Why do only Dems have "Muskie moments"?

[morningglory]

First Muskie cried, then McGovern's VP pick was taking antidepressants or something, then Dukakis in the helmet (I didn't think that was bad at all), now the Dean scream. Think about it: virtually every move *bush has made in his life is worse than appearing in a silly helmet. His entire 2000 campaign was lie after lie, as his tenure as WH resident has been. Pick anything, like Harken oil. It would be the horrible downfall of any Dem. But * just skates along unscathed. What is up with that?

[boxster]

1. My honest answer: Republicans are much better at spin than we are.

I don't know how they do it, but my goodness, can they.

They can take the most irrelevant news item (Gore's alleged claim that he created the internet, for example) and turn it into a deal breaker. Meanwhile, Bush calls reporters assholes and says stuff like "misunderestimate" and he walks.

[Skittles]

2. only because they have no conscience whatsoever

and goose-step to the party line. Not a whole lot of diversity going on there.

[boxster]

11. Exactly. They have somehow convinced each other that the

message is all that counts, regardless of how stupid or destructive it is.

The talking points drive me crazy.

[displacedtexan]

3. Remember Gary Bauer and the pancake mishap?

It played and played and played... I expect CNN is putting together a segment on such moments even as I type.

[soleft]

4. Bush I puked on an Ambassador from Japan

Or some foreign dignatary. Cost him the election imho

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. The Prime Minister of Japan

Knowing how fastidious Japanese people are about personal cleanliness, I imagine that lowered his stock in Japan as well.

Personally, I think it was a sign of Bush Sr.'s arrogance and sense of entitlement. If you suddnely became nauseated, would you aim your vomit at the lap of the person next to you? No, and I don't think most other people would either.

[Richardo]

5. First of all, Muskie was orchestrated by Nixon's Rat F*ckers...

...who wrote the "Canuck" letter that ended up costing Muskie the nomination.

As Deep Throat said in "All the President's Men": "They wanted to run against McGovern - look who they're running against."

[trof]

6. Repugs have no tear ducts.

It's a fact.
When is the last time you saw a repug cry?
I rest my case.

[AndyTiedye]

8. WHO OWNS THE NEWS?

That's why.

[baldguy]

7. Pugs are pod people.

Dems are humans.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. The Republicans have a formal nomination process...

...whereas we have the press.

[piece sine]

10. hmm...

I remember when Bob Dole barked "When are you going to stop lying about my record?" and many felt it seriously hindered his primary run against Bush, the Father. BTW, I found a great use for tinfoil hats is to recycle them to wrap bulky leftovers, like roasted chicken or pizza.

Memo for the file: the media pick on every politician's self-inflicted mistakes. It's their job!

And BTW...Mike Dukakis looked like Snoopy in that tank. The mere photo send the public into fits of laughter.

[SoCalDem]

12. Dem's "moments" are usually just reported more

Bauer's header off the pancake stage was memorable, but it was just a footnote to an already laughable campaign..

and...most of the "Dem moments" usually are "committed" by the front runners, or at least viable candidates, so they are pounced upon by their own party's candidates, the press, and of course the opposition..

Bush has had many "moments" but the press chose to portray them as "humanizing little faux pas" and then just moved on..

Our candidates must be like Caesar's wife... above reproach.. That's asking a lot of people who are dead tired from campaigning, and yet excited by the undertaking they have committed to.. Lots of adrenalin and flop sweat going around.. Ours is just more "visible"..

Given the choice of the way some of our stars had their candidacies ended, it's not so bad (two Kennedys come to mind :(..)

[GumboYaYa]

13. Remember GWB's "major league ass*&^%" comment.

It should have been a Muskey moment. Someone please explain to me how that was "presidential." The press just let it die a natural death and did not focus exclusively on that comment for three days.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

19. the problem with that was that a lot of people agreed with him

on that comment (if it is the one I am thinking of). Many Americans think the press is smug and arrogant. Almost any negative expression toward a member of the press would probably be cheered in a sports bar or the like. I know people who actually said, "It is about time someone said it!"

WOW!
TheProdigal

[Az]

14. Framing

Its a question of framing the issues. As soon as Dean screamed we ourselves started talking about whether it would hurt him. The right has learned you do not discuss negative things. If you discuss them you give them life.

Thus * walks through life and never talks about the dead American Soldiers in his conflicts. He never mentions Ken Lay or Enron. You do not discuss the lack of WMDs. You do not mention the business ties with the Bin Ladens. You do not talk about the loss of over 2million jobs.

When asked to speak somewhere you make sure these issues are never raised. You only speak to those you know or control.

Dems simply have no concept how to frame issues and are left at the mercy of the right. Instead of talking about how they are going to work towards making this a better country by working together they allow themselves to be forced into discussions about why they oppose tax cuts. The Dems as a group simply have no cohesive game plan. No structure. No ability to respond tactically to the right.

Why was Dean's scream not talked about as a passionate cry to galvinize the troups? Because we allowed our own doubts and worries to give the ground to the right. Thus they were able to spin the situation in their favor. If you listen to the moment you hear the crowd shouting enthusiastically with Dean. His tempo merely matched the crowds. Repackage the moment, isolate it, and you have him framed as a bizarre out of control whack job. This is the rights tactics. Exploit any weakness we hand them. If instead of shaking our heads and giving them the ground we capitalized on the moment we would be able to frame the moment ourselves. But we lack the cohesion to do this.

[regnaD kciN]

15. I don't know...why do only Dems die in plane accidents...

...just before elections in which they were leading?

:tinfoilhat:

[Awsi Dooger]

16. Actually, there HAVE been several fatal Republican episodes

* Nixon probably would have won in '60 minus his slouched appearance and sweathog brow during the debates

* Ford might have been able to overcome Watergate and Carter without his debate insistence there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe

* Bush 41 took plenty of grief for persistently looking at his watch during the town meeting debate with Clinton and Perot

* The 2002 Oklahoma governors race was essentially forfeited by Steve Largent when he twice exclaimed "bullshit!" during a televised interview regarding his whereabouts on 9/11 and a phony 9/11 statement put out by his staff.

[Awsi Dooger]

17. Sorry, erasing duplicate post

My browser indicated my previous one did not go through.

[Piperay]

18. Ford was probably one

of the repugs that got dumped on the most, he was continually made fun of for golf mishaps and tripping getting off of planes, probably all that contributed to him losing to Carter.