campaign’s painstakingly constructed image is cracked with a single errant action or utterance. We learn something about a candidate that they didn’t really want us to know, or were hoping we wouldn’t notice. They get lots of coverage, and most of the time, deservedly so.
Although it’s was an action and not a statement, I think John Edwards’ haircut is one such example. It seemed sort of silly, but it turned out to be a little window into the thinking of a very vain man who was willing to indulge in excesses and take risks that, if discovered, would be pretty damaging. And instead of becoming more disciplined, he turned to even more subterfuge.
There are also simple human mistakes, missteps that anyone could make. But we scribblers blow them up anyway for lots of reasons – slow news day, humor, web hits, or it fits into to some simplistic narrative about the candidate we want to milk.
I think Michele Bachmann’s mistaken assertion that John Wayne was born in Waterloo, when it was really the homicidal clown John Wayne Gacy who lived there, falls into that category. She got facts mixed up in her head. And they’re facts of little real consequence. It may have damaged her effort to portray her Minnesota self as an real live Iowan. But that was already a tough sell.
I’ve lived here all my life and I didn’t know John Wayne Gacy was from Waterloo. Perhaps I heard and forgot. I did know John Wayne was born in Winterset. Good for me.
There was much pouncing, pointing and laughing in the media interwebs. Which, of course, only makes Bachmann more powerful. She feeds off media derision. It’s a badge of honor. A lot of Iowa Republicans love her in no small part because liberals and the lamestream look down on her. The elites think we’re all dense, so we’ll show them. In that context, her little gaffe my have bought her a couple polling percentage points.
I’d like to think we could sort out the significant gaffe from the chaff, but I’m not delusional in the era of instant worldwide humiliation. I’m pretty sure the online economy depends on it. Maybe some journalism training outfit like Poynter will do a workshop on covering gaffes and pratfalls.
That’s not to say Bachmann should be handled like fine china. No way. When someone who professes to be a constitutional scholar and tea gulping descendant of the founders fouls up historical facts pertaining to both, she deserves what she gets. Our kids don’t know much about history, but it would be nice if our president did. The three-fifths compromise and Lexington/Concord are not exactly graduate level stuff.
She also shouldn’t get away with fudging facts. No candidate should.
Oh, and there’s the reality that her legislative record is wafer-thin.
The issue is not whether she’s ready to be an Iowa tour guide. It’s whether she’s ready to be president of the USA.
And, for the record, my favorite Wayne movie is ”The Searchers.” (With several others tied for second.)
Matt Taibbi has a piece in Rolling Stone titled “Michele Bachmann’s Holy War.” He warns the readers not to laugh at Bachmann, it only makes her stronger. So, please, nobody laugh!
It is a pretty good piece and worth a look.
Charlie Rose discussed Michele Bachmann last night on. Watching Bachmann over the past few years it is disquieting to see that she is being groomed by some of the GOP’s best handlers and making a credible effort in the primary. (I know it is early, but wow. I would never imagined Bachmann being taken seriously.)
“In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power, it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the state and with it that of the whole nation and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem…but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face.” – Adolph Hitler, 1939.
Coult it happen again? Why not.
Our new comments guidelines have only been in place a few days, and already, Goodwin’s Law rears its head. Unecessary hyperbole. 15 yard penalty. Loss of down.
Godwin’s Law? Well, only in an oblique way, if that. I was attempting to channel Edmund Burke.
It could probably happen but unlikely via people like Bachmann or Palin. Simply put, neither is remotely clever enough.
Jessie, I would be careful not to “misunderestimate” Bachmann, or Palin for that matter.
Well if it does happen we can disgard intelligent design as the reason and credit to the random coming together of unlikely events, and simple dumb luck. Each has plenty of “dumb” and luck seems to strike some of those least deserving of it.
Jessie, when people see themselves as prophets or ordained by God to full-fill some role or mission we should be very worried. Bachmann certainly leans toward divine providence guiding her life.
We all know what happened the last time someone who God told run for President got into office.
That’s what he claimed. I’d like to hear from invisible man in the sky and see if he confirms that’s what he told him. If he did then it confirms that the invisible man does indeed move in mysterious ways — or he makes serious mistakes.
