You can’t outcool Mr. Cool
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Conservative David Frum, one of those trying to reform the movement from within, has something astute to say:
“A large part of the secret of President Obama’s political success is his self-presentation as calm, judicious, and fair-minded — and his ability to depict his opponents as intemperate and extreme. You’d think by now that Obama’s opponents would have figured out this trick. You want to beat him? Great. Be more calm, more judicious, and more fair-minded. Don’t be provoked. Don’t throw wild allegations. Don’t boycott. Don’t lose your temper.
Instead, we get Anger Theater. It’s not smart. And it’s not working.”
While that’s great advice, the modern Republican Party has zero chance of following it. Anger is the glue that holds the party together — asking today’s GOP not to be provoked is like asking Shaquille O’Neal not to be tall. The main function of Republican leaders and their media operation is to generate an endless series of things that party members should feel outraged about.
In that regard, the party has forgotten what Ronald Reagan tried to teach them. Reagan could be tough, but he was rarely mean or angry in public. The recently departed Jack Kemp, a conservative’s conservative, was as competitive a politician as you’ll ever meet, a trait honed in his years as a pro athlete. But he too came across as a nice guy, calm and nonthreatening and motivated by ideas not by anger.
But these days it’s a lost art among those on the right.
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174 comments Add your comment
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
8:02 am
Oh my, I really am a mind reader-
When the president said his nominee must be able to empathize with our hopes and struggles, Obama was just playing to his audience: his faint-hearted supporters and the media, which as we know are one and the same. The president mouthed all the expected platitudes and clichés and used all the familiar buzzwords guaranteed to make the masses swoon.-AmSpec
Lying as a matter of policy, soothing and brainwashing your moonbat following.
ew
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
8:04 am
Conservatives- Would you like us to lie to you?
Do you want us to tell you what you want to hear and then do something entirely different.
If yes, then please become a democrat, go the hell away.
Take dimwit, star struck David Frum with you.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:08 am
If he still smokes malboros, he’s “kinda” cool. Other than that, he looks like a smug lawyer nerd.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 5th, 2009
8:13 am
jt, I think the “coolness” being described here is Obama’s no-drama, analytical persona, not the degree to which he is seen as hep and a real gone-cat, as the kids say today.
And I’m of two minds about whether Frum’s advice is good or not. On a personal and ethical level I want to say that anyone asking for greater civility should be encouraged to do so.
On the other hand, obviously, as someone who mostly supports Obama’s policies, I would just as soon his opposition continue to be seen by many as a bunch of snarling, possibly rabid dogs.
Kamchak
May 5th, 2009
8:14 am
Andy types GFY on the sabbath, then says GFY=good for you. Yes Andy tell me more about lying. You broke two commandments on the sabbath. Get off your self-righteous high horse.
GMan
May 5th, 2009
8:16 am
Jay, I get your point completely. Just read the comments by the right on this blog. There is so much anger and name calling that you’d think you were either on a grade school playground or a prison.
say what?
May 5th, 2009
8:17 am
So I guess six years of anti-war protests, threatening CEOs and their families at their homes on account of wealth envy, and going into a meeting telling a group of Republicans “I won, you lost, now get over it and do what I want you to do” doesn’t constitute an anger mentatlity.
Typical liberal hogwash.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:18 am
Oh- I thought he was talking about Fonzi cool. Fonzi lost his cool when he started hanging out with pozzi too much.
Also- It is a stretch to claim that the far-right of the R&D party has a monopoly on anger.
Redneck Convert
May 5th, 2009
8:20 am
Well, I see this Obama done gone 100% anti-American. He wants to clamp down on people and cos. that don’t pay taxes. You won’t even be able to hide money overseas anymore without getting taxed to the hilt. Not paying taxes is as American as apple pie. It takes a real Commie to want to go against that. What does he think we went to the Tea Party about? I moved my cement vault last night to make sure this Pelousy woman can’t get her hands on my money.
Anyhow, here’s one Conservative that ain’t angry, I’m just disgusted. But there’s a few people that need to be angry. Take this I Report/You Whine. He no sooner comes out with a blast at the libruls than they gang up on him and start throwing the stuff back. It’s so bad he’s covered up with doo-doo all the time. I’d be plenty mad if it happened to me. Even Bookman gangs up on him.
So it looks like we’ll stay at 20% for a long time. Leastwise it sure feels good to get all the anger out of your system. Some of you may think we’re nitwits but we ain’t walking around just boiling with rage all the time. We may not pick up any support but it’s for sure we won’t have to go to one of the brain Drs. that deal with alot of loony people.
