Monday, August 13, 2007

More Politics

Related to my previous post (or why I'm not so confident about 2008) and why Rove is still dangerous, here's some thoughts on political framing.
Objectively, there is no way that shrub should have even been close to Gore or Kerry. Both were much more qualified, and should have won in a landslide. But a funny thing happened on the way to the election. Gore became a "phony" in "pastels". Kerry became a "flip-flopper" who may have "faked his war record". Shrub was "resolute" and "a guy you'd like to have a beer with".
That was what the media told us over and over again. How did this framing become so pervasive? One of the reasons was Karl Rove. He is an expert at getting a "meme" into the mainstream media. The big time talking heads listen to him, and parrot the talking point he pushes ad nauseaum.
We can already see the beginning of the framing for '08. Think of Edwards' "hair" or Obama's "blackness" (I don't have time to catalogue all the Clinton framing) compared to the "manliness" of any of the rethug candidates. This is what Rove does.
A lot of blogs seem to think Rove is now "shamed", but I doubt it. He has too many friends in the MSM who will continue to refer to him as a "genius". Congress has not laid a glove on him, in spite of ample opportunity.
Remember that the average voter (sorry, American public, but it's true) hates politics, and only knows what their TV tells them about the candidates. The "image" is what matters.
The rethugs have shown that you only need to make it close enough in order to steal the election. They're very good at it. The corporations are very good at marketing image (why is McDonalds so big?) and they are on the rethug side.
That's why I'm not celebrating Rove's resignation, or confident about '08.
added: Anybody out there old enough to remember Lee Atwater?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

9 comments:

Jess Wundrun said...

The bruha that I've been hearing today is mostly against the idea that Karl is leaving to join a campaign.

(See Firedoglake for the exact opposite opinion of yours and mine.)

Which leads me to believe that we are onto something here.

pygalgia said...

Well, I may be wrong. But I've watched politics a long time. I remember when Lee Atwater left Nixon's staff "in disgrace", only to bring us Reagan and Bush 1.

Anonymous said...

Atwater's deathbed confession was sweet and all, but unfortunately hindsight is meaningless.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Rove leaving is ambiguous news at best. I can't get excited about it until I see what the ramifications will be.

What was his portfolio, anyhow? He was a political adviser, and his advice had stopped being useful to the administration.

Distributorcap said...

there is no way rove good off into that good night

KKKarl rove, political operative will being what kkkarl rove does best.....lie, cheat, manipulate and call in the fucking favors from the MSM.

great post

Anonymous said...

Great post, Py!

I have to agree that Rove is likely going to be guiding more damaging framing from his undisclosed location where he's spending more time with his family.

pygalgia said...

Now we face the real question: How do we defeat it?

Anonymous said...

Be careful looking too deeply into the abyss, for the abyss looks back into you.

Anonymous said...

Just keep focused and do what we've been doing, and we do want trials for all of them, Rumsfeld too, and ultimately all of those who have been complicit in this war against the American people and our constitution which they took an oath to uphold.