Appeasing those waffles
As far as I know, no evidence exists to show who changed their mind more often: George W. Bush or John Kerry. Yet the Bush campaign was able to brand Kerry as someone who “waffles.” Even though I can think of obvious examples where Bush changed his mind, like making a campaign promise that he’d cut carbon dioxide emissions then reversing that pledge within his first 60 days in office. Was any great effort expended to label him a “waffler?” No.
The reality is that there were instances of both politicians changing their mind. Kerry’s position was reasonable, namely changing his mind about an on-going war. But he expressed himself poorly giving the opposition a fluffy lob that they smashed with all the elegance of a thermonuclear device. Bush, on the other hand, broke campaign promises yet was the one to jump up and down yelling, “waffler.”
Funny, eh?
The sad part of this is that the “waffler” distraction was so artfully done that it actually worked on the American people, even though it was basically meaningless.
Now it is 2008 and we’re at it again. The effort is underway to stick the candidates in little boxes of labels. Barack Obama is an “appeaser” and McCain is a “double talker” or “lobbyist guy.” Do sweeping generalizations like these help our democratic process in any way? Do they help the voters make better decisions? Are they accurate or do they do little more than deceive as they seek to gain traction as a method of manipulation?
This entry was posted on May 30, 2008 at 9:45 pm and is filed under national, politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: appeasement, Barack Obama, campaign promises, George Bush, John Kerry, John McCain, waffle
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