In your heart you libruls know we’re right. Being right. That’s what counts, not winning elections. Have a good day everybody.
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
8:21 am
Get off your self-righteous high horse.
UpChuck- When did I become the leader of the “free” world?
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:24 am
Redneck- don’t be sceart. Congress goes after these big-business “tax-cheats” at the beginning of every new president. They hire hundreds of more IRS agents, big business squashes any real reform, and the additional IRS agents just go after the poor smucks that can’t afford a lawyer to defend themselves.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:25 am
Our congress is “owned” by these same big business tax cheats.
Mike
May 5th, 2009
8:26 am
I agree that the right’s anger is unseemly and counter productive. That being said, Bookman and his supporters on this blog live and die by demonization of those who don’t share their views and are hardly the people to make such criticisms.
It’s pretty simple. The GOP has basically shrunk down to the hardcore partisans, who like all hardcore partisans are angry and intolerant. This is not unlike 2002, in which the Democrats were defined by the angry and intolerant voices of folks like Jay. Of course, the liberal media was not there to chime in and finish the job, as they did with the GOP. Regardless, there are currently the same number of angry and intolerant folks on the left as there are on the right, but their voices are moderated by the large number of moderates who voted Democrat in the last election.
BDAtlanta
May 5th, 2009
8:27 am
Don’t be provoked. Don’t throw wild allegations. Don’t boycott. Don’t lose your temper.
Well, where does Michelle Bachmann fit into this plan?
mwuahahahahaha
Taxpayer
May 5th, 2009
8:28 am
Jay, it’s not the right wing fringe’s fault that they don’t possess the Obama coolness. It’s of their own making. It’s their inadequate education system, or use thereof, that leads them to their fits of anger. After all, anger is their offensive weapon of choice against intellect, against reason, against compromise, against all things non-GOP.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:28 am
If you believe that there is two distinct parties, they always show remarkable non-partisonship on the big issues that affect the citizens the most. (Increasing IRS employees, tarp, wars, etc….).
Dave R
May 5th, 2009
8:29 am
Inconsistency, thy name is Bookman.
One day, drag Ronald Reagan down.
Next day, praise him.
Do you libs believe in ANYTHING?
Susan Myers
May 5th, 2009
8:31 am
The grand poo bah of the G”No!”P is p*ssed!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/limbaugh-on-gop-re-brandi_n_195951.html
BDAtlanta
May 5th, 2009
8:33 am
I overheard a conservative recently:
“Well, Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh are our macots, aren’t they cool?”
Mike
May 5th, 2009
8:34 am
Taxpayer –
” anger is their offensive weapon of choice against intellect, against reason, against compromise”
And does this explain all of your anger that drives you spend every waking hour of every single day demonizing people who don’t share your opinions? Are you really so devoid of any shred of self-awareness that you attack others for exhibiting behavior in which you engage on a hourly basis?
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:34 am
Talk about left-wing calm. Watch this.
http://janhelfeld.com/video/31/pete-stark-blows-up-over-national-debt
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:36 am
Why can’t people handle the truth?
pat
May 5th, 2009
8:38 am
This is stupid and weak. You aren’t going to win favor acting like somebody else. The Republicans should act like obama? That’s just idiotic. There is no doubt the man has a gift of presentation. You aren’t going to emulate that. It would be disingenuous to do so. Lest you forget that the democratic party was in turmoil a short 6-7 years ago; leaderless and listless and yet they managed to regain the legislative and executive branch. Why? It’s a combination of an unpopular sitting president and calm guy who can fool you with his meaningless platitudes.
Acting like obama is the worst advise I have ever heard…We our kids to just be themselves and we tell our politicians to just be obama.
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
8:39 am
It really is sort of cute the way the loony left dismisses all honest and open debate by calling it “anger.”
Maybe because they can’t debate????????????????????
And after 8 years of absolute foaming hatred of George W Bush, would anyone of you moonbats like to deny this, death threats against him, throwing vulgarity galore, sputtering stupid rage was the order of the day, gee, look at who is in charge now.
Maybe America likes angry people, duh.
Ray
May 5th, 2009
8:39 am
GMan,
“Our boy won, yours lost…. get over it”. And how did you handle Bush’s win in 2000. What a hypocrite.
