Thursday, July 12, 2012
Mitt's Jet-Ski gaffe? What Jet-ski gaffe?
Over at the WSJ, they're worried that recent photos of Mitt vacationing in N.H. -- including one of him on a jet ski with his wife -- amount to one big campaign gaffe, comparable even to Dukakis's Snoopy Tank Ride Photo. Maybe I'm out of it. But I found the Mitt photos refreshing then and now -- and I'm no big fan of Mitt's. OK, the photos show he's having a grand old time while there's still a lot of economic misery going around, blah, blah, blah. But the vast majority of Americans were doing roughly the same damn thing on the Fourth. And use of the gas-guzzling, politically incorrect jet ski probably helped Mitt more than hurt him. Americans love their cars, power boats and other motorized gadgets. It wasn't as if he was wind surfing -- sooooo hip -- on Nantucket.
But methinks the real issue here is not some bogus photo gaffe. That's classic insider politics, built on BS campaign cliches of yesteryear. What this really points to -- the criticism, that is -- is the general frustration with Mitt's lackluster campaign and his etch-a-sketch softening positions on the issues. It's driving conservatives nuts. They're in the early stages of panic. My own hunch is Mitt will ramp it up soon, probably around August. Those of us who remember his 2002 campaign for governor can recall the frustration of his late summer/early fall campaign antics. Remember those awful TV commercials meant to introduce him and his family to Massachusetts voters? As they say: OMG. They were hideous.* He practically had to be brow-beaten into taking on the Three Amigos of O'Brien, Trav and Sal. When he finally did, he clicked with voters. Obviously, Mitt ain't running against Shannon this time. But it does seem his summer campaign history is sort of repeating itself.
* If some one finds a link to one those 2002 commercials, send it my way, please. I want to see if they're as bad as I remember them.
Update -- Found the 2002 "I wish I lived in Massachusetts" commercial. It's pretty bad. But it's not the schmaltzy one I'm thinking of, i.e. how he met his wife, etc. Maybe I have the wrong campaign year or even the wrong candidate. But I do remember a lot of bad feel-good commercials in '02.
Over at the WSJ, they're worried that recent photos of Mitt vacationing in N.H. -- including one of him on a jet ski with his wife -- amount to one big campaign gaffe, comparable even to Dukakis's Snoopy Tank Ride Photo. Maybe I'm out of it. But I found the Mitt photos refreshing then and now -- and I'm no big fan of Mitt's. OK, the photos show he's having a grand old time while there's still a lot of economic misery going around, blah, blah, blah. But the vast majority of Americans were doing roughly the same damn thing on the Fourth. And use of the gas-guzzling, politically incorrect jet ski probably helped Mitt more than hurt him. Americans love their cars, power boats and other motorized gadgets. It wasn't as if he was wind surfing -- sooooo hip -- on Nantucket.
But methinks the real issue here is not some bogus photo gaffe. That's classic insider politics, built on BS campaign cliches of yesteryear. What this really points to -- the criticism, that is -- is the general frustration with Mitt's lackluster campaign and his etch-a-sketch softening positions on the issues. It's driving conservatives nuts. They're in the early stages of panic. My own hunch is Mitt will ramp it up soon, probably around August. Those of us who remember his 2002 campaign for governor can recall the frustration of his late summer/early fall campaign antics. Remember those awful TV commercials meant to introduce him and his family to Massachusetts voters? As they say: OMG. They were hideous.* He practically had to be brow-beaten into taking on the Three Amigos of O'Brien, Trav and Sal. When he finally did, he clicked with voters. Obviously, Mitt ain't running against Shannon this time. But it does seem his summer campaign history is sort of repeating itself.
* If some one finds a link to one those 2002 commercials, send it my way, please. I want to see if they're as bad as I remember them.
Update -- Found the 2002 "I wish I lived in Massachusetts" commercial. It's pretty bad. But it's not the schmaltzy one I'm thinking of, i.e. how he met his wife, etc. Maybe I have the wrong campaign year or even the wrong candidate. But I do remember a lot of bad feel-good commercials in '02.
