And with the issuance of two announcements this week regarding the upcoming Presidential campaign, the usually interesting quadrennial race just got a little bit more … interesting? Bizarre? More than usually contentious? All of the above and more, to judge from this week’s surfing across the oceans of the internet. So Mittens discovered the existence – heretofore unsuspected by the larger public – of his fiscally responsible and constitutionalist backbone and tagged Paul Ryan as his running mate… that makes for a snappy bumper sticker right off the top of my head; “Time for a little R & R.” Said prospective VP nominee had never swam across my ken as a possible, but then Mittens himself had never seemed to me to be a likely prospect for the top o’ the ticket either … altogether too bland, to nice, too establishment GOP … but then I am only an interested amateur and Tea Party enthusiast. All props to him for seeing that the fiscally responsible, strictly Constitutionalist and relatively free market segment of the libertarian-conservative public constituted a powerful voting block.
So … Paul Ryan; hope that he and his family, all of his friends, neighbors and and everyone that he has ever known are all battened down against the coming onslaught headed his way from the usual media crowd, also known as Pravda on the Potomac. Frankly, no wonder at all that Paul Ryan or his people didn’t want in the least to be interviewed by a whiny regular at Salon.com. Mainstream media establishments have proved comprehensively that they were so deep in the tank for Obama last time that they probably needed a deep-sea diver’s helmet and someone up above feeding them oxygen. And nothing much has changed – yet again, they seem dedicated soul and body to drag his tottering Juggernaut over the finish line. At least those who still have a job and whose organization is still functioning will be dedicated to that project, although it would seem that at least some of them must be entertaining doubts.
Yes, established media organs – you have showed us where your loyalties lie. I wouldn’t want to talk to you either. Over the last four or five years, you have dedicated yourselves to trashing Tea Partiers, libertarian-conservatives, and traditionalists generally. So, no – we really don’t want to talk to you. Not you, not the pollsters that call incessantly: who knows who is really asking, and what will that information obtained from us really be used for? No, we don’t trust you, and we certainly don’t trust this current administration. Look at what happened to Joe the Plumber, to the owner of Gibson Guitar and any number of others … and include the owners of Chick-fil-A, too. Don’t forget about how the Department of Homeland security made grumbling noises about veterans and tea partiers being potential terrorists, too. And we don’t much want – unless we are a stubborn and stalwart sort – to even go out and joust in those wide open public internet spaces available to us … since, in a lot of cases (notably this one) the administrators are pretty obviously biased. Pity, that.
We’ll vote in November – that’s all that I’ll admit to at this present time.
The other announcement – that Joe Biden, the one-man walking gaffe machine would still adorn the bottom of the ticket. Knock me over with a feather – I thought for sure that the announcement would concern health issues and a desire to spend more time with his family. But whatever – the man’s got a gift … and the gift is to the Romney-Ryan campaign, especially if Biden makes too many more appearances. Of course, the man at the top o’ the ticket seems to have stuck his beautifully polished Gucci loafer in his mouth a good few times, too. The ‘you didn’t build that’ meme seems to have gone down like a whole pineapple enema with the small business community … which, as sources like the Chambers of Commerce never tire of reminding us, are the engine running the whole American middle class economy.
Yes, a small to medium business of their own, and being their own boss is one of those things that just about every American, or prospective American with a bit of hustle and drive in them aspires to. Count me among them – as I have just spend the last week tediously transcribing a 19th century ledger book for a client – and thanked the deity every morning that as tedious and exacting as it was, I’d rather be doing that at my own computer in the corner of my own little home office, then climbing into the office business drag and driving across town to someone else’s office to spend the next eight hours. Way to piss off just about every striving American and independent consultant, President Obama. Do, by all means, stay loyal to Joe Biden, and whoever is strategizing your campaign. Encourage your administration bureaucrats and officials to be vengeful, you media minions to be ugly, your local protest element to be ugly and threatening, and all of them to be irrational. Every instance will be reason for any number of quiet Tea Partiers to decide that R & R is good enough on November 2.
Me, I think this is the beginning of the preference cascade – that moment that everyone who has been made deeply unhappy by the policies of this administration looks around, and discovers that they are not alone.
(Cross posted at www.ncobrief.com)
Let’s hope!
My hope is that Romney’s ability to analyze a system, to cut to its purpose, and do surgery to free a business’ vitality may be the skill we need. He isn’t charistmatic – and I do want an eloquent leader who pulls us together. But. .
Arthur Brooks’ Road to Freedom seemed a fairly list-oriented if useful summary until I reached his contrast between Western and Eastern art. The Eastern artist doesn’t see the blank canvas before him with unlimited potential (as we might). His is more the sculptor’s vision – of a smaller, kinetic & elegant form within the rough block of stone. Brooks compares that chunk of stone to our current government. Its original purpose and principles moss-bound, its useful energy constrained by oppressive overgrowth. Romney’s experience may have given him skills to chisel away the dross and find the beauty the founders gave us. It would free us, but our respect for it would be greater. It isn’t anarchy we want but the elegance of simplicity & proportionality.