Search “michele bachman statements” ( or “… quotes” ). Here is one source.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/republicans/a/michele-bachmann-quotes.htm
One point: Although the Washington Times asserted John Wayne Gacy was from Waterloo, he was actually from Chicago, and lived in Waterloo when he was an adult: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy#Early_life
That explains why I did not know that. Thanks Jamie.
the intresting thing is that she said waterloo instead of winterset. how did Gacey’s name get brought up ? did she bring it up ? oh no…. you guys did… very clever , I see what you did there, good one.
True. The Waterloo-Winterset mix up was the gaffe. Then came the realization that JWG lived there at one point. One and one equaled a gazillion page views. And then we complain that politicians are too programed, too packaged.
Not all gaffes are equal. When Michelle Bachmann talked about John Wayne being born in Waterloo, that is a relatively innocent gaffe. Who cares. When she messes up by saying that President Obama has emptied the strategic oil reserve , who cares.
However, there are some other statements that are cause for concern. Such as her claim that President Obama is anti-American or her talk of re-education camps or her suggestion that our President wants to enslave the nation. Good Grief – can we take this person seriously?
That’s true Rich, this is the low hanging fruit and easy laugh of politics. Unfortunately, it seems to be as in depth as our attentions span can handle.
Now, what was I thinking of?
“There was much pouncing, pointing and laughing in the media interwebs. Which, of course, only makes Bachmann more powerful. She feeds off media derision. It’s a badge of honor. A lot of Iowa Republicans love her in no small part because liberals and the lamestream look down on her. The elites think we’re all dense, so we’ll show them. In that context, her little gaffe my have bought her a couple polling percentage points.”
Todd’s most important point is the seething resentment exploited by right-wing populism. While some folks take glee in their ignorance, we need to be very fearful of such ignorance and resentment when it seeks to run the country.
The growing trend to disrespect education and those who are well educated is quite disturbing. Glen Beck likes to brag that he never went to college and Rush Limbaugh is proud of the fact that he never finished college. Sarah Palin’s education is suspect.
By contrast, Michele Bachman is relatively well educated. Some may question the validity of Oral Roberts Law School (now Regent University), but no one would question her degree from William and Mary.
However, Michele Bachman seems to know that she has to appeal to those who distrust education and so she plays down her education and, effectively, acts dumb. It’s very sad when acting dumb is a winning political strategy.
Look at the difference between how Barack Obama is portrayed versus GW Bush. A popular trope during Bush’s election campaigns depicted him as a “regular guy” you could share a beer with. Obama, on the other hand, is frequently described as “cool” or “aloof,” which I contend are codewords for “too intellectual.”
This country has a long, dishonorable history of being anti-intellectual. Bachmann is very astute in exploiting that tradition as a means of boosting her electoral prospects; however, Bachmann’s conduct also raises real questions about whether she has the mentality to be an effective president.
My older sister put it very well back in ’04: “I want someone smarter than me to be president!”
Both Rich and Jeff have a point here.
In my opinion, populism has always been strong of a force in our politics. It really gained ground in the Bush years. The Bush Administration’s war on science in particular did quite a bit to feed the anti-intellectualism and mistrust of science and the educated in the United States. This mistrust of science and intellectualism is odd to me, growing up during a period of time when science and progress were revered.
It is ironic that the source of the new populism, corporate America, is anything but populist.
Owen tries referring to a Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi on Michelle Bachmann.
One big problem with that article—Taibbi didn’t write it. Taibbi essentially plagarized the bulk of the article from an article written by a University of Minnesota journalism professor for the Minnesota City Pages publication.
In fact, the author, one G.R. Anderson stated the following about that Taibbi article..
“What I will say, as a graduate of the Columbia J-School, and an adjunct at the University of Minnesota J-School, I do know that if a student handed in a story with that particular lack of sourcing, not only would I give it an ‘F,’ I would probably put that student on academic fraud.”
I understand the party faithful consider that a hit piece against Bachmann, and need to discredit it. But, no matter who wrote it is still d@mn good.