Your clown can keep his cool as long as no one disagrees with him which is not very often when you surround yourself with sycophants and yes men/women. GMan, do you know what a narcissist is? You might just qualify for that label too. This guy and his wife are so full of themselves that disagreement is out of the question. No one is disagreeing with them including the print media, the TV networks, quasi-journalists like Bookman and sheep like you. That’s not healthy although it will take more than that to wake you up.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 5th, 2009
8:40 am
Before this spirals out of control, someone ought to mention that the point of Jay’s point was never to assert that leftists are incapable of anger.
So those who continue to cite examples are pretty much missing the point.
Mort Merkel
May 5th, 2009
8:41 am
Have you noticed all the anti-GOP Vents wind up at the bottom? It’s the only kind of vote they can win these days.
Susan Myers
May 5th, 2009
8:42 am
Barack’s in the White House.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4qd8inYRE&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXP-OcJzleo&feature=related
Reebok
May 5th, 2009
8:44 am
The GOP is a shell, leaderless and clueless. Their only weapon is anger. This country needs 2 viable political parties, and the GOP is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. It’s sad.
Brad Steele
May 5th, 2009
8:44 am
whiner,
thank you for your anger, name-calling, and impotently-hurled bombast. you are a perfect poster-boy for what david frum and bookman are talking about?
do you come in cartoon form or just the angry drivel style?
Paul
May 5th, 2009
8:45 am
Democrats are lucky to have Pres Obama. Let’s go back to the primaries. Any other candidate fit the profile of “calm, judicious, and fair-minded — and his ability to depict his opponents as intemperate and extreme”?
Biden? Clinton? Dodd? Edwards? Kucinich? Gravel? Richardson?
They’re lucky with a one-person phenomena to give the image of the Party – as opposed to the other calm, judicious, fair-minded leaders: Pelosi, Reid, Frank…. get the point?
But it is a fair point about the Republican strategy. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar and all that. One doesn’t need to convert the converted.
But take away Reagan and the Republicans had what and reverted to what? Same thing’s possible with Democrats and Obama.
Reebok
May 5th, 2009
8:45 am
DB – Missing the point is what the right-wingers do best. To actually GET the point would require an analysis of how the GOP has become marginalized and irrelevant, and Limbaugh and Hannity are not going to allow that line of thinking to gain any traction.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:46 am
DB- Good point on the point. But Jay did say that “anger is the glue that holds the party together”. I believe it holds the left wing of the R&D too.
RB from Gwinnett
May 5th, 2009
8:46 am
Jay, an important point you missed in this “copy and paste” attempt at your job is that it’s only partisan democrats and tingly legged media types who think the man is cool. You also think it’s funny he creates enemies and belittles them the way he does a-la Rush and Hannity. His behavior is not only not cool, it’s not presidential. The man is bordering on an embarassment to the nation with his US bashing and apologizing on foreign soil. Thats so not cool Jay.
Maybe you should pull your head out of his long enough to take a look around sometime.
Taxpayer
May 5th, 2009
8:49 am
Oh lookey, the nanny is back to critique my work. Isn’t that sweet and so thoughtful of him, and free of charge even.
OH! NANNY!, your words of wisdom complete me! Perhaps a closer examination of your most profound of all comments this fine morning is in order. Let’s see…”Devoid of any shred of self-awareness!” Hmmmm. I’ll need to reflect on that little tidbit…I think…I am.
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:49 am
What is more inflaming than OBAMA’s “pitchfork” threat to the tarp recipients?
AmVet
May 5th, 2009
8:51 am
Susan, good link.
HeadRush is truly becoming a Democratic operative. I swear the man has demons. Regardless, he perfectly epitomizes what has gone so terribly awry with the ideologues on the far right, the ones who took over an entire political party.
And he actually fits nicely into this analysis by JB this morning – the part about Anger Theater not being smart.
And though there is plenty more to being a good man or woman than being smart, one cannot lead without it. And one is gonna have a helluva time trying to solve problems pretending it ain’t needed.
This shared trait, is in my lifetime of observations, one of the huge problems with the fake conservatives of the Republican Party.
I’m not saying they are all stupid, white and ugly. Or knuckle dragging religous nut jobs that have to be dragged kicked and screaming into the modern world. The world where there are consequences for being so dense.
But a common characteristic in this “new” GOP since Ronnie has been this strange lack of intellectual curiosity. They seemingly take some sort of perverse pride in not being adequately informed about what is going on in the world. And George Walker Bush was the poster boy.
Vapid and vacuous as a man could be by presidential standards.
