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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Angry White Man Need Not Apply 

It is a common tactic during an election to try to make your opponent look unstable or "angry", the suggestion being that to be president, you must not only be sane (see the book "Night at Camp David") but also level-headed (see the movie "Fail Safe"). Thus in the 2000 Republican Primary and again in 2008, there was a common suggestion that John McCain was not fit for office because his torture while held as a POW during the Vietnam War had left him mentally unbalanced.

We're seeing the same kind of thing today, only directed at Rick Perry. This NYT article caught my eye--it is a focus on the "bad blood" between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry that dates back to the time when both were governors. If you watched the debate from Tuesday night, you saw up close how little the two men liked one another, which explains why CNN decided to place both of them next to each other on the stage.

So Romney was changing planes the other day, and his "aides" were asked to comment about Perry's aggressive approach to the debate. Here is the money quote:

But other aides public accused the Texas governor of acting like a bully at the debate. "I don't think road rage is a quality people are looking for in their next president..."


Get it. Road rage activates a particular image in the minds of the audience that reads or hears it--we have all experienced road rage--the irrational waving of fists, the profanity, and perhaps the vehicle riding up on your bumper or even swerving at you. Irrational. And that is exactly why the term was used.

Get ready for more just like it in an effort to paint Perry as a crazy, ill-tempered jerk.

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