{"id":1178,"date":"2004-04-12T18:18:45","date_gmt":"2004-04-13T01:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2004-04-12T18:18:45","modified_gmt":"2004-04-13T01:18:45","slug":"the-image-cropper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2004\/04\/12\/the-image-cropper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Image Cropper"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>For an administration who has been creepily adept at image-management, the Bush Administration has really<\/i> left some off-putting misfires — both planned images that just grew or potentially may grow absurd and images with his guard thrown down …<\/p>\n

#1: “Mission Accomplished” may well be the “Read My Lips. No New Taxes” of the Bush II administration.<\/p>\n

#2: This is self-parody.<\/a> Can Bush’s “good old boy” image hold him through in these troubled times, against the “intellectual elitists” charicature of “puppet master” Cheney with “dis-engaged” Bush? (And remember: it’s David Frum<\/a><\/i> who says that Bush couldn’t pass a test on his cabinet.) It’s the puzzling aspect of American politics.<\/p>\n

#3: This juxtaposition is almost irresistable for caricature. August 6, 2001: The memo<\/i> released August 6, 2001: “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States’. August 7, 2001: Bush Starts Month-Long Vacation in Crawford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which, mind ye, he’s back in Crawford yet again.<\/p>\n

Though, politically the opposition party must tread carefully<\/a> … frame the issue tightly. If it weren’t for the fact that this was “The Summer of Threats”, I’d be right there with that volcanic focus group. <\/p>\n

Which leads us to:<\/p>\n

#4: What happened here?<\/a> I suppose the man was paralyzed, perhaps in the denial stage– understandably so I may add… but it is… the creepy footage.<\/p>\n

#5: The New York Convention<\/a>, politically scheduled location and time, may well backfire. A nation’s mood can sometimes change rather rapidly. The convention time and place was pretty well set after the successful 2002 mid-term elections, where the aura of National Defense propelled the RNC to success. Two years later, the image, predictably enough, may just leave a bad taste in the “swing voter’s” mouth. Mind ye… the operative word here is may<\/i>.<\/p>\n

And on the “may” note: Maybe Kerry is opening up a few bad images hisownself. His “Misery Index”<\/a> does smack a bit of Jimmy Carter’s “National Malaise” (as pontificated by the hired hack chatterers), with the important difference being: Jimmy Carter was talking about his own administration.<\/i> — Nonetheless, unless he can navigate “That Vision Thing” for Kerry Administration to pursue as a counter to this Bush Adminstration up-tik on the “Misery Index”, it reinforces the image of “Moody, Pessimist” — and Bush can pump up his “Turning the Corner” rhetoric.<\/p>\n

This post is an example of why political strategy analysis must die…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an administration who has been creepily adept at image-management, the Bush Administration has really left some off-putting misfires — both planned images that just grew or potentially may grow absurd and images with his guard thrown down … #1: “Mission Accomplished” may well be the “Read My Lips. No New Taxes” of the Bush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}