Joe McGinnis' "The Selling of the President" which covered the Nixon campaign is still in print and selling well in soft cover. James Carville is the Democratic equivalent to Karl Rove and it's nothing new. One of my closest friends in Laguna Beach in the 70's was high up in the Nixon Administration and revealed a lot about how the President is prepared and presented, especially dring campaigns. They used the same Madison Ave. sales techniques except that the flag that's run up the flag pole to see if it will wave is the American flag.
oops, faulty editing.........don't know how that happened. Sorry
Well of course politics is selling. And marketing is not a sin. But I think this White House has been getting away with more spoon feeding of the press than others have. I think maybe because of the events of 9/11 and it's aftermath. And the press has been growing steadily more complacent since Nixon, I think. The majority of the public has always been happy to eat whatever is provided without question. It provides a certain amount of security and is less work. But am I alone in believing that we don't have the investigative reporting now that used to exist? If others feel this is true, I wonder why we don't. It's been puzzling me for the past 10 years or so.
And I don't, LW, think that James Carvel managed to get away with what Rove has been accomplishing. Rove is good and the climate seems to have been right for him. People seem to want to believe in absolutes when they are afraid. Especially if they are packaged nicely. And we've all been afraid. Hopefully that will change.
You're right, lola -- Clinton is definitely not as malleable as Bush when amongst his own kind. Clinton has a mind of his own. Bush is, I'm afraid, for all his outward cowboy assertiveness a big whooz with those of domineering intellect. That's not saying much with Bush's Cee average record in school. You've got it there, too, as Bush graduated from Harvard Business College where salesmanship is a dominant skill taught in approaching all aspects of business. One of the dictums in their approach is the basic rules of good salesmanship:
1. Know your product
2. Ask a lot of questions
3. Use common sense
4. Ask for the money
You want to grade Dubya on these?
What does this say about how much trouble the American public takes to understand what they see or read about the news?
"With UN backing, 83% of US citizens would support the war, according to the poll, carried out by Princeton Survey Research Associates."
"It also found that 44% of those who responded thought that 'some or most' of the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens."
Well, I think part of the trouble lies with the press. A lot of reporters today seem to think that editorializing is reporting. I grew up with newpapers, and never got out of the habit. I do find, however, that my local paper quite often will have an item before it's in the NY Times. I devour print.
When it comes to TV, I'm with the Lehrer crowd. Maybe, too, we've become such a quick-fix nation that sound bites is like junk food - it's there, it's fast, it's convenient, and who knows what's really inside.
I've never felt fully informed - maybe that's why I keep reading.
informed?
Eloctorate?
Forget it.
the statistics shows a different information about the results..