On the other: All of us who have spent long days and longer nights holding a business together or trying to support ourselves by marking texts and trying to find a meaning within them and communicate it, know we did it. We thanked our employees and we thanked our customers. They did it, too. But they didn’t mortgage their houses and didn’t think of not taking their paychecks when a big job’s income was delayed. Mine weren’t great sacrifices, but the small ones of a small business owner. And because I made them, it was around the next year and the next and fifteen or so got their paychecks every other week. This crew in the White House doesn’t have the foggiest notion.
I have been impressed by Romney’s ability to out-Axelrod …Axelrod.
Remember that stunt David pulled in MA trying to publicize Romney’s time as Gov in a negative light?
Romney has supporters show up at the press conference shouting down Axelrod.
How….Obamesque.
As to his pick of Ryan – in the back of my head I have wondered – for years – how do you convince those Americans used to entitlements – and on the gravy train – that it will ruin the country?
If anyone can do it – at least get though to some – it is Ryan.
As to the press – do you think they’ve “shot their wad” as to their remaining credibility – over their overt support of Obama in 2008?
With Americans having to live with the consequences?
I’ve got my fingers crossed too – about seeing the first rumblings of the preference cascade. There are more little stories on the webs; about small business owners not wanting much to do with the Obama-Biden campaign, about municipalities which hosted fundraisers (and sometimes vendors, too) being stiffed on payment. I get the sense that otherwise rather undecided/independents are getting more and more unhappy with Obama. There is a story being bruited about (on PJ Media, I think) that Hillary Clinton was tentatively offered the VP slot a couple of weeks ago … and she declined. Hmmm … bet she has picked up on the stink of failure, and doesn’t want to be caught in the collapse.
The mainstream press certainly did shoot their credibility in the foot; first by being so uncritically adoring of Obama in 2008 … and then in trashing Sarah Palin (who was a perfectly competent and well-liked governor of Alaska – just not ‘one of the club’) and then when they cut loose and began denigrating and insulting Tea Party Americans as dumb, racist and fanatical. If they are starting to take a more critical look now at their precious anointed one now … it’s too late. Of course, some of those more well-established main-stream outlets are collapsing now, and maybe the economy doesn’t have very much to do with it. CNN? Newsweek, Time, the NY Times, MSNBC? Are they better off now than they were four years ago?
We personally didn’t find out about Chick-fil-A appreciation day through the mainstream news outlets. I saw it mentioned in comments on a couple of indy news weblogs, who cited Mike Huckabee suggesting it on his Facebook page. Are we already routing around the mainstream news media?
I prefer lack of charisma myself, but realise it won’t get anyone elected. The ideal situation would be a president whose name no one could remember.
I’d offer that the ideal president would be one who is ultimately remembered for his significant ideas, character and actions. My historical nominees are of course Washington, Lincoln and Reagan. None of them perfect, but all singularly effective in dealing with the big issues of their day. Only Reagan had a personality that one could find favorably engaging and memorable. It did serve him well in the age of popular media.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Romney turned out to be the next one of that class? I never would have entertained that thought and still consider it a prohibitive long shot, but given our current situation, Romney’s skill set might have him perfectly positioned and he does have the core character and unselfish motivations (I hope) required to stay the course in pursuit of solutions rather than popular impressions. My biggest concern with Romney has been and is his lack of apparent ideological consistency with a bent toward feeling strongly both ways on many issues. Maybe too much a people pleaser and risk averter as well. I believe his pick of Ryan gives me hope that the mist is lifting for Romney and he has descerned the essentials of our perilous path and the direction he needs to lead. He may never ascend the lofty heights of past giants, but he may be a big part of turning us away from the cliff we seem determined to ignore as we speed toward it.
I certainly agree that charisma is highly over rated with regard to results, but in the age of multi sensory inputs at the expense of focused objective thinking, it plays very well in sound bite driven elections decided more on “likeability” than substance. “Like, Barak is so, like, awesome, OMG, for sure.”
More importantly, Romney’s ability to communicate in an engaging, focused way through the vast array of media layers will determine to a large extent his effectiveness in turning popular thinking toward the real issues and solutions. Without that ability to sustain popular attention and support while in office, significant and timely change to our current course is unlikely. I haven’t seem any hint that he can do that. His inept handling of the tax return issue is very discouraging. He needs a crash course in finishing school for media interaction. Perhaps he can grow into the role. Ryan can help as a surrogate, but it is ultimately Romney who has to do it.
Mike
I don’t thibk the media has learned a thing and will continue to be cheerleaders for Obama. Look at the moderators selected for the three debates. All thrree of them, you can bet, voted for Obama in 2008. They are all leftists and to crow over Crawley as the first women moderator is the heighth of hypocracy. She’s a cable type from CNn, who is hemoraging viewers. Take most any female commentator such as Greta or Megan, or Shannon from Fox and they all have two to three times the viewrs of CNN’s Cindy. If I were Romney or Ryan, I’d take a page from Gingrich’s playbook and blast the moderators every time they asked a question. I’d point out their biasness before giving their canned response. But I guess this is too much to ask our timid Republicans who seem to want more to be liked than give the media a swift kick in the butt they so richly deserve.