I felt sorry for the President last night. It is never easy to sell a product that everyone knows does not work and which no one, having thought about it, wants.
Gov. Bobby Jindal had an easier time of it. He was selling a product that everyone who lived through the Carter years and then saw “Morning in America” under the great Ronald Reagan knows will work.
Instead of debt and pork, Jindal’s products were tax cuts and deregulation. Instead of “pie in the sky” alternative energy, Jindal could talk of allowing companies and entrepreneurs to develop oil, natural gas and coal resources and to build nuclear planst to meet the nation’s energy needs.
In 2010, America has to make a choice. I hope it will be the choice of freedom and reason.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
The message is good,
RJD (Diary) Wednesday, February 25th at 12:04PM EST (link)but, it needs just a little more style to help it along.
Some of that style is packaging, some of it is personality. Conservatives, and the Republican Party, need to figure out how to combine style with substance. Otherwise, a lot of people will ignore what is a positive, meaningful message.
Interesiting comment, since I'm listening to Rush
Praying (Diary) Wednesday, February 25th at 1:28PM EST (link)right now absolutely lambaste those on our side for criticizing Jindal’s “style.” And I tend to agree with him. I had an advantage – I did not watch either of the speeches on TV, I listened on radio. Jindal seemed to start off a little slowly, and there were some audio problems, but I was inspired, especially with the second half of his speech. To have BOTH the liberal and CONSERVATIVE media slam his “performance”, well… I gave up on Hollywood style pomp, circumstance, and “style” a long time ago – we saw it with Bill Clinton, we saw it with the 2 year campaign of Obama. Empty suits. Emperors with no clothes on. I listen and hang on to each and every word that is said (which is probably why I chose to listen, rather than watch). I have a very small focus group from which to draw this conclusion (n = about 20) but my kids friends, who range in age from 17 – 25, all thought Jindal was AWESOME. Full disclaimer – these are kids from conservative, GOP, religious families – but they all rejected McCain AND Sarah Palin last fall. (Some did vot for McCain, only because they couldn’t vote for a socialist). So I wouldn’t say he needs more “style” – maybe a little more practice, maybe to actually speak to a live audience (as opposed to an empty room and a news camera), but let’s not pick our candidate based on “style”. The Dims have already done that – and look what that got us!
No!!!11!1!!1!1! The Bilderbergers are coming
Who won?
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, February 25th at 1:33PM EST (link)You can’t escape how important image is to the uncommitted voter.
In Vino Veritas
That's the conundrum.
Flagstaff (Diary) Wednesday, February 25th at 1:49PM EST (link)But Jindal has plenty of “style” of the type that matters. He is intelligible, to begin with. He knows his stuff, as well. He looks normal, not strange.
The thing about image and style is that it doesn’t have to be outstanding, it just has to be good enough that people will listen and trust and accept your message. We haven’t even cleared that bar in many recent cases, John McCain being the latest example.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
Jindal lost in what for him was
AKSteveB (Diary) Wednesday, February 25th at 7:33PM EST (link)the equivalent of an early Spring Training exhibition. Think of him as a rookie pitcher who wasn’t going to be making the Big Club anyway, he got hit around by a relative veteran, hopefully he learned some things, and either way it won’t matter much up the road. Either he’ll get better and be ready for the majors and nobody will remember, or he won’t and still nobody will remember. Why can’t folks remember how early it is. In addition it is early in the Obama thing too. It will be a short honeymoon, but a honeymoon it is still. Churchill wouldn’t have gotten traction against Obama right now.
Hell is other people – Sartre
Jindal's message was good
Aetius728 Wednesday, February 25th at 6:24PM EST (link)Except for the fact that a large portion of the population blames tax cuts for the rich and corporations for the federal deficit and deregulation for causing the meltdown on Wall Street.
Just parroting these lines won’t work anymore. The left and the media have had to much free reign to create misconceptions. We need candidates who can clearly and effectively refute them and offer alternatives in ways that people can understand and that keeps there attention.
And how many voters today did not live through, or were not old enough to remember the Reagan era? I don’t know exact figures, but I would wager a significant amount.
Many now associate the Clinton(Democrat) era with prosperity, and the Bush(Republican) era with a poor economy. Justified or not, this is the perception.