And it showed in his “handiwork”…
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
8:52 am
B Weal- Any time you’d like to start a civil debate with me, I am ready.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, yeah, B Weal debate, sure thing.
Kamchak
May 5th, 2009
8:52 am
Andy May 1st 5:07 p.m.
“Yeah, that’s real nice, same worshipping of the Golden Calf and taking the Lord’s name in vain.
A twofer, if you will.”
Andy May 1st 5:18 p.m.
“bookman, perhaps you haven’t seen the top of the second screen capture, some of us find it just a tad offensive, to say the least.
But of course it’s my fault.”
Andy May 1st 5:20 p.m.
“Doesn’t it figure, the libs have vapors should dare to criticize their mere mortal TelePrompter Reader, but are at a loss to comprehend their own blasphemy of the Holy Trinity.”
Again–Andy you swore and lied on the sabbath. “A twofer, if you will.” Get off your self-righteous high horse.
Ray
May 5th, 2009
8:56 am
What you libs recognize as “coolness” is nothing more than someone who is in way over his head. How do you appear cool? You say one thing but do another. You lie to the public and then chastise them for disagreeing with you and your sheep. You make all of these promises to the prospective voter and then you keep very few of them. You promise tax legislation that will benefit all of those who make under 200K/yr then you make that a joke when you plan on taxing 401K distributions, who many of those under 200K depend on in retirement, at a much higher rate. You promise not to raise taxes but you re-instate the inheritance tax to help pay your bills, ultimately raising taxes on those whom you promised to leave alone. These lies are upsetting. Why should we not be angry and voice our opinion.
Under that so called “coolness” is a scared, insecure excuse for a President who wants everyone to like him. We deserve better.
Paul
May 5th, 2009
8:56 am
jt 8:34
Excellent link. Shows what happens when soundbite policy statements are examined in detail. Democrat Stark: “The more national debt we have, the wealthier we are.” Interviewer: “So why not borrow another trillion so we can become wealthier?” DS: “Don’t be stupid, don’t keep asking me stupid questions.”
Then he went with an all to common tactic: asking “are you an expert in economics? Where’d you get to your degree? (Note: Dem Stark referred rather disparagingly to the Univ of Puerto Rico. Way to cultivate the hispanic vote) “Do you have a doctorate in economics?”
Check Dem Stark’s bio – he doesn’t, either. Undergraduate in engineering. I know engineers who’ve never had an undergraduate econ course. He has an MBA – but a learning how to administer business degree doesn’t require an indepth study of econ – usually just a macro econ and micro econ course.
So, jt, there’s another influential Dem who never got Pres Obama’s “cool, calm, intellectual” memo -
jt
May 5th, 2009
8:58 am
If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size? ~Sydney J. Harris
Paul
May 5th, 2009
8:59 am
jt 8:58
You sure that wasn’t Freud?
Mrs. Godzilla
May 5th, 2009
9:01 am
Better than Obama’s inate coolness……is the plain old fashioned
jealously of those on the right who just ain’t got “it”.
Too funny.
Road Scholar
May 5th, 2009
9:01 am
Whiner: You blogged ” Any time you’d like to start a civil debate with me, I am ready.”. Why would you want to commit to something that you are totally incapable of? It would be like going to a gunfight w/o any ammo!
The GOP (and all others) should be looking back at their “core” values of our parents…intelligence, LSTENING, respect, finding what we can agree to,research, etc.
Donovan
May 5th, 2009
9:02 am
I have to take my hat off to all you conservative bloggers. Well done. That interview with the California Democrat was priceless and revealing. I don’t know why Bookman continues to take such a beating on such stupid observations when he is so trashed by my band of brothers. Keep it up! The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Taxpayer
May 5th, 2009
9:02 am
Rudolph and McVeigh as Republican mascots! I think fringe party spokespersons/mascots would be a more accurate description. Throw in a Limbaugh and Bachmann and you’ve got yourself the makings of a fruitcake that would put Claxton out of business. Pure GOP. Let’s give them a free year’s supply of Grape Flavor-aid to wash that down with.
BDAtlanta
May 5th, 2009
9:06 am
To all those rich folk on here, sorry about your offshore tax haven.
mwuahahahahahahaha
Now, will American companies be able to compete without those government subsidies (tax havens)? Of course they will. Pay your damn taxes!
jt
May 5th, 2009
9:10 am
The R&D party.
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. ~Texas Guinan
jt
May 5th, 2009
9:12 am
Paul 8:59- I don’t know.